My Favorite Red Sox Players 20-16

 

20. Bruce Hurst

By the time the 1988-89 offseason rolled around, I considered myself an astute baseball fan. I had seen it all: older post season heroes leaving for greener pastures, youth movements began, managers had been fired, a big trade had been swung, winning streaks, losing streaks, fire, rain, whatever. I pretty much considered myself the Peter Gammons of Amesbury, MA.

The one thing that I hadn’t experienced was one of our free agents, a guy we needed to keep, spurning the Hub for another town. Until that offseason. That person was 1986 World Series hero Bruce Hurst. That dude packed up his curve ball and went to San Diego.

The Padres? He went to the Padres? The team with the brown and orange uniforms, who play in a stadium named after a sportswriter, who are both anonymous and sucky? Those Padres? Why? Why would he do that?

Before baseball landed a deal with ESPN and before any modern convenience that started in the 90s, baseball in San Diego and Seattle was like Siberia. Do they even play 162 games in those places? Do they even have fans? They’re never on TV so if there’s a homer without anyone seeing it, did it happen?

Why would Hurst go there? I couldn’t understand it; he’d been a Red Sox since he was drafted by the club, why wouldn’t he want to stay here? When this sort of thing happens, you go through a bunch of stages, starting with disbelief which I just chronicled.

Then anger, “fine fuck that guy, I hope his arm snaps. He’s going to look dumb in brown, which is the perfect color for him, but the way. That piece of crap.”

After that you sorta start thinking you don’t need him anymore. “Fuck it, we have Clemens and Boddicker and Tom Bolton’s supposed to be pretty good. Fuck that guy. Enjoy the West Coast and no ‘real’ fans, dude.”

Then you just get over it until it seems like Hurst played for the Padres forever. “Bruce Hurst? Oh yeah, he pitched here, right? I kinda remember him, he was pretty okay. I guess. He’s no Rob Woodward though.”

Obviously Bruce Hurst was better than pretty okay, he was a monster in the 86 post season. In fact, he really came into his own that season. While Clemens was getting all the love and Oil Can a bunch of attention, Hurst was quietly pitching really well. With that big looping curveball that would make hitters’ knees buckle, he was everything Roger wasn’t: thoughtful and crafty.

It sucked losing him. It really did. But he went to SD for a bunch of really good reasons: more money, better weather, less pressure. Plus it was closer to his Provo, Utah home. As an adult, I can totally see why Hurst would want to put Boston in his rear view mirror.

I’ve lived here my whole life and if someone gave me that opportunity, I’d be gone too. Why wouldn’t a laid back, west coast Mormon want to do that?

I’m not sure how much Hurst enjoyed his time here, there was an incident in his first Spring Training where a coach questioned his manhood because he didn’t drink, smoke or chase women. The whole Wade Boggs/Margo Adams thing didn’t sit well with him either.

Why not go to San Diego and get paid and not have a bunch of asshole frat guys around telling you what a wuss you are? Fuck ‘em.

19. Xander Bogaerts

I think that Xander Bogaerts is underrated—hell, he might be underrated by me in my own list. What I mean is that Bogaerts is the best shortstop the Sox have had since Nomar. He might also be the best home grown shortstop the Sox have ever had once you factor in health.

He came up during the last few months of the 2013 season, the best prospect in the system, and played really well on a team loaded with big personalities and veterans. For a couple of down years, team-wise, he manned short (though he’d bounce to third when the Sox became fascinated with Stephen Drew for some reason) until the next wave of prospects showed up.

By then he was an All-Star, a veteran presence, a team leader. Beginning in 2016, the Sox turned into a juggernaut, making the playoffs every year before culminating with a World Series championship in 2018.

He seemed to like being in Boston, he certainly had the attitude for it: never too high, never too low, appreciated the fans, went out and produced every day. He even signed a team-friendly, long term contract with a player option after two seasons, that no one really expected him to take.

Why would he? He was getting paid a lot, the team was winning, all were happy. At some point Owner John Henry wasn’t happy when he looked at his payroll and the Sox started to get rid of Bogaerts’ teammates. The team bottomed out and Bogaerts was probably like, “screw it. If this team is going to suck I may as well get paid” and he exercised his option to be a free agent.

Chaim Bloom is my least favorite GM/PoBO the Red Sox ever employed. Not because he was Henry’s hatchet man, but mostly because it didn’t seem like he had any idea what he was doing. In the 2022-23 offseason, he said the club’s biggest thing to do was sign Bogaerts.

Bloom completely misread the market, offered Bogaerts a below market value contract and then watched as Bogaerts signed with San Diego (just like Bruce Hurst!) According to Globe writer Julian McWilliams, he said that Bloom was talking to reporters at the airport following the Winter Meetings, got a text telling him about Bogaerts and needed five minutes to compose himself.

You can argue whether Bogaerts “deserve” the money that the Padres gave him (he probably didn’t) but what Bloom further showed there let me know that "this guy, he’s not my guy" to quote Frank Costanza.

Do I wish Bogaerts stayed? Yeah, I do. I think it’s important for a club to have some connection to its past, especially when young players are coming up. Would I pay him what SD did? No. But it’s not my money. I think that there was middle ground that Bogaerts would have accepted that would have allowed him to retire in Boston.

That would’ve been pretty cool.

(I’m going to get more into the way players are viewed by the front office and how it’s different from fans. I just don’t want to get into it quite yet.)

18. Keith Foulke and Koji Uehara

Two, two, two for the price of one! We’re looking at my two favorite players for number 18! Why didn’t I make one 17 and the other 18? Good question. I just didn’t.

The ability to close down a game in high-tension situations may be the most important thing in the mix of championship team. You can have swashbuckling cowboys like Jonathan Papelbon or you can have roller coaster closers like Craig Kimbrel or you can have the two players here. But you need someone.

Uehara and Foulke are a lot alike. They were both quiet guys who came from other organizations whose first names begin with K, who just took control of a situation and locked. It. Down.

Foulke was part of a 2003-04 spending spree where the Sox got better at positions that were weak on an all-time team. In 2003, the Sox front office collected a bunch of arms and informed them that they were going to be a “bullpen by committee” which meant no one had a defined role. They could come in the sixth inning or the ninth or whenever, theoretically it didn’t matter.

But the bullpen is home to actual people and people like repetition and rules and defined expectations, and the Bullpen by Committee was a disaster. They traded Shea Hillenbrand to the Diamondbacks for Byun-Yung Kim, (mostly) stabilized the pen and it was absolute smooth sailing for the rest of the year and into the playoffs.

Except it wasn’t. GM Theo Epstein was shocked to find mistakes in his 2003 plan, so he got rid of the the guy who screwed it up, picked up the best closer on the market, made sure the entire understood their roles and the Sox streaked to an easy championship! (Also, not exactly true.)

In the playoffs, Foulke earned his money by pitching in multiple high-leverage situations night after night after night after night. When he needed a strikeout, he got one. When he needed a double play, he got one of those too. The amount of wear and tear he put on his right arm that month is insane.

As much as I love Manny, Foulke should’ve been the postseason MVP that year.

After his stellar October, his arm suffered and he never was quite the same. He heard boo birds in early 05 (which, seriously fuck all the way off) which understandably got under his skin, said some stuff and was gone after his contract was up. Time healed all wounds and Boston rightfully has welcomed him back as a conquering hero.

Around the time that Boston fans got their collectives heads out of their collective asses regarding Foulke, the Sox were putting together a frisky team for the 2013 season. Like 2004, GM Ben Cherington was collecting arms for the bullpen and he signed a little known Japanese import.

Roles were defined and Joel Hannahan was going to be the closer. Except he got hurt. Then it was going to be Andrew Bailey. And he got hurt. Finally manager John Farrell had no one to turn to except for Uehara.

Lucky for Sox nation, Uehara had the best season a Sox closer ever had. And it’s not even close. He had a 1.09 ERA, 0.56 WHIP (!!) and struck out 12.2 per nine. In the playoffs he was more dominant. His ERA in the ALCS and the World Series was 0.00 (!!!) and his WHIP was even better than his regular season number. He gave up ONE run that entire post season in 12 games.

And he was also 38-years-old.

He was as close to automatic as anyone I’ve ever seen and there was literally no worrying when he showed up on the mound. Man, he was terrific.

Guys, you really do need a closer.

17. John Valentin

My 17th favorite Red Sox player in the criminally underrated John Valentin. Valentin was played on a stacked Seton Hall team in the late 80s that included future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio and future Sox teammates Mo Vaughn and Kevin Morton.

I don’t recall a ton of buzz when it came to Valentin as he made his way through the minors. But when he made it to Boston he took over shortstop and just hit. And hit. And hit. He could also field a bit too.

In back-to-back games he turned two triple plays and hit three home runs. I was at one of those games, but don’t ask me which one because I can’t remember. I know it was against the Mariners, I’m positive that I was in college, I was with my buddy Skaus and we bought SRO tickets, which didn’t have the game date printed on them.

So I tell people I was at both of those games even though I was only at one.

In any event 1995 was Valentin’s year as he mashed. It was also Mo Vaughn’s year as he won the MVP from surly Cleveland slugger Albert Belle. But Valentin had the highest WAR in the league (8.3!!) and maybe should have won the trophy. But people didn't pay attention to that stat back in the day, so he was ignored.

The messed up thing is, he never made an All-Star team. Which is dumb. He put up big numbers, played in Boston, played on some good teams, why didn’t he get the recognition? I have no idea, I guess life is all about timing and also, it just isn’t fair sometimes.

Speaking of unfair in 1997, Valentin was told that he was being moved to third base because this new dude is scorching the minors and he’s ready to play in the Show. That person was Nomar Garciaparra. Valentin, was understandably miffed, and left Spring Training in protest.

These protests never, ever work and it makes the protestee look like a baby. He came back after a day or two, played a terrific third base and the Sox had a really good infield.

After ten seasons with the Red Sox, Valentin played a year with the Mets. Then he was done. While nowhere close to a Hall of Famer, Valentin had a great career that was lost to the ages. That kinda sucks but I’m sure he’s okay with it. Tonight, if you’re hoisting a few, remember John Valentin and hoist one for him.

16. Troy O'Leary

There was a time when the Red Sox weren’t the RED SOX and they just didn’t generate the revenue that they do now. Ownership didn’t have the cash, or at least they didn’t want to spend the money, and we were all kinda okay with it. "Whatyagonnado? These players are too greedy! They're playing a kid's game! They should give some of that money back!"

We just didn’t know better.

After a bunch of bad years, Dan Duquette was brought in to bring the Sox into the future. He had a plan, trade for good players, develop good players and grab players that other teams overlooked.

The minor leagues were in disarray so he couldn’t do the first two parts of his plan, so he started to do number three. It was basically dumpster diving.

Troy O’Leary was one of those guys. Languishing in Milwaukee, O’Leary was overlooked and the wasn’t getting any at bats. Duquette remembered him from his days in Suds City and signed him. When given the opportunity, O’Leary flourished. He wasn’t an all-star but he put up respectable numbers for five or six seasons.

But O’Leary’s biggest night also occurred on one of Pedro Martinez’ biggest nights so it gets a little forgotten (like the man himself). Bret Saberhagen and Derek Lowe got pounded by Cleveland in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS. Sabes gave up five runs in one inning, Lowe three runs in two.

The Sox looked cooked.

But O’Leary was there to rescue them. Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove walked Nomar Garciaparra to load the bases. O’Leary hits a grand slam. Two innings later Hargrove again elects to intentionally walk Nomar and O’Leary deposits another bomb, this time a three run homer, over the right field fence.

Pedro came out of the bullpen and no hit Cleveland and their stacked lineup for six innings. The Sox added five more runs and they won 12-8. O’Leary had an absolute monster game but Pedro was a bit better, so he gets the pub. I guess that’s okay because this was how O’Leary’s career went.

One of my favorite things about him is how huge he came up when his number was called. I’d like to think that if in a similar situation I would do the same. I think that’s the lesson of Troy O’Leary; it doesn’t matter where you started or how you got to where you are, if given an opportunity, seize it. If people disregard your talents, make them pay.

Troy O’Leary is the patron saint of doing that shit.

My favorite stadiums 6-1

 6.

 

 

We are 6 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to sunny southern California as today's stadium is Petco Park in San Diego, CA home of the San Diego Padres.

 

The Padres used to play in a big, multi-sport stadium that was named after a San Diego sports writer: Jack Murphy. There are a few things that happened in baseball that won't happen again: Cy Young winning 511 games, Connie Mack managing one team for 50+ years and I can guaran-damn-tee that no owner will ever build and name a stadium after a sportswriter.

 

Though it would be great if the Red Sox played at Shaughnessy Stadium. Instead of the Green Monster, there would be a Red Monster and it would be made of curly hair. The Sox could mail in every game and coast on reputation--it would be great.

 

In any event, the Pads shared the Murph with the Chargers before getting their new place: Petco Park. Aside from a few years when they put palm trees on the other side of the fences, there wasn't anything really interesting about their stadium.

 

That changed when the Pads moved to Petco in 2004. This stadium owes a lot to Baltimore's Camden Yards in that they built the stadium around some of the buildings that were existing on the site. So in left field, there's the 100-year-old Western Metal Supply Company that was set to be demolished, but was retrofitted into the park designs. There's a team store, a Hall of Fame, seats to watch the game and club offices.

 

It's pretty damn cool.

 

That's one of the things that I liked so much about Petco, it was quirky but it wasn't a forced quirkiness that new parks sometimes shoehorn into their architecture plans. Old parks have strange angles and uneven dimensions because they were jammed into the city's footprint. San Diego does a really good job of authentically recreating that for Petco.

 

The stadium itself is just great. We sat in right field and had a great view of the whole stadium. The sun was setting while we were seated and although it was in our eyes, the sunset was absolutely breathtaking. Honestly, I can't believe that I live in stupid Massachusetts rather than in San Diego. Why don't 1 billion people live in this gorgeous city? It's mind boggling.

 

We walked around the park (more on this in a second) and it was such a pleasurable experience. The concourses were big and roomy, the Padres Hall of Fame was much cooler than it had any reason to be and the team store was pretty dope too. They also had a bunch of local micro brews for a reasonable price and the kids loved the food.

 

When you take the weather, the setting and the park itself, this is a god damn home run. If I lived in San Diego, I'd go to as many games as I possibly could. It was so great.

 

Another really fun thing--in fact it was the thing that my kids loved the most about seeing the game--was that in center field there was a beach and a little park. The kids ran around the beach, which is totally appropriate for San Diego, during the game (honestly, we sat in our seats for two innings) and then made their way to the grassy part of the park where they played Wiffle Ball and other fun little games while their mother and I drank beer and watched the game.

 

This leads me to something that I spoke about when I wrote about Comerica Park and the carousel found there. I would assume that many baseball purists detest these features at the park. You're supposed to be at the ballpark to watch and stay invested in the game. That's the entertainment, right?

 

And I understand that way of thinking, when I talked about Camp Nou in Barcelona, that was one of the things that I loved most about my experience there: people were 100% invested in the match.

 

But the more I got to think about it, isn't baseball (and all sports, really) supposed to be fun? And isn't going to a game supposed to be the most fun time of all? The food, the drinks, the souvenirs, that's all part of the experience. So why shouldn't there be a carousel in Detroit, a giant wacky slide in San Francisco, an exploding scoreboard in Chicago and a beach in San Diego?

 

You should want kids and their parents to have fun. You should want kids and their parents to want to come back. That's how you build bonds between the team and the fans, especially the young ones. My youngest doesn't like baseball at all, but from time-to-time she'll talk about the fun that she had at Petco Park. She won't mention being able to watch the Red Sox play the Padres, but she'll talk endlessly about chasing her sister in the sand.

 

That's what it's all about, I guess. Going to the park and watching your kids connect to the game that you love, even if it's not in the way that you made that connection. You couldn't do this at any other sport, but you can with baseball. And that's the reason why it's always going to be the best sport ever invented.

 

Here's the box score of the game that we went to that night: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2019/B08230SDN2019.htm The Pads were kinda butt that year and get the hell kicked out of them by the visiting Red Sox 11-0. Old Jelly Donut Martinez hit two ding dong johnsons in the win. There were no current Hall of Famers, but in what would be the start of his last month in Boston, Mookie Betts played center and right field. Xander Bogaerts played shortstop in the park that would one day become his home and Eduardo Rodriguez improved to 15-5 with the win.

 

This was one of the last times that the Sox would (mostly) run out the 2018 Championship lineup; without the DH, JD played rightfield so Jackie Bradley Junior sat while Betts started in center. Andrew Benintendi played left, Rafael Devers the hot corner, Mitch Moreland and BROCKHOLT! rounded out the infield with Christian Vazquez caught.

 

I really wish that the Sox could've kept that team together for a couple more seasons. They ruled.

 

5.

 

We are 5 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to Charm City as today's stadium is Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles.

 

Since World War II, there have been three seminal moments in baseball that changed the industry. The first was the breaking of the Color Barrier in 1947*. The second was opening the West Coast when the Dodgers and Giants relocated to Los Angeles in 1958. The third was Oriole Park at Camden Yards opening in 1992.

 

* I get that things were different in the 40s and that it's always great to celebrate when an injustice is struck down but at the same time, not allowing Black ball players in Major League Baseball wasn't some sort of law of nature or act of God that was sent down from the heavens. A bunch of racist assholes just thought that things would "be better" if Black people weren't in their ball parks. And these racist assholes happen to own MLB teams. MLB has every right to celebrate the desegregation of their game--and in a lot of ways it helped progress in our country--but the cause of the reason for celebration is the same body that is doing the celebrating: MLB.

 

It would be like if I decided to throw a puppy in a small box and leave him there for three years. On its third birthday I let the dog out and then throw a party for myself for being a liberator. It's my own shitty actions that caused this whole mess. For a long time MLB owners were major league dicks. Maybe you should pull the throttle back a little on congratulating yourselves on being less dickish.

 

When Camden Yards opened in April of 1992, it's really hard to put into words just how game changing this place was. I remember the week after it opened, Sports Illustrated published an image of the park over a two page spread and I must've spent an hour obsessing over every detail. The warehouse in right field. The stacked bullpens. The weird nooks and crannies. The short fence in left field. The seats had these monograms in iron: there was a baseball player in between two letter Bs, which stood for Baltimore Baseball. They even had one of those old time signs on the outfield wall that said, "Hit in here!" with a picture of a finger pointing to a bullseye. I have no idea whether anyone ever hit it there, but that sign is long gone now.

 

All of these little details that made this stadium so unique. The people who designed it, the people who okayed the design; you can tell that they were baseball fans. Not only that but they cared about baseball and its history. One of them was Larry Lucchino who died today. He was Orioles CEO when the team was building Camden Yards and he was also the CEO of the Padres when they were building Petco Park. Not to mention his right hand person on these projects (and others like the revitalization of Fenway) Janet Marie Smith.

 

Both should be in the Hall of Fame for what they've done for the game.

 

What was so groundbreaking about this stadium is that it destroyed the multi-purpose super stadia of the 70s. Other sports and activities could happen at Camden Yards, but first and foremost it was a baseball park. There was no artificial turf. There was no bad sight lines for the games. There was no equidistant outfield walls. The park was part of the city, it fit into the Baltimore neighborhood like a glove. It owed a lot to the past, but at the same time it was filled with the modern amenities that you need in order to have a fun time at the park.

 

The concourses were spacious, the seats were wide and close to the action, there was a barbecue pit in right field manned by former Oriole Boog Powell. It was an amazing baseball palace.

 

The funny thing is, the first time I made the trip with my friends Skaus and Archie to Baltimore, we almost didn't get in. We flew from Boston to Washington, jumped in a rented car and drove 45 miles north to Baltimore on Friday night. Our game was on Saturday and we were going to reverse the trip back to DC on Sunday morning. Pretty simple plan.

 

Dummy (that's me) accidentally bought tickets for Sunday instead of Saturday. You know who didn't double check his tickets until he was waiting in line on Saturday? This dufus. The people at the ticket window couldn't have been kinder as I stammered my way through an explanation, "My flight ... uh ... it leaves tomorrow at 2:00 and ... uh, uh ... it's in DC and I'm so stupid ... we're from Boston and ... uh, uhm ... I'll never come back down here again. My friends are going to murder me. Please help."

 

They gave us new tickets, for pretty much the same seats in the bleachers and it was a great experience. I had wanted to come to Camden since I first saw that picture in SI and it did not disappoint. It was a hot day and we beat the heat by quaffing some Natty Bohs. And man, there's nothing like being 20-something in a park and city you've never been before drinking suds, eating whatever you want, bullshitting with your pals and watching baseball.

 

If there's a heaven, I hope that it's something like that.

 

I ended up going to Camden Yards for another game, this time with Aly and our friends the Olexys (with whom I saw the Nationals' park). We had slightly better seats, but the Orioles were worse and Camden less populated.

 

Here's the boxscore of the first game I saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B08110BAL2001.htm Only one current Hall of Famer played that day: Oriole legend Cal Ripken. But there were plenty of players who could be in Cooperstown some day: Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra and the Sox starter was David Cone. The O's beat the Sox 4-2 behind three hits from Ripken and some pretty good pitching by Josh Towers.

 

This was in August of 2001 and the Red Sox were circling the drain. Jimy Williams was about to get shitcanned, the Mike Lansing/Dante Bichette era was about to end. As for me, August of 2001 was a really good month: I got to see Camden Yards, the following week I had tickets to watch Radiohead perform at Suffolk Downs and the week after that I went on one of the best trips ever, Ireland, with my family and closest friends.

 

4.

 

We are 4 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to the Mile High City as today's stadium is Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies.

 

I was prepared to dislike Denver and I was really prepared to hate Coors Field. I was ecstatic to find that not only did I love Coors Field, but I thought that Denver was tip-top too!

 

Just about every year, I do a guy's trip to a different Major League city. Since I go with a great bunch of dudes, they've all been a blast. I think that the trip to Denver was my favorite.

 

We went to a concert (Hootie and the Blowfish and the Barenaked Ladies), which 20-year-old me would sneer at, but guess what? I'm not 20-years-old anymore. It was a hell of a lot of fun, BNL were good but Hootie? Dude brought the house down. I don't think that there was song that I didn't know and the covers (Public Enemy and Led Zeppelin) were in my wheelhouse. It was way better than expected.

 

The next night me and my buddies went to Red Rocks. There was an EDM festival (I think? I'm not 100% sure) where I don't think that we concentrated on the music. It was just the most beautiful place to watch live music. The scenery was amazing and breath taking. I was glad that I didn't care about the music because I just focused on what was around me as the sun went down.

 

The final night was our trip to Coors Field, again it beat all expectations. The area around Coors is awesome. As you'd expect there are a ton of breweries, one that pours pints of Pliny, and there is also this very cool little museum dedicated to baseball stadiums. That was a lot of fun to walk in and check out the memorabilia from old stadia.

 

We finally made our way into the park, our seats were along the third base side, and it started to rain. And rain. And rain. They wanted to get the game in and the rain delay was expected to be two hours.

 

This is the sucky thing about centering a trip around an open air stadium, sometimes it rains. And sometimes those games are called off. So that brings up the existential question, if you were inside the park for a game that was called, does it count? We had a long discussion about this during our two hours and I think that we came to the consensus that it did.

 

I wouldn't say that rain outs are ever cool, but this one wasn't too bad. It was a warm rain, so you weren't cold AND wet. The other dope thing is that we got to really explore the park. See the Rock Pile, which are the bleachers in center field that sorta look like a mountain range -- they're super far from the plate, so the sight lines weren't great there.

 

In center field, near the bullpens, the Rockies have planted a little forest and it looks really awesome. It's a way for the Rockies to bring the Rockies to the ball park. This is a modern stadium--it opened in 1995 and it's the third oldest park in the National League (behind Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field)--so the concourses are wide, the food selection is plentiful and the beer selection is even better.

 

The park is big but since the air is thinner and the ball travels further, it plays a little smaller than you think. That's been the Achilles heal of the Rockies, right? Big dudes that can slam the ball to Boulder, but the pitching is always suspect. That reputation of high scoring games is warranted, as you will soon see.

Once the rain subsided, we made it back to our seats and watched the Reds and Rockies pummel each other for a bit. I don't know what it's like in April or October, but you couldn't have asked for a better night when we went in July. Just a great night in the most underrated park in the Big Leagues.

 

If you find yourself in Denver and want to catch a game, go to Coors Field. The Rockies suck, so you'll get great seats but you're going to have a fantastic time. I couldn't recommend this place more.

Here's the boxscore of the game that I went to: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2019/B07130COL2019.htm It was an old time squeaker as Cincinnati prevailed 17-9. Current Hall of Famers? None. But Reds first baseman Joey Votto will probably go and there's an outside shot that then-Rockie third baseman Nolan Arenado might make it too. But the pitchers who participated in this blood bath aren't going anywhere.

 

It was interesting to see former Dodger phenom Yasil Puig in right field (he had a dinger and six RBIs) for the Reds and if you're a fan of money dumps, future Red Sox Trevor Story was playing short for Colorado.

 

I know I sound like your hippie uncle, but go to Denver, you won't be sad.

 

3.

 

We are 3 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to the Jet City as today's stadium is T Mobile Stadium, home of the Seattle Mariners.

 

Programming note: you may have noticed that yesterday there wasn't an update. The reason: your pal Byron is a bit of a moron sometimes and screwed up the numbering of the countdown. I was a day ahead of everything so I took yesterday off. But now we are where we want to be (and it only took 27 days!) so on with the show.

 

When I was in my teens and 20s, Seattle was the place to be. Or at least that's what it seemed. It was in the corner of the United States far from everything (everything that I knew about at that point in my life) but Seattle was the epicenter of cool. If you're a Boomer, it's what San Francisco was. If you're a millennial, it's what Austin was. Seattle was Gen X's north star.

 

Or that's the cliche. And whatever, I fall for cliches all the time so I was all about Seattle. From the music to the technology to the coffee shops to the city's sports teams (how could you not love Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and the rest of the Supersonics) not to mention having the coolest baseball player on the planet (Ken Griffey Jr.) and the scariest pitcher (Randy Johnson), Seattle seemed like the place to be in the 90s.

 

Already a Mariners fan, I wanted to go there so bad. But I never made it there until 2006 when I made a business trip to the Emerald City. Seeing a game at Safeco (that's what it was originally called) was like the culmination of my early teens and twenties. It was almost a quasi-religious experience.

 

But more on that in a second.

 

As I wrote about last year in this space, the Mariners are one of my favorite teams because they always seemed to be shrouded in mystery. They had a weird team of misfits (even ten seasons into their history), they played in a shitty dome (it always seemed like it was about to start pouring INSIDE the Kingdome) but they were a Major League team that was as far away from Boston as you could get. How exotic!

 

But then things slowly started to change for the M's as they began developing bonafide superstars: Griffey, Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner. That was the first wave! Now the Mariners were a legit franchise and they still played in that shitty stadium. The club knew that they needed a new place to play in order to survive the Pacific northwest, but public sentiment wasn't exactly with them.

 

Until 1995. That was a year of great excitement in Seattle as the M's, left for dead at the All-Star break, started streaking in the second half winning nearly every single day. While the Mariners were winning, the first-place Angels were losing. Eventually the Mariners made up the double-digit deficit and won the AL West crown for the first time every in a dramatic one-game playoff series. The Kingdome was rocking, everyone had Mariners fever.

 

Which was fortuitous because there was an initiative on the ballot that November to use public funds to build a new stadium. Thanks to all of the good will and excitement from the summer it passed. Safeco Field opened in 1999 and the Mariners have not made a peep about moving since then.

 

When I went to the Mariners game back in 2006, we sat in the upper bowl along behind first base. We were high up, but the view was absolutely spectacular. The roof was open, it was a nice summer night and the visage of Mt. Rainier was plain to see.

 

I don't remember much about the game, I think that the Mariners weren't great in 2006 and neither were their opponents, fellow Class of '77 expansion franchise the Toronto Blue Jays, but the vibe itself was awesome. It's how I always imagined what baseball in the northwest to be like: technologically advanced (the roof opens and closes and the stadium was packed with modern amenities) but at the same time still close enough to nature that you could feel it.

 

No matter how big of a city Seattle is, it always felt to me like it was an overgrown logging town. 

 

Like you had all of the huge buildings in the city proper and the minute you walk outside of the city limits you're surrounded by gigantic sequoias--in other words I picture that Seattle was a metropolis located in a National Park.

 

Of course, that's insane but that's how I imagined it. And I have to say T Mobile Stadium didn't let me down. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I still kinda felt that way. There's not a lot of major league cities where you can watch a baseball game under the shadow of a mountain. Obviously that mountain is far away, but you get my drift. Fenway Park has a giant neon sign for a gas company overlooking left field, Seattle has a mountain. What's better?

 

As I said earlier, the stadium is packed with a ton of amenities: wide seats, plenty of leg room, pretty good sight lines without gigantic poles, almost every seat is a winner. The concourses were wide too with a ton of offerings: sushi, chocolate covered grasshoppers plus your standard fare of hot dogs, peanuts and crackerjacks. Due to the preponderance of microbrews, the beer selection was the best that I'd ever encountered.

 

Ballpark aside, if you haven't been to Seattle yet, go. It's a really walkable city with tons of stuff to do. I saw the Space Needle (overrated, $15 [then] for an elevator ride but the view is spectacular), tons of cool museums, obviously great music venues and really cool shops.

 

When I was there I stopped into the Ebbets Field Flannel store and it was like being in a museum; only you could buy whatever you saw the mannequins wearing. Unfortunately it has since been sold to the parent company of Lids and is no longer there. But it was still a highlight of my trip. And you'll have your own when you visit Seattle.

 

Here's the boxscore of the game I saw that day: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2006/B07240SEA2006.htm There is one current Hall of Famer (actually, one of the newest ones) Adrian Beltre. Beltre was in the midst of lost seasons when he played for the M's, he didn't get good again for another couple of years when he suited up for the Red Sox. A future no-doubt Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki also played for Seattle, with a rare 0-4.

 

For the Blue Jays, not much was going on with them. Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay, Eric Hinske and Frank Catalanotto were in the lineup. Former PC Friar John McDonald manned shortstop. Like I said, despite finishing second in the AL East (Seattle finished last in the West) the Jays were a meh team at best.

 

Future Red Sox starter Joel Pineiro picked up the 7-4 win for Seattle. Another future Sox, Hinske hit two dingers that night for the losing Jays.

 

2.

 

 

We are 2 days away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to the City by the Bay as today's stadium is Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

 

By virtue of working in the tech field for the last 15 or so years, I've been to the Bay area. A lot. Not as much since Covid, but for a number of years I was going to San Francisco or San Jose two or three times a year. I was either going to love it or hate.

 

Fortunately, I loved it. I think everything about San Francisco is great. I love the weather (going there in January was a real treat that I often felt guilty about mostly because my wife was stuck home in the snow). I like the city, I like the suburbs. I like that the malls and the campuses of the various places I worked at were outside. I just really enjoyed the whole vibe of the place.

 

Would this change if I lived there? Undoubtedly. The things that I find charming now would probably drive me crazy if I put down roots there.

 

One of the first times I went out there was for JavaOne, a conference held by my old company Sun Microsystems. It was the first time I had to talk to customers about my product and I was nervous. But it was a good conference in that I gained some confidence, it was really great talking to real customers and I got some time to explore the city.

 

I flew into the Bay area on a Monday and that night I took the BART over to Oakland to catch an A's/O's game. I wrote about this experience a little more than three weeks ago and it wasn't great, despite me always wanting to go to Oaktown.

 

I was scheduled to fly home on a red eye that Friday night and the Giants were home to play the Phillies. Since I had nothing to do until like 9:00 that night, I checked my luggage at the park and watched the first six or so innings from PacBell (that's what it was called then).

 

To go from Oakland's decrepit stadium that was literally falling apart and barely a quarter filled on a Monday to the Giant's new place, that turned the trick of being both state-of-the-art and retro four days later was like getting into Doc Brown's DeLorean. It was amazing. The stadium was backed with wild Giants fans that were up for every pitch.

 

The distance between Oracle Park and the Oakland Coliseum is 16 miles, but it may as well be a million because the two places shouldn't share the same continent never mind be in the same general area. This is not a shot at the people of Oakland, the Coliseum has its charms, but if you ping pong from one venue to the other, prices aside, its obvious which one you'd choose.

 

Oracle Park (or AT&T Park or PacBell Park) is absolutely wonderful. Situated on the water, there aren't a lot of prettier views. I mean look at the image that I attached along with this post, it looks amazing. And that's part of the fun of going to a Giants game; it doesn't happen too often but every so often a left handed slugger will blast a pitch into McCovey Bay.

 

How can you not love that?

 

The rest of the park is as advertised. Like all of the new places, the seats are roomy and there is ample leg room. Not only that but there are no gigantic poles in your way, so you can check out all of the action and not worry about missing anything. The concourses are wide and filled with plenty of choices of food and brews.

 

Before they redid Fenway, the Red Sox were thinking about a new park on the water. My guess is that if they did that, they'd have looked west to San Francisco for inspiration for their new place. My guess is that it would have been absolutely magnificent. Fenway is great and all, but man I'd love to have had Oracle Park East to walk into 81 times a year.

 

I think that we all would too.

 

Here's the boxscore of the game that I saw: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2008/B05090SFN2008.htm The post Bonds years for the Giants were an ugly era and this box score proves it. The Giants' lineup is god awful with no one in particular to talk about. There are no current Hall of Famers, but the Phillies had a few guys on the cusp: Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and that night's starting pitcher Cole Hamels.

 

The Fightin's beat the Giants 7-3, as they scored four in the seventh (by that time I was in SFO waiting for my flight). Rollins hit a home run and a guy died outside the park. Not from the homerun, but two fans got into an argument after the game and one of the dudes sucker punched the other. That person fell, hit his head and died. He got a year in jail and five years probation.

 

I had nothing to do with it.

 

1.

 

 

We are 1 day away from The Real National Hot Dog Day and we're counting down the stadiums I've been to in order from worst to best.

 

We're making our way to Steel CIty as today's stadium is PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

 

This is it, kiddos. The big enchilada, the best park that I've seen (so far) in all of the parks that I've gone to in this great big continent of ours.

 

Back in 2009 my friends Ryan and Andrew decided to go on a mini Armpit of America tour and hit Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We called it the Armpit of America tour because we were jerky coastal jerks. (I'm pretty sure Ryan and Andrew didn't think this, but were just humoring me--I'm the jerky jerk.) But guess what? I learned something during that long weekend. I learned that those two cities may be husks of what they were in the early 1900s but they're still really great cities with funky neighborhoods, great food, great beer, great people and amazing ballparks.

 

I felt dumb. But the good thing about feeling dumb is that it doesn't last long and you feel a little smarter later. And that's a good thing.

 

Exiting the long Fort Pitt tunnel and coming into the city was pretty damn amazing. You go through a mountain and come out to a view of the city of Pittsburgh. It was so cool.

 

We didn't get to spend a ton of time of Pittsburgh. We woke up in Cleveland, hung around for a bit and had to make tracks to Pennsylvania. It was a two-hour drive, but with traffic we had just enough time to find our hotel, drop our bags, get something quick to eat (not Primanti Brothers, but Morton's -- my buddy has an obsession with eating at every single one and he hadn't tried the Pittsburgh location yet, yeah I can relate), snag a beer name the stadium and get to our seats by first pitch at 7:05.

 

I remember walking into PNC Park and being absolutely astonished by what I saw. The ballpark is small but not stifling, it's intimate. It's situated on the Allegheny River, so it has to be a real moon shot to land in there, unlike at Oracle Park. As a matter of fact, only 67 balls have made the drink in the 23 years since it opened up.

 

The view is glorious. Looking out to center field you see the river, the Roberto Clemente bridge and the city skyline. It's criminal to me that a better team, a team with an owner willing to spend the money to have an all-star at every position, isn't playing in this park. This park should be in every single MLB post season, it's so special.

 

Like the other parks, this has all the perks: the roomy seats, the wider concourses, different types of concessions, beers from all over--though we had the Iron City variety. It's a great place to watch the game. If you're a Pirates fan from way back and had to suffer through years at the old Three Rivers Stadium, like the folks from Cincinnati, St. Louis and Philadelphia, you must feel like you've died and gone to hardball Valhalla.

 

That's the crummy thing though, now that the Pirates have a beautiful park, the teams are subpar but when they were playing in that glorified cement park, they had world-class teams. I guess that there's a reason they say that clothes make the man and not the park makes the team.

 

Speaking of glory days of long ago, the game that we saw was interesting in that it was 70s night. Both the Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds wore uniforms from the decade where both teams dominated the National League.

 

After the game was a concert by the ultimate 70s group: KC and the Sunshine Band. Did Ryan, Andrew and I make a pact that the first song we didn't know, we'd leave? Yes. Did we end up staying there for the entire concert because we knew literally every single song? Also yes. We're middle aged Yinzer women getting down, getting down (that) night? Doubly yes. The place actually got a little wild.

 

Pittsburgh has a bunch of really great things going for it, I'm really happy that I got to experience the place for myself and made up my own mind--people always say that Pittsburgh is a hole, it's not. Near the top of the list for why the city is so cool is their baseball park. The Pirates are going to stink for the next few years (which is too bad because I like the Pirates) so getting tickets to watch them play is super easy. Plus, you might see a band that you think sucks, but is actually pretty awesome.

 

Go to Pittsburgh, throw Heinz ketchup on everything and enjoy yourself. You won't be disappointed.

Here's the boxscore of the game that we saw that night: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2009/B08220PIT2009.htm Zach Duke spun a beaut that night as the Buccos pasted the Reds 12-2. Ryan Doumit hit a bomb. While there was no current Hall of Famers, Joey Votto is probably going to wind up in Cooperstown and maybe Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen may join him. That's a definite maybe though.

 

Andover, MA native Ryan Hanigan started behind the dish for the Redlegs and notched a hit. I'm sure I told Ryan and Andrew my Ryan Hanigan story, which I'm not going to go into here. This entry is long enough.