June 12, 2009 (Allentown)

I drive up to Allentown to attend the Lehigh Valley IronPigs game, the AAA affiliate of the Phillies. They are playing the Charlotte Knights at Coco-Cola Park.

Now I'll admit, I don't really know anything about minor league baseball, other than that they may have up and coming players who could be in the major leagues one day. But I often hear positive things about it, like more intimate setting and a lot of promotions of things, since this caters more to families.

I arrive early, and do notice a lot of ads on the left field side. For only $10, I was able to sit behind home plate, and sat near some people who have season tickets, as we talked between innings. Fireworks normally go off, coming out of the huge Coco-Cola bottle at the scoreboard, whenever the home team hits a home run. But I would witness it puffing out just smoke, which was kind of funny to see.

The Knights and IronPigs each traded a couple runs, making it 2-2, and that would make the game go extra innings. The IronPigs scored in the bottom of the 10th, and they win the game, 3-2. The postgame fireworks were okay, but definitely were not at the major league level.

The worst part of the experience, is the parking lot after the game. It took me what seemed like forever, to get out of the lot. A long line of cars, bearly making an inch each hour. I did manage to catch the end of the Phillies game on the radio, to help bypass the time, but the reception was not good.

Overall, it was a good experience, to see firsthand a minor league game. Hopefully, this will be the first of many to go to, in the years to come.

May 25, 2009 (Philadelphia)

Hot dogs and baseball, 2 things go well together! At least to me, anyway. Which is one of the main reasons why I went to Dollar Dog Night on Memorial Day.

The Phillies took on the Florida Marlins, and the result was not good, even with Jamie Moyer starting, who has had great numbers against the Fish. Ryan Howard starts things off with a 2-run homer in the 1st, giving the Phils a 2-0 lead. But Wes Helms, who was a bust while in Philly, would hit a 3-run homer, giving the Marlins a 3-2 lead. The Phils couldn't really get anything going, and part of the reason is due to base-running blunders. Howard would hit another home run, but it was not enough.

The Phils lose the game 5-3.

May 17, 2009 (St. Louis)

At the last minute, I decided to take another game. And prematurely bought a ticket over the phone. Premature, because I still have ticket for the makeup game.

When going to the box office, I thought I could get a refund, but told that there are no refunds throughout MLB. Their reason, is that they don't control the weather. I know that screwed the Brewers fans visiting, as one of them was arguing with the ticket person. And I just threw away $52. So I was upgraded to the Redbird Club, which is on the 2nd level, and had an indoor concession stand and lounge.

It was a good seat, as I saw the Brewers quickly take a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning, with all the runs scored on a bases-loaded hit by JJ Hardy and Jason Kendall. It stayed that until the Cardinals finally got something going in the bottom of the 6th, scoring 2 runs to cut the deficit in half.

But the next inning, Prince Fielder hits a 3-run homer to put the Brewers up 7-2, and they score 1 more run to put icing on the cake, as the Brewers beat the Cardinals, 8-2.

I've been told there are fireworks after every Cardinal victory. I would not know for sure, because they lost the 2 games I was there. This would be the first place where I would not see the home team win.