Going To The Game

[Guest cooby]

It's not too early to get this started.

If things go the way we hope this week, my husband and I will be traveling to Philadelphia next weekend to visit my daughter and her boyfriend and we will be attending the Phillies/Red Sox exhibition game next Saturday.

Can't wait!

(and I hope I didn't jinx it)

[Guest GYC]

March 31st I'm seeing Mets @ Devil Rays at Tropicana Field.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I've been to the past two games at St. Lucie. The offense hasn't looked great, and Jorge Sosa was flat-out terrible today.

But it sure is fun to get to see the Mets in person!

[Guest GYC]

GYC wrote: March 31st I'm seeing Mets @ Devil Rays at Tropicana Field.

Despite Pelfrey getting crushed and the Devil Rays spelling his name wrong, it was a fun game to be at. Tropicana Field is a nice little stadium, especially because it was ridiculously hot today and Tropicana is air conditioned. The Mets fans easily outnumbered the Devil Rays fans. We got a lot of "Let's go Mets!" chants going, but everytime we did, something bad happened. If I can find the stupid wire I lost, I'll have pictures up soon.

[Gwreck]

Scored last-minute opening day tickets. Way out in the outfield upper deck, but still. First time I've been since O.D. 2002.

[Theoldmole]

Opening Day! I'm going! First time ever!

[Guest Edgy DC]

Enjoy.

Dress warm. Almost as if you were going to see the Jets. Even sunny opening days usually cut right though your jacket. Introductions alone can be brutal.

Have a great game.

[metsmarathon]

there's a fairly good chance that i'll find myself at baseball games in teh extreme southwest, later in april... once with the d-backs in phoenix playing the rockies, and later that week with the padres paying the d-backs.

there's just not much else to do on off days in yuma, arizona.

[Guest cooby]

Back from Philadelphia with three observations:

1) Citizens Bank Park is really really nice.

2) The Phillie Phanatic was red!

3) The pitcher the Red Sox paid a trillion million dollars for pitches way too slow.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The new stadia and arena in Philly are really far from downtown.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, they botched the location.

I thought the perfect place would be near 30th Street Station, but that land wouldn't have become available until 2006 or something like that. So rather than delay the new stadium by a couple of years in order to get a better spot, they were hasty and built it in the same complex where Veterans Stadium was.

I've seen Philadelphia screw up so many different ways it doesn't surprise me that they screwed up this one too.

It is a nice ballpark, though. It's just in a bad spot.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The funny thing is that they made it three times.

For 10-15 years, ballparks and arenae have been the crown jewels in the revitalization of urban downtowns. Oops, Philly missed the memo.

[soupcan]

Was in Tampa this past weekend and went to the Yankee-Tiger tilt rather than the Mets-D'Rays (horrors!). It was a gorgeous day and who the hell wants to sit inside?

Observation: Yankee fans can't catch foul balls.

Will of course be at Opening Day at The Big Shea on Monday.

[metirish]

soupcan wrote: Observation: Yankee fans can't catch foul balls. .

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Barring Divine Intervention, this will be the first home opener I've missed since
1994. First game is a couple of Sundays later in the month, bought a four pack
of good Sunday loge seats sprinkled though the season from a friend.

[Gwreck]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Yeah, they botched the location.

I'm not a resident, but am a frequent visitor to Philadelphia, and I don't get this. Sure, it's not downtown, but I wasn't under the impression that Philly was one of those cities (read: Detroit...Cleveland...et al.) that exactly needed a downtown revitalization.

It's next to the two major interstates and it's easy to get to. There's plenty of parking. It's easily accessible from public transportation. Seems pretty good to me.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It doesn't compare to a spot that you could walk to from downtown. And unlike Shea, there's only one public transportation option, the Broad Street subway. (The SEPTA lines don't run there.)

If they had built it at 30th Street it would have been convenient to all SEPTA lines, plus the Market Street subway and Amtrak, and it would also have been right near I-76. The skyline would have been visible over the outfield fence. It would have been a great spot. What bugged me was that the reason against it was a two-year delay. I think a much better location is worth that wait. Veterans Stadium wasn't about to fall down or anything.

The other site that the Phillies and the city wanted was a few blocks north of Market Street, on the border of Chinatown and right behind the Philadelphia Inquirer's building. The NIMBY crowd killed that plan; they said that having a baseball stadium would compromise the distinctive architectural flavor of the Chinatown neighborhood.

Nobody asked me, but my response to that would have been to build a Chinese style ballpark, with pagodas and dragons and whatever else would fit it into the neighborhood. How unique and distinctive would THAT have been? It could have been called Citizen's Bank Park at Chinatown and it would have been unlike any other ballpark in the country.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Word to Yancy's mother.

The city is still losing population, and while they've invested in the revitalization of several districts, there are still wide swaths of poverty and urban blight.

The argument for cities financing ballparks is that it attracts revenue to the surrounding area, so why build it in an area on the outskirts?

[metirish]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Nobody asked me, but my response to that would have been to build a Chinese style ballpark, with pagodas and dragons and whatever else would fit it into the neighborhood. How unique and distinctive would THAT have been? It could have been called Citizen's Bank Park at Chinatown and it would have been unlike any other ballpark in the country.

Yancy,you might be taking the piss but I love this idea....it would be compulsory for Charlie Manuel to dress like Chairman Mao for the post-game.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Nope, no piss involved. If I was a decision maker, I would have pushed for the big Chinese baseball stadium. I think it would have been terrific, and unique.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Buy me some egg rolls and shrimp fried rice
Chop sticks and dumplings yes sure would be nice

[Guest cooby]

Gwreck wrote: ="Yancy Street Gang"]Yeah, they botched the location. I'm not a resident, but am a frequent visitor to Philadelphia, and I don't get this. Sure, it's not downtown, but I wasn't under the impression that Philly was one of those cities (read: Detroit...Cleveland...et al.) that exactly needed a downtown revitalization. It's next to the two major interstates and it's easy to get to. There's plenty of parking. It's easily accessible from public transportation. Seems pretty good to me.

Gotta agree.

Philly's great, the stadium parking was plentiful, lots to see right there with the Spectrum and the football park (forget its name) and the giant junkyard fire over there in New Jersey.

Took 15 minutes from my daughter's house, including parking the car.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, it may be in a good location for out-of-town visitors, but it's not in a good location for the city and its residents.

Cooby, you were able to get in and out of the stadium without experiencing the city of Philadelphia at all. Good for you, bad for Philadelphia.

[soupcan]

cooby wrote: ...and the giant junkyard fire over there in New Jersey.

I think you just solved a mystery for me coob.

I was flying in from Tampa on Sunday at about 5:00pm or so and as we were making our initial approach into Newark Airport there were these enormous clouds or plumes of smoke far off, and I believe, to the south. We were wondering what it was and I'm betting it was that fire.

[Guest cooby]

Actually, it was Saturday afternoon, but it was really big so it may have flared back up again! Was the smoke really really black?

[soupcan]

Very black - yes.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Then it couldn't have been "scrappy."

[Guest cooby]

I'm pretty sure this was it...

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=45&id=54117

[stevejrogers]

Heading to Shea for my 22nd straight year Thursday night, somewhere in the Upper Deck.

Going to be cold and rainy...

At least we'll be covered, my uncle got a bunch of $5 tixs for the game and brings a whole bunch of his relatives

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Looks like the Sunday game might be monsooned out. Anyone going?

Also lucked into some field level tix for next Saturday, maybe it'll be spring
by then.