On the Last of Everything
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Goodyear Ballpark
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Goodyear, AZ
7:05 PM
Outside the Game: It was a slow morning after the hot tub
escapades the night before. Literally no moisture in the atmosphere, plus the
hot tub, plus alcohol made for some solid dehydration. And, obviously, it
wasn't just physical pain I was feeling this morning.
Despite all that, I had one more game to attend, a repeat
visit to Goodyear Ballpark, one of the more underwhelming parks in the Cactus
League, for an Indians game of all things. A small blessing was that it was
one of the few night games I had, so I had an unaccounted for day to spend as I
saw fit. This made for a lazy morning, plus, given the dearth of things left to
do in the greater Phoenix area, it left me poring over what to do with my time.
I figured some time outside would be healthy for me, so I
decided on driving out to the Desert Botanical Garden. I'm generally not one
for botanical gardens, but I figured it would be at least interesting to go to
one in the desert, and some fresh air would probably keep my mind off things.
So I spent the late morning and early afternoon tooling
around in the botanical garden, which was nice, except for the overpriced and
disappointing sandwich I got for lunch. I still hit the gift shop for
last-minute things, and then headed back to the hotel for my last afternoon nap
and shower of the trip.
I decided to stop at the practice areas a couple of desert
blocks away from the park before heading to the gates. This game had a much
bigger crowd (a record one, it would be revealed) because it was a night game,
it was a weekend, and the Cubs were visiting, which meant an invasion of
Chi-town fans.
After the scoring ended, I went back to the hotel and went
straight to bed, because I was still tired from the last night, and there was
literally nothing else I wanted to do.
The Stadium & Fans: Goodyear Ballpark remained exactly
as it was the last time I was there, with a lot more people thanks to the
factors described above. There was a swing band performing outside before the
gates opened, and in the area behind left field, there were a bunch of local food
carts in addition to the regular concessions. At night, the fancy covered club
seats became a liability, as it was pretty pitch dark in that area after the
sun went down. I'm not sure how they didn't think that particular thing
through.
Most of the extra fans were visiting Cubbies, so it doesn't
really speak well to the home fanbase. The between-inning entertainment ran
between bubble suit fights, bunting contests, and other generic games and
races. Even Zizzy didn't show up.
At the Game with Oogie: I had seats right behind first base
at the top of the seating bowl. I was mostly surrounded by Indians fans, but
the rest of the park was a consistent Cub blue. The guy immediately to my left
was there with friends or business associates, and he took an interest in my
scoring, especially scoring a Spring Training game. I can't tell if it was pity
or admiration.
Also in my section a couple of roads ahead were two guys in
"What" and "Idontknow" jerseys, which I thought was clever
of them. For food, I went to the food trucks that were there for the night
game, and grabbed a giant bowl of poutine fries, because how can you not get
poutine?
The Game: If you look at the first half of this normally
inter-league matchup between the Indians and Cubs, you could argue it was a
pitchers’ duel. But considering it ended 10-5, you can guess it fell pretty far
apart in the second half. [Coincidentally, if you had told anybody at this
point that this was a preview of the World Series, you would have been locked
up for your own safety.]
The Cubs and Indians both had one runner in the first, the
Cubs on a one-out single erased on a steal attempt, and the Indians one one-out
yip by the first baseman. The Cubs managed a leadoff double and walk in the
second, and Indians a two-out walk. The Cubs finally broke through in the third
with three straight singles to load the bases and a one-out single to bring in
a run. The runner from second got gunned down at the plate, and a fly to right ended
the half at 1-0, Cubs. The Indians had a two-out triple that got stranded in
their half.
The Cubs went in order in the fourth, and the Indians had a
two-out double that was stranded. The Cubs went in order in the top of the fifth,
and then the game fell apart. A new Cubs pitcher gave up back-to-back walks to
start the inning. The first runner stole second, and then a passed ball moved
them to second and third. A one-out grounder to second scored one and moved the
other to third. A single drove in the runner from third, and then a bomb to
left drove in two more, making it 4-1, Indians. A new pitcher came in and gave
up a walk and a hit before getting a strikeout to end the inning at nine
batters faced.
The Cubs went in order again in the sixth, and the Indians
did not. Another new Cubs pitcher gave up another leadoff single to the same Indian
from last inning, who then stole second again. There was another walk, and a
short single loaded the bases. Another single moved everyone around one spot,
driving in the lead runner. A grounder to the pitcher came home not in time,
and everyone moved a space thanks to the fielder's choice. That was it for that pitcher. The new Cub walked in a run, and then a sacrifice fly to right drove
in a run and moved everyone up a base. A single scored another run, and a fly
out to right moved up the runners. Having batted around, the first batter of
the inning was up again, and perhaps tired from running the bases, struck out,
ending the five-run inning with the score 9-1, Indians.
The Cubs managed three stranded base runners in the seventh
with a hit batsman, single, and fielder’s choice, but the Indians only managed
a walk with a stolen base. The Cubs found their bats in the eighth, with a
leadoff single and walk and one-out homer to right to make it 9-3, Indians. To
prove a point, perhaps, the Indians greeted yet another Cubs pitcher with a
home run to dead center in the bottom of the half to make it 10-3, Indians.
Trying to the last, the Cubs got a one-out single and then a walk. A grounder
to third went astray, bringing in the run on an E5, before two strikeouts ended
the pointless Spring Training game at 10-5, Indians, sending the record crowd
home in good spirits--or, at least the outnumbered Indian contingent.
The Scorecard: The Indians version of the scorecard was part
of the $7 magazine program (the proceeds of which went to charity), but, as
with the Reds, the scorecard was the full centerfold with heavy-weight paper
that was not taken over by advertisements, making it comfortable and easy to
score even a Spring Training game. In looking at it, I was very meticulous with
this one, perhaps because it was my last game and I had so much practice at
that point.
The home team was on the left side of the scorecard, which
is a non-traditional alignment, but they had a "Notes" area on each
side of the scorecard, which was welcome. They even had areas for bullpen and
bench, but as they were not announced, I couldn't fill them in.
Outside of the entire scoring and regular Cactus League
replacement bonanza, there were several items of scoring note. Firstly, there
were a lot of outfield assists in the game. In the bottom of the second, the
Indians tried to extend a single to right-center to a double and got cut down
CS 9-4. In the top of the third, a Cub runner from second tried to make it home
from second on a single to left-center and got cut down CS 7-2. And in the top
of the seventh, a Cub runner on first overran second base on a single to right
and got put out CS 9-4. There was also a regular-old caught stealing in the top
of the first 2-6 after a single.
There were some interesting pitching lines for the Cubs. The
relief pitcher in the fifth charged with the loss got run out with .6 IP 2 H 4
ER 2 BB 0 K. When you thought it couldn’t get worse, the reliever in the top of
the sixth had 0 IP 3 H 5 ER 1 BB 0 K. For the first time ever, I got to use the
"+" symbol for a pitcher's IP. It was a topic of discussion with the
guy sitting next to me. That said, there were 20 K combined for the entire
game. After a double-switch in the seventh, I just had the pitcher spot move
around on the Cubs side of the board, because they chose not to use a DH, a
first for me. There was a 4-3 put-out in the bottom of the fourth due to
overshift, resulting in the "4o-3" notation.
The attendance of 11,616 was a record for the stadium. It
would have been 11,615 without me, so I feel integral in the achievement.
The Accommodations: I was in my same room again. Given that
I had to leave for home the next day and didn't want to potentially deal with a
still-damp bathing suit, I did not go into the pool or hot tub all day.
On Drastic Atmospheric Changes
Sunday March 20, 2016
Jersey City, NJ
Outside the Game: And so my time in the desert was at an
end, for better or for worse. Frankly, my only thoughts were mostly on my uncle
and what would be waiting for me when I flew back. But for now, it was time to head
out.
The good news is that I had a lot of time to do it. My
flight wasn't until 3:25 PM, so there was a good deal of lying about in the
morning. With the majority of my loot already shipped, I just had all my
immediate crap to pack up and take back with me. I did a final shake down of
my... I originally typed "apartment" which was accurate as anything
else. As miserable an experience as it was, after two weeks, the place did grow
on me.
I did my last breakfast routine of eating (with the now
operational pancake machine) and taking my walk in the park in the cool
morning. There were some dogs that got petted, and even the tweakers weren't
around. In clearing everything out, I added to the Leaning Tower of Soap and
ate all the leftovers left in my refrigerator as a last lunch. There were
Arby's fries, Honey Bear beans, some BBQ sauce, and random items from the Quick
Mart next door.
Eventually, it was time to turn in my key and head out. My
first stop was the rental car place to drop off my now very, very dusty Chevy
Trax. Then I was into the airport, bought an upgrade because I just didn't care
at this point, and then went through security. The airport, or at least the
terminal I was in, was completely deserted. So it was mostly killing time until
boarding. Thankfully, everything was on time, and we boarded and took off, and
it was a mostly blah flight on the way back.
It was perhaps fitting that when we landed at around 11 PM,
it was snowing like it meant it. I hadn't seen a drop of water that wasn't in a
pool for two weeks, and now frozen bits of it were falling from the sky. After
deplaning and going out to grab a cab, I stopped short as soon as I stepped
outside, because the sensations were overwhelming. It was cold, sure, but it
was coldish some nights in Arizona. It was snowing, also novel, but that wasn't
it.
It was the moisture. There was so much moisture in the
air. I could feel my skin sucking it all in and rehydrating. It was crazy. This
is literally what I had been missing for over two weeks: moisture in the air. I
swore at that moment to never take it for granted again.
I eventually bundled into the cab and was quickly back at my
apartment to dump out everything and go to work the next day. And another one
of these things was over.
The Accommodations: Sweet home, Jersey City
See the Flickr set for this trip.
