Game 5 Lake County Captains, July 24, 2011

Lake County Captains 6, Cedar Rapids Kernals 1

Lake County Captains Review

1) Nice modern park.   Newer park with nice facilities very clean.  Nothing ridiculously unique about it, but it has a nice feel to it as you walk in.    Outfield seats in left field and grass seating in right (Always love parks with grass seating).   Also had some restaurants within a short walk.  We went to them as we ended up being an hour early as they too only opened 60 minutes before game time.  The crowd was pretty sparse for a Sunday afternoon game, but it was in the low 90's for the game.  They had a player pregame autograph promotion (only 3 players), but the players were great about signing.  David with little effort got 9 autographs on his ball before the game started.   Thanks to the team and players for their willingness to sign!   With that being said, don't buy a log ball here as it has a plastic coating that doesn't make it good for signing or playing baseball with. 

2) One big dissapointment of the park was the video board.  It was pretty small and pointless.  They also did not have a pitch speed display.  This always dissapoints me as I think part of the fun of the game is looking at Grandpa next to me and saying "that was 95!".   That would be the first thing I would change about the park.    

3) The food selection seemed pretty average.  The two things that stuck out were Sunflower Seeds and Funnel Cake fries.   It's funny that you never see seeds for sale at a game.  Normally I would have had the fries, but it was in the 90's for an afternoon game and I just wanted to drink water.  One other nice thing they did have was a station with a great selection of different sausages and even some vegetarion sausage and burger selections.   I thought that was a nice touch.

4) They have a great area of kids game witht the largest playground I have seen at a minor league park.  I would recommend this park to any and all families with little kids.   Our kids had fun in the bounce house even though they have outgrown playgrounds at this point.   

5) The kids got to run the bases after the game which was nice.  It was also very impressive that players continued to sign autographs after the game.  I commend the team.

Game 4 Erie Sea Wolves, July 23, 2011

Akron Aeros 7, Erie SeaWolves 1

Erie SeaWolves Review

1) Oldest and least visually park we have visited save the South Bend Silverhawks.  Nothing in the outfield beyond wall.  Old Scoreboard as well.  Nice pitch radar.  Smallest park I have also ever seen.  Only seems to hold about 4000.   Most all foul balls leave the park because of size.   

2) Nothing of note around the park as we found out they only opened gates 60 minutes earlier and had to kill about 45 minutes of time.

3) We were there on Veterans day which brought in 1600 for the group.

4) Players gave a lot of pregame autographs.

5) Our kids got to yell play ball at 3rd base before the game. 

5) Seats are extremely close to the field, closest I have ever seen.  We were above the dugout and buzzed by an all too close line drive.   It actually kept us engaged in the game.

6) Good entertainment between innings.

7) Food selection was normal for a game.  We did have a great funnel cake covered in powdered sugar, strawberries, and whip cream that we would get again in a heart beat.   They have some nice little games for the kids down the sidelines that we enjoyed.  

7)  Best fireworks show we have ever seen.  

Game 3 Buffalo Bisons. July 22nd, 2011

Pawtucket Red Sox 4, Buffalo Bisons 2

Buffalo Bisons Review





             The park doesn't make a strong impression as you drive in off the interstate.  It is made of a while marble/stone outside which looks a bit dirty and there is nothing really visible beyond the outfield fence.   The same is true when you get into the ballpark as there is nothing in view in the outfield other then an interstate.  While it did have that visual unpleasentry, the video scoreboard makes up for it.  It is the largest we have seen at a minor league park and it was great during the game.   It definitely adds some freshness to an otherwise old field.  There are two levels of seating.  We sat in the bottom, but if you want a foul ball you definitely want to sit in the second deck, as it was the perfect distance to get peppered all game by foul balls.  

             The park definitely has some perks.  There is a restaurant attached to the park that has a view of the playing field.  We got to the park 45 minutes before gates open and went into the restaurant to kill time.  As we learned when we got in, you really need to have reservations to get a window seat.   We didn't have these, but we got a chance to walk down and look at the park.  This was a great view and would be a fund way to watch batting practice before the game.  We would definitely do this if we visited this park again.  The food selection seemed your very average American fair, but we can't really attest to the quality as we had drinks and then headed into the park, as we were able to do from the restaurant (nice touch).

            At every minor league park we got to the kids love to buy a logo team ball and head down to get autographs while Grandpa and I sit and relax.    I defintely would give the team a thumbs down as far as autographs go.   The team was largely unavailable and after 45 minutes the kids only had 2-3 autographs.  This is always something that shows us about the teams fan care.  In respect to the team, it was a 95 degree day the players may have been avoiding the heat.  They did cancel batting practice that day. 

         The park fair seemed very average.   We identified two novel items, fried bologna sandwiches and green bean fries.  I have had my share of fried bologna so I skipped and went to the fried green beans.  The kids enjoyed nachos and hot dogs as did grandpa.  The green beans were excellent and everything else seemed ballpark worthy.  

     

          We had a really good time at the game.   It was an exciting game and as most minor league parks go all seats are good seats.  It was about half full, but had a fun atmosphere.  The one thing we will say that was a little weak was during game entertainment.  They had one of the most unique/best entertainers we have seen (a young man who was an awesome dancer), but he had about 5 routines during the game that were really the same thing so it got old.   I hope they paid him well.

          We bought our orange mini-bat and had a great time! 

      

  



Game 2 Toronto Blue Jays, July 21st 2011

Toronto Blue Jays 7, Seattle Mariners 5

Romero vs ????

1) Air conditioned on very hot day.  Toronto Record Heat

2) Ugly from outside.

3) Inside it is interesting.   Very different then anything I have seen as dome was closed.  At first very novel and interesting, but I can see how I would not want this to be my home park.

4) All the seats faced home plate which was great.

5) Sat behind home plate, upper deck.  Great view. 

6) The video board was awesome.

7)  Got to see Ichiro and Batista

8) Everyone was exhausted from day game after night. David fell asleep

9)  Food selection seemed good.  We had normal hot dogs, nachos, ice cream.  I also had the sushi that I would definitely recommend.  Had a great selection with fresh sandwiches. 

10) More expensive then Detroit and had 13% sales tax. Which we paid on Silver Mini-Bat.

11) Miguel Olivo hit a grand slam to tie it at 5, but Jays scored two in bottom of the 8th to win.

12) Seats were very uncomfortable.

13) Great Ballpark that I would recommend to anyone!

14) Went up CN tower (World's Tallest Buildling) after the game. 

15) Crashed at the hotel after of exhaustion.

Game 1 Detroit Tigers July 20th 2011

Oakland Athletics 7, Detroit Tigers 4

McCarthy vs Below (Major League Debut)

1) Outside of the stadium is great with tigers, nice gift shop access, gigantic tiger in front and classic entryway. Best gift shop I have ever seen. 

2) BP Homerun Ball (Don Kelly 32) caught by grandpa

3) Free tickets to the Ferris Wheel given

4) Food, below average.  (Hot dogs good, (but 1 of 3 had a stale bun) worst soft pretzel ever (was hard).

  Seats were comfy, but didn't face towards home plate.  They were down the right field line 3 row upper deck.

5) Orange Mini Bat

6) Matsui Homered

7) First ever home team loss, but Edan was rooting for the Athletics since he played on that T-ball team.

8) Good looking stadium, would definitely recommend.  While food that we had was not really good, the selection was seemed appetizing.



2011 3rd Annual Boys Baseball Vacation

We are calling this year the Lake Erie loop year.   Despite living in Mexico all year, we felt the need to try to fit in the 3rd annual Boys Baseball Vacation.  We had a limited time window to fit it into so we had to look hard at the schedules.  After going through several possibilities we ended up with the Lake Erie loop.  Game 1 will be the Detroit Tigers, game 2 the Toronto Bluejays, game 3 will be the Buffalo Bisons, game 4 the Erie SeaWolves, and game 5 the Lake County Captains outside of Cleveland.  This trip also allows us to hit some great landmarks including Niagara Falls.   Again, we can't wait!

Game 5 June 6, 2010 Lansing Lugnuts

The last game of our 5 day trip and regretfully we brought the rain with us from Grand Rapids.  Unlike the game in Grand Rapids though, the rain wasn't enough to end the game in Lansing.  We did sit through a rather lengthy rain delay in Lansing, but as it was our last game we decided we were going to wait it out to the end.  As I mentioned, our patience paid off, and we got to watch the game conclude.  This game had the poorest attendence (with the possible exception of the much smaller South Bend stadium) of any of the games we atteneded on the trip.  By the time the rain delay was over, the crowd was even smaller and we picked where we wanted to sit.   We kept the kids happy during the delay, by filling them with as much food as their heart desired.  Due to the delay, I would have to say this was the calorie heaviest day in our two years of trips!  We also had to stick around until the end as it was run the bases day for kids.

In the tradition of our trips, we got the park very early and in credit to the players they did a great job signing the baseball.  Other then the Fort Wayne ball we got with our birthday package, this ball had more signatures then any we had acquired in our two years of games.   This alone is reason enough to go to a Lugnuts game.  If this wasn't enough, despite the low attendence (probably forecast based), this is a stadium that I would recommend to anyone.  It had a great right field kids area (which we enjoyed several times during the long game) and a nice clean minor league feel.

Our last purchase of the trip was a black Lugnuts mini-bat.