If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I always like to tell people,
“I married into a love for baseball.”
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 Out.
The Movie
Eight Men Out is the story of the eight players on the 1919 White Sox who allegedly threw the World Series; they were also known as the “Black Sox.” The movie was made in 1988 and is full of well-known actors in their earlier days, several of whom will appear in other baseball (or sports) movies such as Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, Christopher Lloyd and D.B. Sweeney (if you count The Cutting Edge as a sports movie). This movie is a great one to view before watching Field of Dreams (more on that classic later) as it gives a little history of that tainted team, and specifically “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
His Take
Perhaps the most interesting part of this movie is emphasis on the role that the whole team played in the scandal. Shoeless Joe Jackson is typically the the one associated with the scandal because he was the best player on the team. As a competitor, it’s difficult to believe that professional athletes actually took part in a scheme of this magnitude. The cast is great and the baseball scenes are believable, which is important for the credibility of this historical baseball film.
Her Take
John Cusack is one of my favorite actors, so right off the bat I knew I’d like this one. Seriously though, I liked the history lesson, and the interpretation on whether questionables like Buck Weaver and Shoeless Joe were really involved in the fix. The one thing I wonder is… what if MLB and the commissioner were as hard on “cheaters” now as they were 90 years ago? We’d be out a lot of superstars, that’s for sure.
Family Take
Put the kids to bed for this one. It’s a drama that would be over the heads of young ones, although an older kid who’s interested in the history of the game might like it. The language isn’t too bad, but be sure to consider ethical issues present like gambling and drinking during prohibition.
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 really is. But not this time! without hesitation, she pointed to the blue cart and said, “Dodger Blue!” Atta, girl.
Now if only the Dodgers had a mascot she could love like she loves the Philly Phanatic (he’s one of the only green things she can correctly identify). At least one member of our household was glad to see the World Series played in Philly– she loves the Phanatic almost as much as she loves Manny (good thing for us, he’ll be back next year)!
Speaking of Dodger Blue, we got to go to a playoff game this year to root on the Blue. Unfortunately, we all know how the season ended but the game we went to, NLDS Game 2, was pretty darn exciting! Going to a playoff game was all David wanted for his birthday (well, aside from attending a World Series game, but alas, that was not an option this year). Click over to view the slide show if you are in a reader or your email inbox).
We’ll be thinking blue all off-season and are already looking forward to Spring Training ‘10!
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 [...]
We followed up our visit to New York with a trip to the home of the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, I do still harbor some hard feelings from last October when they ended the Dodgers’ playoff run, but we had to visit Citizens Bank Park since we were so close. I now [...]
Our next stop brought us to baseball’s hallowed ground in the Bronx. Well, we were next to what used to be hallowed ground. Of course I am referring to the New Yankee Stadium.
We timed our passage through New York perfectly as we caught the first installment of this season’s Subway Series – the first ever [...]
