On Finishing Strong (if Damp)
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| Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, 2013 |
Friday, June 14, 2013
Uni-President 7-11 Lions vs. Brother ElephantsXinzhuang Baseball Stadium
Chinese Professional Baseball League
New Taipei City, Taiwan
16:35
Outside the Game:
So this was going to be my last day with boots on the ground and head on the pillow in Taiwan. Making the most of my now critically limited time in country, I slept in and took my damn time getting out of bed.
Eventually dragging myself out of my room, I trudged down to the subway station and headed off to the Taipei Zoo. At the end of that particular subway line was not only the zoo, but also the Mokdong Gondola, which was advertised everywhere as the way to view Taipei. As I understood, it was a glass-bottomed sky ride that was usually closed due to weather conditions.
I decided to go to the zoo first, and as soon as I paid my admission, some desultory rain began plunking down from the sky, just to underline the situation. Undaunted, I took my ticket and went in.
I have to say, as zoo facilities go, it was a very well-done enterprise. First of all, it is frankly massive. And it is all well-landscaped. As you are walking around, you get lost in the place as you walk through stone arches and tree canopies shuttering the outside world. It is well-organized also, with logical animal groupings, including a special section dedicated to native Taiwanese wildlife. The rock-star pandas, of course, got their own big building to deal with the adoring masses of Chinese who can't get enough of them, though there were no real lines to speak of today. The koalas also got their own building, for some reason. They may just be popular or Taiwan, or it may be because koalas are bastards and need to be alone or they go nuts. Either way.
When I'm on these trips, I've taken to using bottles of water as a unit of distance, as in, it took me two bottles of water to get from X to Y. The zoo was an eight bottle of water endeavor, with the gross distances and insane mid-day temperatures. Thankfully, vending machines for sundry liquids were available at fairly regular intervals. I'd throw out my empties, load two more bottles into the backpack, and go on to meet and greet more wildlife.
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| Ook. |
The place was just massive, though. Even still, they had closed down some areas (such as the nocturnal house) and some were under reconstruction, such as the hippo hut. The hippos must have been popular, as they had a rather expansive area right in the middle of the zoo, near a gift shop and snack bar. While all the construction was going on, all the hippos were in a small concrete pen where they were all splayed out in a way that made it look as though someone how just used a dump truck to drop a palette of hippos off at a loading dock.
Not content with all of the animal enclosures, they also had a small natural history museum on the grounds much in the diorama spirit of the NY Museum of Natural History (with one showing a panda getting treed by some wolves), with the added benefit of awkward life-size animatronic dinosaurs in the basement level. It was all to a good cause, as there was an extensive display on evolution and extinction, so if it was in the course of education, a brachiosaur whose head only loudly moves about two feet is an acceptable price.
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| Treed panda |
I eventually made it through all the animals (and all the water), and stopped at one of the commissaries to get a late lunch after my obligatory trip though the gift shop. Looking at the time, I realized my decision on the gondola had been made for me, as I had to get back to the hotel for the game.
Before I went up to the room, I decided to check with the concierge desk to see if they could help me out with tickets after my experience the previous week. They'd said they take a trip to the 7/11 and let me know. On my way up to the room, I noticed a welcome sign out for the Uni-President Lions (the visiting team for tonight's game) and asked if they were staying here. And they were. I found out that this hotel has a bit of a history with baseball, hosting the Yankees coaches, Japanese stars, and others. I had no idea this was the case when I booked the place, but funny how that kind of thing works itself out, is it not?
So I went up to my room for a shower, and as I was getting dressed, the front desk called. It turns out that you could only use the convenience store machines for games a day in advance, but they had checked for me and assured me that there were infield seats still available.
This being the case, I headed off to the park to get there right when the ticket windows opened. I got to the stadium at a little after 4, and a small line had already formed for tickets, which I joined. At 4:30, the counters promptly opened, and I was in possession of an infield ticket on the home field side. I then set about amusing myself for the hour until the gates opened, wandering around the adjacent sports park and generally poking around. A little before 5:30, I queued up at the end of the line to get into the stadium, and, just as the gates opened up, it started to rain.
But more on that in a minute.
After the game, I headed straight back to the subway and had an uneventful trip back to the hotel. As I was walking up, the Lions' bus was just offloading its passengers, and I shared an elevator back to my room with about a third of the team, who were looking to get some sleep after the game as quickly as possible.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium |
Due to some creative CPBL scheduling, the first game where I saw the Elephants at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, they were actually the away team. It was one of the reasons that I wanted to get this last game in, as I would never technically have seen the Elephants play a game at home. So it all worked out, as it often does on these trips.
This was my first visit to the stadium where I was in the infield grandstand, so I was able to do more exploring that my first quick trip through the grandstand at the end of my first game here. There was the one promenade walkway at the top of the seating bowl, which was one section down from the walkway. About half of the seats in the lower deck were covered by the upper deck, which extended almost all the way around the lower deck seats. There was special seating similar to the Taoyuan park on either side of home plate, with desk seating that included power outlets.
You access the upper deck through stairways at regular intervals along the promenade. The upper deck as well had one walkway at the top that allowed access to all the seats below. The awning up here covered nearly all the seats in the upper deck. The upper walkway dead-ends on one end in the outfield where the deck ends and at the other inside at the handicapped seating next to the luxury boxes surrounding the press box.
You have to go downstairs for any amenities. The visitors merchandise gets set up on the third base side and the home team on the first base side. There is no permanent store for the merch on either side, which was unique in Taiwan. Food options were a little scarce on the visitors side (which turned into a ghost town past third base), but there were plentiful options on the home first-base side, ranging from a full-fledged convenience store, to Pizza Hut, to duck burritos, and (no kidding) pork blood sausages.
All of that talk about overhead coverage was very important, because the rain that started as soon as I came in changed to a torrent rather quickly. The tarp was out, but there didn't seem to be any move to call the game, so I was never too worried. When the rain slowed down, however, it was all hands on deck to get the field playable. First, the tarp came off and the grounds crew started laying down DiamondDry like it was going out of style. The infield seemed easy enough to fix, but the umpires were spending a lot of time looking at the outfield, which had several small lakes. Everyone except the players, but including the ball girls and what appeared to be some office staff, converged on the outfield with towels and buckets and began to sop up all the water possible. It was quite an effort, and in the end, the umpires cleared the field for play. To look at it, it only seemed if a small shower had graced the field. Here's to the grounds crew: the unappreciated heroes.
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| Cheerleaders work for their supper |
Given the weather, there was still a sizable crowd in the stadium, especially after a half-hour rain delay. The covered area of the home side was mostly filled, with a smattering of people upstairs and die-hards out in the bleachers. On the visiting side, the Lions had about a quarter of their seats filled, and their cheer squad was in attendance.
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| Rain cheers |
The Elephants' band and cheer squad were not down on the stage by the dugout, but at the top of the walkway safely under cover. I was pretty close to them, and the horns and drums get loud when you're that proximate to them. While the singing and cheers were mostly normal, being this close, I was able to pick up on a lot more of the little things. For example, on any two strike count, the home fans say a drawn-out out "See ya" as the pitch goes in to send the batter on his way.
And even on this rainy day, there was a proposal in the stands during the game. It was hard to see because they were in the section closer to home plate, but judging by the reactions, I think she said "yes."
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Slow realization |
While I was waiting in line for my ticket, I noticed for the first time in the two weeks that I had been in Taiwan that the $500 NTD note had a baseball picture on the back of it. I have to wonder if that is the only instance of baseball on money in the entire world.
Luckily, the seat I had for the game was already under the second deck, so the rain wasn't as much of an issue for me. I was sitting in a seat one away from the aisle, but it seemed my entire section was mostly filled by teenagers on dates. Two of them showed up next to me, and the male of the pair managed to get across that I was the one that was keeping them from sitting together, and would I mind moving? So I moved over one to advance the good of humanity. To perhaps offset this, on my other side was a teenage kid going to the game with his mom. I'm sure it means something, but I was too damp to care.
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| Pork blood on a stick |
The one good thing about the rain delay was that it gave me a lot of time to wander around the concession stands for food. Of course I got the pork blood pudding. It was fantastic. One of the first things I did when I got back to the states was talk to the Taiwanese people I know at work and make them tell me where you can get it in America. (The answer is Queens.)
The Game:
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| First pitch, Lions vs. Elephants |
The game started about forty minutes late due to the rain delay.
This was a tale of a game with sporadic, but intense, scoring, and a bunch of double-plays. The Lions went in order in the top of the first, while the Elephants had a leadoff single erased on a double-play, and a reached-on-an-error stranded by a ground-out to the pitcher. The top of the second began with a homer deep to left by the Lions. Two outs followed, then another homer deep to left, leaving it 2-0 Lions at the end of the half. The Elephants went in order.
The third started with another Lions' homer deep to left, before the rest of the lineup went in order. The Elephants went in order again in the bottom of the inning, as did the Lions in the top of the fourth. The home team finally showed some life in the bottom of the inning. They got three straight singles to bring in a run and leave it first and second with no outs. The next batter tried to bunt the runners over, but the catcher threw the ball away, loading up the bases with no outs. A short single brought another run in and left the bases loaded, but the pitcher struck out the next batter. But he walked the one after that, bringing in a run, and then alternated with another strikeout. A single to deep second brought in another run and completed the Elephants' batting around for the inning. The tenth batter finally flied out to second to end it, with the Elephants in the lead for the first time at 4-3.
The Lions eked out a two-out double in the top of the fifth, while the Elephants went in order. The sixth was another scoring frame, as the Lions got back-to-back singles to start the inning, and a sacrifice fly brought in a run and moved the tailing runner to second. A deep single to left brought the runner from second home before the pitchers got a strikeout. He then gave up another single and got the hook from the game. The next pitcher got a fly-out to center to end the bleeding at 5-4, Lions. The Elephants only had a stranded hit batsman to show for their half.
In the top of the seventh, the Lions got back-to-back singles again to start the inning, but stranded them with nothing across. The Elephants, seemingly forgetting how to hit, again went in order. The Lions didn't fare much better in the eighth, with just a two-out single. The Elephants tried to get something going in the bottom half with a single and the inevitable sacrifice bunt to move the runner to scoring position. But a grounder to the pitcher nailed the lead runner at third, and the runner remaining after the fielder's choice was picked off first base to end the threat.
The Lions got three straight singles in the top of the ninth to score another run, before a strikeout and a double-play ended their half. In the bottom of the ninth, a one-out walk went for naught as another double-play erased the runner before a fly to left ended the Elephant's last licks at 6-4 for the visiting Lions.
The Scorecard:
Lions vs. Elephants, 06/14/13. Lions win, 6-4.
Once again, I was with the Baseball Writer's Association of America scorebook. As previously mentioned, there were a bunch of pitcher's best friends in this game, the most exotic of which was the "DP 1-6-3" in the ninth.
Easily the oddest thing in the game was the home runs. While it was also the most I saw in any game in Taiwan, the second and third dingers were of particular interest. The second homer to left in the top of the second looked like it hit the wall, but it was, after a brief congregation of umpires, ruled to be over the line and a home run. I made that note and thought I'd never think of it again. Yet two batters later in the top of the third, the exact same thing happened in the exact place with the home run to lead off the inning, and so the note was improbably re-used.
It was mostly conventional besides that, except for a "1-5t" put out in the bottom of the eighth to nail a lead runner not in a force situation.
One Elephants pitcher had quite the pitching line: infinite innings pitches (recorded no outs), 3 hits, 1 earned run. That does not help one's ERA.
The Accommodations:
I was at the Imperial again, along with the winning team from that night's baseball contest.
On Bad Decisions, Such as Leaving
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| Airport pagoda |
Outside the Game:
So it came to this. It was my last day in country, and something had to be done about it. And that something turned out to be sleeping in as late as possible, and then having to pack all my crap before checkout came at the very civilized hour of noon.
Through some herculean effort of physics and organization, I managed to get all of my crap into the two bags I started with, even though I had far more stuff than I began with. I did worry about the structural integrity of both bags, but you can only bother yourself with so many concerns.
I dragged my bags down just shy of noon and officially checked out with the good folks at the hotel. I asked them to hold my bags for a while, as I wouldn't actually to have to head to the airport realistically any time before 3 PM, and even at that it would be early. I then had an afternoon to fill, with several strictures imposed upon it. Firstly, I couldn't go too far, as I needed to know I'd be able to get back to the hotel in time to leave. Secondly, I couldn't really do anything outside in the afternoon, as it was again a thousand degrees out with a thousand percent humidity, and I didn't want to take a sixteen-hour plane ride smelling like wet death after being soaked through with sweat from being outside. Not only would it be uncomfortable, but I'd likely be lynched by my fellow passengers in first class.
So within the parameters given, I did what I could. My first action was to get a four-course steak lunch at one of the restaurants in the hotel. And even given the luxury of the experience, it only cost about $30, which is cheap for the offering in the US. Suitability luncheoned, I set out into the afternoon. Given my limiting factors, I took to the underground, and grabbed the subway back Taipei Main Station. I had partially passed through an underground mall they have there in previous trips, and I figured it was worth a visit through now.
The mall, as it turns out, is not just one thing, but a series of sections starting at Taipei Main Station and following the subway line for two stops. It is probably the longest straight distance you can travel underground in Taipei. The first stretch of mall between the first two stations was mostly clothes and the like. But the second bit was the "Underground Book Mall," with nothing but book shops for the entire stretch of it. Although there was limited material that I could comprehend, it was a good way to pass some time. And then, in about the third or fourth store I stopped in, I saw a shelf of English-language instruction books, and on it was a book about learning English through baseball. It is a small world sometimes. It would have been more useful to find a book with the Chinese translations for every possible baseball terms at the start of the trip, but who am I to argue?
Purchase in hand, I went through the last stretch of the mall, which had a section of public mirrored dance studio, which was filled with Taiwanese teenagers of both genders spending Saturday afternoon practicing their dance moves in great numbers. When I got to the end of the mall at the second station, I took the subway back to the main station. There was a stage set up for what looked to be an audition for the Taiwanese version of "American Idol," or some such. Having successfully murdered the necessary time, I left them to it and got on the subway back to the hotel.
I got my bags from the hotel and had them call me a cab to the airport a little shy of 3:30. My flight wasn't until 7 PM, but I needed to get there 2.5 hours before, and the staff had told me that with traffic (as was likely on a Saturday, for some reason), it could take up to an hour. So off I went, in multiple ways, as I managed to conk out in the cab early in the trip and awoke to find that we hadn't hit any traffic, and I was at the airport at 4.
I paid the cabby and headed into the airport to get this whole process started. Since I was in super-mega class, or whatever, I got to use the special check-in counter and quickly checked my erstwhile and over-laden carry-on bag and got my boarding pass and permission slip for the frequent flier's club. After I turned in my bag, I had to wait to see if it got through security before going through security myself. Presumably, if there's a problem when your bag is scanned, you deal with it before security, and life goes on. So I waited by a little video screen until I saw my bag being conveyed to loading, and went on my way. Since I was so extraordinarily early, I took a walk around the outer area of the airport to see what I could see, which wasn't all that much.
I then went to security, and it provided a very effective American detection system. When the Americans got up to the actual checkpoint to go through the metal detectors and bag X-ray, they started disrobing and pulling crap out of their bags, while everyone else just threw their bags on the conveyor and went to through the metal detector. Drunk with unimagined freedom, I stopped taking off my belt, and just threw my backpack on the conveyor and walked through the metal detector... Aaaand I got my bag, and went on my way, and the terrorists didn't win, and freedom didn't collapse, and I felt a little sad thinking about the next time I had to fly. Which seems to happen an awful lot when I fly in other countries, for some reason.
I had to wait in another quick-moving line to clear customs, where a very serious-looking young woman asked me a bunch of questions no-doubt designed to catch smugglers and terrorists, and stared seriously at me as I answered, and then smiled sweetly at me and sent me on my way. Why can't more transactions go this way?
Still incredibly early, I decided to take a look around the airport to kill some time. I bought some pineapple treats for people at work at the duty free shop, and then I just walked around. Because it was actually a legitimately interesting building instead of just an airport. There were sporadic art, cultural, and historic exhibits you could walk around in. They even had a play area for the kids (well, the girls at least) all themed out in Hello, Kitty. As I passed, there was a little girl rapturously watching some cartoon or other on the screen, and I yet again saw another child that was happier under 10 then I'd ever be again in my life.
Well, almost, because down another corridor was a "relaxation room," that had 15-minute massage chairs that you could get free tokens to use. And while I might not have been quite as happy as that little girl, after fifteen minutes, I was doing A-Ok.
I eventually gave up walking around and went to the EVA Air club at the terminal. There are apparently several different levels to the club, as you get screened when you come in and get sent down one of three corridors that are carefully watched. The passage I was sent down ended in a nice enough lounge, with big comfy chairs and electrical outlets. There was also a nice free buffet in another room, and in that buffet was a drinks tray, and on that drinks tray was an open bottle of KaVaLan single malt. So, with my plate of free food, I was in a comfy chair watching the ballgame on one of the TVs, freshly massaged, and drinking some free Scotch, and all of a sudden, that little girl was getting a run for her money.
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| Civilized |
This debauchery went on until it was time for boarding. I went down to my gate and got there just as they were finishing pre-boarding all the special needs and families with young children. I went in with the first batch of first class, or business class (or whatever) passengers, and was led to my seat by a stewardess. I stowed my bags and began taking advantage of all the stuff to which my ticket price entitled me. I took off my shoes and socks and replaced them with circulation socks and slippers. I arrayed my free headphones and got everything plugged in. I moisturized on up with the lotion in my kit, and arrayed my pillows and blankets accordingly.
It was a relatively quick wait until take-off, and no plague-carrying miscreants delayed us going this way. We took off and got altitude, and as soon as the seatbelt sign came off, I went and got my bag, and really started to abuse the privileges. I had my iPod plugged into my seat jack to recharge and provide music, I plugged in the iPad to get it juiced up as well, and I played some games on the entertainment system while I awaited my three-course dinner.
As much as I was enjoying myself, the little Chinese girl in the pod behind me thought she had died and gone to Disney Land. She was in this big chair that might be as big as her bedroom, and there were buttons, and lights, and clothes to dress up in, and a blanket to hide under... and then she found the big magic screen that would play whatever cartoon she wanted. It really put my own limited enjoyment in perspective. But then my steak dinner came, with its free Scotch, and once again, the kid would get a run for her money from the old white guy.
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| Also civilized |
After dinner was all cased away and the cabin was darkened for night time as we defied time and space and flew eastward against the date line, we started to hit some turbulence, which sort of dampened the festivities. Or it at least delayed everyone getting to sleep for an hour or so. And had that sleep disturbed by being buffeted around like a present being guessed by an impatient child.
But even with that, everyone slept through most of the flight. I woke up with under three hours until we landed, and all of the things I had hoped to achieve on the flight quickly took the wayside to "sitting around and eating and watching TV." I make no apologies.
We actually pulled in about an hour early and had a bit of a taxi to our gate, but we were eventually disgorged early into the NY evening. We had left at about 7 PM Taiwan time, and we arrived about 9 PM ET, thus setting up some rather epic jetlag. With unsteady steps, I made it through immigration and went to baggage claim to get my bag. I gave my father a call, as he was picking me up, and he was already parked and waiting for me on the other side. After a moderate wait, I managed to have my bag be one of the last of the "priority" bags to come off the plane, and, enjoying my last first-class perk, I wandered through customs and out to my waiting parent, who graciously took me back to my apartment.
After exploding my bag open at my place, I eventually started to get a little sleepy at 2 AM and made the awful decision to take a sleeping pill, thinking it would get me back on my sleep cycle faster. In reality, it left me wide awake at 4:30 AM when I awoke again, but too drugged to do anything but loll back and forth impotently on the bed.
The Accommodations:
Home Hoboken, relievedly and regrettably
Epilogue:
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| Loot |
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| All the guys |
2013 Taiwan
