Belove's Amazing Baseball Adventure

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Everette Aquasox - 7/4/16

The Everette Aquasox are a single-A minor league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Located just a 20 minute drive from our hotel, so why not!?

Tonight the opposing (and winning!) team was the Eugene Emeralds, a single-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

As one would expect, the accommodations and concessions are minimal but the entertainment was well above average.

It was an exciting ball-game with a lot of action. The between-inning shtick put major-leagues to shame: games, contests -with lots of prizes, races, songs, dances, and the ever-present mascot, Webbly. The fans were enthusiastic supporters of their team, participating with gusto. And it was a double give-away day! (a t-shirt and Pepsi.)

After the game the entertainment continued with a watermelon eating contest, a game of launchball, and a really great fireworks display!

What a fun way to spend the 4th of July!!

Carter's Mascot Report - 7/3

Well, it sure has been awhile since I've written anything for the blog, so excuse me if I'm a little rusty. A couple days ago at the Mariners stadium we enjoyed a great baseball game, with a even greater mascot. However, we did not see much of him this outing, which was a little bit of a disappointment. He sure made up for it when he dressed up as Uncle Sam and danced on top of the dugout along to Yankee Doodle Dandy. Pregame, fans could meet the Moose and even take a family picture with him in the Moose Den. Overall I give the Moose a 6.5 out of 10.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Robert's Sport Report -7/3

In the game of baseball it is very difficult to show dominance over a certain player, and even harder over an entire team. However, one of the clearest ways to show dominance is by throwing a no hitter. And, the last time these two teams faced, that is exactly what starting pitcher for the Mariners, Hisashi Iwakuma, did to the Baltimore Orioles. As Iwakuma and the rest of the Seattle Mariners attempt to follow up this performance with another win, the visiting Baltimore Orioles and their starting pitcher, Ubaldo Jimenez, were on the flip side trying to redeem their 0 hit performance.

Although the chance of repeating a no hitter was ended by the second batter in the 1st inning, with a Soo Hyun Kim double, the Orioles had a fairly quiet first couple of innings. The Mariners were the first to strike in the 3rd inning, and they struck big: starting with a walk to Chris Iannetta, and followed by back-to-back singles by Ketel Marte and Leonys Martin. It was then Seth Smith's turn up to the plate. Seth Smith, who has been on a recent hot streak, did not slow that streak in his at-bat in the 3rd inning. With the bases loaded, Smith hit a rocket to right center, landing in the bleachers for a grand slam! The 4 run lead was short lived, though. In the top of 4th, Mark Trumbo hit a solo home run. This was followed by a string of 2 singles and a double, to score 2 more runs, bringing the game to 4-3 Mariners. J.J. Hardy was credited with the 2 RBI's, hitting in Jonathan Schoop and Pedro Alvarez. Starting the bottom of the 4th inning, Franklin Gutierrez drew a walk, followed by a single from Ianetta, and was driven in by Marte to give the Mariners a 5-3 lead. Still, in the bottom of the 4th with runners on 1st and 3rd and Seth Smith back up to the plate, a very rare occurrence in
the professional baseball league took place: a Balk by Orioles' pitcher Miranda. Unfortunately for him, this was his Major league debut. In the top of the 7th the Orioles scrapped together a run with a few singles, bringing the score to 6-4. And although the Orioles closed the run gap to only 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th, the Orioles seemingly ended all hopes by putting together 3 more runs -starting with a single by Robinson Cano, followed by back-to-back-to-back doubles by Cruz, Seager, and Adam Lind. The bottom of the 7th was the end of the action, since in the following innings between the two teams there was only one runner on, which was a walk to the Orioles.

Although the domination of another no hitter did not occur, another exciting show of power and dominance did occur. That was the completion of a Seattle Mariner 4-game sweep over the Baltimore Orioles, with this 4th and final game in the series ending in a 9-4 Mariners victory.

Mariners - 7/3/2016

Number 29…

AGAIN!

Yes, we know we have already reported on our 29^th ballpark.

But that was a bit misleading.

In reality, only 3 of us had been to every US ballpark. Until today.

When last the Belove Family was in Seattle, Robert was about 4 years old and Carter wasn’t even born yet. But we also hadn’t even thought of the idea of touring all MLB parks, let alone keeping a blog. So, today Carter was treated to a game at his final US ballpark, and the rest of us got to look at this park with fresh eyes.

And, who knows? Changes and upgrades may have been made in the 14 years since we last saw a game in this park, because we didn’t remember liking it quite this much. Safeco Park may just be our new favorite covered stadium! It is a well-designed, appealing, and boasts many amenities.

Safeco sports a “carport” style roof, which slides off the back when open. Closed, it just covers the top of the stadium, rather than enclosing it, acting like an umbrella to protect from Seattle’s rain. It is worth noting that the look and feel of the stadium is different with the roof open and closed. It is similar to the difference between daylight and twilight, even with the extra-bright LED lighting. According to the stats we saw, the roof is open 78% of the time.

Concessions and activities on the main level are generally situated to allow great views of the game-in-play while standing in line (a feature the Belove family agrees is a must-have!) Hallways are open and airy, and the park is generally very well designed. We were especially impressed with how easy it was to leave the park at the end of the game. For the number of people attending, we never felt stuck in traffic - walking to the car, exiting the parking lot, or making our way back to the freeway.

Safeco has a pretty great variety of concessions. They, of course, have all the basics –hotdogs, hamburgers, garlic fries, etc. They also boast a few things we have not seen before. Grilled-cheese, anyone? And what about a stand featuring natural, organic, home-grown food? We wondered why no one had thought of a self-serve frozen yogurt and toppings bar before, and we know quite a few people who would like a wine bar at their local park. The chocolate-covered strawberries on a stick looked DELICIOUS! But the obvious Safeco concession is the Ivar’s Seafood and Chowder booth. Jim especially liked the “Bottomless Soda.” Although $10 is a lot to spend on a soda, an average ballpark will often charge $6. If you generally buy more than one, your soda easily pays for itself. And it comes with a lid!! –BONUS!

You would expect a ballpark in Seattle to be pretty eco-friendly. And you would be right. Although they can’t compare with Minnesota in the water-reclamation department (the roof makes that unnecessary), they do a fantastic job with the recycling. They boast a 90% recycling rate, and all food is served in compostable packaging. At the end of each game, food scraps and packaging are removed to a site where they are turned into compost. The compost is then returned to Safeco, where it is used in on-site gardens to grow the food served in their Hit It Here Café. Pretty great, huh? Safeco is also the first ballpark to install LED lighting, with uses significantly less energy than the halogen that most parks use. And, BOY is it bright!!!

Mariner fans seem to prefer quiet in their park. Except when a great play is made, the general tone is a buzz of quiet conversation. There is little in the way of “shtick” (motions, claps, yells, songs, etc.) that fans of some parks prefer. In between innings, fans were entertained by a small variety of the usual “cams” and games, plus a couple of things we had not found in other parks, such as Hydroplane Races- an animated race where fans root for the hydroplane of their choice. One thing we saw several of, were Lucky Row giveaways. In one case, each member of the lucky “random” row received Dibbs, another time it was garlic fries, and a third they were given bags of swag from MLB network.

We liked this ballpark so much that, as Jim says: “If we lived up here, we would go see a game every time the A’s came to town!”

Monday, June 30, 2014

Everglades

With our baseball adventure completed for the time-being, we decided to work on a previous (and unfinished) parks tour -National Parks. Jim and Ann have now seen 25 National Parks, but most of those happened long before the kids came along.

Today's visit was to Everglades National Park, found in southern Florida. It covers 1,542,526 acres of both fresh and salt water ecosystems, and is host to countless species of animals, some of them quite endangered.

SO beautiful!!

We saw an amazing variety of birds

two kinds of turtles

and two kinds of lizards

as well as a startling array of insects

But we REALLY got lucky with this guy!!

Does anyone else find this funny?

With only a day to visit, and much of this cut short by weather, there was much of this vast park we were unable to see. This beautiful photo display was based on only a couple of short hikes.

But from that, our assessment is that this is a must-see park.

However, a warning:

BRING YOUR INSECT REPELLENT!!!!

...or better yet, a complete net bug-suit (repellent only partially works)

Nobody will tell you in advance about the SWARMS of mosquitoes.

Think Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but much smaller!

If you are not armed, DO NOT get out of your car!

Well, this is pretty much the end of the 2014 adventure.

We have one more day to be Miami tourists, and then on our way home.

Carter's Mascot Report - 6/29

Billy, the Marlins' mascot, is honestly a stupid mascot. He's kinda energetic, but the name "Billy" doesn't work -not only because it is bland, but because there is a another more obvious and better fitting name for him: Marley. Besides that, he is still a pretty bland mascot. We couldn't find him anywhere before the game. He was out in the crowd a bit during the game, but he was mostly on the field in-between innings. The chant that he says to encourage the players is "Let's Go Fish." Pretty stupid, right? I give him a 3 out of 10 on a scale of mascot coolness.

Robert's Sport Report - 6/29

Today's game was the visiting Oakland Athletics playing the home town Miami Marlins. This game was the third time we saw our Athletics play in a different park during our baseball pilgrimage.

At first it looked like it was going to be rough day for the A's. In the bottom of the first inning the Marlins' lead-off guy hit a ball in the gap to the wall. He then tried to go to third, and Alberto Callaspo's throw was off-line. It bounced pass the third baseman and allowed the runner to go home, resulting in a double with an error and an unearned run. This was not the only error that was allowed during the game. With a runner on second base, the Marlins hit a hard line ground-ball right back to the pitcher. Milone, who was pitching today, got the ball. Instead of running at the runner -who was caught off the bag- he threw it to second, giving the runner enough time to get safely to third.

Until the 6th inning things were looking quite bad for the A's, even though the score was only 1-0. The way they were playing suggested bad news. That is, until a 6 foot 8 batter came to the plate by the name of Nate Freiman. Freiman, who was in the game because Josh Reddick went out of the game with a strained knee yesterday, was in Sacramento playing AAA, and had to make an overnight flight to Miami to play in today's game. In his third at-bat he had runners on first and third when he hit a smashing home run that went way over the fence. This made the lead 4-1 as the A's scored 4 runs in the 6th. The bottom of the 6th a pinch hitter for the Marlins' starter hit a home-run, making the sore 4-2. The Marlins also managed to scrape a run in the 7th inning, making it 4-3. This ended up as the final score of the game, giving the Oakland Athletics a three-game sweep over the Marlins.

In total, 21,917 people were at the game watching as the Marlins got four singles, a triple, a home run, and two walks. The A's had seven singles and one home run. The winning pitcher was Tommy Milone, and the losing pitcher was Heaney, Ryan.
Cook for the A's was given a save.

29 on the 29th!

Miami! We finally made it! Our last US ballpark...
And, to make it even better, we got to see this game against our beloved Oakland A's!

The first thing we noticed at Marlins Park, is the lack of signage. We walked around the entire exterior of the stadium, looking for a photo-op for our buddy, Jack. But there was none to be found. Jack had to be content with this peek-a-boo inside.

The next thing we noticed is that the park is not nearly as ugly as it appears on TV.

And "the thing" (if it has a name, we couldn't find it)

is not nearly as large as it appears on TV.

Although we really like the open-concourse look of this stadium, there is very little to see or do, besides watch baseball.

nice mural

Where this escalator goes nobody knows , since visitors are not allowed on this level without a ticket.

Points have been deducted for segregation.

For kids, the choices are balloon animals or face-painting.

Concessions boasted a few specialty items, including a kosher, gluten free, and, of course, Cuban food.

Although most were not, some concessions were on the CORRECT side of the concourse.
(Note how you can watch the game while waiting for your food!)

The Marlins did a fair job with between-inning entertainment.

Conine's Corner instructed us in how to catch a fly ball.

Marlin's Pictionary - a great idea!

Name That Tune - an oldie but a goodie

This is their version of the character race. At other parks we have seen sausages, presidents, former players, and condiments. But Beloves found these sea creatures to be the cutest.

Marlins cheerleaders and Energy Team dancers
- hmm we weren't sure there was a need for that in baseball.

foul balls into the stands - "mine, mine, mine" yell the seagulls

The worst part of this stadium?

The national anthem. They just could NOT hit a note. (Did anyone hear howling?)

The BEST part?

You mean BESIDES the fact that the A's swept the Marlins 3 games?

Carter got 6 A's players to sign his ball -and 4 of them to sign the back of his jersey.

Score!
...and a constant 73 degrees!