Perth

On a Long Day of Travel and Godless International Communism

Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark, 2018

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Sydney Blue Sox vs. Perth Heat
Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark
Australian Baseball League
Thornlie, WA, Australia
7:10 PM


Outside the Game:
I think that somehow when I tweaked my leg the day before, I also tweaked my back and didn't realize it, or hurt in overcompensating for my leg, as I slept poorly and woke up a couple of times because of back pain. And I wouldn't even have the massage room to comfort me later.

I persevered and finished packing before walking down to the train station to catch my bus back to the airport. The only improvements on this front was that because I got on at the embarkation point, I got a better seat, and the long registration process for the WiFi did not need to be completed again for the return trip. Buses remain the devil.

Melbourne Airport

I got to the airport and, familiar with the process at this point, I checked in my carry-on and headed through to security. This marked my only real incident with Australian air security for my trip. I carried my toiletry back in my small backpack that I took with me on board. I hadn't run into any issues to this point, so it was without thought of problem that I dropped my bag on the scanner and went through the metal detector. On the other side looking to retrieve my back, the security officer snagged it as it came out and motioned me over to the back. He asked me if I had any aerosols in my bag, to which I boldly answered that I did not. He then asked if he could open the bag, which I agreed to without reservation, and he quickly pulled out my shaving cream.

Now, see, what I had forgotten was that I had done some shopping in Melbourne and picked up some extra toiletries, including shaving cream, which was, in truth of fact, in an aerosol can. I immediately apologized and told him he could toss it, to which he looked at me funny. He took off the cap, squirt some shaving cream into a bin, put the cap on and handed everything back to me. Years of being beaten down by the TSA had served me well again.

Thusly through my shake down, I stopped at Hungry Jack's for a MegaMuffin before needing to board my flight to Perth. Now, Perth to anywhere in Australia is the longest flight you can have in Australia. The go-to joke when someone belatedly catches up to the conversation is to say, "Thanks for joining, Perth." It sits at least three hours behind in time zones and is a four-hour flight from the eastern cities. Most people in Australia see it as a long and grueling flight, but after 22 hours of travel, four hours is a walk to the corner store.

I got onto the flight and was in the same row with a rather large lady, but there was nothing too awful. We had a breakfast, and I was able to watch the rest of the Hoages biopic and get in a solid nap or two. It was largely uneventful.

Until we came in for a landing. The pilot came on and said that because of winds, the landing could be a "might rough," and he was not kidding. The plane was tossed around like a toy, with most of the passengers just managing to keep down their breakfasts before we mercifully hit tarmac. Everyone, including the pilot, was excited to be off that plane.

However, Perth Airport was the most disorganized airport I saw in Australia. While it was undergoing some renovations, there was no clear signage, and after looking futilely for the supposed bus to downtown, or even an information booth, I gave up and grabbed a cab to my hotel in the middle of the city center.

This was another apartment hotel in the middle of downtown, although the street I was on was a little worse for wear, with a large population of no fixed address. I checked into my hotel, and immediately had a problem with my room card, which was dutifully replaced. I got into my room to unpack and get settled in, when I almost immediately realized that I had left the wall plug for my power converter plugged in at my hotel in Melbourne. Also, my back was acting up again.

After sorting out my room a little, I went to the front desk to ask for an electronics shop and a pharmacy. Both were around the corner in the main city mall. I bought a new wall plug and an entire new power converter, just in case, at the electronics shop and then headed to the chemist to get something for my back. The muscle rubs were behind a counter, and a nice Asian pharmacist asked if I needed help. She asked what was wrong, and I described my pulled back muscle, she asked me about any other medications I was taking, and then suggested two products for me and told me how to use them. This struck me as exactly how a pharmacy interaction should go. I made my purchases, as well as grabbing a bath bomb at the Lush store at the end of the mall, and went back to the hotel to drop everything off.

I applied the muscle rub to my back and then, as it was still early in the afternoon, headed out to the Perth Mint. This involved taking the free "circuit buses" that Perth used. I went to what I thought was the stop, and a bus passed me by until I caught the next one at the next stop, which eventually got me to the mint.

Take that, Canada

The tour of the mint was excellent, giving some history about the mint, showing off the world’s largest gold coin and some of the biggest gold nuggets in existence, as well as ending with a demonstration making an actual gold bar from the furnace. The back room of the tour let you see how much you would cost if you had your weight in gold and make commemorative coins of various complexity.

Freshly minted gold bar. Get it? Minted?

I tried to get the circuit bus back to the hotel, but the bus skipped my stop again, leaving a longer walk to the hotel. I eventually found out that the maps that the hotel was giving out were old, and the stops had been updated, so the stop I thought I was at had been discontinued. I made a visit to the Coles in the market street for some supplies and then went back to the hotel to run a bath in the first tub I had in Australia.

My back was already feeling better thanks to the rub but soaking for an hour in a hot tub of water with a bath bomb made everything much, much better. I got dressed, grabbed my game bag, and head out.

Because there was no easy mass transit option to the stadium, I asked the front desk to call me a cab. And then I realized that I didn't have any money on me to pay the cab. So I asked where the nearest ATM was, and I ran off there to get cash before the cab showed up. But there was no ATM where it was supposed to be, and I had to go to the shopping street to get money. By the time I hoofed it back to the hotel, the cab was waiting. I got in from the street, and the cabbie told me that he was waiting for someone from the hotel, and I told him that was me.

It was a bit of a drive to the stadium, and I got talking with the cabbie. It inevitably turned to American politics, and by the end of the ride, I had given him a not-so-brief primer on American politics, separation of powers, and the impeachment process. We also talked a little bit of sports.

He dropped me off at the park, and I did my external shots and then headed inside for the game.

After the game, I had the good idea of getting the cab call number at the hotel, so I was able to call a cab back to the hotel in good time, and the ride went faster at night without as much "traffic," or what passes for traffic in Australia.

Even with the jetlag, I was asleep as my head hit the pillow in my nice new room.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark

Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark is the unfortunate victim of corporate naming rights. The ballpark was certainly one of the more "minor league"y parks, for lack of a better word. If you transported it to a single-A league in America, it would not seem out of place at all, especially with the corporate naming.

The ticket booth outside leads to a set of stairs leading up to the ballpark. The stairs, and many other places in the park, were plastered with alcohol awareness campaigns, to the point that I began to wonder about how much of a drinking problem there was in these parts.

In the area behind home plate, there was a covered picnic area and a covered bar. Like many contemporary ballparks, the promenade extending around the stadium had stairs descending to the seating bowl and field. The fold-down seats extended from just past the bases and behind home plate in a single row of seats. The area behind home plate was covered with fabric awnings to provide some shade, and the press box was a separate structure on the promenade. There were "luxury boxes" of seats with a table and a picnic umbrella along the top of the seating bowl.

Standing room areas extended the length of the outfield, but not behind the wall. There were small concessions in left field, as well as a bunch of shipping containers repurposed for various duties. Out in right was Dugout Kiosks concession, with the merchandise trailer out in deep left. A high-school level digital scoreboard sat in left-center recording balls and strikes (underneath another alcohol awareness ad).

The Heat are usually the tops of attendance in the ABL, whether it be from community outreach, a large ex-pat community, interest in baseball, or, perhaps, nothing else to do in Perth. Perhaps all of the above. There was a decent crowd that evening, even with the park being perhaps the most out-of-the-way from city center in all of Australia. And the crowd seemed to be into the game, and not just the between-inning antics and races and giveaways. One oddity was the top of both dugouts--safely behind a lot of netting--were play areas for kids. A good place to let the little ones run around while being watched, I imagine, but something about the whole scenario didn't sit quite right with me.


At the Game with Oogie:

Gravy fries and Gatorade

As I got to the game with only a half hour before gametime, I quickly bought a ticket in the covered home base grandstand and then did a quick trip around the park for pictures, before grabbing some merch at the stand in left field and then grabbing some gravy fries from the concession stand before heading to my seat.

At the top of the stairs, I ran into the mother and aunt of the Heat's announcer. They seemed surprised to see me again, but I asked them what purpose could I possibly have by lying about my trip. I headed down to my seat just before the start of the game. I was in a row by myself with families in front and behind me who kept to themselves. It also was the closest I came to being chilly in Australia, with a breeze coming into the stands as the night went on, I almost thought about a jacket. I watched the extended contest and then called a cab to get back to my hotel on the way out.


The Game: 

First pitch, Blue Sox vs. Heat

The game between the Sydney Blue Sox and the Perth Heat would end in the worst travesty of baseball I had ever witnessed, for a number of reasons, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The visiting Blue Sox went in order in the first, while the Heat jumped out early in the bottom with two doubles and a home run plating three runs. A two-out walk and single threatened again before a grounder to short ended the inning 3-0, Perth. Sydney got one back in the second with three singles, while Perth stranded a one-out double on third, leaving it 3-1 Heat.

Sydney stranded a two-out single and double in the top of the third, while the Heat got the bases loaded and nothing across in their half. Both teams went in order in the fourth (though the Heat had a leadoff double picked off trying to steal), and the Blue Sox repeated the trick in the fifth. Perth turned a hit, a stolen base, and a deep single into a run in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 4-1.

The Blue Sox for their part converted three singles of their own into a run in the sixth, while Perth went in order. Sydney busted out in the seventh, with a leadoff homerun and five singles turning into an efficient four runs, while the Heat had only a walk and single in their half, leaving it 6-4. Sydney got a single and Perth went in order in the eighth, and the Blue Sox did the same in the top of the ninth.

The Heat staged a rally--if a sad one--in the ninth. The inning started with a walk and a hit batsman. A passed ball made it second and third. A strikeout followed, as did a short single to bring in one run and load the bases. A grounder to third got booted, and in came the tying run, with the bases still loaded, but two outs ended the threat, and we went to extra innings.

Godless communism extra innings.

Unlike the godless communism in Spring Training games, where they just end in a tie sometimes, this form of godless communism is even more insipid. Because the ABL ballparks are in suburban areas, or were built in areas that were overtaken by suburbs, noise laws come into play after a certain hour, so the ABL adopted the international extra innings rules used in the WBC and other contests. After the ninth inning, innings start with the two previous batters mysteriously on first and second, which can speed up the game by starting a man in scoring position.

The Blue Sox started off the top of the tenth with a double steal attempt. The runner from second made it to third, but the runner on first made it second on an errant throw into right field, but then got tagged off the base for a caught stealing 9-6. A single brought in the runner from third, but a liner to second started a double play that ended it at 7-6, Sydney. Just when you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, the bottom of the tenth started with a walk to load the bases, and then two hit batsmen to drive in the tying and winning runs, sending the home fans out happy with an 8-7 Heat win.


The Scorecard:

Blue Sox vs. Heat, 01/11/18. Heat win, 8-7.

Again, this was in the BBWAA scorebook, due to the absence of any scorecards in Australia. This game kept up the pattern of more than average home runs, doubles, walks, and errors that I came to expect (although the Heat had no errors in a game--a first). But the real story of this game was the godless international communism extra inning rules.

As described above, I had to figure out a way to score this monstrosity. I put an asterisk above the added players with a note on "International Extra Innings Rules" and put them at their based with IEI in the appropriate corner. I further noted the "Godless International Communism" on the scorebook. Here's to hoping I'll never have to deal with this again.


The Accommodations: 

Adina Apartment Hotel, Perth

 For my short-ish stay in Perth, I was at the Adina Apartment Hotel in city center, which, if you haven't guessed by the name, was another of those apartment hotels. Sadly, it was a studio apartment, with a giant room with a King-sized bed and couch and end table on one side, and the desk, TV, closets, and full kitchen on the other. A side door led to the bathroom, which had my first full tub in Australia, and after nearly three weeks, it was very, very welcome, even it couldn't make me completely forget about the massage room in Melbourne.

The key feature of this room was the furnished balcony off the living room. The wicker seats and table overlooked the pool on one side and downtown on the other, and it became my favorite place to relax, eat, and have my evening tea.

On Bell Certification

A civilized breakfast

Friday, January 12, 2018

Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game:
I was up early with the jet lag, and so puttered about my new room extensively. Armed with my decaf tea and some cereal, I adjourned to the balcony to have breakfast overlooking the city. It was very civilized. I showered and got dressed and eventually headed out to my day.

I stopped at the train station by the bus stop to figure out the ticketing situation for the next day's trip to Freemantle and then took the circular route buses to Elizabeth Quay. The zoo was actually a short ferry ride away from downtown, and having procured my ticket, I took a lovely summer morning boat over to the other dock and then walked the short distance to the zoo, got my ticket, and went zooing.

As this was the next to last zoo opportunity I was going to have in Australia, I was intent on seeing some Tasmanian Devils. I marched straight to the exhibit, and I was told by an attendant that they were just out, but after looking around and waiting for ten minutes, they were nowhere to be seen. She said to try back later. My consolation prize was finding most of the koalas in the large enclosure were awake, which is something of a miracle for animals that sleep nearly the entire day away. It was a quite nice zoo, with more lazy kangaroos, and the rest. There were orangutans, which are always worth the price of admission for me, as well as a preserved section of the old zoo cages to show what conditions used to be like for the animals in less enlightened times.

Koalas, literally all the time

I had a burger at one of the concessions stands for lunch, finished viewing the exhibits, and then grabbed the ferry back to Elizabeth Quay. As I was at the Quay, I walked around for a little bit before heading to the Swan Bell Tower. In addition to being a good vantage point on the harbor, it was also the home for historic bell stand and the oldest bell in the southern hemisphere, which they inherited from a church that burned down in England. As part of the festivities, you can sign up to learn to play the bells, which I obviously did. An old Scottish couple and myself were put through the paces, and then got to play the bells themselves, which is harder work than it appears. At the end, you get a certificate as an official bell chimer, which I have going for me now.

The oldest bell in the southern hemisphere

The Western Australia Museum, one of the biggest attractions in the city, was closed down for renovations, but some of the exhibits lived on in other areas of the city while the main building was being worked on. At the convention center, there was an animatronic "Dinosaur Discovery" exhibit, with dinosaurs you could control from digital panels and make move and roar. The exhibit was pretty much filled with families and children, and the man-child from America. I don't care. I had fun. It was fun, and you didn't have that fun.

Raar

After I had my fill of dinosaurs, I went to the bus terminal to get back to the hotel. I had a bit to wait, so I had a meat pie from one of the concession stands before heading back to the hotel. I took a shower and organized a bit before visiting the hotel's sauna room and then having a little nap to take the edge off.

I went out into the evening for a little walk around the city center, getting myself more acquainted with things and just taking in Perth at night. I grabbed another bath bomb at Lush, visited some parks, and then had dinner at a Nordic smorgasbord restaurant connected to a hotel down the street from my own. I was pretty hungry even after the meat pie, and I ate a lot. I definitely earned my money back on the all you can eat. There were three deserts involved. The waitresses always stopped a little when they saw me with another plate, but as I kept putting it away, they didn't say anything. I have to wonder and worry about eating so much that jaded smorgasbord waitresses made note.

Anyway, I waddled back to the hotel and had another welcome soak with the bath bomb before having some evening tea on the balcony and watching some TV in bed before hitting the hay for the night.


The Accommodations: 
I spent a good deal of time in the hotel room this day, between the lazy morning and evening, and the stop-off in the middle of the day.

My favorite parts of the room were easily the tub and the balcony, perhaps in that order. The balcony was a lovely view of the city, and there was something very cosmopolitan about eating and drinking out there.

The tub was my savior after the lost love of the massage room in Melbourne. Soaking my feet and back for the first time on the vacation made all the difference in the world.

It wasn't without a little pain, however. The way that the tub spigot was positioned in the middleish of the tub as a solid fixture literally came to bite me in the ass. As I was trying to get out of the tub, I slipped a little, and a butt cheek got gauged by the tub spigot, carving a tiny curve of ham out of my ass. I was able to tend to the wound, and it caused no permanent damage, but et tu, tub?

On Being at the Ends of Australia

The sea from Fremantle

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game:
Thanks to the jetlag, I woke up extra early again the next morning, giving me time to putter about the apartment and have another civilized breakfast on the balcony. I got showered and dressed and headed to the train station to catch my ride down to Fremantle.

Perth Underground Station

Perth the city, while on the Swan River and close to the ocean, isn't actually on it. Perth's port of Fremantle is at the very tip of Western Australia, and perhaps the last bastion of civilization for a long while.

I was on a quite early train, and the only people in the train car with me were a Canadian couple and young Aussie guy. We passed the short ride mostly in silence and were all quickly dumped out at Fremantle Railway Station. It was still early in the morning, but it was obviously going to be a hot one, even at the beach, and the short walk down to the edge of land felt a lot longer than it was.

I was headed to the Western Australia Shipwreck Museum, and as a testament to how early it was, I got there before the museum even opened. Another older couple and myself huddled in the shade waiting for the doors to open, and when they did, the worker was a bit surprised to find a line waiting for her.

The centerpiece of the museum was the shipwreck of the 17th-century ship the Batavia, which had a sordid story of a mutiny by the survivors that led to most of the crew and passengers who survived the wreck being murdered, and it was only by luck that the officers of the ship found out in time to defend themselves and murder the mutineers right back.

The hull of the Batavia

The ship itself was well preserved and quite the spectacle. An entire gallery had been built around the remains, as well as a reconstruction of a building portico that the ship had been delivering to Australia. The museum had further exhibits on other shipwrecks in the area and the like, and I spent way too much money in the gift shop.

After that, I walked (in the shade as much as possible) over to the main Western Australia Maritime Museum on the other side of the peninsula. As luck would have it, they were having an exhibit on Pompeii and the attempted naval rescue after the eruption, which was something I was ignorant of. It was mostly speculation, but it was interesting nevertheless. The rest of the museum was more mainstream nautical fare, with ships hanging from the ceiling (with one you could--cautiously--board), and a rather large exhibit with some disturbing mannequins of the Australia II which won the America's Cup, featuring the futuristic com-pu-tar that the team used to design their revolutionary boat. The World War II sub that was usually open for tours was closed on that day, so I was only able to glance at it from the windows of the museum.

Living history

With another gift shop stop under my belt, I went over to the Roundhouse, a small fort that was the first prison in Perth before the convicts quickly became too numerous and had to be moved to the new Fremantle prison, built, of course, with prison labor. Fremantle, I found, was a bit of an artsy town, and from the Roundhouse, you can look down onto a Fremantle street painted down its length with yellow shapes that resolve into concentric circles when viewed from the Roundhouse.

Highway to Hell

My next goal was finding a statue of original AC/DC front man, Bon Scott, who was a proud Fremantle resident. The location on the map wasn't precisely specified, so it took a bit of walking in circles before I found it, standing on a statue Marshall amp, right by the boardwalk. It being lunchtime, I stopped in at the nearby Cicerello's Fish and Chips for some lunch in the shade, before hitting the Sky Ride Ferris Wheel just across from the statue, because I like high places. And it was also in the shade.

Fish and chips and fish

I was trying to find the Fremantle Jail, and eventually stopped in at the Fremantle Visitor's Center, which pointed out the error of my ways and got me going in the right direction. A short, hot walk later, and I was having a tour at the jail.

The large, local jail is the mainstay of Australia, and Perth's was extra special in that they didn't have indoor plumbing for the life of the jail (which was in operation until the turn of the current century), and there was a long explanation about "the buckets." When we stopped at the gallows, the tour guide related a story of a tourist who thought it would be funny to take a selfie with the hangman’s noose around his neck, and promptly slipped and nearly died, which is why they had to bar off access to the gallows area now. There was also a kid in our group that ran around and into things constantly. So, he was either screaming while running or screaming in pain. I felt sorry for his parents, who looked mortified, but sometimes you just have to lock your kid in a closet. I'm just saying.

The wrong end of it

I hung out in the AC of the prison gift shop for a while before heading back into the main strip for dinner or things to do. I was out of cash, and I had to go back to the tourist booth to get directions. Armed with currency, I found an arcade nearby, which was thematic for the beach, I suppose. I loaded up a card and played a bunch of skee ball, light rifles, and that tower stack arcade game. I did well enough with tickets that I was able to get an original series Star Trek mug and some random little stuff.

The heat had worked up an appetite, so I stopped at an Italian restaurant in the main tourist drag for dinner. Eating outside with the breeze was actually cooler than in the restaurant with their week aircon, so I sat in the shaded alley and ate way too much food with cheese (and no bread on the table, again). I literally ate myself bloated.

I managed to waddle my way up the hill to the train station and got back to the city center and drag myself back to the hotel room. I soaked in the tub and then watched some TV while I did some organization before heading to sleep.

Fremantle Station

The Accommodations:
I didn't spend much time in my room at all this day. There was no mid-day stop in for a shower and a nap, and without the nap, I was out pretty quickly after cleaning all the day's grime off me in the tub.

On the Sky Falling

The signal fires are lit! Gondor calls for aid!

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game: 
 I had my last lazy morning in Perth, puttering about and another civilized breakfast on the balcony before getting dressed and heading out to the bus to King's Park.

King's Park is about twice the size of Central Park in New York City, but most of it is near wilderness, with a "manicured" section about the size of Central Park at one end. Before going on another semi-long plane flight (and my last one for the trip before returning), it seemed a good idea to go out and get some fresh air again.

I exited at the stop at the entrance to the park, as opposed to the one further on near the visitor center, and I regretted the decision immediately. It was just about 10 AM, and it was already stifling hot.  I was armed with water bottles, so I managed to make the walk up the tree-lined road alive, stopping at some war monuments, and of course, the requisite statue of Queen Victoria. Arriving at the visitors' center, I quickly ducked inside into the aircon and talked with the staff for a bit. They asked me tons of questions about America, and I told them how cold it was back home right now, and the day in Melbourne with the 100-degree temperature differential. They said there would be a guided tour of the botanical garden a little later, so I said I'd be back for that and went next door for a breakfast sausage roll at the concession stand and refilled my water bottles at the fountain.

State War Memorial

With some time to kill, I visited the State War Memorial near the center, and then marched off to see the "DNA Tower" just outside of the botanic garden. Staying in the shade and pounding water, it was tolerable. The tower itself was a small circular lookout tower with winding staircases to the top that looked like the double helix, hence the name. I climbed to the top, and it gave an impressive view of the surrounding area, and the true extent of the park, which went on and on in nearly all directions. What was concerning, however, was how wobbly the tower was at the top. It wasn't swaying like a drunkard or anything, but it was moving perceptibly so that you kept checking your footing. With the small crowd that was at the top, this became troublesome, and I went back down and headed back to the main area.

The surprisingly flimsy DNA Tower

I chugged the last of my water and refilled the bottles in the fountains before heading up to the meeting point for the tour. On this hot afternoon, it turned out just to be myself, and my tour guide, a transplanted Englishman who volunteered at the park. He took my around to all the sights of the garden, and he was especially fond of all the different tree types, so I got quite the arboreal lesson. There was a particular plant that sort of appeared to be a stereotypical native wearing a grass skirt, and he told it had an unfortunate colloquial name that I won't share here. But I did learn all the different types of eucalyptus trees and walk over the glass Federation walkway, which had a lovely view of the harbor and river. Although I was holding up alright, he asked if we could take a break, so we sat on park benches for a while as we watched a young child chasing around birds. The guide said the boy was right to do so, as the birds, in addition to being loud, were quite clever, and people daily lost sandwiches to the birds when they looked away for a minute. I don't think this particular child has his family's food interests at heart; he just liked making the birds make noise and fly away.

Federation Walkway

As we were just turning around to head back to the entrance, the sky started to take on a brownish-red hue. This is not the color one expects to see the sky. We were deep enough in the trees that we couldn't see what was going on, and even the guide had no explanation as to what could be causing it. The color got deeper and deeper, and we eventually hit an observation point and saw the source of the coloring: a huge plume of smoke in the distance that was slowly covering the area we were in due to prevailing winds. The guide immediately thought it was a bush fire outside the city, and that is what is was once we got information back at the visitor's booth. But we both quite enjoyed the unnatural shade, at least, for our trip back to the entrance.

Is the sky, uh, supposed to do that?

By the time we were back, the sky had an even brown haze in all directions, although the source plume was still clearly visible. I thanked my guide, and then tried to grab some lunch at the cafe. There was some disarray when I arrived, and I spent a long time waiting for my food. Even longer, because they decided to give my order to some other person, and I had to wait for them to make another fish and chips for me. While eating at the table, I managed to get my very white shirt in some very red ketchup someone had left on the table, so between that and the sky being on fire, it wasn't my altogether favorite day in Australia.

After stopping into the gentlemen's to try and pre-clean my shirt as best as possible, I headed to the bus stop to get back to the hotel. I stopped off at London Court, a quaint shopping arcade made to look like an olde-tyme London shopping street and then did some book shopping and grabbed another bath bomb at Lush, where I was on first-name basis with the staff at this point.

Ye Olde Streete

I took a nap and a shower and set off to do some administrative tasks. I had planned to do some laundry and mail out another package to myself when I ran into two planning problems. One was that the hotel did not have a laundry, and two, that is was Sunday. Day blindness is generally a good thing on vacation. If I forget what day it is, I'm probably enjoying myself. However, Sunday meant no mail service, and the office didn't open until 9 AM the next day, and I wouldn't be able to risk it and make my flight.

So back at the hotel, I managed to pull together a clean travel outfit for the next day and pack up the rest of it--and all my Perth purchases--into a very overstuffed suitcase. I then went out and had dinner in Chinatown at a dumpling house and did some walking around. I headed back to the hotel for a good, long soak with my bath bomb before climbing out for my last balcony tea in Perth and then watching some TV before turning in.


The Accommodations:
Nothing of note at the hotel, except that they didn't have an on-site laundry. I'll forgive them because of the balcony, however, just this once.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2017-8 Australia

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