Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Comerica Park



I just posted about the Orange Detroit Tigers bat Mik got at Comerica Park. He got that one because he does not have a logo one for the Tigers and it looked cool. He also spotted this one of Comerica Park. He asked me to choose which one he should get and I just told him he could get both, since I was also in the same predicament trying to choose between two balls and was leaning towards getting both. It certainly was not fair for me to end up with my two balls and still make him choose only one bat, so we both got two things at Comerica Park.

The Comerica Park mini bat is natural on the bottom and has a brick design background on the top. On the brick design is an oval image of the park that has Comerica above the image and Park below the image. It is a lot like Mik's Wrigley Field bat.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Orange Detroit Tigers

At Comerica Park there was quite a few mini bats to choose from. Mik had a hard time deciding and actually ended up with two bats from here. This one is an Orange colored one. It has the Tigers D logo in the middle of the words Detroit Tigers.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Comerica Park

At the Detroit Tigers game Mik had a Coney Dog. It was not as good as the Skyline Chili one he had at the Reds game or in Cincinnati yesterday. The main thing he did not like about it was that Dad did not realize he could ask for it with cheese. Also, Mik thought the hot dog in it and the chili on it was not as good as the Skyline Chili ones. It was not horrible, but it just was not as good as he thought it would be. Mik also tried the fries and did not really like them because they had an odd seasoning on them.





Mik did enjoy the Pepsi Icee, though. He also had a Cherry one, but he said the consistency of that one was not very good. That might have been because we got it when the park first opened and the machines had not been running long, though. He thought the Pepsi one tasted like a Coke Icee and while he does not usually like Pepsi over Coke because Pepsi tastes bad warm the Icee tastes good because it the Pepsi stays cold long enough for you to finish it.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Day 32: Tiger Stadium

After the Detroit Tigers game on June 20, 2009, we drove by the ballpark they used before moving into the current park. Not much is left of Tiger Stadium, as they began the final demolition earlier this month, but there still was a good chunk of it left to see and photograph. It certainly is not the best way to have seen it, but it is better than missing it entirely, since it is supposed to be entirely gone by the end of this month.

Car Sticker Update: Chicago Cubs



None of the team shops at Wrigley Field carried any stickers, but one of the shops tipped us off to ushers having them in their pockets to give out. Dad ended up getting two of them and he put both on the window. Since we do not have a Reds one despite trying all three times we were in the Cincinnati area, it makes up for missing one. Plus having two Cubs ones is better than going to get another White Sox one, which Dad did try to get at Walgreens when we were in Chicago for the Cubs game, but he could not get there because of some movie premiere blocking the street.

Accessibility Review: Wrigley Field

Being one of the oldest ballparks Wrigley has an excuse for not being the most accessible, but it does not lean on that and in fact is better than some of the parks built in this century. First off they are the only ballpark that requires you to pick up the handicap tickets in person. Supposedly you have to show an id to pick them up, but they did not really care because it was pretty obvious with Mik rolling up in his wheelchair.

Parking was way expensive as we ended up with the $40 parking ticket, which we purchased in advance, instead of the $25 one we thought we were getting when Dad got off the phone ordering the tickets back in February. It turned out worth having the $40 spot, though, because it was on the same block as the park and very close to the main gate. This was helpful when it was raining before the game and we had to go through the rain to get to the park. It was also helpful after the game because it started raining again not long after we started driving.

Getting around the park was not too bad even with all the crowds. The gift shop was not even too bad because they closely control how many people they let in at a time, so while the aisles are not that wide at least there are not too many people getting in the way like we have experienced at several other ballparks. The only time the crowds were kind of annoying was at the end of the game when we were going down to ramp.

Speaking of the ramp it is actually an easy way to get up and down from the seats other than the crowds at the end of the game. The upper level here is not really all that high in comparison to modern ballpark’s upper levels, so the ramps are not as many back and forths. They also do not seem as steep as some of the other ballparks, although at some parts they are steeper than other ballparks. They also have an elevator for going up and down and I am pretty sure they really do control that for use only by handicapped because we could not even find it besides getting a vague direction. Then again we really did not look for it because we decided to take the ramps. It probably is not hard to find, but it certainly does not have an obvious sign to it, which is actually a good thing because that is when you get the people that do not need it causing problems.



Our seats were located in the upper level behind home plate and right below the press boxes. Mik declared them great seats as soon as we got there and I told them they sure as heck better be since we paid $56 a piece for them, which is the most expensive tickets of the whole trip. They did turn out to be the best seats we have had on the trip so far. The view was unobstructed except for the backstop net, which annoyed me a little because it was nearly impossible to photograph the batter or pitcher due to the net. Other than that, though, the view was great, especially of the scoreboard. The scoreboard might not be a fancy jumbotron, but it is totally worth getting a good view of, especially if there happen to be other games going on, which there were not until around when the game ended. The other good thing about our seats was that they are located under an overhang, so we stayed dry while it rained before the game without having to leave our seats.

Overall we were actually surprised at how accessible Wrigley Field is. There really is not anything to complain about accessibility wise, as there were even cup holders in front of the seats. They even have an family style accessible restroom right behind the section, which is extremely helpful because the regular bathrooms for the upper level are located just down a steep ramp and become quite crowded and rather impossibly to maneuver through.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Skyline Chili

Today on the way from Louisville to Pittsburgh we yet again drove through Cincinnati (by the way we also looked for the third time to try and find a Reds sticker for the car and yet again ended up empty handed, so it just is not going to happen). Dad saw an exit sign list Skyline Chili, so we ended up stopping for an early lunch.



Mik had a cheese Coney like he had at Great American Ballpark. This time he got it without the onions and the mustard and it was way better in his opinion. He also tried the three way (chili, cheese, and spaghetti). He enjoyed it, but only ate about half since he ate the cheese Coney first. He was even too full to try the cheese fries I got despite how good they looked to him and how good they did taste since they had shredded cheese on them and not crappy liquid cheese.