Adelaide

On a New Year, New City

Brisbane Airport, New Year's Day

Monday, January 1, 2018

Adelaide, SA, Australia


Outside the Game:
I got up early at the start of the new year, having gone to bed at a demure hour the night before. I had some more oatmeal and then packed up. In the process of doing so, I couldn't find my return ticket to the airport and spend a great deal of time searching for it only to eventually find it in my wallet exactly where I left it.

Also in the process of packing, I realized that I couldn't fit everything in my bag. Over the course of a singular week, I had bought so many souvenirs and the like that my bag could not contain them all. It took a great deal of inventive smooshing for everything to finally fit correctly in a greatly strained carry on. I also cheated and used a larger bag to hold my backpack and overflow items.

Thusly packaged, I headed off to check out and get the train back to the airport. As I had a wait for the train, I grabbed an Egg McMuffin at the Maccas at Central Station, and then took the short train to the airport.

I was quickly faced with a domestic check-in with Qantas for the first time. It was automated at kiosks, and my brain wasn't particularly functional at the time. An attendant quickly identified me as someone in need of help and walked me through confirming my boarding pass, getting my flight tag for my bag, and sending it on its merry way down the conveyor.

With time to spare, I had yet another breakfast/lunch at Australian chicken chain Red Rooster while I waited to board. With just my backpack bag, it was less of an issue to board first, but it was a cattle call nevertheless, and I was quickly in my seat with my bag stowed away. There was a young lady sitting next to me, but we had an empty seat in the middle that we split.

Second breakfast

It was about a three-hour flight and it went quickly. I spent most of it napping, and watching first part of the mini-series Hoages on the entertainment system. This was an Australian TV biopic about national hero, Paul Hogan. I got through his early career and was just up to pitching Crocodile Dundee when the plane came in to land. It was actually an interesting movie, as all his history prior to The Paul Hogan Show was unknown to me. The only reason I even knew who he was before Crocodile Dundee was that The Paul Hogan Show was picked up by NY local channel 9, who ran it in the early 80s. All of his start as a bridge rigger on the Sydney Harbor Bridge and his beginnings on the Australian version of The Gong Show were news to me. I also didn't know that "Hoages'" sidekick "Strop" was Hogan's writing partner and producer.

Thus informed, I went out in Adelaide. I retrieved my bag from the carousel with no issue and found out the quickest and easiest way into the city was on a city shuttle for A$10. As there was one just about to leave, I climbed on board. The shuttle was driven by an affable gentleman who turned out to be the owner of the shuttle company. I was the first stop, as I was in the city center, and he dropped me off right at my hotel.

I checked in late afternoon and spent some time arraying myself in my huge apartment before showering up, doing laundry, and heading out for dinner.

It being New Year's Day, I wasn't expecting a lot to be open, but I went walking down by China Town and found an incongruous Italian place wedged in across the street. I went in and had a decent Italian meal, but I was disappointed to first experience something that I would find to be true across all of Australia: There was no bread. I mean, how can you have an Italian restaurant and not have bread on the table? I mean, really. It was one of my only real disappointments in Australia.

China Town

After dinner, I spent some time walking all around the city and went up to the cultural district in the north end of town. I saw the War Memorial lit up at night, the Parliament building, the Station Casino, and a wall projection at the library. I also saw them setting up for a big construction project, with lines of construction vehicles piled into the center of the road for something. (I would find out the next day on that.) In my walking around, I kept running into groups of people who were taking the opportunity to go out for some more drinking on their Monday off on New Year's Day. God bless 'em.

Library Projection

Nothing was open that night because of the holiday, so I headed past the many university buildings in town and went back to my hotel, where I puttered around my room with some tea before heading into my bedroom for the evening.


The Accommodations: 

The living room at the Franklin Central Apartments

I had gotten my first taste of apartment hotels in Brisbane, but I would fully have my mind blown at the Franklin Central Apartments in Adelaide, where I'd be staying for the duration of my time there.

Firstly, all the front doors had those slidey signs that went between "Do Not Disturb" and "Please Clean Up the Room." I entered my room in a long hallway. Right off to the left was my bedroom. It was an actual bedroom, with a huge bed, two nightstands, big closets, an actual door. Next on the hall was my bathroom, which in addition to the regular sort of things you find in bathrooms, it also had a full washer and drier that I abused tremendously during the trip.

At the end of the hallway was a full kitchen, with appliances and a range oven, for the love of Pete. Past the kitchen was a full living room, with a full-sized couch, coffee table, dining table, and TV.

It was all pretty nice. There is particularly something indelible about having a "bedroom" that you can walk into and close the door and be in your bedroom. It made for a very nice stay.

On Being Cultural

Art Gallery of Southern Australia

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Adelaide, SA, Australia


Outside the Game: 
I woke up early again, and a little jet lagged. And I mean a very little, because Adelaide is a half hour behind eastern Australia. I had never even heard of this before the plane was landing the day before, and the pilot said what the local time was. (In further research, there are only 11 countries in the world that do offsets of 30 or 45 minutes. Australia is the only country in the world that has multiple of such zones, with 6 of them.) I'm not exactly sure what the benefit is, except for the fact that it made me feel slightly off for most of the day. Given that I was already still a little lagged from the big time zone move when I got here, it made it all the more odd. I still think the hour or so I spent in Sydney before I went to Brisbane was the cause of nearly all of it.

At any rate, I was up early enough that I was able to shower and dress and still have time before the hotel attached to the restaurant opened. When it did, I saw a full English breakfast on the menu and stopped there. In due course, a giant plate of lovely was delivered to me, which I devoured presently.

A light breakfast

And then I was off to the world. Conveniently, Adelaide has most of its cultural attractions all close together in the "cultural district" near the parliament building and one of the many colleges and universities in town. Unfortunately, two things came into play. Firstly, all those construction vehicles I had seen the night before were being used, as apparently January 2nd was the day that a large tram upgrade was scheduled to begin. This was doubly bad because it meant a) the tram service was disrupted nearly completely, and b) the construction closed off large swaths of crosswalks, which made getting around extremely difficult. I had taken a jaunty little walk up the night before, and it was quick going, but getting back the next morning took twice as long because I had to walk for several blocks trying to find a place to cross.

I needn't have worried, as even when I got to the museums, they all didn't open until 10 AM. I sat around with a bunch of art students from one of the colleges waiting for one of the galleries to open for a bit, but instead, I first went to the South Australian Museum when it opened first.

It was your standard natural history museum, with a couple of standout bits. Their Egypt room was straight about of the 1860s, with faux art on the walls around wooden glass cases of mummies. There was also a life-sized giant squid that stood upright in a shaft that extended all the floors of the museum. In the dinosaur bit, there was a T-Rex that roared at you if gave it an A$2 coin, and they had a rather nice collection of local Aboriginal art. One point of correction, though. In the geology section, there was a sample from the Franklin-Sterling Hill Mines in New Jersey. There's nothing wrong with that; it is the most diverse mineral deposit in the world. However, the map in the exhibit placed the mine somewhere in upstate New York. I considered pointing it out to someone, but I can't believe that anyone would have cared.

Old-school Egyptology

Next door was the Art Gallery of Southern Australia. It, too, was your basic art gallery with some nice pieces that I liked. Except there was one piece in there that was Internet-famous on Reddit the last year. It is entitled (translated from the German) "Swings and roundabouts for the children? Yes? No! Pigface!", by the British Chapman brothers. How to sum this one up? Well, it is a diorama. The diorama features a death camp/playground where the McDonaldland characters gorge themselves on food made from a flood of Nazi guards who are murdered, eaten, and their corpses animated to help torture and kill their former comrades. So that exists. I'm pretty sure it was not endorsed my McDonald's at any rate.

Nope, really. That's the art.

After that, relatively close but a long walk because of the construction, was The Migration Museum. I would find migration and immigration museums to be a mainstay of Australia, along with jails. This was a smaller one that covered all the migration to Adelaide and its environs, and--as with all the other immigration museums I would find--dealing with the "White Australia" policy that limited non-Caucasian immigration until the 1970s. It even had a big floor board game where you could pretend to be a migrant to Adelaide and see how you'd do. I won, for the record, and had "a happy and long life."

No, really.

I then took the walk to the northwest to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens, another Australian mainstay. I had to walk by the river past another university campus, and then, after being frustrated by a couple of closed gates, finally found a way into the extensive grounds. I had a somewhat relaxing ramble through the gardens and its buildings, but it was so vast an area, it was easy to get lost. It was getting late in lunchtime, so I stopped at a sandwich shop to get some tuck, and I met a nice couple who gave me an extra map they happened upon. It turns out that I had managed to enter the only place that didn't have maps right at the gate.

Lovely lilies

Thus fortified and oriented, I headed back out to find the Southern Australia Wine Center. Adelaide is the most famous region in Australia for wines, and they have a whole building to crow about it. I found it easily enough, although many of the exhibits were closed for the holidays. As I arrived after lunch, the place was mostly empty when I made it to the tasting room. It was a wine bar where you could order little plates of things while you did wine tastings. You got a little card, and you could go up to any of the dozens of taps with different wines set up, with the bottles above. You stick in your card, put a glass under the spigot, and choose one of three volumes of wine, and off you go.

Even though I had just had a sandwich, I ordered a plate of bread and cheese so I didn't get completely on my ass and then went to town on the wines. Even though I only picked the smallest tasting of each, it added up pretty quickly. By the time that I was done and back out into the world, I was feeling pretty good about things.

On my ramblings on the way out, I found the most Victorian thing ever. Within the gardens was a small neo-classical building that held the Museum for Economic Botany. Inside were rows and rows of wooden and glass cases showing the various floral products of Australia and how you could exploit them to make money. Its perfection was a little overwhelming, to be honest.

Peak Victorian

I headed back to the State Library when I passed a police action in from of one of the college buildings. The Aussie police were arresting some individual on the ground. I didn't find out much more than that, except that the occasion had multiple, unarmed officers present and restraining the suspect without beating him up. Huh. Who could have imagined that could work?

The big attraction at the State Library of Adelaide was the Mortlock Wing, library porn in the purest form of Trinity College in Dublin. It was a three-level orgasm of 19th century polished hardwood, with a half-dome skylight running the length of the room and a Victorian clock hanging from the center of the ceiling. The sturdy wooden table and chairs would likely outlast Armageddon. A clutch of annoyed students sat there glaring at all the tourists, but I did not have one care to give to them.

Book boner

Heading back, I took in the State War Memorial before heading further west to try and find another museum. Several missed turns and ambiguous streets on a hot afternoon led me to find it was a modern art museum on another one of the innumerable colleges in town. I decided to pass and head for groceries.

I stopped in Coles, another Aussie supermarket chain, and bought up some more food and supplies before heading back to the hotel. I stopped in at the Post Office right down the street from my hotel to ask some questions. Firstly, Australian post offices are huge affairs that include shipping supplies and other mail needs in the building. I had a chat with one of the staff about what I needed to do to ship things back to America. My close call fitting everything in my bags on the plane here left me with the realization that I needed to regularly ship thing back to America in order to make it through this trip. It is something I had starting doing on my US baseball trips, but doing so domestically isn't a problem, and I generally only had to do it once right before I left for the flight home. I would have to do it before each plane trip in Australia, because my level of souvenir buying was not abating by any stretch, and I would not be able to travel with two relatively small bags otherwise.

The guy at the counter was very helpful, and he loaded me up with some customs forms and said he would be happy to help me pack everything up before I shipped out. This was a tiny bit different than the experience I was used to in US post facilities.

After that, I went back to my hotel and but away all my groceries and various souvenirs from the day, did a load of laundry and showered, and then took advantage of my living room. With a full couch and various pillows and blankets at my disposal, I was able to take a proper couch nap in this room, and did so joyfully for a little under an hour. I had walked a ton again that day, and I needed a bit of a lie down.

Thusly revived, I headed back into the evening to get some dinner. I went back to China Town, and decided on getting some actual Chinese food this time, have a lovely dinner at a dumpling house before heading back out into the night.

Dumplings

I decided to walk up to the north end of town across the river to where Adelaide Oval lay. The Oval is the home for cricket and Australian Rules Football in Adelaide, and it lies picturesquely across the river from the river district in city center. Due to the construction, it took a bit to get to, but I was finally able to cross the pedestrian bridge to the oval and take some pictures and do a little walk around.

Even with the nap and dinner, I was fading pretty quickly, so I headed back to the hotel for some tea and Tim Tams before going into my bedroom for good for the night.


The Accommodations: 
I was at the Franklin Central for the duration of this trip. Outside of some puttering in the morning, a stop-in late afternoon, and my pre-bed tea, I didn't spend a lot of time there that day.

I was very taken by how convenient this room was. I was able to do laundry every day in my room, so I wasn't going to run out of clothes. The couch was proving extremely comfy for napping, and I couldn't get over how much having an actual bedroom improved my sleeping experience.

On Zoos, Human and Otherwise, and Going Local

Five minutes more, eh, mate?

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Adelaide, SA, Australia


Outside the Game: 
I had an extremely lazy morning this day. There was a lot of puttering around the apartment, and after my grocery stop yesterday, I had the components to make my own breakfast in my full kitchen.

The tea and the "100% Australian" Kellogg Corn Flakes ("Australian made with Australian corn"), and black currant juice were easy enough to make, but I also wanted to try and make some local cuisine. I had asked Reddit on the trip over what Australian foods I should try, and one of the big answers was "fairy bread." This wasn't a product that you could buy, but a childhood standard made by moms. It is white bread, spread with margarine, and then covered in hundreds and thousands (Nonpareils for non-Anglos). It was... sweet. It was very, very sweet. I certainly understand why Aussies have fond childhood memories of it, but it was on the sweet-side for an adult pallet.

Who you calling "fairy bread"?

My gastronomical experimentation complete, I headed out to the zoo, completely forgetting to bring some of the bottled water I had bought for cheap at the supermarket and forcing me to buy overpriced convenience store water along the way. This was going to be my first zoo in Australia, as Brisbane didn't have a zoo in the city, but instead had a gigantic Steve Irwin wildlife center far to the north of town that I did not have time to go to.

The Adelaide Zoo was a very respectable place, including a panda exhibit that was thronged with Asian tourists. The kangaroos were lying motionless in the shade, which would become a theme, as well as Tasmanian Devils hiding out of site in the their exhibit somewhere. Orangutans are always my favorite, and there was even a petting section in the Australian animals exhibit. Now, I was spending most of my trip trying to avoid any interactions with Australian wildlife, especially with all of the warning signs about it that the government saw fit to put up about them. However, I found an Australian animal that even I had no compunctions with interacting with.

The quokka is a small, cat-sized, vegetarian marsupial that evolved in isolation with no predators. This means it has absolutely no fear of humans. It managed to not be made extinct even with this handicap, probably because they are adorable, unlike the Dodo. I pet a quokka with no negative effects and went on with the rest of my day.

The most dangerous fauna in Australia I was willing to deal with

After my visit, I was exiting through the gift shop, and I was going to buy gifts for all of the people back at the office, so I had a sizable stack of items when I sidled up to the checkout counter. The lady at the counter told me I'd get a discount if I'd become a zoo member, as well as being able to get into all of the other zoos in Australia for free. Seeing as I was going to all of the other zoos in Australia, this seemed like a good idea. She said that she couldn't get me a membership here, but she gave me the discount and told me how to get to the membership counter.

I stood in a short line before filling out a form. I was then informed that it wasn't an immediate thing, and it would take seven days to process. But I wouldn't be in Adelaide in seven days. I didn't have my Melbourne address with me, so it wasn't looking like we would be able to work this out. So I handed back my form and snuck back into the store to try and pay the difference on the discount. The lady looked at me like I was a little bit crazy and said that it was alright and consider it a late New Year's gift. And so away I went.

My walk back to the hotel took me past the Adelaide Oval. The night before when I had taken pictures there, I saw advertisements for tours, so I decided to stop in and ask about them. As it happened, a tour was just about to start, so I decided that was enough of a sign about that, so I got a ticket. They asked at the start if there were any foreigners, and there were some English, New Zealanders, Irish, and myself. I was asked why an American cared anything about cricket, to which I had to give my complicated cricket story, which they apparent found acceptable. And off we went.

Adelaide Oval

It was my first cricket stadium tour, so it was interesting where we went, including the waiting room for the players in addition to the regular tours of the luxury areas and artifacts and the like. One thing that set the Adelaide Oval apart was that they kept their manual scoreboard even when they renovated everything else about the stadium. It was a much larger item than the one in the Green Monster in Boston, for example, as there are more players for cricket, for one thing. We got to go into the belly of the beast, and saw the low-tech controls for everything. Of course, a young boy was chosen to sit in the operator's seat, and he was able to turn on and off a few lights with a circuit control board from the late 1950s at best. We even got to go out on the pitch and sit in the dugouts.

After a quick stop at the gift shop, I was on my way to my next destination, the Adelaide Gaol. That was a further short walk to the west of city center, but I had nothing else on my agenda for the day, so I took the stroll. Unfortunately, there wasn't an altogether clear path on how to get to the old jail. I ended up on an extended ramble, which, as with no time constraints, wasn't necessarily a scheduling problem, but it was getting me more and more frustrated, especially in the hot afternoon sun.

I quickly went from off-course to lost, and then gave up on the entire idea, and just tried to find the quickest way back to downtown. In the course of getting back, I did, finally, pass the turn-off for the jail, but at that point, I was so hot and annoyed that I didn't even bother to stop and went straight back to my room.

I did a load of laundry while I took a shower and a nap on my lovely couch, and then made use of my full kitchen again. Some of the groceries I had procured the previous night were another one from my "must eat" Aussie food list: Chiko Rolls. These were Aussie-modified spring rolls, usually served in sleeves, which were helpfully included in the frozen packet I bought at the supermarket. I got out the frying pan in my room, melted up some margarine, and fried me some Chiko Rolls. I ate them on a plate instead of the sleeves, but they were quite good either way. I'm not sure I can describe what about them was so tasty, but they were.

Chiko rolls

I headed out into the night for a bit of a walk. I spent some time in Victoria Square Park, down the street from my hotel. There was a dance class going on, and some skaters in another section, and there were some small Asian children playing in the fountains on this warm summer evening. I pretty much just sat around for a bit, enjoying doing nothing.

Even though I was still on an early bed schedule, I had told a friend in the US that I would stay up to call him when the time would overlap. I managed to stay awake for the call, but there was a cross-up on the timing. After not hearing back by midnight, I went into my bedroom to go down for the count.


The Accommodations:
I spent more time than usual in my room that day, with all the cooking and lazing around. It was so nice to have a full efficiency apartment with a full kitchen. I was at least making use of it today.

On Misreading Maps and Meeting God

Active Displays Stadium, 2018

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Perth Heat vs. Adelaide Bite
Active Display Stadium
Australian Baseball League
Adelaide, SA, Australia
7:00 PM


Outside the Game:
My last full day in Adelaide was also a game day. After getting to bed relatively late the night before, I had a lazy, lazy morning on Thursday. Much puttering was done. More Australian corn flakes were eaten, along with straight toast, as I didn't think I could have any more fairy bread without getting diabetes. Tea was drunk. Coaches were lounged on. The passive voice was used.

I eventually set out do some morning shopping in the Central Market. I eventually bought some Aboriginal art at a store where I ended up shopping with a Canadian lady, then booked my car service back to the airport the next day, and called my friend from the missed connection the night before, all while wandering around the endless stalls of the market.

I went back to the hotel and gathered up all my souvenirs, no longer needed itinerary items, and other sundries and headed back to the Australia Post Office down the street. I piled everything in three boxes: one for a friend, one for myself, and one for the people at work. Because of the iffy situation of having my boxes perhaps being left in the open at my apartment until my landlord got home, I shipped the box for myself to work as well. I went up to the counter with five pages of customs declarations, and after a suitable amount of time, we managed to get everything in order and on their way to the United States, leaving myself considerably poorer, but much less burdened. On the way out, I noticed that one of the people that I was delaying with my larger transaction was the nice Canadian lady from the art store. She waved, Canandianly.

Back at the hotel, I packed up my considerably fewer belongings, did a last load of laundry, laid out my clothes for the next day, and packed everything else up. I cooked up my last two Chiko Rolls up for lunch, doing a considerably better job this time. The cleaning staff arrived then, and I asked them for a few minutes to eat, and then vacated the premises while they cleaned. I headed down to the transit booth to get my tram ticket for that evening, but I got turned around on the way there, so by the time I was back, the maids were gone, and I had a tactical lie-down on the couch before heading out that evening.

The end of it

I headed to the tram station to grab the 3 PM out to the beach, which was the closest transit option to the stadium. I took some time to wander around Glenelg Beach, which was the first beach I had actually been to in Australia. It had a nice little boardwalk, some amusements, and a sky that was blue and endless. Even though I had lunch earlier, I stopped into the first proper chippie I had seen in Australia and availed myself of some "chicken salt," which was on my list of Aussie cuisine to try. (It wasn't, as you might imagine, "chicken flavored salt," but the actual item is chicken mixed in with salt.) I can't quite explain the flavor except to say it is amazing, especially on fish and chips.

Thus fortified, I decided to head off towards the park. Along the way, there was a replica of the HMS Buffalo that I wanted to stop at, only to find it was closed for repairs.

By my reckoning, it was about a 20-minute walk to the stadium, and I headed out with a high head and great hope. The walk was along an inlet, with a pleasant view through tony suburbs. However, upon reaching what I thought to be the stadium, I discovered it to be the local club team park for the Glenelg Baseball Club. A few semi-frantic reviews of my map later, I was to find that the stadium I was looking for was another 3K north of my current position.

There was nothing else for it. I started hoofing it. Perhaps due to my folly, or perhaps due to the lack of cover for the second part of the trip, the late afternoon sun felt particularly hot. It became another death march rather quickly. Once I reached a golf course, I knew I only had to walk its length to get to the stadium. The water I had was gone, and things were getting grim. On the other side of the road was a cafe for a caravan park, and I quickly crossed the road and bought three PowerAdes, downed two, and took the last one with me for the rest of the walk.

I eventually made it to the park and took my walk around to take pictures before buying a ticket and going inside.

On the way out, after finally arranging a cab back, I was waiting outside of the sports facility for a while until the cab arrived. In the intervening time, a woman walking her dog saw a bedraggled American laden with bags in the middle of the night and asked about my well-being. I assured her a cab was on the way, and on cue, my cab arrived, and a nice Sikh man drove me quickly back to my hotel, where I quickly finished packing, threw a load of laundry in the machine, and went directly to bed.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Active Display Stadium

Active Display Stadium is a combo ballpark that has a field for baseball, as well as one for softball right next to it. They are so close, in fact, that foul balls from the one regularly end up in the field of the other, which I'm sure is one of the reasons that they don't use both for games at the same time.

Bennett Field is a no-frills affair, with a covered grandstand of seats behind home plate (culminating with the press box on the top), as well as two sections of general admissions seating by each dugout. Unlike many other ABL parks, they even have seating on the outfield berm in left-center, though few hardy souls utilized it. They have a special section for groups right next to the dugouts on field level with table service, and the one on the home side has their own mini-bleacher. There was a regulation scoreboard and rudimentary video board out in left center that were nearly impossible to see for most of the game because of the glare of the sun setting behind it.

There is one clubhouse building off to the side that houses pretty much everything. The one main concession (supplemented by some food trucks by third base) is on the outside of the building, and inside houses the team offices, the bar, a coffee bar, and the facilities. The concessions sold Aussie standards such as sausage rolls and meat pies, and I had a meat pie to top off the evening. There was one merch van that had a slightly wider selection of items than normal, and I scored an ABL baseball and a jersey.

The crowd was thin, but these were clearly die-hards in the seats. There were a number of folks wearing Adelaide Giants gear, as well. There was the regular array of between-innings shenanigans of contests, give aways, and the like, but it also had one of the most bizarre variants I think I'll ever come across.

Everyone is probably familiar with the dizzy-bat race. Two or more people spin on bats for a certain period of time, and then drunkenly try and lurch to the finish line of a foot race. Adelaide added their own little dash to this by making a dizzy-bat catch, in which they have the kids do the dizzy bat thing, and then make them try to catch pop-up balls. This had... inevitable results. At least one kid took one right off the noggin, while neither was able to catch any of the balls. I was so stunned by the display, I forgot to see who they declared the winner.

Retro Chomper

The (inevitable?) shark mascot was named Chomper. It was "heritage week" at the park, celebrating Adelaide's entry in the first ABL, the Giants. Chomper was wearing a Giants jersey, and there was other Giants programs and memorabilia on offer as well.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Scoring in Adelaide

There's quite a lot here.

After sitting in the vacuum molded plastic seats for the first game, my ass demanded a reserved seat in the home plate grandstand, so I sprung for the more expensive ticket. I was seated in front of an Australian family, and then two older American women sidled up and sat right next to me. We immediately recognized accents, and it turns out that they were the mother and aunt of the visiting play-by-play announcer for the Perth Heat. They proudly told me that he was the only announcer that went on the road with their team in the whole league, and that he does this in Australia during the off-season while being an announcer for independent baseball in America during the US season. We got to talking, and I related my trip. As it turned out, they said that there was another American here who was doing what I was doing, and their son/nephew was interviewing him during the game.

The game went along, and at its end, they introduced me to the other American baseball traveler. He was from San Diego and was in Australia because he was crossing off the last few calendar days of the year where he hadn't seen a baseball game. I'll unpack that: He had seen a baseball game on every calendar day of the year. Whereas my number of stadiums was topping out at around 175 at the end of this trip, he had been to over 500. Now, these all weren't professional stadiums, and he didn't have the rigorous documentation that I did, but Jesus, that put things in perspective for me. It was one thing meeting that guy from DC who had been to over 200, but this was an entire other level. For all intents and purposes, this guy was god, and I was just some guy who sort of liked baseball.

We talked for a good long time after the game, and then he headed off. In the dwindling crowd, I ran into the women again, who introduced me to their son/nephew, and we chatted a bit as well.

And then I was alone. Three kilometers from public transportation. With no WiFi signal to get an Uber. With no idea how to get a cab.

I sheepishly went into the team offices and asked for help, and the nice people gave me the number to call for a cab and a business card that had an address on it. A short call later and I was promised a way to get back to the hotel, and a headed out into the night to wait for said transport.


The Game:

First pitch, Heat vs. Bite

The game between the Perth Heat and the Adelaide Bite decided to save most of its action for the second half of the game, and the pattern of longballs and errors from the first game in Brisbane seemed to be holding up to scrutiny.

Both teams went in order in the first, and both teams only managed a one-out single in the second. The Heat only managed a two-out E3 in the third, while the Bite stranded a leadoff double. In the fourth, Perth had a leadoff single that reached second on a steal, but was stranded, but Adelaide got going in the bottom of the inning. A leadoff single was followed by a grounder botched by the second baseman, making it first and second with no outs. After a fly-out to left, a single to right loaded the bases, and a sacrifice fly to right brought in the lead runner before a groundout stranded everyone else, leaving the Bite with a 1-0 lead.

The anemic Heat left a two-out double on the base paths in the fifth, while another leadoff double from the Bite got no further than third after a sacrifice bunt. Perth tied it up in the top of the sixth with a homer to left, though they stranded the one-out double right after it. The Bite started the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles that had it first and third with no outs, but a grounder to second was thrown home to get the lead runner, and another grounder to first lead to a 3-6-1 double-play to end the threat.

Perth took the lead again with a two-out homer to left in the top of the seventh, while Adelaide only had a two-out single that got picked off trying to steal second. An error by the second baseman got the first runner on in the top of the eighth, and a homer to left brought them both in. A single and stolen base followed, and a one-out double brought him in to give the Bite a 5-1 lead. Adelaide answered in the bottom of the eighth with four back-to-back, one-out singles that brought in two runs to close it 5-3. The Heat threatened again in the ninth with a one-out double, a walk, a wild pitch, and another walk to load the bases. A new pitcher retired his batters in order to end the threat. In their last licks, the Bite got a one-out single to third base, but he was stranded by two strikeouts, giving the visiting Heat the 5-3 final win.


The Scorecard:

Heat vs. Bite, 01/04/18. Heat win, 5-3.

I was using the BBWAA scorebook again in the absence of any scorecards in Australia. As with the first ABL game I saw, there were more than average errors, doubles, and home runs. There were a couple of odd plays worth nothing, including the 4-2t put out in the bottom of the sixth and a long note on a play on the runner on second  in the top of the fourth. After stealing second base, there was a pickoff play where the fielders were not made privy to the pickoff. The pitcher just threw back to the bag, with no defensive players waiting, and the ball hit the runner and cleanly bounced to the shortstop.

Also of note was that the Taiwanese right fielder for the Bite was making his ABL debut in this game.


The Accommodations:
I spent more time than average in the hotel room this day, and even got to meet the cleaning staff. Not much of note, though.

Click here to see all the pictures for this trip.

2017-8 Australia