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Archive for Sports

The Baseball Dream List

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Travel Man and I have a dream list item in common. We both want to travel this great US of A and see a baseball game played in every major league stadium. Our hometown team is the Anaheim Angels, and if we had the opportunity we’d follow the Angels around the country for an entire baseball season. That would be in our dream cloud of course.

Last month we took a vacation to New York City and got to see the Yankees play the Boston Red Sox. A great baseball rivalry. We had a wild taxi ride to the stadium, as we were running a little late. We had taken a day long tour of the city that day, and then headed straight to the stadium. Of course there was a downpour when we got there, and we purchased some wonderful dollar store ponchos for a price that we will not mention here.

We entered the stadium from gate 4 I believe, and I was completely mesmerized. There are banners of the former Yankee greats lining one wall of the stadium. Names like; Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris to name a few. Such rich baseball history just in those pictures alone.

Once we made it to our seats, and got to take in the sights and sounds we could not believe we were actually sitting there watching the Yankees playing the Red Sox. We had to pinch each other a few times to be sure it was real. The crowd is always completely engaged in the game. Great music between batters, lots of chants and cheering. Plus a Yankees fan a couple of rows in front of us shouting, “Boston sucks”.

The bonus for the night was when Derek Jeter made history with his 250th career home run. Spectacular. Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter makes history, Yankee souvenirs purchased for the grandson. All in all a great, great experience. It will be interesting to see which stadium we end up at next season. This may become a new summer tradition for Travel Man and I.

Are you a fan of baseball? What’s your favorite stadium to visit?

5 comments Posted in Sports, Travel Man, Vacation

Angels Baseball with the Boys

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Travel Man and I squeezed in some time on Tuesday night to see and Angels game. Yay!! With his crazy travel schedule we have had to learn not to plan our outings too far ahead, as his travel plans can change in a moments notice. So we are learning to be more spontaneous than we normally would. But it’s working. We took our oldest son, Bryan to the game, and grandson, Evan.

The Angels were playing an interleague game with the San Francisco Giants, with CJ Wilson pitching. We love baseball, so it’s always a treat to get to see a game live. And Evan is getting into baseball more and more each year. First inning, Albert Pujols hits a three-run homer. A great at bat, and Evan is on cloud nine because he got to see Pujols hit a homer while he was at the game. He knows who most of the position players are, and gets lots of questions about the game answered by his Uncle Bryan. He’s like a sponge this year soaking in all of the baseball details.

Before the game Evan got a mini bat for a souvenir. He told the employee at the counter that he could only spend $10, because that was Grandma’s budget. When Evan gets back to his seat he tells me, “Grandma, we only spent $5, so we’re in your budget!” Just too funny for me. I was laughing for 5 minutes along with some “Grandma’s” sitting a few rows behind us.

Evan got lots of treats; churros, red vines ( I tried to call these red licorice, but got corrected), peanuts, a soda, a soft pretzel. Not the usual Grandma meals, but hey we were at the ballpark. Funny thing is he told his mother last night that we never fed him dinner!

The first inning was so exciting, 4 runs scored, and 4 runs scored in the 4th inning, more excitement! Right after the seventh inning stretch we get on the jumbotron!! Evan had the funniest delayed reaction. Bryan and I are pointing to the jumbotron telling Evan to look, and he was just in awe. Then he got excited and started jumping up and down. Just too funny because Evan had been dancing all night when they had the “dance cams” going in the stadium trying to get on the jumbotron, and then he did. The 8th inning we score 3 more runs. The Angels won this game 12-5. Lots of offense, and fun times with Evan too.

Evan’s getting lots of lessons in reading the baseball stats from all of us. Bryan is teaching him to read the stats in the newspaper. Great way to teach a little reading, and the numbers and percentages. If you have a sponge like Evan who likes sports this is a wonderful way to soak up some knowledge.

It’s always a treat when we get to spend time with any of the kids and with Evan along too. Bryan is a baseball aficionado, and so knowledgeable about the game it’s always a treat to get to watch a game with him and learn something new.

Travel Man will be back on the road today to South America, so I’m thankful we got to have a trip to the baseball park while he was home. It’s always a treat.

What’s your favorite summertime adventure?

No comments Posted in Family, Sports, Travel Man

It was History in the Making.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My love of history and my passion for following the game of baseball all converged on one center point last night. It was one of the games that is every baseball fans dream to witness. Last night Travel Man and I, along with our oldest son and his friend attended a baseball game at Angels stadium in Anaheim. It was a great night for baseball. The Angels are our home town team, and have been for over ten years now. It was a Wednesday night game, so the crowd was not huge. It was a crispy, chilly Southern California evening. Travel Man and I had a great view of the field, on the first base side. The boys were sitting field level by the left field, foul pole. We waved to the boys across the stadium crowd a few times, when there was a great play.

Now remember, my description of the game and my experience will be completely different from anyone elses who was there. (That’s why I like to blog) We got to see a bit of history last night. The Angels ace pitcher was on the mound, Jered Weaver. He is in his 6th season with the Angels, and his 2012 record before the game started last night was 3-0. Weaver was dealing with his pitches. By the end of the game he had 9 strikeouts (that’s k’s in baseball lingo). He is a smooth operator on the mound. I just love watching his command of the game.

This game was a hitting fest for the Angels. 15 hits, and 9 runs scored! A great night for the team. But an even better night for Jered Weaver. At the top of the 8th inning Weaver comes out to the mound, with a score of 9-0, the Angels are in the lead. I’m thinking, oh cool he’s going to finish this game out. He had around 98 pitches before this inning started.

He deals the batters once again, three up and three down. This is the moment I realize that Weaver has a no-hitter going. The Angels stay at 9 runs for the bottom of the eighth and at the top of the ninth out charges Jered Weaver. At this point I remember looking at the scoreboard and Weaver started the inning with 111 pitches. For every pitch of the ninth inning the crowd was on its feet. Cheering for each and every strike and out. At the end of the game the Angels had won, and Weaver pitched his first career no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter we all had the good fortune to witness at the stadium. The energy of the crowd was insane. It was the first solo no-hitter thrown by the Angels since June of 1975, that one was thrown by Nolan Ryan.

We will always remember being at this game, as we got to witness a part of the Angels history in the making. Kind of like when you saw Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon, or remembering where you where on the morning of 9/11. This was a completely awesome experience! Congratulations to Jered Weaver, and go Angels!

No comments Posted in Family, Sports, Travel Man

Baseball through Evan’s Eyes

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Kids, and especially my grandson, have an entirely different perspective on things than we adults do. At our recent family outing to the Angels game, Evan got permission to use my camera, with the wrist strap on of course. He took some really interesting pictures, and I wanted to share the ballpark experience with everyone through Evan’s eyes.

The Ball Field:

The Fans:

The sky was an amazing blue on game day:

The Fam:

There is always time for the self portraits:

If you know anything about Evan’s picture-taking adventures you know he loves to take pictures of these:

The six-year-old perspective is so amazing, and I absolutely love how he always takes pictures of his feet!!

Evan loves to take pictures. Maybe he needs his own digital camera (not!). There’s probably an e-book somewhere in Evans future, where we’ll collect all of the pictures he’s taken over the years. I’m sure we’ll see lots of pictures of those feet.

No comments Posted in Evanisms, Family, Sports

We made it to an Angels Game!!

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Renee Spindle

What a feat. 12 tickets purchased, 12 family members all assembled at Angels stadium. This is a family outing that has not happened in years and years.

My family, at the party house, are huge fans of Angels baseball. It has been a long-standing, favorite pastime of most of my family members to enjoy the games on TV, and we also try to make it to the stadium for a game or two in a season.

This past Saturday was one of those times. My son, Bryan, made an extremely early trip to Angels stadium a few weeks ago to buy tickets for all of the family who could make it to the game. This also happened to be our family’s birthday celebration day for myself, and my son-in-law. All in all there was a group of twelve of us that made our way to the stadium for the second game of the Angels open weekend games.

This was a 1:00pm game so we were prepared to be sitting in the sun for most of the game. We donned hats and sunglasses, slathered on sunscreen, and made sure we had our water bottles with us. In attendance at the game were myself, Travel Man, my parents, our niece Mary, son Bryan, daughter Hilary, Evan with his parents, and my brother Jim, with his girlfriend, Elaine. Whew!! What a group! Here’s a shot of almost everyone.

When we got to our seats we were totally in the shade for the first 3½ innings (yay!), good planning Bryan! So we weren’t completed melted by the middle of the game! It’s always fun going to the stadium to see the game. The singing of our national anthem, an F-18 flyover, and the first pitch being thrown out. Play ball!!! Singing “Take me out to the ball game”. What a great tradition.

The Angels didn’t win this game but we had some great family time. Evan is old enough now that he is asking questions about the game, and pays attention to the numbers on the scoreboard. He’s our Angels fan in training.

Everyone got to have their favorite stadium treat. Peanuts, frozen lemonades, hot dogs, and nachos. All those treats that cost wayyyyy too much but are part of the experience. Evan got a foam finger, and we all got fleece blankets with the Angels logo. Really cool. It’s so much fun to get to do a group outing like this. I hope we get to have a few more of these over the summer. When’s the last time you got your entire group together for an outing?