It wasn’t one of the 13 remaining MLB parks, but minor league joints also count for Real Men Don’t Wear Small. I actually take a bit of pride in including the minor league parks, because it’s at these small, intimate houses of baseball, can a lot of good be witnessed, on and off the field, from the rising young stud players of tomorrow, strange and delicious food creations, and sometimes the joy found in the humor of funny names. So with that in mind, the newest addition to Real Men Don’t Wear Small, is PGE Park, the home of the Portland Beavers.
As I mentioned on Monday, I went to Portland, Oregon on a whim. Simply put, I wanted to see the Portland Beavers minor league baseball team, at their own place, PGE Park, before the season ended, and Monday was the only plausible game that I could have a chance to make it to. Fly in the morning, take advantage of the time change, watch baseball, wander around the city for a few hours, take red-eye flight back home. Everything went exactly as planned . . . except for that last part. I guess it’s not a baseball season until I get stuck somewhere far the fuck away from home at least once. I think I’m really going to reconsider standby flying when it comes to the West Coast for future reference. But it was still an awesome trip. I’ll probably write more about it later on when I finish up my backlog of things I want to write about.
Last Friday was Tom Glavine Day, the day in which the retired pitcher was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame, and his #47 was retired forever. What was supposed to be an evening with a memorable ceremony, followed by a dominant Braves win ended up being an evening where the game and ceremony were both delayed two hours by a torrential downpour. Apparently fellow soft-tossing left-handed pitcher Barry Zito was inspired by Tom Glavine that evening, and struck out ten batters. Unfortunately, he pitched for the other team. 18 beers later, the Braves coughed up the lead in the bottom of the 9th, and lost the game in extra innings. 
Three more parks knocked out for Real Men Don’t Wear Small, which currently puts me at a total of 17 out of 30 MLB parks visited. Unless you’re completely oblivious to anything I’ve written within the last five days, my latest adventures took me to Chicago where I saw both the homes of the Cubs (Wrigley Field) and the White Sox (U.S. Cellular Field) as well as to Milwaukee, where I saw the Brewers (Miller Park). Within those three, I also discovered THE worst park in Major League Baseball.
Sleep really Aboboed me last night. I slept for about ten hours. Thank goodness I’m not actually working today, otherwise, I’d be screwed. Anyway, if you haven’t already figured it out, I spent the last weekend and change out in the Central Standard Timezone, watching baseball, eating way too much, and doing some exploration. Ironic, considering I’ve been to Chicago like 5-6 times in my life, but never actually explored the place until this past weekend. Sad, too. But anyway, I have recently uploaded over 300 photos from my recent travels of my goofy and nerdy baseball travels.
Brog, Photos | dannyhong | 
August 24, 2010 12:40 am | 
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