And we’re off! Sort of.

Baseball Related Program Activities for 2010 have begun!

And what better way to kick things off than with a 3-1 Cubs win over the Pirates at Wrigley Field that is best described as “crisp”? Both teams played solid defense, both teams pitched well (or, perhaps more likely, given these two teams, hit poorly), and in a mere 2:23 we were out of there and into the car . . . I mean, onto bicycles and L cars for the ten-minute trip back to my house.

Notes from the game:

* Stacey came along, thus taking the honorable position of our first official BRPA 2010 hanger-on.

* The game wasn’t the only thing that was crisp: a game-time temperature of 65 degrees combined with a constant breeze to keep the upper deck just cooler than cool, and convince me to pack some jeans for the trip. Maybe mittens, too: we are, after all, going to Minneapolis.

* Some fans two rows behind us, seeing Stacey taking our photo, correctly guessed that we were on a road trip. We didn’t really try to explain that while, yes, we were on a road trip, I have been sitting in that very seat for a dozen years. (Our caps may also have clued them in: I was, as usual, wearing my Cardinals cap, while Jim was wearing what must have been a Time Bandits cap–it said “TB” on the front, and I have a hard time believing that he was rooting for tuberculosis.)

* Alfonso Soriano apparently ate all his Home Run Crunch before the game, as he hit two absolute bombs.

* I’ll be surprised if anyone even comes close to taking the title of Best Shoes of BRPA 2010 from Lastings Milledge. I can’t believe that all his teammates haven’t followed his lead and started wearing yellow-trimmed cleats. Dude looks sharp.

* Jim didn’t vomit on the usher until after the fourth bag of cotton candy. Wait, no: he didn’t vomit on the usher at all, because he refused my offer to buy all his meals on the entire trip if he would eat only cotton candy at the ballpark every night.

And now to bed–tomorrow at this time, we’ll be in Kansas City!

Ticket talk

After paying a high price for Twins-Rays tickets on StubHub, I decided I should check on ticket availability for the other games, just in case. I was actually most worried about Iowa Cubs tickets, since the downtown Des Moines hotels I tried were all sold out for July 1st (that’s why we have reservations at a Hampton Inn in Ankeny, which is north of town).

So I dutifully went to the Iowa Cubs website and started the ticket-buying process. I selected two Field Box seats, which are sections AA through B — then the Club Box seats, which are $2 more, in the middle — and then X through ZZ.

The system gave me Section X, Row 1, Seats 1 and 2.

I am no longer worried about Iowa Cubs tickets.

More road trip “competition”

Just happened to run across this photo set

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on Flickr: a 2007 baseball road trip that was 10 games in 8 cities in 12 days. Obviously, it wasn’t planned on graph paper by me. I haven’t given the photos my full attention, but it looks like a good trip. I need to take more photos on next week’s trip than I did in 2004 (which will be easier thanks to advances in technology over the past 6 years).

Saturday night’s alright for . . . watching baseball at home?

While I was suffering through the Cubs’ 12-0 drubbing at the hands of the Angels today, I coined a new term: in telling my seatmate, Michelle, how much I appreciate the MLB Network’s Saturday night games, I realized that it really should be called “The Lame of the Week.”

Because it’s true: for years, Stacey and I, boring old married people, sitting at home on Saturday nights, have wished for more baseball to watch. And the MLB Network, in only one of its many gifts to dedicated fans, has come through: now those of us lame enough to prefer watching baseball on Saturday night to, say, going to Excalibur, have that option.

And tonight we used it to watch Adam Wainwright dominate the A’s. ‘Twas a good night. Thanks, Lame of the Week.

7 days to go

It’s Saturday morning; a week from now, I’ll be on a plane headed for Chicago to begin my portion of the trip, although the baseball-related program activities then don’t begin for another few days after that.

We’ve got the Twins tickets via StubHub, and I think showing up at the box office will be sufficient for the rest of the games. Actually, I might think about taking a trip to the T-Bones box office when we first get into Kansas City, five days in advance of that game: it being a 4th of July game, I’m worried about the entire population of KCK deciding to go to the game because of the fireworks afterward. They love their institutional firework displays in the Midwest!

Another change from 2004 to 2010. Remember this?

In 2010, I have a GPS. Therefore, it’s not necessary for me to acquire, and bring, maps and travel guides from AAA.

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This would have completely saved the planet if not for the BP disaster. (Speaking of which, my inclination is not to boycott BP on the trip — such a thing hurts independent station owners a lot more than it hurts BP — but not to go out of my way to stop at one. In other words, to treat BP the same as I’m treating every other gas station brand.)

Lady Gaga meets the Mets

Lady Gaga at Citi Field Thursday:

I appreciate the glimpse of the studded black bra from the “Telephone” video, but the rest of the ensemble doesn’t seem particularly outrageous. Plaid shirt, leather jacket, headband, sunglasses? That’s what half the crowd wears at Dodger night games. Where’s the hat shaped like Shea Stadium? Where’s the nose ring with a Mr. Met bobblehead dangling from it?

Actually, I haven’t seen any pictures showing her lower half, so I’ll imagine Ms. Gaga was wearing a skirt made of mini-baseball bats and a pair of cleats with 8-inch metal spikes.

This better be the best game ever

For our 2004 trip, we had the itinerary set early enough that I happened to log on to the Red Sox website shortly after single-game tickets had gone on sale and was able to buy bleacher tickets for what quickly became a sold-out game.

This year, that wasn’t the case: tickets for the Twins-Rays game on July 2nd are officially sold out, and at this point, the cheapest group of 4 seats available on Stubhub is being offered for exactly $50.34 each, for tickets with a face value of $15 (there are also sets of standing room tickets available for a mere $45 each, but I’m old and cranky and like to be able to sit during sporting events). I know it’s a new stadium, and the Twins and Rays are both pretty good, but come on. I can only guess that the big attraction is the post-game fireworks display, because after all those years of the Twins playing in the Metrodome, there is a lot of pent-up demand among Minnesotans to watch a major league baseball game immediately followed by fireworks.

I guess I’m going to hold off for a while and see if sellers decide to drop their prices any — unless anyone else has better ideas, or wants to reveal that they have an “in.”

(By the way, I hope you like fireworks, Levi. They’re scheduled for four of the five games on the itinerary. That’s what happens over Fourth of July weekend.)