Life 2.1

I’ve wrapped up two more ballparks in my quest to see all the MLB yards…this swing was a quick one, since I have events at work all weekend but I managed to steal some time for a spin through Arizona to see Chase Stadium and Thursday night will find me in {gag} Dodger Stadium. As a Giants fan by birth, I almost couldn’t event type the words.

Welcome to Chase Field

Wednesday night’s excursion to Chase Field in Phoenix was positive for a couple of reasons. The first being that this was the view from my seats:

This is just how I roll

The second was that they were playing the Mets and I think we all know how I feel about the Mets third baseman. But the Stadium was a nice experience as well, despite me not getting to do much exploring outside of the gates. Upon my arrival at the plaza/entry way where Will Call tickets could be picked up, there was a bustle of activity, like any ballgame should have. Also, the Will Call Kiosks? Very convenient. There was a bar & grill-looking place across the way, which looked to be home to many pre-gaming fans. The area around the ballpark looked as though it was in the process of being developed and my driver kindly informed me that during the Suns-Lakers games, this place was a zoo. I imagine that when events are taking place at the various arenas that are just blocks away, there is a buzz of activity but I also got the impression that without those activities, there wouldn’t be much action on a random Thursday night, for instance.

First pitch to Jose Reyes

I took my seat and enjoyed an adult beverage from the underground restaurant/bar that was directly below my seat and close in proximity. They had go cups, which, after living in New Orleans, I have learned to appreciate. The stadium wasn’t as full as it should have been, but then again the poor Diamondbacks are currently 19 games out of first, so I guess that might have something to do with it.

As I lowered my beer into my cupholder, I look up two rows in front of me and see none other than my college team’s centerfielder, who I haven’t seen in a few years. Total pleasant surprise since Matty was one of the guys at UCSD who always made me feel like a part of the club. *Side story, one time, during practice, our left-handed hitting catcher was taking BP and I was sitting Zack Morris style in a chair along the first baseline, watching and charting. I was a ways a way from the field but staying loose since Jeff had some pop and sure enough, he sent a screaming rod right at me. I hopped up quick but it still tagged me in the leg or foot somewhere as I was getting out of the way. The next day, it was Matty who had taken my chair and set up the L-screen and orange cones around it. It was a good one.

For those fans who wanna splash around in the AZ heatGood mix of logos and photos of baseball legends

So back to the ball park…The inside feel of the ballpark is similar to the newer stadiums in that it’s got big, open breezeways, which I have always appreciated. As you walk around the inside, you never lose sight of the action and there are no real field-blocking walls or club seats ahem, CitiField, behind the plate. They have a pool in right-centerfield which is neat and they offer a good selection of ballpark food.

For being a relatively new team, they do try and honor those players of their history, but they also do a nice job of honoring their current club members, with a big wall mural of any D-Back who has ever been selected to an All-Star game. They also have former player races, which are hilarious, since Mark Grace has yet to win one. Randy Johnson, Matt Williams and Luis Gonzalez have all by-passed Gracie in a spin-off of the sausage races of Milwaukee.

A good mix of logos and old-time photos

I forgot my New York Times’ Food Guide but apparently the can’t miss item in AZ was garlic fries from Gordon Biersch so I’m ok with bypassing those.

The game was low-scoring, which wasn’t as exciting but it did go 14 innings (all of which, I saw) but the D-Backs have it tough. As it was explained to me, Phoenix is such a transplant city, most of the people who live there already have team affiliations that aren’t the Diamondbacks, which may explain why they have awesome out of town scoreboards, so the people that go to the game can still keep up with their hometown teams. Whatever the reason, they are large and very visible, which is worth some points in the ranking system.

What 14 innings looks like

Overall, I would definitely go back and give the stadium a solid 6, maybe a 7. They get points for the open feel of the stadium with a solid scoreboard and jumbo-tron but are also saddled with a loss of points for the fact that their fan base isn’t the die-hard base (yet) and the bit of a warehouse-feel the stadium has when the roof is closed as it was when I visited. On the plus side, that roof kept out 110-degree heat. It’s a trade off.

• The chemistry of my team at work. Seriously diggin’ it, especially the day before a big event
• Chester Copperpot
• Taqueria Rosita

KK kinda reminded me that I have a blog the other day and that it hadn’t been updated in ages. Point taken, KK.

For that reason, let’s do a recap of the 4th of July, shall we? Because I gotta be honest, probably the best one I’ve ever had. Typically, the 4th is always fun, but this particular year, I really enjoyed myself.

Big Metal came to visit from North Carolina and we kicked off the weekend in style by stopping at not just one outlet mall, but two outlet malls. We promptly followed this up with naps. The evening found us at Taqueria Rosita (for anyone that knows me even a little bit, this probably shocks you not at all). We met up with some of my friends and we bar-hopped, or as close to bar-hopping as one can do in Napa, and followed it up with a solid movie night.

Then the 4th fun began. I would have began a pictorial recap at this point but apparently my camera decided to go rogue and change settings by itself so all my 4th pics came out blurry. So you’re all stuck with the story. We went swimming and bbq-ed at the aforementioned friend’s house and followed that up with fireworks on the lawn at my previous place of employment. We brought games and all the items to make ice cream sundaes, because, I happen to think that ice cream is a fabulous way to celebrate this country’s independence.

The owner of the winery of my previous place of employment put on one helluva sparkler show that came complete with a finale they drew our applause, it was that solid. And the fireworks themselves were awesome, since we were literally sprawled out on the lawn and they were shot off overhead.

Post-fireworks, we all headed back to Command Central/Morgan’s house. (Morgan, by the way, gets my sincerest gratitude for letting me crash at her place while she was out of town and get back to my independent roots, if only for a few days.) We all enjoyed the sequel to the movie we had watched the night before (Boondock Saints I and II) and in a shocking turn of events, the first was way better than the sequel.

Monday was spent being lazy, which I can get on board with on a holiday, but Big Metal and I did rally enough to go stroll around downtown St. Helena and look at all the expensive things we could buy for the same price as a down payment on a Ford Focus.

My camera began behaving again Monday afternoon and she and I got a chance to do the whole Napa Valely tourist thing by pulling over to take pictures of ourselves next to vineyards. **Note that I said ‘pull over’. As in, I’m happy you’re visiting my valley but we have lots of wineries and vineyards so please be kind to the people sharing the road with you and pull over when admiring them, as opposed to crawling past them at a snail’s pace. Thank you.

We are soNapa Valley

Yep we ARE patriotic

We followed up the trip around the Valley with a BBQ at the roommate’s house, where the food’s free and the rent’s cheap.

It was a super busy weekend and as far as I’m concerned, Big Metal didn’t stay nearly long enough, but I’m glad she was able to keep our new 4th of July tradition of hanging out together despite that whole 3,000-mile difference thing.

I will have to make time to do another post about how I joined a slow-pitch softball team soon. And yes, it is as funny a story as it sounds, you are correct.

I had planned to do this post waaay earlier today but alas, I got sidetracked with work.

At any rate, I thought that, with it being Father’s Day and all (at least for another 4 minutes, according to my clock) I should take a moment to share the fact that I have a pretty cool dad.

This may or may not be apparent to those that know me, but I’m definitely a Daddy’s Girl. Whoever marries me is going to have pretty big shoes to fill because my dad is the best man I know. I could go on and list all the positive qualities and things he has brought to my life but instead, I will share the Christmas present I made for him two years ago. **Please ignore my large glasses that consume much of my face and my braces. That double whammy killed me.**

Dad

And since I score a Big Fat Fail for my Mother’s Day post, it should be noted that my mom is pretty cool too. Ever so often she will ask me if I look back and think I had a good childhood. I usually roll my eyes and assure her that aside from being served an excessive amount of pork tenderloin for dinner (apparently it’s cheap and tasty and feeds the masses, which in my family, goes a long way.) I did. But I really do think I did. I live(d) with both my parents under the same roof, they gave me freedoms and guidance when it was needed and discipline when the time was right. They instilled values in me that they felt would ensure my success in life, which, aside from the whole being 27 and living back in their house thing, I think took pretty well. So even though today (for another few seconds) is Father’s Day, I’m pretty dang lucky to have BOTH my parents in my corner.

Mom

After coaching my softball team one fall season when I was about 12, my dad made a point to write letters to each member of the team, jotting down all of their talents and what positive attributes they brought to the team. In my letter, he wrote that he was glad “I was on his team forever.”

I’m glad my mom and dad are on the ones on my team forever.

I’ll even let Dad wear #10.

• Laughing so hard last night with my high school friends who I haven’t seen in forever. We need to do better guys, seriously.
• Shopping with the aforementioned friends on my day off. I miss having someone “peer pressure” me into buying something
• The College World Series and the TV coverage that leads to Omaha