Progressive Field

July 31, 2013

Since Cleveland is so close, John and I decided to make a day trip of it. We got up, ran some morning errands, put the trash in the trunk to toss on our way out, forgot about said trash and drove two hours to Cleveland. We didn't realize we had left the trash in the trunk until we were putting our picnic basket away at the zoo. Luckily, the parking lot had trash cans every 10 feet or so. So we found a fairly empty one with a loose lid and deposited the garbage. Crisis averted.

After a decent trip to the zoo, we headed to the ballpark. We managed to find a parking garage just a few blocks from the field, and with the price tag of $10, it was actually the cheapest we could find. We were pretty excited about our find, but the night was still early.

The reason John decided on this specific game was for the giveaways. The first 10,000 fans got a free trucker hat. To assure our claim on the coveted caps, we got there 2 hours early! (You may wonder why John isn't wearing his hat in the above picture, and that's because he "can't be caught dead wearing this hat." While I admire his Pittsburgh loyalty, I question his insistence on getting a hat. You better be enjoying it, Abby!). To his defense, though, it was also dollar hot dog night, and there was a fireworks show after the game.

Since we had some time to kill, we ate the first of our many (I won't say how many) dollar dogs and visited Heritage Park (located just beyond center field). It's a mini hall of fame to many Cleveland baseball players. Some of the coolest features, in my opinion, were the plaques that had been "lost" during field renovations and moves. Can you imagine the panic of the guy who realized he lost a historical plaque?

I was pretty pleased with our seats. We decided to go through stub hub and found tickets that were about $27 a piece, including service fees! We didn't pay too much attention to the row/seat, so it was quite the shock when we realized we were at the front row of our section! Granted you had a rail in your way when you were looking down on home plate, but if you leaned forward enough it was avoidable. I enjoyed the extra leg room and lack of distraction of people walking to and from their seats.

John by the railing in from of our seats. Great view!

The game turned out to be even more than we bargained for because it went into extra innings! We kept debating if we wanted to stay (we had a 2 hour drive back and work the next day!), but the firework show was so tempting. In the end, we decided to stay and got to cheer the Indians to a win!

Overall, it was a great experience! The stadium was not that impressive, though. My favorite part was the scoreboard, but the backdrop to the field was pretty dull (granted we're spoiled in Pittsburgh). Another thing we're spoiled with in the 'Burgh is easy in and out parking! John and I sat in our parking spot for 30 minutes before we could finally back out to leave. And were were on the first level of parking! I can't imagine how long it took the guys on the 4th and 5th level to get out. That made for a very long night, albeit a very fun one.

Great American Ballpark

July 1, 2013
John went to Cincinnati to visit the Great American Ballpark. Unfortunately I couldn't join him, but two of his closest friends had just moved there! So he got to enjoy the game with them, and they also provided him a place to stay. Score!

It started down-pouring during the game, and they had to delay the it for a bit. John had seen enough, so they left and visited one of the local bars.

I'm pretty sure the highlight of the game was the nachos in a helmet they shared. But I'm not sure how much of a highlight that was the next morning.

I only have this one picture from his trip, so here you go! The Great American Ballpark!