Wrigley Field, 2011

This was the last game of our 4 game trip in 2011. This trip to Wrigley consisted of a tour of Wrigley and a game on the next day, which they won 4-3. The tour was great and I learned a couple of new things about Wrigley and Cubs history. The tour was on the 4th, the game on the 5th.


This was from the right field corner during the tour. Awesome to be that close to the ivy.
When down by home plate and the dugout I took a pic of my feet on the on deck circle. That was pretty cool too.




A pic of the LF foul pole on game day with the flags up and the beautiful sky above.


Chris grabbed a small piece of ivy and we saved a couple of leaves from it. I didnt have the guts to do it, so I guess you have to leave it to the 18 year old.


Both days weather was awesome. The day of the tour started out a bit overcast but the sun came out just as it started. Taking pics in the locker room, dugout, and on the field was awesome, but the pics of the scoreboard and bleachers were better on game day, because they were filled with fans and the flags were all up.


We hung out a bit at Murphy's, across from Wrigley before the game on Friday. It only made sense with an Irish Yankee fan with us!


I got pics of the Billy Williams statue this year. The Ron Santo statue will be up on the 11th and we missed it by less than a week. I had this planned by the time I knew about it, but I love an excuse to go back. I got more pics of the Ernie and Harry statues, but I have them on my last Cubs post.

U.S. Cellular Field, 2011

#18

This was the 3rd game of our 4 game trip in 2011. The trip to The Cell was great. The weather was beautiful and it was a good game. The Yanks won 10-5. Shawn was a bit paranoid about the reputation the park has, especially going in his Yankee gear, but it was smooth and everyone seemed very friendly.


Chris took pics of the bricks with all the Sox logos, so I made a collage of it. pretty cool.


The scoreboard here is pretty cool, it surrounds the whole back of the park, which makes sense in this part of town, because there is no skyline. It is mostly set up digitally now with the exception of one board in LC field. It is nice, but I have seen alot more impressive out there.



One screwed up thing about this park is that if you buy upper deck seats, you cannot leave the upper deck. We like to walk around the parks and see the different views and with that crazy rule, you cannot do that. We got lower level seats and they were great. There doesn't seem to be a bad seat in the park.


Here is another statue of liberty from the 08 All-Star game. I have seen these at alot of parks now.


Here is a collage of the statues from U.S. Cellular. They are from the top left clockwise, Walter Pierce, Minnie Minoso, Harold Baines, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Frank Thomas, and last but not least, the one who I think was the greatest Sox player ever, Carlton Fisk.

Miller Park, 2011

#17

This was game 2 of our 4 game trip in 2011. Miller Park was a pretty sweet park inside and out. The roof was open on a nice day and it was packed due to an event for kids and the stadium was filled with them. It was a good time with the exception of getting out of the parking lot after the game.
One negative about the park is the way they set up the outfield seats. There are a lot of blind spots from them and almost no standing room at all. You would think that as a newer park they would have planned that out better. We sat in the LF bleachers and there were 2 HR's right in front of us that we didn't see go over the wall because it was blocked by the edge.
One thing I always said I'd do, when I finally came to Milwaukee, was to have a sausage at the game. And yes, I did, and if you go you should to. It was great and anyplace that has 8' sausages running around must have pretty good ones.




I was looking forward to seeing Bernie Brewer do his trip down the slide after a home run. Well I got to see that! There were multiple homers in a slug fest that the Brewers won 10-5 over the Cards. I didn't get great shots of him, but it was still cool, and unique to this park. Besides most of the HR were against the Cards, so how can you not enjoy that!




Here is Chris posin' with the sausage. After getting a pic with the Bratwurst sausage, I had to have one in the park. The other guys had them too. They give you a brat and a huge order of fries for a decent price.


One other thing I was looking forward to here was the sausage races. We got lucky before the game and the Bratwurst was cruising through the parking lot and we got some pics with him. The Bratwurst won the race as well. I was hoping for a wipe out or something, but no such luck that day. It was still cool, and better than most of the other mascot races I've seen.





Here are the player statues at Miller. They are Robin Yount and Hank Aaron, from his days as a Milwaukee Brave, and he also finished his career as a Brewer. The other 2 statues were not players they were of Bud Selig and a dedication statue to the workers that built the field. There was also a Statue of Liberty from the 08' All-Star game and Mickey from the 10' All-Star game there.

Comerica Park, 2011

#16

This was the 1st of our 4 game trip in 2011. After living in Detroit for 2 years, and not once going to Tiger Stadium, making it here is kind of bittersweet. The park was beautiful and the Tigers won 6-5 in a kind of sloppy game. It rained lightly on and off all night, but the temperature was cool and it was nice besides that. We ate at Hockeytown Cafe before the game, which was pretty good, It was like a Hard Rock for Redwings & Tigers. If I was a fan of those teams, I would probably have enjoyed it more, but the food was good and it wasn't too pricey.


The walk up to the park is really cool. The big tiger in the middle and the others stalking on the roof give a great feel to the park. The huge baseball bats and all the small ones used as columns is unique as well. Overall a great entrance to a park, one of the best I have seen.


The view through the outfield here was pretty sweet. There is nothing better than a downtown ballpark with a skyline view. At night there were only a few buildings lit up, and with no moon and being overcast, it was just black out there, but on a clear night it probably looks good as well.


The scoreboard here is pretty basic, but it blends in with the park well. The tigers on the top add what it needs to make it fit this park, both the actual tigers on each side, and the team name. The lights incorporated into it is nicely done as well. Also, I never noticed it before while watching on TV, but the tiger growl that is played over the loudspeaker every time they score. That's pretty cool, unless your a fan of the other team.


The statues here are set up kind of weird, but also very nice. When you are walking around them wanting take pics of them, they are very tight to the railing and facing the field so it was a challenge to get a good pic. But, when you are looking out at the area from another part of the park, the numbers/names are on the outfield wall and the statue right above it looking onto the field. It is really set up pretty nice, I just like getting pics so I am a bit picky. I have all 6 of them in the collage above, you might need to click on the pic to see them up close.
They are clockwise from the left, Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, Willie Horton, Hal Newhouser, Hank Greenberg and on the bottom left is Ty Cobb.



The 3 of us at the first game of the trip.


These are the statues from the All-Star games in 08' and 10'. The Yankees started this in NY in 08, and Anahiem did it with team themed Mickeys in 10' and the D-Backs did cactus statues in 11', but I haven't seen one of them in person.