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After all the baseball excitement and games in 2009, 2010 was a bit of a let-down you might say. But, we sort of had bigger fish to fry this year. In early April, we brought home the latest player to be added to our team, our son Brody.
Before Brody’s arrival, we did make it out to a few games in Arizona for Spring training, although, sadly, we lost those photos in The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2010.
After Spring Training, we took a bit of break, getting in most of our baseball via the couch, thanks to the MLB Extra Innings package. David also started picking up some games with STATS, Inc as a reporter, taking score from home, and even a couple of times from the press box at Petco Park.
We did, however, make it to two Dodgers/Padres games, one in San Diego, and one up at Dodger Stadium. At Petco, my parents let us use their season tickets (they share a package with friends) which are great seats, and then in LA we sat in the bleachers with my brother’s family.
We’re definitely looking forward to more baseball in 2011, starting with our annual Spring Training trip in less than two months!
I guess this blog sort of neglected to participate in the last couple of baseball seasons.
Since we just bought our 2011 Spring Training Tickets, I figured I better do a quick recap of the last couple of years. This year, maybe we’ll be a little more up-to-date on this ol’ blog.
My parents and brother give me crap because as a child I was your average luke-warm-fan-of-the-home-team {Padres} but when I married, I married into a love of the game, and a love of the Dodgers.
I always liked baseball. My brother and I even once scored tickets from a family friend to a very exciting playoffs game. But I never really knew or understood the game fully.
When David and I got married we lived on a half-a-shoestring budget. We had no cable but our college town happened to have a station on the Dodgers Radio Network, so we listened to just about ever Dodgers game on the radio (so old-school, huh?).
It was then that I “met” Vin Scully and began to learn all the ins and outs of the game, got to “know” the players and some of the Dodgers lore and history, and basically fell in love with America’s pastime.
-it’s (essentially) a summer sport, so it invokes feelings of long, warm days
-it’s a mellow, relaxing game, most of the time.
-other times it is so exciting that you worry your husband will fall off the top deck at Dodger Stadium because he’s jumping and cheering so enthusiastically.
-it’s a family thing for us (we have quite the extended family of baseball fans).
-it has a rich American history.
-it’s become a global game, especially in countries where they speak my other language.
-the culture, players and fans are generally pretty down-to-earth; the vast majority of pros are not known for their extravagant lifestyles (superstars aside)
-it spans all ages and generations.
-it’s a family-friendly sport.
I’d consider myself a pretty sport person, tolerant of almost every sport, but here are a few factoids on why I would definitely categorize myself, 29-year old crafty, stay-at-home mom of a girly, as a bonafide Baseball Fan…
-I’ve been to 20 out of 30 Major League Baseball parks.
-I’ve been to several Spring Training games, in both FL and AZ.
-I’ve been on a 3-week long road trip to a dozen games across the Midwest and East Coast.
-I allow a collection of bobbleheads in my master bedroom.
-I attempt to run a baseball blog with my hubby (we’re not very consistent with it yet though, but stick with us, we have some great ideas in the works!).
-I play fantasy baseball. With my mom. (we totally tanked last year. my father-in-law whipped us all. we vow to pay a little more attention to our team this year).
-my daughter (who went to her first game at 3 weeks old)’s favorite color is Dodger Blue. And she loves Manny.
-I even find myself watching baseball when David’s not home!
Can I get a shout out from any other female fans? How did you get turned on to baseball?
We’re headed out to catch a few Cactus League games this weekend- looking forward to some sun and some foul balls! And you can bet our little one will be stoked to see Manny!
Here are some photos from a game we went to last year on June 20th, 2009. We love going to Angel Stadium (Gigi and I particularly like the Rally Monkey), especially when we get to see the Dodgers play there. The “Freeway Series” is always a fun rivalry. Angel Stadium will always be special to our family since our little Gigi went to her first baseball game there almost three years ago.
We used to live really close to Angel Stadium and would even ride our bikes there to catch a game. Here’s a parking tip… if you get there early enough there are a handful of free parking spots on Orangewood just east of the 57 freeway. Just walk under the freeway, over the bridge and there’s a gate where you can walk in to the stadium.
Here’s the photos from that game… a little reminiscing to get us thinking about the excitement of a new season.
Today my brother pointed out that there are only 78 days until the 2010 MLB season begins… woohoo! As we get ready for baseball, we wanted to share some “reviews” of baseball movies. Some our family favorites, some are new to us.
We got things going this week with the classic (new to us), Eight Men [...]
Yesterday my dad took Chiquita to the grocery store. Apparently, he asked her which “car cart” she wanted to drive/ride in. Her choices were red and blue. Now, let me point out that this is the girl that almost always responds with a confident “yellow!” when asked what color something is, regardless of what it [...]
The famous saying goes,”All good things must come to an end.” Unfortunately, this was true for our trip of a lifetime. Our final stop on this tour of America’s great ballparks brought us to Cincinnati and the Great American Ballpark. This home of the Reds is situated right up against the Ohio River in downtown [...]
One of the things I love about the sport of baseball is the culture that goes along with it. The love of the game goes beyond the nine innings and the twenty-five man roster. It stretches towards books, movies, songs, and more. It is a culture that inspires road trips and pilgrimages and international camaraderie.
It [...]
Our second-to-last stop on this grand baseball trip was at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. We had purchased our tickets ahead of time from the Indians’ website because it was Major League Monday complete with a Rick Vaughn bobblehead giveaway. As it turns out, our good planning was unnecessary as there were plenty of good [...]
Our stop in Pittsburgh was short and sweet. We arrived just before first pitch and headed out of town after the game ended. Such is life for us hard-core road trippers, but we were able to (mostly) enjoy PNC Park and the game between the Detroit Tigers and the host Pirates.
This stop got off to [...]
