Tag: ballparks

I kind of hate that the Braves did it like this

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Atlanta Braves executives organized, planned and brokered deal to move team from Atlanta to Marietta, completely in private.  Admits fear that if the public knew about it, it would have been shot down – which is very likely true.

A notable storyline transpiring in Atlanta these days is that the Atlanta Braves baseball club is planning on abandoning their current home, Turner Field, and moving north into Marietta, where a new ballpark will be constructed.  Long story short, there’s a small amount of people, and a whole fuckton of people that aren’t.

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Ballparks: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Last Sunday, I visited Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros in Houston, Texas.  This makes #25 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams visited.

As for the ballpark itself, it was nice.  It’s not going to be my favorite, because I personally think baseball is best played in true outdoor fashion, and a retractable roof doesn’t really count.  But it’s also not the worst ballpark I’d ever been to before either.

Read about it, and many, many more ballpark experiences on my sporadically updated ballpark site.

Photos: An afternoon in Houston, Texas

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As I’ve always said, baseball is the perfect excuse to get out and travel, and see places that I never gave much thought to.  I’d never been to Texas before in my life; it’s not that I’ve never wanted to go to Texas before, but I’ve never really had any excuse to go prior to the pursuit of baseball parks.  I don’t know enough about the areas and cities, and there’s never been any sort of event or occurrence in any Texas that has drawn my attention to demand a warranting trip (that I’ve been able to make happen).  But thanks to wanting to visit all the baseball parks, I have reasons to visit Texas, when the opportunities present themselves.

And as my schedule revealed, I had the opportunity to make a day trip to Houston over the weekend.  First time visiting the state of Texas, seeing a city I’d never been to before, and take in a ballpark that makes me one ballpark closer to having visited all 30 Major League teams.  I didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time in the city, since I had a few small objectives, and with a baseball game, there wasn’t a massive amount of free time to simply explore and wander too much, but for what it’s worth, I had a pretty decent afternoon in Houston.

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Filling up the proverbial plate

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Preview image from MegaCon – these guys were my favorites

I just got back home after spending the last few days down in Florida, for a fairly loosely planned trip, basically to get out into the world and do things.  Needless to say, I do not sleep well in random two-star hotels, so I’m a little bit weary having going straight back to work after flying back.

But before I put myself back into a self-imposed mountain of personal tasks of writing things, processing and editing a ton of pictures to share with the rest of the internets, I will say that it was a very good trip, that I have no regrets about (actually, there is one trite regret, but it’ll be brought up later).

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#bobbleworldproblems

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ugh, I can’t believe I just used a hashtag as my title line, but frankly it is pretty succinct in this particular application.

Anyway, I’ve made no secret that I’m a pretty terrible baseball fan these days, and as the 2014 season approaches closer and closer, I should be getting more excited than I am, because when the day is over, I still really do like baseball.  It’s just that it’s not as all-consuming to me as it once was, and I kind of view baseball as the ultimate and greatest fallback activity there is, and when it comes to travel, no travel seems necessarily complete without having viewed some baseball in some capacity.

One thing that has remained consistent throughout the years though, is my craze for baseball bobbleheads.  I really still can’t explain it, but I really do enjoy collecting them, and the accumulation of more bobbleheads is something that I’m pretty passionate about as the seasons come and go.  More than the release of schedules of games and opponents, I’m more excited about the release of the schedules of promotions, with hopes that I’ll see bobbleheads listed among them.  Not just at home in Atlanta, I have my eyes peeled, and ears to the ground when it comes to bobbleheads all throughout Major League Baseball as well as, throughout the minor leagues.  Especially those that are Braves affiliates.

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The perils of winning

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I asked the wheelchair-bound man if I would be bothering him if I took some pictures while kneeling beside him.  He said that it wouldn’t be a problem at all.  I knelt down and took two quick snaps of Freddie Freeman fouling off pitches, and then an usher was on my ass like it was delivered from the sky like in Sharknado.  Telling me I couldn’t take pictures there, I couldn’t stand here, there, and that I needed a ticket.  I could have questioned him, but it was pretty clear from the onset that black-man-on-a-power-trip was going on, so it wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere.  I simply said okay, and left.

Earlier in the evening, and I use the term evening loosely, considering it was 5:15, almost a full two hours prior to the first pitch, sunny and beautiful, and with less than 300 people in the entire stadium.  I politely asked the usher in 103 if I could go down to the bottom of the section to snap a couple of pictures of some players taking batting practice.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Triple-A minors trip

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After what’s felt like quite a while in between baseball trips over the 2013 season, I’ve finally updated my ballparks website again.  Unfortunately, it isn’t a Major League ballpark to take off of the list, but it’s instead four Triple-A minor league ballparks visited and covered.  If this keeps up, I’d have to consider breaking off a section for just the International League, but then again, I’ve said the same thing as it pertains to the teams in the Carolina League as well as the Southern League.