That cake looks awesome, but I can’t imagine cutting into it. The surface looks too pristine!

This is the view of New Yankee Stadium as you walk up from the subway station…

Once you enter into the gates, this is the view through the main concourse. Say what you will, but the Yankees know how to acknowledge their history. (Even if they did abandon the place where much of that history happened…)

Thursday night rain delay. Thank goodness for the 4th deck, which had an overhang over the last ten rows or so, allowing you to stay somewhat dry while still seeing the scoreboard….

Could the scoreboard be any bigger??? Goodness….

I’ll give them this — New Yankee Stadium looks great at night lit up like this…

By the way, this is how I found out about Matt Holliday being traded:

And special thanks to all of those that I quickly texted and called to get confirmation and more details. That was very helpful. :)

Here’s to many more.

Happy Birthday giggling one from some one who shares the same B-day.
Turning 30…I mean 29 again

I want some cake, even though its not my birthday.

Cupcake girl!

It was nice to see you and Wes yesterday.

pole

I must say, one of the huge advantages of dating a baseball fan is when he calls you up, less than a week before your vacation, and says “So, um, do you want to go to Philadelphia? The Phillies and Cardinals are playing at 4pm on Saturday”…awesome, totally awesome…

So Saturday morning, we picked up the rental car at JFK, drove across the Verrazano Bridge and it’s $11 per car toll, and off to Philadelphia we went. We didn’t know it when we planned this trip, but we were going to be seeing Matt Holliday in his last game as an A on Thursday in NYC, and his second game as a Cardinal in Philadelphia on Saturday. I was amused when I saw a comment from him in some online paper talking about how he didn’t want to fight the traffic on the approximately 110 miles trip, and once we hit the New Jersey Turnpike, I knew why. The traffic was awful. Thank goodness for the radio stations, which were pretty good (we had not yet discovered the all 80’s station, which would later save ours, and everyone else’s, lives while driving north that evening.) Sports radio is all over the place on the east coast, and they don’t talk Giants baseball all the time, which made me happy.

I’ve got to say, I loved this ballpark. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t 100% invested in either team. Maybe it’s because I could see the scoreboard in the corner showing the A’s winning. Maybe it’s because the old lady next to me was brought to the game by her grandson who was sitting in the bleachers, but she wanted a seat in the upper deck behind home plate because that’s where she had sat for decades watching Phillies baseball. The food was fantastic in Philly (yes Wes, that Schmitter was really good, although I did enjoy the awesomeness of the BBQ turkey sandwich), and for those of you with gluten issues, CBP has gluten free options, making them the only park I’ve seen in the majors to say that! Go Philly!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/athletics/detail?blogid=21&entry_id=45100

It’s a shame that we didn’t get a picture of the Schmitter. Its luscious combination of grilled salami,steak, cheese, special sauce, and tomato would have made for a fantastic (and fantastically colorful!) photo. Next time.

And hey, happy birthday! You’re pretty great, do you know that? I’m pretty sure that you do, but I’m more than happy to say it again. Have a wonderful day.

Pirates sign 8th rounder Colton Cain for 1MM.

link (yes, its to twitter)

Umm, now we get Stassi and Dyson and Krol signed, ok Billy?

Here is a present, $100 (Weird Al) Bucks!

BTW, I love Polls!

The 13th overall selection in the 2008 draft, Wallace checks in as the No. 1 prospect traded at the deadline in 2009. The first baseman (let’s be honest, he’s not a third baseman) has a career line of .302/.376/.453 in 821 pro at-bats. The left-handed hitter projects to hit for both power and average, although his in-game power has not fully developed yet (.176 ISO in ‘09). Prior to the trade, he was hitting .293/.346/.423 with six homers and 11 doubles in 222 at-bats. Wallace’s walk rate at triple-A (6.1 BB%) is almost half of what it was in double-A. He opened up the season with 32 games in double-A. Wallace, 22, has been promoted aggressively through the minor leagues, so that may be tempering his numbers a bit (He appeared in just 41 games below double-A). In his prime, he should hit .300 with 20-25 homers. Defensively, Wallace has good hands and handles everything he gets to at third base. His range is poor, though, and his actions are not the smoothest. He should be an average to slightly-above-average first baseman.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/trade-deadline-prospects-ranked-part-5

Although, I still think Wallace should get a try to pick it at 3B. Below average defense + plus bat = decent 3B.

And I love polls.

My pictures from the ceremony itself didn’t come out well, so alas, none of them. But I have a few others from Cooperstown to share:

For those of you who have never been to Cooperstown, I highly recommend a visit. This was my second trip, and certainly not my last. I could spend hours wandering around the museum and the village of Cooperstown….

The inaugural class:

A’s fans were out in force. This was taken after the ceremony, and as you can see, there are many A’s fans sitting around waiting for Rickey’s plaque to be hung on the wall. (That would happen about two hours later, with even more fans in attendance…) I loved seeing all the green and gold in an otherwise Yankee-dominated region of the country.

Rickey’s plaque on the wall:

This was new since my previous visit (early July 2005), and I just liked it, and wanted to share…

someday i’ll have one of those at my estate…

I love Fenway Park. There, I said it. It was the first non-Bay Area stadium I have ever gone to for a baseball game, back on this day in 1994. I went to that game with a bunch of high school juniors and seniors from across the country. Some were baseball fans, others were not, but I was mesmerized. I remember the smell of the grass, the first view of the Green Monster, the bleacher seats, everything. It was Boston and Cleveland, game one of a double header (they wouldn’t let us stay for both, we had other activities that night). Amazing though.

So here I was, almost 15 years to the day later, going for my second ever visit to Fenway Park. One fantastic thing had changed in the past 15 years, which is that they now allow you to go throughout the entire stadium, no matter what section your ticket was for. This was fantastic, since there was so much I hadn’t seen in my previous trip.

Yawkey Way, before the game:

Looking across the Green Monster. (This, by the way, was the only place I was asked for a ticket, and the guy very nicely allowed me a few minutes to take some pictures before kicking me out. He did block me from going on to the Green Monster though…)

I actually have a picture of the Green Monster from 15 years ago, and I should post it for comparison purposes, but given all of the changes made throughout major league baseball stadiums, the changes here are relatively minor. This is the Green Monster today:

By the way, there are a few spots at Fenway where you can reach over and touch the wall. If you go there, do it, just to say “I’ve touched the Green Monster”. Who knows how long this stadium will be around, this might be something I brag to my grandchildren about years from now.

I also have this picture, almost exactly the same angle, from 15 years ago. I think I was probably one or two sections over, and ten rows higher, then I was in 1994. Amazing…

I love seeing full ballparks, especially the way the light shines off them at sunset. Beautiful…

Courtesy of Wes:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4384410

That cake looks yummy!

I’m lazy. ;)

HB 2 HRH, 2!

and many more of these happy days to you in the year to come!

Here is the link, (thanks to Blubird Banter)

MLB TV says he was claimed by a AL team with KC having the first shot. What AL team do you think claimed him? My top three are DET, (they were shopping for a bat at the deadline) KC, (because they are just bad) and BOS, (would be an upgrade over Drew and they don’t care about the money).

Do you think the A’s could be the team that claimed him? If they did what would you give up to the Jay’s for him?