Showing posts with label indians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indians. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2011

Boys of Summer Book - Entry #83.1


RC:
All right, the ticket situation is resolved. We got our tickets on the inside (of Jacob’s Field) after making a few phone calls. Earlier, as I was waiting in line (to try to get our tickets), there are three windows available for the will-call. So I’m waiting in line for any of the three windows to open up. I’m the only person in line. (I’ve been waiting a while and I’m a bit irritated as I’ve already gotten the run around. This is my second time here.) Then a few other people come up and start to line up next to me and I tell them, excuse me, I’m in line here so I could make sure which ever window opened first I’d be able to go there as I’d been waiting the longest. Some people were kind of here and there with that, saying to me, “are you in this line or are you not”. I respond “Yes I am. I’m waiting for any of these windows to open up.”

And then a lady from the Indians staff comes up and starts to put people into other lines and I said, “Excuse me I’m waiting.” And she said, “Well you need to pick a line.” And I said, “Well, if I pick a line and one of these people goes in front of me to another window that opens that I didn’t pick, then just because I picked the wrong line now I’m going be waiting longer than the person who showed up after me. So if I have one line, that feeds all three windows, it ensures the person who got there first would be the first one to be helped”. And she said, “Yeah but there’s three lines”. Which I enjoyed.

DC:
The world’s not perfect.

RC:
It’s not about it being perfect. There’s a simple solution and it’s not being used for some reason.

DC:
That’s because the world’s not perfect.

RC:
Anything else?

DC:
That’s it.

Park Number 17 (of 30), Jacobs Field

Cleveland 4, Kansas City 3
 WP: M. Miller (3-1)   LP: S. Sullivan (3-3)

Oak 6, Tex 2

July 25, 2004 - DAD
Max V. Shaul State Park, NY

We stop for gas in the middle of the night in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I return to the car and find Bob interviewing five young ladies – recent college graduates who are returning from a cross country trip.  They are all baseball fans so Bob leads them in an energetic version of "Take me out to the Ballgame."  We wish each other a safe trip and say goodbye. 

Later we would wonder if we dreamed the whole thing up – I’m not sure.  We arrive at Bob’s friend from Caesars Palace, Jen, who shares a two bedroom, one bath apartment in Queens, at about 6 a.m. We blow up the mattress and sleep on the kitchen floor until about 10 a.m. 

Breakfast is at Burger King across the street where there was some shouting by a couple of unhappy customers. We are just one block from the subway that will take us to Shea Stadium. Bob is able to get us media passes so we get a real good look at the facilities.  We watch a very exciting game between the Mets and the Braves.

After the game, we take the train back to where the Explorer has been parked for 12 hours and find it untouched. We load up and drive 160 miles to Albany after a brief stop at Yankee Stadium to shoot some video we missed the first time through. We stop at the Kinko’s in Albany for an hour and a half then are off to find a campsite. Our direction is west towards Cooperstown, where we find "Max V. Shaul" State Park shortly after midnight.  We set up camp and are sleeping in record time.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Boys of Summer book Entry #83


We’re in Chicago and headed to Cleveland. Wonderful people, the Tumeas. A warm and loving group. Joyce made us a most delicious breakfast including...I want to get this right -- German Pancakes? Maybe not. Something like it though -- quite delicious.

We have a bit of trouble getting out of Chicago. Tough with the time we’ve allotted. No one’s fault -- just better planning needed. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

We are low on Coscto donations - D’oh! need to rework some of our old contacts. I’m feeling the the money strain a bit right now.  Costco, to date, has been extremely generous -- helping offset our gas costs with about $600 in cash card donations. Many, many thanks to them.

I believe strongly in our group in KC and their ability to put together a big event for us. I wish I believed more strongly in Milwaukee. The Parkinson group is not shaping up there I wish it would. They’re great people -- it just takes a particular kind of person with the time, vision and community for what we’re doing.

The road is opening up before us. I need to do my part to stay in a positive frame at this point. I’m hoping Cleveland’s a little closer than Dad had figured -- otherwise we’re going to be late. I hate being late to the game. I’ll take a look and see how we’re rolling.

Want to hold back the need to pee for now. Don’t want to stop again for a while if I can avoid it. Bladder be damned, we have baseball to see!

July 24,2004 - DAD
Cleveland, OH

We are up for a very enjoyable breakfast with Tony and Joyce and are on the road by 9:30 to Cleveland. It turns out that this is the tenth anniversary of Jacob’s Field. During that ten years the "Jake" had a record 455 sellouts. We are on a very tight schedule which does not allow us to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  It is another great evening for baseball. 

Nothing was developed with local Parkinsonians, so this is baseball on its own. The Indians are playing the Kansas City Royals. We watch a very entertaining game and are on the road again. We have an afternoon game at Shea Stadium in New York tomorrow close to 400 miles away so we drive through the night.

July 24, 2004 - Bob
Cleveland, OH

The Jake (even it’s name suggests it’s friendliness) has a fantastic old dixie-style trio walking around singing songs like, “When the Tribe...comes marching in...”. Now this place definitely feels like baseball to me. Though the fans still talk about the “good old days” in the ‘90s -- when the Tribe put a good team on the field year in and year out -- they love the Jake as a place to come watch their young guys and feel like they’re a team on the rise. Judging by the game we saw tonight, I’d have to agree.

It was the most exciting finish we’ve had so far, with rookie Grady Sizemore, in something like his 17th at bat of the year, dropping the game-winning RBI in to give Cleveland the “W”. It didn’t matter that the Indians are at least a year away, in all likelihood. It didn’t matter that it came against the hapless Royals. For one night, these fans, and obviously the Indians players by the way they mobbed Sizemore, felt like champions. This is the greatness of the game to me. My best vs. your best -- chips fall where they may.