Ballpark experience number seven: The Bronx, NY

Like anyone who is a fan of an MLB team that is not the New York Yankees, I hated the Yankees. They are the evil empire of baseball, with more money and less class than any other organization. So I wasn't expecting to enjoy being in the den of the beast as much as I did. For me, the Yankee Stadium experience was really good, and it made me re-evaluate my opinion of the franchise.

I had not bought a ticket prior to turning up to the stadium, so with some trepidation, I joined the queue at the ticket stand. I was slightly star-struck when I found I was standing three people behind current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. I don't think anyone else recognized him. Another guy in the queue was directing some friendly banter towards Magnus' friend, who was wearing an Oakland A's t-shirt. The queue was sizeable but went pretty fast. When I turned up at the counter to buy my ticket, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ticket was half-price if I paid by Mastercard. So I did and saved $26.

I took my savings and went to look for some food. I took advantage of another Mastercard special to buy a combo that contained two Premio hotdogs and a diet soda. The hotdogs were the best stadium food that I came across on my tour. They were spicy and tasted like they contained a good proportion of real meat. I would say they were good by any standard.

Due to the size of the stadium, there wasn't much free standing area close to the action. This was about as close as I could get:

I stood and enjoyed my hotdogs in the shade, before heading up to my seat.

Yeah, it was a little far away from the field, but the viewing was unobstructed. The surrounding fans were pleasant, and contributed to a good vibe. It seemed like folks were interested and really got into cheering for the home team, without being abusive douchebags. I was also impressed by the general baseball knowledge on display. 

As for the baseball action, the Yankees won on the back of two home-runs from rookie 1st baseman Greg Bird, who was filling in for the oft-injured Mark Teixeira. The Yankees get deserved criticism for spending hideous amounts of money to lure veteran free-agents away from other teams*, but the bulk of their success over the years has come from developing their own talent. Maybe Greg Bird will be the next great Yankee star, and I will be able to say that I was at his first multi home-run game. Hopefully not though. They are still the evil empire and I will happily root against them (except when they are playing Boston). Actually, there are quite a few teams that I dislike more. Lets say they have gone from very hateable to moderately dislikeable in my books.

The Yankee Stadium experience was really cool, and I would recommend it to anyone. The food was good, the fans were great and the stadium is fancy. In a non-biased ranking, it may have come in first place. However, I am very biased toward my favourite team's home stadium, so my afternoon in the Bronx comes in at 2nd place.

* Yes, I realize the Mariners signed away Robinson Cano from the Yankees.

Ballpark experience number six: Philadelphia

I'll be straight up...this was the least amount of fun I had at a baseball stadium on my trip. My rankings are just a rank of how much I enjoyed the whole experience of being at the stadium, not some detailed, objective scientific study. After all, what kind of expert am I? I am a New Zealander who has never played baseball, and had never even watched a game in person until 5 years ago. So in the highly unlikely event that any Phillies fans read this post and feel offended...it's not Citizen's Bank Park's fault...it's mine.

At this point in the trip, I was tired and starting to feel the effects of a diet consisting mostly of greasy junk food. Also, because I was travelling city to city by train, I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous three nights (two 6am starts and an overnight train from Boston to Baltimore). Plus, it was just so damn hot outdoors. A sensible person would probably not have been walking around outside as much as I did.

The point I knew I was in trouble was right after I ate this cheesesteak:

It was from Geno's, which is a famous cheesesteak place. I had been planning on getting another one from Pat's, which is another well-known place just across the road. However, I started to feel really overheated and lethargic and just damn greasy after finishing the sandwich. I forgot to get napkins and couldn't be bothered to go up to the counter and ask for some. So I just wiped the grease that was settling in on my face on my t-shirt. I think I can actually pinpoint that moment as the lowest point on my baseball tour, where I was just so lazy and slow that I couldn't even ask for a fucking napkin.

I should also point out that I had been walking around in the hot sun for about an hour trying to find the place. It seemed like it took twice as long for me to stagger back to the hotel and get into bed. At this point, I was seriously contemplating not going to watch the game. I just had no energy at all. But, an hour or so of rest in my air-conditioned room managed to revive me enough to order a ride on Uber to the stadium (Uber is awesome to use).

I got to the stadium and stayed for 4 innings. Here is an action shot to show that I did attend:

I think that was Jose Bautisita up hitting. I don't really remember, but let's say it was, and that he hit a 500 foot dinger (Edit: on closer inspection, the batter looks nothing like Jose Bautista). The 2015 Blue Jays were very good, so even if it wasn't Jose, chances are that it was another badass hitter like Edwin Encarnacion or Josh Donaldson. I mean there is only a 1 in 9 chance that it was Ryan Goins (Edit: it's not Goins, he bats lefty). He is terrible. The Phillies were/are terrible too, so I imagine Toronto won that game.

I didn't eat anything at the stadium. Nothing seems appealing when you are sweating grease. All the yummy junk food I was piling in at other stadiums suddenly seemed repulsive. I was craving fresh vegetables, but unsurprisingly, they were in short supply at the ballpark. I had to head out and find something more palatable.

Here is a picture of the roast beef wrap I got from some posh healthy food store after the game:

Here is a picture of the vegan buckwheat noodle meal I ate for breakfast the next day:

It was amazingly delicious.

I used to think that if I lived in the US, I would become really fat eating all the delicious junk food. It is good to know that my body has an in-built mechanism to avoid consuming too much crap.

So yeah, what to say... this stadium ranked 8th and last. It's not really a fair ranking, but the stadium didn't seem particularly interesting in any case. What I saw of Philadelphia itself didn't tickle my fancy either. So now that I have ticked off Citizen's Bank Park, I will probably never go back.

Ballpark experience number five: Baltimore

Wow, it's been some time since I wrote one of these. I suppose I'd better box on and try to get them finished, if only for some small sense of accomplishment. It would be nice to have a written account of this stuff before my memories fade.

The baseball stadium in Baltimore is called "Oriole Stadium at Camden Yards". I really liked this stadium. The main distinctive feature of the stadium is the brick warehouse on the right field side. I'd always assumed that it was right up against the right field bleachers, but as it turns out, there is a street in between.

You can walk off the street straight into the outfield bleacher seats. It is really quite cool. I also appreciate that Camden Yards is located in Baltimore, within walking distance of the CBD and harbour area. This is much better than stadiums that are located in the middle of fucking nowhere...like Angels stadium.

I hadn't bought a ticket on Stubhub before I arrived in the city. I figured there would be plenty of seats for a weeknight game against a non-contender. So here is my paper ticket I got from the stadium ticket line:

Here is the view of the stadium from just down the road. Walking straight ahead gets you to the same point as in the first photo (but facing in the opposite direction).

How was the food? Pretty good actually. Camden Yards has a concession stand called "Boog's Barbecue", which was founded by a former Oriole player. It serves barbecue that is passable by regular standards but terrific by ballpark food standards. I got some beef which came with a roll/biscuit and some crisps. I particularly liked the horseradish sauce you could dollop on.

What about the baseball? It was okay. The game was a low-key meaningless late August game. The Orioles probably weren't going to make the playoffs (and they didn't). The A's certainly weren't going to make the playoffs at that stage. The whole event felt like a relaxed casual nice thing to do on a Monday night, without there being any tension or pressure. The crowd was pretty good and the atmosphere was pleasant. It wasn't quite as laid back as Anaheim, but it wasn't quite as charged as Fenway. My seat wasn't the greatest, so I couldn't see much detail of what was going on:

I wasn't too concerned though. It was a lovely Summer's evening. I didn't even bother spending some time standing in the walkway area behind home plate to catch more of the action.

There was one cool baseball thing from the game. I got to see the only ambidextrous pitcher in the majors, Pat Venditte. He isn't particularly good (basically mediocre to bad with either arm), but it was freaking awesome to see him pitch. He has this custom-made glove that he can swap from hand to hand, depending on what arm he is throwing with.

Watching baseball at Camden Yards was a thoroughly decent and enjoyable experience. It was the 3rd best time I had watching baseball on my trip. The stadium is beautiful, the food was nice and the crowd was good. I would go back.