FanPost

Mindless, Distracting, Stories From the Road

Hello everyone.

It's been a little while since I did one of these, and truth be it, it's not even here that it's being done.  But for those of you who see me as simply the weekend guy, or the silent-but-deadly mod, who makes a lot of lame, esoteric jokes for a cheap pop, and occasionally shows up into random game threads, those are well, acute observations.  But I'm also an avid traveler, and one of those baseball nerds who sees it as a mission to be able to visit every MLB venue.

I also believe that when the going gets rough, there's no point in dwelling about it, and that one beautiful thing about baseball, is with the exception of scheduled days off, rain outs, and the All-Star Break, there is almost always, tomorrow.  Suit up, take the field, and do your best to cleanse the sins of yesterday, and/or build upon the momentum train and keep winning.  The L10 column on any standings sheet is the cruelest mistress of them all; when it's 6-4, we're happily relieved, and when it's 4-6, the Black Plague is upon us 

One way to alleviate the woes of dwelling on a poor streak is a rudimentary one - distraction.  And this has been one of my preferred methods of dealing with sky-is-falling, season's-over types; distract them with some mindless entertainment that makes the hours before game-time pass, and pray to Pujols that the Braves win so that the good times of a win take over again.

So anyway, today's distractions are courtesy, of none other than, well, me.  As alluded to up above, I'm on my mission to tackle every single MLB park.  Not this past weekend, but the weekend prior, I went up to Chicago, where I went to Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, drove up to Milwaukee the next day to see Miller Park, home of the Brewers, and then came back to Chicago, to see U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox.  Unfortunately, the Braves weren't involved in any of those games, otherwise, I'd totally have FP'd this MFer to the main page in a heartbeat.

These three ball parks put me at 17 MLB parks visited out of 30.  Eventually I'll have to re-travel to places like Minnesota, and eventually Miami, due to new parks.  But anyway, starting in 2008, I decided to branch out, and utilize the SBNation community to potentially enhance my travel experiences, as well as maybe make a few more creepy internet, fans-of-other-teams, single-serving friends in other cities.  I started "A Visitor's Perspective" series of fanposts, by going to their blogs, and ask the locals for a few tips and suggestions, and if they're awesome enough, I work them into my trips to their respective cities, and then I come back after my trips, and make a wordy, picture-filled fanpost from a sometimes (only when the Braves aren't playing) unbiased view of their parks and cities.

So without further ado, I politely implore you guys, if you are remotely interested in the ballparks of other teams, are fans of my lazy journalistic drivel, or just want a way to kill a few minutes and get your mind off of three consecutive road series losses and the state of the LOBster-loving Braves offense, to take a look at my reviews of the following ball parks.

Dsc09005

Wrigley Field (Bleed Cubbie Blue) was probably my favorite of the three parks I went to, I know, it's cliche, but I was genuinely impressed with the place, the area, and surprisingly, the people.  Most people may recall my overall vitriol towards Cubs fans, but after this trip, that prejudice has slimmed down a bit mostly towards the blatantly obvious fairweather-bandwagoners who show up to Turner Field every Cubs series with brand-spanking new Cubs gear.

Dsc09160

Miller Park (Brew Crew Ball) was home to probably some of the most impressive tailgating I'd seen, and this is coming from someone who lives in SEC-country.  Sure, these guys didn't have gigantic UGA, Auburn, Florida, or Tennessee RVs or anything, and it didn't feel as much as an obligatory "scene" with a dress code, as much as it was simply no-nonsense beer drinking, brat-grilling, we know our favorite players, and we will actually go inside and watch the damn game kind of tailgating.

Dsc09428

U.S. Cellular Field (South Side Sox) was without question my least favorite of the three parks, and honestly, my least favorite park in all of baseball thus far, due to one very specific reason.  Furthermore, some of you might get some sadistic pleasure by going through the comments section, and reading about how the locals take some objection to my words (and photos), and verbally rip me a new e-sphincter.  Figured this would be your favorite part of any of them!

And if you liked those (or hated them so much, but read through all of them anyway, in disgust), and want to see some more of my previous travels, they are as follows:

A Visitor's Perspective Series:
Dodger Stadium - True Blue L.A.
Angel Stadium - Halos Heaven
PETCO Park - Gaslamp Ball
Great American Ball Park - Red Reporter
Tropicana Field - DRaysBay
Metrodome - Twinkie Town
PNC Park - Bucs Dugout

Only seven hours until game time.  Hopefully this will kill a little bit of that.  Go Braves!

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.