Hitting the Road

Wednesday We Did The Drive!

This day began at 5:00 AM.  Apparently someone burned their popcorn in the in-room microwave setting off the fire alarms.  It was a rude awakening!  Never really fell back to sleep.

CLICK pics to enlarge.

Reset the odometer and drop cousin Michael at the airport -- as you can see --- it is flat as far as the eye can see.

The Drive to Austin.

On the road trips we visit college campuses along the way.  They seem to like metal team mascot statues in Texas.  Can you guess the university associated with each photo?

Oh, a few have asked why aren't I in any of the pics?  I'm the photographer, driver, and banker on this trip!

First stop TCU

This is the TCU Horned Frogs.  This is a beautiful campus.  A mid-size university of about 10,000 students.  Lovely facilities.  It sits on the edge of some not so nice parts of Fort Worth.  But the campus is lovely.

TCU has some major football history -- Sammy Baugh and Cowboy Bob Lily were grads and of course Wyatt's favorite player -- LT.

Next Baylor

The Baylor Bears.  This campus is located in Waco.  It is very spread out and is separated from the downtown by Interstate 35.  We didn't care for it much but we did have fun with the bear masks.

Oh, the football field isn't even on campus, it's a 3 mile drive across down and felt like a small Veterans Stadium.

5:00 PM At last Austin and University of Texas
Wow, this is an awesome campus and what a town!  I am ready to move!  It's smaller than Philly and bigger than State College but it feels as if you are at a blend of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State.  Lovely, fun, urban yet tree lined and manageable.  Nice, nice, nice.

By the Way

Right about now you might be asking yourself...where's the baseball...well, Tuesday -- after the Monday night Rangers game,  we took a trip to the Urgent Care facility....Wyatt came down with Otitis media and bronchitis. So, we loaded him up with meds and shut down our evening baseball games so he'd be rested for the baseball camp in Austin.  We missed both the Grand Prairie game and the Round Rock Express game.  Oh, well, the college stops were fun and there's more to come on Austin.

Thursday -- Healthy Enough to Play Ball!

Now this is having fun -- playing ball on the field of a major college program.  These pics are from the Thursday and Friday sessions....and I get free time because he's staying in the dorms!  Austin pics will be posted Sunday.  Have a great weekend all.

CLICK Older Posts below to see prior days.

We Get To The Game!

Monday night Texas v Red Sox -- fun and entertaining
By the way -- CLICK on any pics to enlarge it.

The Dallas/Fort Worth area, known as the Metroplex is sprawling.  Everything is spread out and the land is flat as a pancake.  Dusk is really neat -- to the east as far as the eye can see the sky is dark, to the horizon on the far west it's golden yellow sunset and between the two horizons is every color of the rainbow.

The Ballpark in Arlington is near the ungodly huge Cowboy Stadium, Six Flags Over Texas -- crazy roller coasters, and ah, well, the Bowling Hall of Fame?  I wonder how much a Basil "Buzz" Fazio autograph sells for?

Nice exterior -- find shade while you wait for the gates to open.

Okay -- major bummer.  Little did I know that on a 100 degree day there is no on field batting practice.  They do it inside, beneath the stadium.  Argh....this is why we arrive 2 hours before game time, to catch batting practice balls.   Now what -- well, the Team Store suddenly became an expensive proposition.

This one is for our followers from Camp Hill Baseball.  This season one of the adults created a BoomStick club for all the kids that hit home runs.  I think our league slugged about 30 dingers in 100 games with our Pirates team leading the way with roughly 15 in 20 games and Wyatt bombing 9 in 14 games before going down with an elbow injury.

Asian man, center left, funky reddish-brown hair, 26 year old, $60 million pitching phenom, Yu Darvish.  What is Yu's ethnic background?  You say Japanese....partly true.  It's Japanese-Iranian (dad).  Something tells me he is much less known in Iran than he is in Japan.  He donated close to $1 million to the tsunami relief efforts.

Happy campers!

Ballpark food --- bacon wrapped hot dogs with fried onions, relish and salsa.  Yummy! 

The Ballpark at Arlington is very dark.  The field is certainly illuminated but it drops off quickly.  Next time you watch the Rangers on TV...it looks dark and the stands are.   There are no city lights and the big sky is dark.  With no vista to be seen outside the park, no city skyline, they have enclosed the stadium and as such it feels small and tight like Fenway.  A 9-1 score, good fans, lots of singing of songs about Texas.  Texas catcher Mike Napoli smashed, crushed, clobber, one to the second level of the left field stands...it had to be a jaw-dropping 475'

Glad we came, once is enough, unless it's a playoff game then this joint would really be rockin'

It's true EVERYTHING is BIGGER in TEXAS!

Here's a review of the weekend past....
Stop one in Texas was to head to Frisco and spend time with cousin TJ (center in photo).  We don't see enough of TJ!  Two weekends ago his 9th grade AAU elite basketball team won the National title in Little Rock.  He's ranked as a Top 50 player in the Class of 2015 and took off on Monday to a youth basketball showcase in Las Vegas!  Keep it up TJ!  Oh, TJ is a fraction under 6'0" and already dunks...but we love him for the great kid he is!

What the HAIL!

When's it's 103 degrees you seek any kind of relief.  We swung by the Snow Cone Lady to get some flavored ice and the Texas HAIL arrived.  Those streaks flying in the air is hail.  Of course the boys wanted their snow cone before the ran for cover.

Food Is Big Too!

Sunday breakfast was at Rudy's General Store, Gas Station, and ah, well, Smokehouse!  This place carves up all kinds of meats!  Take a look at the breakfast taco board!  

Sports are big too!

Forget your local "Y" in Frisco they have the Fieldhouse --- pictured is the 11, yes, 11, indoor full size basketball courts, there is also a full size, yes, full size soccer/football field, 12 batting cages and a huge weight room with aerobic gear.  Oh, just outside the front door are 12, yes, a dozen, beautiful soccer fields!

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!

We dined at a fun placed featured by Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  I had the Boar Burger topped with mushrooms, cheese, and fried dill pickle chips...wow!  The featured meal of the day was the Dirk Diggler --- nobody could bring themselves to try that one!  Oh....it's 6:30 PM and 102 degrees.

Next post we get to baseball!

FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE -- TAKE OFF IS TOMORROW

Here's the line-up for the 2012 Road trip -- LINKS are hot!

Grand Prairie AirHogs v KC T-Bones:

Texas Rangers v. Red Sox


Round Rock Express v. Omaha Storm Chasers:


University of Texas - Austin - Jr. Stars 3 Day Baseball Camp


Frisco RoughRiders v. San Antonio Missions: 


Water Park - Hawaiian Falls - Dallas: 


Restaurants - Twisted Root Burger Co as featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

TCU - HORNED FROGS Campus visit - GO FROGS!


BAYLOR BEARS campus visit.  Do you know where Baylor is located?

2012 Baseball RoadTrip is about to take off! Look at STUFF from the past!

Hello friends and fans.
Welcome back to your blogging ballpark.
We missed blogging in 2011 but are ready to go this year!

A re-cap of Baseball Roadtrip history:
Every summer my wife and son go off to Arizona or San Diego to visit her brothers while I've been at home.  To balance our vacation time, Wyatt and I began to take roadtrips to all kinds of baseball venues -- majors, minors, independents, youth and while at it swing by college campuses and dive head first into waterparks.  A FEW of our visits include:

2008 (Wyatt was 8):
Yankee Stadium, Phillies, Orioles and Harrisburg Senators.

2009:
Boston Red Sox, Hudson Valley Renegades, Connecticut Defenders, Eastern Regional Little League Championship in Bristol CT, Phillies, Orioles, UConn, Boston College, Lake Compounce Amusement Park , Phillies Playoffs.

2010:
Pittsburgh Pirates, Dayton Dragons, Cincinnati Reds, Charleston WV Power, Salem VA Red Sox, Ohio State University, Virginia Tech, The Beach Water Park, York Revolution.

2011:
Washington Nationals, Lakewood NJ Blue Claws, Reading Phillies, Little League World Series, State College Spikes, Harrisburg Senators, Phillies Playoffs.

The Stuff
Of course, when one hits the ballparks with this frequency you discover how to position yourself to catch batting practice balls, collect game used bats, grab line-up cards and get autographs!  The loot below includes:

Yankee Stadium ball hit by Jason Gaimbi, Red Sox ball hit by then Tiger Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano ball hit at Camden Yards -- both knees bloodied on that one, Jason Werth ball, and autographs...Stephen Strasberg, Bryce Harper, Pudge Rodriguez, Placido Polanco, and future Commissioner of Baseball Governor Ed Rendell --- okay, NOT.

Of course, my hope is that Wyatt turns 21 and these balls are replaced by various samples of mircobrews.

Check back for daily updates and the 2012 itinerary.  Oh, please forgive the typos, youth baseball managers only know how to write-up pitching rotations!

As Before...Scroll down and work our way up the page. Thanks for following us!

Red Sox time

Very fan friendly place.  Oscar Tejeda tossed Wyatt this one as the NEW STREAK continues.

As mentioned before, minor league, big league, college ball, they all warm up the same way.  There must be something to it.  Third player from right is 19 y.o. Carolina League All Star Oscar Tejeda.  He's the player to watch on this team.

Salem. VA home to the Advance Single A Salem Red Sox.  You can tell the teams that have money from thier big league club, just look at the field.  Beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mtns. from almost every seat.  Good players too.

More Fun Facts, Geography & Side Trips.....WV to VA

The college stop on this part of the journey was Virginia Tech.  What a really nice campus.  It's large yet most of the buildings are stone and as such the old and new easily blend together.  It's sports complex, which covers the south end of campus, is all very new and really nice too.  All the facilities are located together....football, baseball, softball, track, soccer/lacrosse and so on are all in one centralized area.

Say what you will about West Virginia but its mountain ranges are absolutely beautiful, and endless.  90% of the drive to Virginia looked like this.  Simply breathtaking.  It's considered the "Valley and Ridge" portion of the Appalachians.  This section goes north into PA and is the flavor of the mountains you see around Pittsburgh, or Somerset, or Altoona.  As you cross into Virginia near Blacksburg and Roanoke it becomes the famed "Blue Ridge" Mountains which extend to the "South Mountain" chain that is between Gettysburg and Harrisburg.

Who was born in a small house along a creek in Chelyan WV?  Basketball Hall of Fame hoops star Jerry West. He is also "The Logo."  It is his dribbling icon that is part f the NBA logo.

http://www.logoblog.org/nba_logo.php

Only in West Virginia do you find Tudor's Biscuit World.  This is the Mountaineer Breakfast Biscuit --- egg, cheese, Virginia ham, AND a hash brown on a heavily buttered homemade biscuit.  Oh my!

As we depart Charleston WV for Salem (Roanoke) Virginia the mileage continues to mount.