Photos: Denver Trip, Coors Field

For my birthday, I ventured out to Denver, Colorado, a city and state I’ve never been to in my life.  Obviously, baseball was on my agenda, but it was also a perfect excuse to get to see and catch up with a long-time friend that lives out there now.  Who was gracious enough to show me the ins and outs of the Downtown Denver area before I headed off to go watch baseball at Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies, and ballpark #23 on my list to eventually see all 30 Major League Baseball parks.

As a whole, I liked Denver as a city.  It feels like the vast populous of people are kind on the young spectrum, and I can’t recall seeing too many actual families and older people in general.  For the matter, the diversity in the city seemed a bit lacking in comparison to what I see on a regular basis in my daily life.  In other words, not a whole lot of black folk; but not a whole lot of other demographics either for the matter.  And of course, there’s the whole pot thing; now aside from the occasional drink, I’m pretty much clean as a whistle, but far be it for me to criticize the Romans in Rome.  It kind of makes the place kind of relaxed, if not devoid of any chips in any convenience stores late at night.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Colorado

The journey continues on in the 2013 season, with, depending on how you want to look at it, is either my first official ballpark trip of the season, or unless seeing Marlins Park for a WBC game should count in its own right.  But whatever, I made a trip out to Colorado, where I was able to visit and see baseball at MLB park #22 on my journey, Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies.

And because I’m such a baseball hipster that likes minor league ball more nowadays, I also made a secondary trip, 70 miles south of Denver to Colorado Springs, to see a game at Security Service Field, the home of the Rockies’ AAA affiliates, the Sky Sox.

Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Marlins Park

The first new baseball park update for the 2013 is a little early this year, but that’s because it’s a World Baseball Classic year!  Despite the fact that I’m not really that big of a fan of the city of Miami, it turns out that one half of the second round of the tournament would be taking place in Miami, namely the new-ish Marlins Park, the successor to the old Sun Life Robbie Land Shark Player park the Dolphins play in.  So if there was ever an excuse to go to Miami to kill two birds with one stone, this really was it.

Photos: Baseball watching in Maryland

A few weeks ago, I went up to Maryland for my annual “Let’s get drunk in Baltimore and watch baseball” trip.  Although the trip has drastically changed how I feel about traveling to that area in the month of June moving forward, the trip itself was its usual entertaining self.

While up there, I decided to venture out to Frederick to see a ballpark I hadn’t seen before, where the high-A Orioles affiliates play.  And then the day after that was usual drunken shenanigans in Baltimore, except that this year, both the O’s and Nationals are contending teams, leading to a metric fuckton more people being there, much to my annoyance.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Harry Grove Stadium, Frederick, Maryland

Yeah, I’ve been a slow getting to this one.  I went up to Frederick, Maryland, a town I’ve been to many times in my past, but never for baseball before.  I used this venture as a perfect excuse to say happy belated Father’s Day, as my dad went to go watch baseball and drink beer, all while I got to check another unexplored baseball park on my list.  Harry Grove Stadium, home of the Frederick Keys, the Class A+ affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles.

Real Men Don’t Wear Small updates: Many

Hopefully, this will be the largest update I make for the 2012 season!  In this update, I have introduced four ballparks; two of which are two more MLB parks to bring my total count to 23/30, and two more minor league ballparks.  First, there are the respective homes to both the Giants and Athletics, AT&T Park in San Francisco, and the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland.  On the minor league front, I recently visited John Thurman Field, home of the high-A Modesto Nuts, in Modesto, California, and Five County Stadium, home of the high-A Carolina Mudcats, in Zebulon, North Carolina.

I also re-wrote the introductory page somewhat, tweaked some things, and changed out the big-ass intro image.  I felt like a little bit of change was necessary.

Photos: Minor League Ball in Zebulon, North Carolina

For the most part, I ditched the first day of Animazement, because I wanted to go watch some minor league baseball instead.  I took like a total of maybe 3-4 photos from the con itself, but the rest of these photos are from the quaint and surprisingly large Five County Stadium, twenty-six miles east of the city, out in a place called Zebulon, North Carolina.

Overall, I liked Five County Stadium.  I won’t elaborate much, since I don’t really have a ton to say outside of my ballparks site, but I can’t say it was a bad experience at all.  Well worth the travel out, even if it meant forfeiting a potential night of drunken debauchery with my friends.

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