Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Game #80- Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angeles Dodgers April 12, 2014 Chase Field I am in Phoenix with my brother Eric and his wife Gigi to visit my nephew Gage who is a freshman at Arizona State. I wanted to get in a quick trip not only to visit the fam, but also to knock off the last AZ team on my list. It just happened to work out for me because the Dodgers were in town as well. The weekend started off well, flew in on a Friday and had dinner with Gage and his college friends and then ended up staying out all night. On Saturday I got in a 6 mile run, had lunch at my cousins house just outside of Glendale (a fun time as we played Cards Against Humanity), and finally ended the night with the game. Chase Field is a fantastic stadium. It is one of the high tech domes that has the ability to open the roof and walls when the weather is nice (and how often does that happen, I bet the AC is on 85% of the season). Today it was only 80 degrees outside so we got one of the rare games where we could breathe the fresh air and enjoy the ball game. Eric has a friend who is a scout with the St. Louis Cardinals so we got hooked up with some great seats for the game, behind home plate in the second level. Great night for a Dodger, I mean, Diamondbacks game. The Diamonbacks look like they are going to have a tough year. A bunch of no names on the roster, no fire power in the pitching rotation and a hitting line up that has no power. For the Dodgers, who are in their second year under the Magic Johnson group, is stacked with allstars. It was also nice to see ace pitcher Zack Greinke on the mound for the boys in blue, one of the best in the league. Another positive for the away team is that Adrienne Gonzales loves playing against the D-Backs. In fact he has 26 home runs and 84 RBI’s over his career vs. AZ, more than any other active player in the league. So when he crushed a two run homer and 5 RBI’s for the night it was not a surprise. By the end of the 7th inning, the Dodgers had a 6-1 one and ended up with an 8-5 win. Not a bad night for this LA fan. I did manage to walk around the stadium to take some pics and stretch my legs out. This is the stadium with a pool in center field (made famous by my Dodgers last year when they clinch a playoff spot and celebrated by jumping into the pool after the game). Tonight, not so fun to look at. The average weight of those in the pool was probably close to 300 lbs. But that being said, I bet having a bunch of cocktails and swimming in a cool pool would be one of the best ways to enjoy a game.