Game 28: Boston Red Sox 1 @ Texas Rangers 3

Today we drove up to Arlington, Texas from Houston. The KOA we are staying at here is very near the ballpark, so we set up camp before the game. We then headed to the game after a few hours relaxing in the lounge at the KOA.

We got to Rangers Park at Arlington about 45 minutes before it opened. We walked around a little outside before just getting in line to wait for the gates to open. It was a little crazy going into the park with a lot of kids there for Autograph Wednesdays and rushing to be in line for that. That and some little league tournament had a bunch of teams there.

After getting into the park we walked around a little and stopped at one of the team shops. We then ended up going up to the seats we had tickets for in section 344. We got to those and Mik was so disappointed in the view of right field being blocked. Other than that they seemed fine, but we did not end up staying there long because we ended up with another surprise upgrade.

We ended up sitting on the 3rd base side in section 18. The view of the field was way better and we also could see the scoreboard. We also got goodie bags that included Rangers ballcaps, Rangers batting helmets, autographed cards, stickers, magnet schedules, 2009-2010 calenders, and Rangers circle logo pennants.

The game was kind of long considering the rather minimal scoring, but it was a good game with the home team Rangers winning. The Red Sox took the lead first with their one and only run, which was a home run in the top of the 3rd. The Rangers tied it up with a homer in the bottom of the 3rd. They got the lead with two runs scored in the bottom of the 4th and then that was the end of the scoring plays in the game. One of the most interesting plays, though occurred in the bottom of the 5th when one of the Rangers got out because he was hit by the ball his teammate hit while avoiding his teammate's broken bat. Mik was happy to see Papelbon come on and pitch an inning for the Red Sox.

Overall an enjoyable game experience. There sure were a lot of Red Sox fans, but the Rangers fans were still obviously there and cheering for their team, which does not always happen when teams like the Red Sox play. The hot humidity of Arlington is not as bad as Houston, but boy is the Astros park much more comfortable with it's AC. At least the Rangers Park does have it's own uniqueness with the feel of old ballpark architecture that is helped by the lack of a massive jumbotron. Sure they have a decent scoreboard, but it only has a small part of it is a screen for the video stuff and they keep the bottom as the box score all the time.

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Game 27: St. Louis Cardinals 6 @ Houston Astros 11

We got to Minute Maid Park several hours early since we got done with the Nolan Ryan Museum early and did not end up in as much traffic as we had expected. This ended up being a great thing because we ended up in the Main Team Shop, which is in the old Union Station. It is really cool how they preserved the Union Station and blended it into being part of the ballpark. In here they have some exhibits of Astros memorabilia related to the recent history of the Astros now celebrating their 10th season at Minute Maid Park.

After exploring the old Union Station part of the ballpark we still had an hour before the park opened. We took care of picking up our tickets at will call. We had tickets to the game already for in the 300 section, but we had tickets for the 110 section waiting for us. Marj, who got us into the Diamond Club at Nationals Park, worked at Minute Maid Park before Nationals Park and told her old boss about us, which led to us getting closer seats. We also got a bag of goodies, which included a Pink in the Park Astros t-shirt and wristband, a cool Lone Star Series hat, and a magnet schedule. The really cool thing in the bag was a little baggie of dirt from Minute Maid Park. Yes, dirt is very exciting if it is from a ballpark in my opinion. Also, we got much needed Astro stickers in the bag. None of the souvenir places in the park had stickers, so it was great that we ended up with one to keep the car up-to-date with the ballparks we have been to.

Minute Maid Park was an enjoyable place to take in a game. It has a good atmosphere even with it being almost half Cardinals fans for this game. Some people do not like baseball being played indoors, but having gone to so many Diamondback home games it just seems natural to us. Not only does it pretty much guarantee there will not be a rain delay or rain out, but it makes the game much more enjoyable with its air conditioned comfort. Mik loved this park just for being indoors. He does not much care about the air conditioning, but growing up in Arizona has made him a fan of indoor parks.

The game was pretty exciting with lots of home runs (6), which included three hit by Astro players, so we got to see the train behind left field go back and forth down the track several times. The first hit of the game was a homer by DeRosa of the Cardinals in the second inning. In the bottom of the inning the Astros' Pence got the Astros first hit of the game in the form of a two-run homer (Blum was on base due to being walked). The Astros them kept the lead the rest of the game adding a run in both the 4th and 5th innings.

The bottom of the 7th and top of the 8th were big scoring innings with each team scoring 5 runs. The Astros got 4 of their runs with a Grand Slam by Carlos Lee. Now we have finally seen a Grand Slam on the trip. I have never seen one in person at a Major League game, although I have seen two in one game at a Tucson Sidewinders game. We have been hoping the whole trip to at least see a Grand Slam. Now if we could only witness a no-hitter.

Game 26: Chicago Cubs 6 @ Washington Nationals 5

Tonight was the third game in three days, which is the third time it has happened on the trip even though it was originally planned to only happen twice. We left the campground around 11am after getting there around 8:30am and setting up camp. We parked the car at the end of the Green line and took the Metro into D.C. to go to the National Museum of American History before heading to the game. That did not really kill much time as it was too crowded to enjoy and I am spoiled from experiencing the D.C. museums mostly in the off season in the middle of the week. Thus we still got to the game about an hour before the gates opened, but that gave us time to hit the gift shop before the park opened.

Once the park opened we waited another hour for the part of the park where our seats were to open up. Mik was surprisingly really into this game from the start and it only got better. For one someone gave him a ball during batting practice, which is his third of the trip. Then not long after we got to our seats the lady that manages the Diamond Club, Marj Hopkins, came to tell us she had passes for us and reserved us a table there for the game. She had seen the stickers on the car while we were driving to the Metro earlier in the day and asked us where we were sitting for the game. She said she worked at the park and would come and see us at the game, but I never imagined it would lead to such an awesome experience, which of course meant even more to me being a Nats fan, although both Mik and Dad enjoyed it as well.

The Diamond Club seats included an all you can eat buffet until the end of the 5th inning and drinks. It was amazing and way better than the normal ballpark food. More on it later in a Mik’s Food Scrapbook post, but for now I will say my favorite was the salads that included a variety of tomatoes and Mik loved the cookies and pot pie.

The buffet part and drinks were cool and probably Mik’s favorite, but the seats themselves were totally awesome. We had a table located behind home plate. It was a perfect place to see the whole game, scoreboard, and the President's Race (Lincoln won by the way). It was also great for scoring the game because I could have the scorebook on the table rather than balancing it on my lap. Even Mik enjoyed watching some of the game between innings on his PSP baseball game, which believe me has not happened much on this trip except the first game when we saw the Diamondbacks.

You would think the awesome seat upgrades to the Diamond Club would have been the end to our surprises for the day, but it was not. We were also presented with two Nationals backpacks. Both had a t-shirt and a beach towel in them. One had a ball signed by Christian Guzman and the other had a bat signed by Austin Kearns.

The game itself was also an exciting one with a lot of hitting by both teams. The Nats had the lead first with two runs in the first and two more in the second. The Cubs began to come back with two runs in the third. They then took the lead with three runs in the 6th and padded their lead with another run in the 8th. The Nats had several chance to come back included several bases loaded situations, but they only managed to score one more run in the 8th and ended up losing 5 to 6. It was sad to see the Nats lose, but at the same time it is not that sad because I am still partially a Cubs fan and Dad and Mik were both rooting for the Cubs. At least the Nats put effort into it and did not make it an easy win for the Cubs.

Overall today was an awesome experience at Nationals Park. It was certainly an experience I never expected. I definitely did not expect it to happen on this trip and never expected to get the opportunity to sit where we did, although I have seen the Diamond Club on the park tour before. It is not the same to see it on the tour, as to actually get to experience the game from it. Obviously experiencing the game from here is way better. Getting the bat and ball signed by two great Nats players was also a wonderful surprise.

Any Nats game makes the game one of my favorites on the trip even though they lost, but the experience we had made it near the top of the list in experiences on this trip for all of us. It not the same as seeing Hank Aaron or the Greg Maddux number retirement, but those are historical things everyone at the game experienced. This, however, was an unique experience that made the game extra special just for us and that makes it up there on the same level of highlights of the trip.

Thanks Marj for a fun, unique, and very memorable experience at Nationals Park!