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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Summer baseball trips offer variety
One of my favorite diversions during the summer months is taking baseball game trips.
I am hardly on the level of the people who have executed a trip to all 30 major-league stadiums in the same year, although that is definitely a bucket list item of mine.
I've been to a decent number of them over the years -- Wrigley Field and both old and new Comiskey Park in Chicago (the old one was better), old Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Riverfront Stadium and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, both old and new Busch Stadium in St. Louis (this time, the new one is better), Petco Park in San Diego, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City and The Ballpark at Arlington in Dallas.
This summer, I have hit Busch Stadium and Great American Ballpark again, as well as several games of the Terre Haute REX collegiate summer team. An Indianapolis Indians game is on next week's schedule. I also enjoyed a trip to Jasper's Ruxer Field in June -- clearly the premier high school stadium in the state.
Busch Stadium wins a head-to-head battle against Great American Ballpark for a few reasons, with the most prominent being the Ballpark Village. If you haven't been there, it's basically a small mall located outside the stadium with restaurants and shops all baseball related. A great meeting place for Cardinals' fans, the village offers a chance to see what true fandom is. Their team isn't doing as well this year as usual, but you couldn't tell it by the number of fans.
I was a devoted Boston Red Sox fan in the '70s and '80s, but don't really claim any allegiance to any certain team any more. Just a fan of the game. (I admit to becoming a bandwagon Cubs' fan last year, however.)
Great American Ballpark is also home to a team struggling this year (actually for several years), and both the attendance and the fan attitude both reflected the Reds' lack of success.
St. Louis defeated the Reds in the game I saw last month, and the Reds faced the Washington Nationals on Monday.
The Reds' fans predictably weren't too happy when their team was behind 4-0 in the top of the first after four batters courtesy of two hits, a Bryce Harper 3-run homer and a much longer Ryan Zimmerman blast. Washington put together a few more hits for a 5-0 lead.
Cincinnati starter Scott Feldman was mercifully pulled after one inning, and reliever Asher Wojciechowski came in and shut down the powerful Nationals for several innings.
Washington eventually pulled out a 6-1 win, and the obvious sentiment was that Cincinnati had started the wrong pitcher.
It may not have mattered who the Reds started on this day, however, as the Nationals had Stephen Strasburg on the mound. Strasburg was dominant through seven innings and looked unbeatable. It's scary how his career could have gone even much better had he avoided injuries.
Two things really stuck out to me on this warm day, that had enough clouds in the sky to often block the direct sunlight.
The friend who organized the trip was able to secure seats in the sixth row behind the Cincinnati dugout, about even with the on-deck circle. Easily the best tickets I've ever had for a major-league baseball game.
I was really surprised to notice immediately after taking our seats how little backstop netting is present to provide safety to fans. My wife, the science teacher, could easily calculate the force of the 5.25-ounce baseball, using the distance from the plate and the "exit velocity" metric, upon my face should a foul ball have been hit in our direction.
I couldn't make such calculations, but I definitely paid attention at each swing and forewarned the guy behind me that I was not blocking or catching any rockets headed our way -- I was definitely ducking (if possible). Fortunately, nothing came close to our direction.
I asked the usher in our section if anybody had been hit by a foul ball there, and he said "not this year." That answer didn't make me feel safer.
He added that Major League Baseball has "suggested" that teams run their backstop netting from the far end of one dugout to the other. I normally despise watching a game through a fence or net, but I would have been OK with it in these circumstances.
There's just something about the atmosphere of a game, in addition to the plays on the field, that makes these trips so enjoyable. The smells are great, the people are interesting to watch and the food (while ridiculously overpriced) somehow tastes better in such an environment than at home.
But I understand the cost.
Joey Votto was paid $123,456 for Monday's game that lasted two hours and 58 minutes. It's gotta come from somewhere.