Game #75- Houston Astros

September 28, 2013 Houston Astros vs. New York Yankees Minute Maid Park A couple months back I found a really good deal to Houston and I thought, what the hell…let’s do this. I tried to line up a triple game weekend but it was not in the cards. I did manage to get tickets to baseball and football, not too shabby. I also reserved a round of golf at Memorial Golf course which is suppose to be one of the nicest municipal courses in the country, sounds like a great weekend. Well as I got off the plane I noticed the clouds were really dark and menacing. It wasn’t more than 20 minutes later when the sky let lose a torrential downpour unlike anything I have ever seen before. I only had about 10 feet from the rental car shuttle to my vehicle, but by the time I loaded my clubs and luggage was soaked to the bone. But if you know the gulf region at all, it really doesn’t matter if it is raining or not because you are going to sweat through your clothes anyway. It was 95 degrees, 95% humidity, not the most enjoyable weather in the country. Well the golf course was nice, but I played like hell. Because it was still raining a bit and there were lighting storms all around me, I had the course pretty much to myself. No concentration necessary, I was tired, hot, and had 2.5 hours to finish 18 holes before the Astros game…I shot a 108. Yuck. So I needed to drown my sorrows a bit with a couple of beers, therefore I headed to the game to see the Astros take on the Yankees. Tonight was going to be a good game, Andy Pettitte was on the mound for the Yankees and it was a bit of a homecoming for the pitcher. This is also his final year in the league after 17 seasons so it will be cool to see how he does. At the same time, if you have ever been to an away game for the Yanks, the team has a couple of fans. Houston barely averaged 20,000 fans per game but with NY in town the place was just about packed. Didn’t stop me from pulling one of my favorite maneuvers when I am alone at a game, act like I am the man and just walk past security to the good seats. I had a nosebleed section ticket, but I ended up 10 rows behind home plate. From there I was able to watch the pitchers dual that eventually lead to a 2-1 Yankees win. 41 year old left hander Pettitte had a magic night with only 5 hits, 5 K’s, and a complete game to finish off the night and his career. He is the oldest starting pitcher in the league and finished the night with a 256-153 win loss, 3.85 ERA and 2448 strikeouts…pretty damn good. The Astros took an early lead in the 4th , but the Yanks scored 2 in the 6th with a Robinson Cano RBI and then Astros catcher Matt Pagnozzi made a horrific error at home when he pretended to throw the ball to second and in the meantime lost control of it (literally throwing it about 30 feet in the air, backwards) thus allowing Eduardo Nunez to score the winning run. I was really hoping to see an Astros home

run because the home team has a train that rolls around to celebrate in the outfield, but that was a no go tonight. I watched the final inning of the night in homerun ally by the big gas station nozzle and where they have some tributes to the former Houston greats, nothing too exciting to look at but at least something (again, why not old uniforms, bats and balls???). So with a standing ovation, Pettitte threw his final ball of his career to end a fun day. My trip to Minute Maid Park was complete when I purchased a fan brick. This one says “Deep in the heart. Go Astros from CA. Chris Costales” . I had to put that because in the 6th inning the fans really got into that song and it reminded me of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. “The stars at night, are big and bright (clap clap clap clap), deep in the heart of Texas!!!”

Game #74- Chicago Fire

Chicago Fire vs. Montreal Impact August 10th, 2013 Toyota Park I am in Chicago with Keli for the weekend after an eventful couple of days in the Milwaukee area. I competed in the USA triathlon age group national championships for the 4th time today, but instead of staying in Wisconsin (there were no games being played, the Brewers were out of town) we drove down to the windy city. It is kind of cool to realize that my True Sports Fan-Tasy started at nationals in Kansas City way back in 2005. Well the race today didn’t go as planned, I had a great swim and bike but fell apart on the run. A hip flexor injury didn’t allow me to run for nearly two months, not a good training plan to go against the best in the country. Hopefully tonight’s game and a day in the big city tomorrow will make this trip all worth it. Toyota park is actually located in Bridgeport, about 18 miles outside of the city. It is a really nice stadium, very similar to the Stubhub Center in LA or Dicks Sporting Goods in Denver, specifically built for soccer. Once again I am not very familiar with the names on either roster but the play on the pitch was entertaining. We got in right at kickoff and by the time we found our seats, the Fire netted a goal by Joel Lindpere with a solid left footer from outside of the box following a set piece. The home team soon went up two nil with a quick right footed shot by Dilly Duka (sweet name, right!!!). At half, Chicago seemed well in control of the game.

At this point, as in most soccer games, I thought the game might be over so Kel and I decided to tour around the stadium to see if they had any cool fan stuff (plus I raced this morning and now I my legs are really sore and stiff, needed to stretch out a bit). Unlike Denver and LA, this stadium has a major flaw. You can’t easily get around the entire stadium. Because they built a stage for possible concerts on one end of the field you can’t make an entire loop around the pitch, so in order for us to get to the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame you needed to backtrack around the outside concourse to reach it. Now we didn’t make the smartest move doing this at half because the concourse is really tight and everyone was hammered, made for a frustrating journey. But the display case was worth it, most soccer stadiums don’t have anything interesting but this one had photo’s of soccer team from the late 1800’s, an early 1900’s soccer ball, old cleats, and then memorabilia from past Chicago Fire players like Eric Wynalda. Instead of trying to venture back to our good seats we finished the game in the side corner section so we could stretch out and eat. Montreal scored to bring the game a bit closer behind Felipe Martins Campanholi’s goal, but that is as close as they got and the Fire came away with a 2-1 victory. Good times in Chi town, now I only have 3 teams to go...Bulls, Hawks and Bears.