Dodger Grass Something Special

The grass in Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles lies on a pile of sand. The edges of the grass actually look like carpet that has been rolled out, giving you the feeling it could be rolled back to reveal a beach.

The Dodgers, celebrating their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles this year, are proud and protective of their grass. The Bermuda grass is something called “Prescription Athletic Turf,” which makes it sound like something a doctor would write an Rx for. Sports Illustrated polled major league players in 2003 about which ballpark had the best field, and Dodger Stadium was ranked at the top.

Alta and I took a tour of Dodger Stadium Sept. 4. It was Alta’s first trip to the park and the first time I had been there since the park opened in 1962. The tour, at $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and kids, is a real deal in a stadium where everything else is expensive. The cheapest beer at the game that night was $8, while 2 brats, a side of fries and bottle of water cost $26.

The tour took us into the club meeting room, some special boxes, the Press Box (looks pretty much like every other press box I’ve been in), down some memorabilia-laden hallways (uniforms of the greats), and into the Dodgers dugout (see the sun-tan lotion but don’t drink the water from the fountain because that’s where the players spit). And don't touch the grass, look but don't touch.

Inside the stadium we walked down a “hall of fame” wall with the names of hundreds of Dodgers from all eras. Alta particularly noticed one name – Alta Cohen. Cohen played outfield for the old Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931-32, winding up his career at the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Cohen started in the Bigs with the Brooklyn Robins, where he batted .667 in 3 at-bats, but faltered the next year with the Dodgers, batting .156 in 32 at-bats. When he died in 2003 at the age of 94 he was the oldest living member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Alumni Association.

Alta got her name from her grandmother and we wondered where Cohen got his first name. Maybe Alta Cohen being male is the reason that Alta Jones got a draft notice from the Army when she was a teenager. Alta Cohen’s nickname was Schoolboy, maybe because he kept learning, and he was born on Christmas Day 1908.

The Dodgers won the game we saw, 6-4 over the basement-dwelling San Diego Padres (as I write this the Colorado Rockies are threatening to beat the Padres to the bottom). The Dodgers got three homers and scored 4 runs in the 4th to win. Alta maintains the Dodgers victory kept our personal streak alive – every game we’ve seen in our travels this summer the home team has won. That’s seven different ballparks (St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and LA Dodgers). That doesn’t count seeing the Colorado Rockies lose at home, but maybe those losses can be ignored because we didn’t travel to Coors Field (at least longer than a couple dozen miles from home).

This was likely our last road trip for baseball this season, unless the Cubs make it to the playoffs when we're in Chicago Oct. 1-3. (Hear that Cubbies? If you have a playoff and we're in town, you should make sure we're in the stands.) Next year we're thinking about Florida in the spring.

Foodwise, the highlight of our trip wasn’t a Dodger Dog. It was lunch at Phillipe’s diner, the original one on Alameda just down the hill from Dodger Stadium (actually the original was torn down for the Santa Ana Freeway but the Alameda location opened in 1951 and is as original as you get). The diner is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Founder Phillipe Mathieu claimed to have created the first French Dip sandwich in 1918 when he accidentally dropped a sliced french roll into a roasting pan filled with hot juice from the oven. The roll was used to make a sandwich filled with sliced roast beef. A policeman ate it, loved it, and Phillipe kept making them. Phillipe’s still makes them the same way, dipping the roll into the juice so the bun’s outside remains firm. You don’t dip Phillipe’s French Dip.

The photo shows Joe Torre's view of Dodger Stadium, sitting in the dugout.

Going Batty

Not to make Colorado Rockies' fans jealous, but Alta and I got to hold Matt Holliday’s bat today. It was an appropriate punctuation to a 3,000-mile journey to see six baseball games in six different parks.

Matt’s bat, an ebony maple shaft, doesn’t feel a lot different from those used by guys like Alfonso Soriano, Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols. We got to hold those as well. Different colors, slightly different weights and lengths. But they all hit pretty much the same, at least I think they do.

We got to handle those tools of the baseball trade during a tour or the Louisville Slugger factory. The Kentucky factory is the only one in the world that makes the Sluggers, but there’s a different part of the factory that makes the pros’ bats. That’s where our tour guide took us after we watched a 10-minute movie with a lot of footage of some of baseball’s greats and how they used those Sluggers of the past.

They do make the pro’s bats with more care than those used by the kids in Little League but it is basically the same process. It also is fascinating to see how the wood cylinders are sawn out of tree trunks and then tapered on automatic lathes (they used to do it by hand). I thought bats were all made of ash, but the tour guide says the players have experimented with all kinds of wood. Now, he says, somewhat more than half the bats use maple, probably because Barry Bonds has used that wood. Maple breaks easier than ash, though.

There’s a display in the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory with all the bats used by the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series (there also is a display showing bats used by some team from Massachusetts). Each bat has the player’s name on it, near the hitting end.

We had a chance at the end of the tour to ask questions. I asked one that I didn’t get an answer on – how does a player get a “corked” bat. The movie before the tour had featured Sammy Sosa, who was rumored to have used a special bat. The tour guide said he had no idea where those might come from.

Road Food: Alta’s research tracked down Melissa’s Country Café in Versailles (pronounce that “vair-sales”) just west of Lexington, Kentucky. Melissa makes what is reputed to be the best “Hot Brown” dinner in Kentucky, something we might call an open-faced turkey-bacon-ham-and-cheese sandwich with a white sauce. We think it was created at the historic Brown Hotel in Louisville, but Melissa makes the best one now. It’s only on the dinner menu, which was a problem because we arrived about 1 p.m. after touring the nearby Buffalo Trace Distillery. We sent a message back to the kitchen that we’d driven all the way from Denver to eat Melissa’s Hot Brown and she was kind enough to make it for us. Melissa also came out from the kitchen to talk to us, which was nice of her. Her restaurant has been written up in the New York Times and Budget Traveler so she gets a lot of traveling foodies like Alta and I.

Getting Gas: It had to happen. We’ve driven more than 3,000 miles. Our Toyota Corolla rental car gets great gas mileage so we don’t have to fill up often. But we finally had to pay $4 for a gallon of gas, that coming in West Virginia.

Religious Rights

In south central Pennsylvania there is a small town named Ephrata. A young German man named Johann Biessel came here in the early 1700s. Why he came and what he did is a good illustration of what the William Penn and his ilk had in mind when they developed what would become the First Amendment.

Biessel had been driven out of his home country because he refused to worship the way the state dictated at the time. I won’t go into detail about how he thought Christians should behave, but he set up a colony at Ephrata, so named for a town in the Psalms. He and his followers would be considered odd by 1700s or modern standards but they worshiped the way they wanted without interfering with others.

You can tour some of the original buildings in Biessel’s Ephrata Cloisters today. The members of the group led a spare and structured life that included celibacy. The latter may have been responsible for the demise of their religious experiment because it died out in the early 1800s, to be replaced by another movement that allowed marriage.

Biessel and his followers had an opportunity in America because of William Penn, the Quaker who also had been persecuted for his beliefs in England. Penn’s Pennsylvania proved that people could be given freedom of religious choice, as well as freedom of speech, and such freedoms would expand the human experience. Penn also fought for the separation of church and state, saying religion has no place in government.

You’d think that after 200-plus years, what the Founding Fathers wrote would be pretty well settled by now. But you and I know we’re still fighting over how much religious freedom there is and whether religion should play a role in our governments.

Johann Biessel and William Penn had an answer.

Freedom’s Fathers

The main issues the country faces, our political consultant told us, are war, the economy, and immigration. But our leaders are up to the challenges, willing to sacrifice their lives, even, if that is necessary to make the nation a success.

We were on a tour of Philadelphia and the political consultant was our tour guide, who was referring to what happened in 1776. I wonder if our leaders today have the same courage, skill, and willingness to work together “in the common good” as the Founding Fathers.

After five days in Philadelphia, I come away with immense admiration for our Founding Fathers and what they worked so hard to create. Many were unsure if they would succeed but they believed so strongly in freedom and equality (the latter with reservations) that 56 of them were willing to go on record against the king.

The single most inspirational place to go in Philadelphia is the National Constitution Center in Independence National Historic Park (click on this entry’s title for a link). In the center there is a multimedia presentation led by an actor called “Freedom Rising.” It emphasizes how deeply the founders felt that “we, the people” are at the heart of liberty and the essence of its success or failure. There isn’t a political message in the sense of Democrat vs. Republican, only in the sense that Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and the others felt governments should exist for the people, not the other way around.

Then walk through Independence Hall and see where Washington sat as they debated the Declaration of Independence. Imagine Franklin looking at the image of the sun carved in the back of Washington’s chair, wondering if the sun was rising or setting on our nation. Or across the street to see the Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the background. Or next door where Congress met and where Washington peacefully relinquished the power of the presidency to Adams.

There is a lot more of Colonial Philadelphia elsewhere in the central city. Houses of the famous and not-so-famous (the latter included Betsy Ross until her role was discovered). Museums, churches (the oldest existing church in America was founded by the Swedes here and still stands). More modern buildings like City Hall in the center of the city that once was the tallest building in Philadelphia, or the ornate Masonic Lodge near City Hall. The old railroad terminal building that now houses a huge indoor market with places like Rick’s Cheese steaks and Bassett’s Ice Cream. Elfreth’s Alley and its two lines of 18th Century houses is the oldest residential neighborhood in the U.S.

We learned what “The Rule of Thumb” means (men couldn’t beat their wives with sticks bigger than their thumbs), and where “Upper Crust” came from (colonial bakeries charged more for the upper racks in the break ovens).

But what Philadelphia has done for me is to inspire me to know more about these men who came together along the shores of the Delaware River and managed to do what they did. And whether we and our current leaders can keep their dream alive.

Six For Six

The Phillies’ Pat Burrell had just hit a pop-up to Atlanta’s short stop, Yunel Escobar, for the second out in the bottom of the first. “That’s it,” said the lady behind us at Citizen’s Bank Park. “They just lost another game.”

The lady, a Phillies’ fan, was mistaken. She didn’t know Alta and I were in the park. She also didn’t know the home team always wins when we’re there, at least on this trip. Atlanta didn’t get the message either, because they lost for the second straight time we’ve seen them on the road. Actually, we think Chipper Jones did know we were there because he sat out Thursday night’s game claiming to have a groin injury.

Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels pitched his first career shutout en route to a 5-0 win over the Braves. He had a lot of help in the form of three homers, including one by the Phillies’ slumping clean-up hitter, first baseman Ryan Howard.

Citizen’s Bank Park (CB from now on) is one of the top parks we’ve seen on this road trip. It’s also the only one of the six that isn’t in the downtown area. Our hotel is downtown and it was a six-stop ride on the SEPTA train to the park, making it a couple of miles at least from downtown. But it has a pretty view looking over I-76 to the skyline. All of the city’s sports venues are in the same area.

Every time a Phillies player hits a home run at CB a neon Liberty Bell in right field lights up. The bell swings back and forth. Alta thinks the neon bell was hokey, but it was a change from the fireworks we’ve witnessed before.

As we were leaving the park, we talked to one of the Phillies fans. When we told him what we were doing, and how all the home teams won every time, he wanted to know where we were going next. He probably wanted to bet on the game. We told him we don’t know. We’ve been to all but 7 of the MLB Parks – both Florida teams, both Texas teams, the LA Dodgers (I’ve been there but Alta hasn’t), Milwaukee and Minnesota. Kind of a tough road trip to put together at one time. Who knows?

Foodstuff: Alta’s doctor back in Denver, learning we were going to see the Phillies, had told her we had to eat a “Schmitter’s” sandwich at CB Park. The sandwich was invented by McNally’s Tavern in the Chestnut Hill area, has been served for years at the ball parks and has even been to the Super Bowl. It’s made of thinly sliced steak, grilled salami, cheese, minimal fried onions, miniscule tomatoes, a “special sauce” that tastes like 1,000 Island dressing, served on a Kaiser roll. I prefer it to the Pittsburgher with French fries on it but I wouldn’t go out of my way for either one (although we did for the first one).

A Day in Lancaster

Baseball teams usually get travel days when they go on the road. So do Alta and I, in this case between games in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. We could have made it in a day but schedules didn’t mesh. Besides, we wanted to see Lancaster, Pa., and Pennsylvania’s Amish country.

In Lancaster, Alta and I are called “the English.” That’s what Lois, who is Mennonite, told us. We went to the Mennonite and Amish Information Center, watching a movie on the two Anabaptist cultures (Anabaptist Christians formed in the 16th Century, so named because they believe baptism should be a choice made when someone has gained some maturity, not when you are born). We also arranged a tour with a guide, who turned out to be Lois.

Lois spent about two hours with us, taking us on the back roads of eastern Lancaster County. We knew we would see horse-drawn carriages driven by people in plain clothing. I didn’t know the Amish don’t use rubber tires, so their carriages and other vehicles (wagons, plows) use steel wheels. They also don’t believe in bicycles because they move too fast, but they permit small scooters pushed by one foot. The scooters use rubber tires.

For Alta and I, a travel days means getting to know the local culture. That’s why we enjoyed the tour with Lois. We saw several one-room schoolhouses (Lois told us they had all grades together and up to 150 students). The Amish only go to school until the 8th grade. We happened by during recess at a couple of schools. Appropriately, the kids were outside playing baseball. Girls and boys. We also went to an Amish store, which was filled with clothes-making equipment because the Amish make all their own.

Local culture also means food. We had Shoofly pie, Whoopie pie (they have a Whoopie pie celebration in September that features pie launchings), brown-butter noodles, cooked dried corn, mashed potato stuffing, and pickled eggs with Harvard beets. Lancaster must be known for its smorgasbord restaurants because they are all over the place, they’re large, and they’re filled with people. We ate at two of them and wouldn’t recommend either. Also, a big thumb’s down on Hershey, Pa., where the tour is an amusement park ride that isn’t amusing. You can buy any Hershey candy, but that’s the only reason to go. Hershey was an interesting man but the tourist trap isn't.

Of course, wine goes with food. We toured the Nissley Winery west of Lancaster, one of Pennsylvania’s oldest wineries (1978, so not that old). Nissley has won several awards at some well-known wine festivals. We tasted several and bought a few, which Alta will try to get in her suitcase.

So, why were we called the “English” in Lancaster? That’s because historically the Amish and Mennonites who came here came from Germany. The Amish still speak a dialect of German as their primary language. To them, anyone who speaks English is the “English.”

Packin' PNC

It’s been raining off-and-on, mostly on, since the Cleveland game. But it stopped when we got to Pittsburgh, where Sunday’s game had been rained out. No rain, so we decided to stay for the Pirates’ game against Atlanta. It turned out to be a doubleheader, starting at 12:35 p.m. After finding PNC Park, we went to get tickets. We asked the young man at the counter for advice on where to sit. He told us he could put us right behind home plate, in Row T, for $27 each but because we were seniors he had a two-for-one deal. So we got the best seats we’ve had so far for $27 total and they included both games.

We stayed for only the first game, which was bad news for the Pirates. They won the first game 5-0 but dropped the second after we left. So, we’re 5-for-5 now. Every home team has won when we’ve been there.

Frankly, Pittsburgh didn’t deserve to win. They gave up 4 errors, 2 as third baseman Jose Bautista watched grounders squirt between his legs. The Braves left 15 men on base. At one point Pittsburgh had 3 runs on 3 hits and 3 errors.

Parking It: PNC Park, named for the local bank, is only 7 years old but feels older. It’s rather nondescript but does have a nice view overlooking the Allegheny River and downtown Pittsburgh. The Pirates have a lot of fan-participation events, such as an “American Idol” karaoke contest that gives fans a chance to make fools of themselves on the large screen. There weren’t many people at the game, though, so the embarrassment was limited. BTW—The temperature at game time was 46 with a light wind. It was so overcast it was good they had the stadium lights on.

Foodstuff: There’s a mildly famous restaurant chain in Pittsburgh called Primanti’s that opened in the 1930s. They have an outlet in PNC. They’re famous for the “Pittsburger,” a sandwich made with hamburger, french fries, cole slaw and tomato slices – all between two slices of white bread. You can add your own toppings. We didn’t, satisfied there was plenty already. It tastes mostly like french fries.

Road note: We took the lake shore drive along Lake Erie after we left Cleveland, driving up to Mentor, Ohio. We toured the home of President James A. Garfield in Mentor, the last president born in a log cabin. He only lived in the home a few months before he was elected president in 1880 and then assassinated in July 1881. It’s operated now by the National Park Service and is well worth the trip, filled mostly with Garfield’s own possessions.

The Beat Goes On

We’re still riding the streak. Four games and the home team continues to win. Tonight the Cleveland Indians scored 6 runs in the first inning on 5 hits and went on to a 12-0 yawner at Progressive Field. But a win, no matter how lopsided, is still a win. You don’t mess with a streak. Pittsburgh is next. No one has offered us free tickets yet.

Progressive Field is a so-so ball field. It looks like a skeleton from the outside. Progressive was named Jacobs Field until about 2 months ago. If it isn’t much to look at, it does have a very fan-friendly atmosphere. They have more promotions for a major league team than any I’ve seen. Every Saturday game is a giveaway. Tonight was a fleece blanket giveaway, featuring the likeness of centerfielder Grady Sizemore. Grady also had two home runs and a double for 5 RBI at the game.

To top that off, the Indians have a fireworks display every Friday night during the season. Even though we saw a Saturday night game we got to see the fireworks because they had a rain-out 8 nights earlier and were making up for it.

Beyond that, they have fan appreciation staff scattered around the park. We were greeted by a nice young girl who helped us with directions and then set up us with a photo that is supposed to be posted on the Indians’ website.

In the 6th inning they had one of those derby races you usually see on the screens at ballparks, but this one featured 3 people dressed up like hot dogs. Their names were Mayo, Catsup and Mustard and they ran all the way around the field, staging a photo finish at the end.

When we were walking down a hallway toward our seats there were 3 old geezers (I can call them that since I’m one) playing musical instruments and singing. The song went something like this: “Ain’t no beer in heaven. We drink it all here. When I’m gone to heaven, my friends will drink the beer.”

The song “Sloopy” also apparently was written in Ohio and everyone in the stands sang it in the 8th inning.

The Reds have a weird mascot named Slider. I don’t know how he got his name. He’s dressed in a large pink bird costume with a yellow beak and a white T-shirt. You can also buy tiny hamburgers at the snack stand called Sliders. We didn’t try one after a Reds fan we were talking with told us they were worse than White Castle burgers.

On the Road: The last couple of days have been music interludes. Went to the Motown Museum in Detroit, a disappointment, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which has a big wow factor for anyone who’s lived in the last 40-50 years. We also took a ferry to a small island, South Bass Island in Lake Erie, and it’s small town, Put-In-Bay, Ohio. The latter was definitely quiet. Home to the third tallest monument in the U.S. commemorating a naval battle during the War of 1812.

Tale of the Tiger

We’re thinking the ballparks should pay us to come to the games. Sure, we’ve only seen three games so far but the home team has always won. Cincinnati and Detroit both broke 5-game losing streaks to do it.

Tiger second baseman Placido Polanco lofted a bloop single into short leftfield for the winning run Wednesday night, scoring Edgar Renteria from third for a 10-9 slugfest win over that team from Boston. There were 30 hits in the 4-hour game and the Red Sox had come back from a 4-run deficit to go ahead in the 8th. I’m not claiming credit for the Tigers’ win, but it does seem like a coincidence that the home team wins whenever we’re at the park. (By the way, Cleveland, we're headed your way next. Hint.)

We bought our tickets for the game from a man who came with his son, had two extra tickets and saw us at the box office. We made a deal (a good one, considering) but just as money was being pulled out a security guard came over and said he didn’t want to see any money changing hands or we’d be arrested. He followed Alta and I and the man (Paul) and his son to the gate, refusing to leave us. So Paul gave me the tickets and said he’d meet us under the Daiquiri sign inside. We caught up there.

The Tigers’ park, Comercia, is a nice-enough park with a General Motors Fountain in centerfield (what else?). It also has stainless steel statues of some of the Tiger Greats lining the outfield concourse. A so-so view of Detroit’s downtown in the background. The best thing about the park—besides the large Tiger statues that hang like gargoyles outside—is the food court. In the center of the food court is a carousel, operating throughout the game. There were a few kids and adults on it when we went by in the 5th inning. Alta had an “Elephant Ear” to eat, cinnamon and sugar on fried dough, something like a thin Navajo fry bread. I stuck with a Chicago-style hot dog.

I've been keeping score at the games. The scorecard cost $2.50 in St. Louis, $1.50 in Cincinnati and $1 in Detroit. Plus, you get a free pencil in Detroit.

Road Food: We took a detour on the drive from Cincinnati, going through Ann Arbor because we’d heard it was a pretty college city and because Alta’s research turned up raves about a diner/dive called Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burgers. It’s the kind of place you wouldn’t go into unless someone told you it was good. It was. Good, that is. The cooks were laying down a clean white sheet of paper on the floor behind the counter when we came in. They grind their own burger fresh daily. There's a sign for "Blimpie Virgins" that tells you how and in what order to order your goodies. There are several awards on the wall for the best burgers in Ann Arbor. We both had double cheeseburgers (they’re pretty small), and shared fried veggies and potatoes. Krazy Jim’s is just a few blocks from the university, so we toured around it before leaving town.

Cincinnati Redux

I didn’t have any expectations about Cincinnati. I’ve never been here and didn’t know much about the city other than its sports teams and that it is on the Ohio River. The city is horrible to get around in, but it is a beautiful city.

On the north side of downtown is Mt. Adams, a hill named for John Quincy Adams. Much of it is a park, with tall trees, grass, an art museum, civic theater and the Krohn Conservatory. Very peaceful and green. We spent an hour or two at the conservatory, walking through the small greenhouse filled with tropical plants from around the world. One of my favorites was the cacao tree, which had several pods hanging from it. The conservatory also had a butterfly exhibit, some of them from southern China.

There’s also a business district, with apartments and houses, on Mt. Adams. It reminds me of the Larimer district in Denver. Old buildings given new life with restaurants, cafes, wine shops. Charming. We had a wonderful lunch at the Mt. Adams Fish House. Alta’s grilled salmon was served with a lavender sauce (lavender in color only because it is made with red wine and cream). My salmon and pasta used mushroom ravioli in an olive oil and tomato sauce.

The Riverfront area of Cincinnati is filled with ballparks. Baseball, football and hockey fields and arenas line the north side of the river. Mixed in with these is the National Underground Railroad and Freedom Museum, a new three-story glass and concrete facility. It tells the story of slavery in the U.S. and how slaves found their way to freedom by using a network of abolitionist sympathizers. Someone has thrown a lot of money the museum’s way and it shows. Vanessa Williams and Angela Bassett narrate the tour. Much of the museum is devoted to reading plaques and signs or looking at old photos or paintings. There are some videos and there is a reconstruction “slave pen” where a slave dealer held his goods until they were sold “down the river” to the South. A compelling story but one told best through the slaves’ own words and photos.

Sidetrips: On the way back to our motel we went took a bridge over the Ohio which was built in the mid 1800s. It took us into Covington, Kentucky, where we walked along the river and among stately mansions.

Rollin' On The River

We’re really not Chicago Cubs fans. Honest. Still, we’ve seen two Cubs games on successive nights 350 miles apart. Sunday night in St. Louis and Monday night in Cincinnati. The Cubs lost both of them.

We always knew the Cubs had very loyal fans. But they also have bad reputations in at least St. Louis and Cincinnati. Alta asked one of the Cards’ ushers if he was a volunteer and he answered, “No. I wouldn’t take all the abuse off the Cubs fans unless they paid me.”

In Cincinnati, at least one-third of the 20,000 people in Great American Ball Park were Cubs fans and saw the Reds break a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win. They also made a lot of noise. After the game we were listening to one of the sports talk shows on radio and one of the listeners called in and said Cubs fans “are like cockroaches. They come out at night when their team is in town.” The talk show host agreed. Maybe it’s just Central Division rivalry. Or maybe there’s something to it.

Great American Ball Park is a great park, hunkered down on the banks of the Ohio River looking toward a line of 1800s houses in Covington, Kentucky. There’s a pretend paddle boat out in center field that’s some sort of restaurant/bar. We walked all around the field and happened to be standing above the seats in centerfield when Ken Griffey Jr. saw what might have been his 598th career home run fall into the glove of Chicago’s Felix Pie, just a few feet short of the top of the wall.

Foodstuff: We were looking for two special treats in Great American Ball Park. We found one, the pulled pork sandwiches by the Montgomery Inn. The restaurant operates a small stand near the entrance of the park. The buns were fresh and the meat very tasty. We failed on our second quest –fried Twinkies and friend cookie dough from the Foul Pole Desserts stand. The stand is gone, given over to a Reds souvenir store. We really wanted a fried Twinky just to see if they are as gross as they sound. Instead, we had chocolate malts from the United Dairy Farmers stand – so thick you eat them with a spoon.

Road Noise: If you come to Cincinnati, bring a GPS device and a lot of patience. The maze of convoluted highways and interchanges would get any rat lost. I’m sure no one designed the system; it just happened. We drove through Kentucky three times in one day and that was the easy part.

The Game: The Reds’ Adam Dunn hit a two-run home run in the 3rd that proved the difference in the game. The Cubs had a chance to win in the top of the 9th when Reds’ closer Francisco Cordero gave up two singles and then added two straight walks. The Cubs countered by stupidly trying to steal home on a wild pitch and never capitalized on Cordero’s gifts.

The Reds brag about being the first professional baseball team, in 1869. That is true, but they also were the first franchise to move. That first team was the Red Stockings, which left to become the Boston Red Sox.

The Gateway

You know they’re serious about baseball in St. Louis when you drive into town on I-70. As soon as you hit the city limits they have renamed the road the Mark McGwire Highway. There’s no mention of whether or not highway workers used steroids.

Alta got our tickets to the game at the new Busch Stadium (opened in 2006) in advance, which was good because we were seeing game 3 of a 3-game series with the Chicago Cubs. There must have been large groups of Cub fans who got on chartered buses and drove down for the weekend. Our tickets were in the penultimate row in the upper deck – not really a bad view though. We were just off home plate on the first base side. Looking north over a vacant lot are all the steel and glass buildings that are becoming St. Louis’ new downtown skyline. There also is a good view of the old courthouse where the Dred Scott verdict was issued in the 1840s taking away any rights slaves had and opening up western expansion to slavery.

We were treated to a play-by-play of the game by a young man, probably a college student sitting with his father. He was on his cell phone the first part of the game announcing the action to whomever he was talking with. From the sounds of it they were Cubs fans. Cubs fans, by the way, don’t have a good rep here in St. Louis. One of the ushers we talked with said he hated dealing with all the drunks from Chicago. After the game was over the streets were filled with people who acted like it was a World Series game.

Food: We tried the fried ravioli at the stadium, available only at a few concession stands on the third level (near Section 265 if you’re coming to a game). Alta’s Web search turned it up as one of the “foods to have at Busch Stadium.” It’s served with marinara sauce. We don’t need to try it again.

Road Noise: Interstate 70 across Missouri is like Interstates anywhere. Same hotels, fast food joints and truck stops. The only things different are that the red bud trees were in full bloom, there are a lot of antique malls and there’s one stretch filled with “adult superstores” and “passion underwear stores.”
The Game: The Cards won 5-3 to stay on top of the Central Division. Albert Pujols got the got-ahead runs with a two-run double in the 4th.

The Background

Alta and I were connected to baseball even before we met. Alta started going to games with her dad when he was in residency in Kansas City. Alta was the designated son since she was the oldest of five daughters. They went to see the old Kansas City Blues, which back in the '50s was a Triple-A farm team for the Yankees. Hence Alta's continuing fascination with the Yankees.

My dad took me to the Denver Bears games in the '50s. They were the only professional team in Denver back then. The most fun I had was learning how to keep score. The Bears at the time were a Triple-A farm team for the Yankees too, so Alta and I must have been seeing these games during different years. I recall Don Larsen, Marv Thornberry, Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson. I saw Larsen pitch in Denver before he pitched the only perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

Alta and I have seen a lot of games together since then. One of her goals (her bucket list, if you will) is to see a game in every MLB park. When I've gone on business to a MLB city she's come along; we've seen quite a few games that way. Or we've taken in some on vacation, like the Montreal Expos before they moved to D.C., as well as the Toronto Blue Jays. We've been to more than half the parks now, mostly on the two coasts and Chicago.

So, our trip this spring to six more parks. On May 3 flying to Kansas City and then rent a car to drive east about 1,500 miles, stopping at ball parks in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Who knows how we'll get home, but probably a more southerly route through Louisville. Click on the headline to see a map of our route. It will vary from time to time on the spur of the moment.

Alta's been planning this trip for months, including not only gathering information about all the parks and the teams, but things to see and do along the way. This includes the best food at the park as well as best regional food in the towns and cities. We'll spend a week in Philadelphia in an Elderhostel class on Philadelphia and American history and also several days in Lancaster County and Amish country.