Baseball, baseball, and more baseball.

Since my last post, the adventures only continued.

To start, Monday morning Chris and I headed to Philadelphia to see the Brewers start a three game series against the Phillies. How can I summarize Philly? Dirty, yet delicious, but very mean spirited. The city itself seemed dirty, and maybe it was just the neighborhood we drove through, but for the most part it didn't seem like DC, or even Baltimore or Milwaukee for that matter.

When we left from the hotel to do some touristy stuff we saw cars parked everywhere. Literally, everywhere. On curbs. In suicide turn lanes. In the middle of a boulevard. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Apparently there aren't parking laws in south Philly. At least non that people concern themselves with. At the end of that little cultural detour, we did the standard Liberty Bell/Independence Hall stuff then headed out to find some lunch.

With the help of a National Parks guide, we found our way to Campos about five blocks from the touristy stuff. He said that's where he got his cheesesteak for lunch that day, and if it's good enough for a local it's good enough for me.

It was indeed delicious, and Chris called his one of the top three meals of his life. Loved it. Very Philly.

So, dirty, delicious, now onto the mean-spirited.

The real purpose of the Philly trip was the game. We were, of course, fully clad in Brewers apparel and walking up to the stadium, every single person in the entrance line stared us down. Every. Single. Person. We were the only Brewers fans in sight. And, totally honest, throughout the entire evening I saw less than a dozen Brewers fans. Chris said it best. It's like they were 45,000 Bloods, and we were the only Crips. 


We had first row seats in the second tier out in right field, and every time I stood up to cheer I thought someone was going to push me over the rail. We were heckled by the hot dog guy, we were heckled by kids, we were heckled by everyone. But, surprisingly, the people behind us were pretty cool. They certainly gave us a hard time during the game, but we joked around with them a little bit and it was a great time. The Philly fans started to turn on their own players towards the end of the game, which went into extra innings. By the top of the 11th, they had a few choice words for the various pitchers that couldn't seem to get the job done. It was pretty hilarious that they had given up heckling us, so they started to heckle their own.

Thought I was going to throw up during the 9th inning because of my nerves, but the Crew pulled out a win in the end and we literally danced our way back to the hotel. Much to the dismay of the Philly fan who threw a bottle at us from their car window. She then shouted "You won't win another game all season!" False. We won the next day, 9 to 0. Took the series, in Philly. Winning.

Oh, and I got two more batting practice balls before the game. One from pitcher Brandon Kintzler in the first few minutes we were there, and then one from pitcher Mitch Stetter, it was a Rickie Weeks bp ball. Free souvenirs. Yes please. Make Philly fans jealous because the players were only throwing balls to Brewers fans. Yes please.

The next morning we left the armpit of America and headed for Baltimore. I love Baltimore, probably because it reminds me a lot of Milwaukee. Similar in size, demographic, and both have waterfronts.

Chris and I got a fair bit of sightseeing around the Inner Harbor in before it started raining. Afraid the game would be canceled, but not willing to head home before it was official, we stopped in at the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards. If you've ever been to Camden, it's in the building that's conspicuously close to the stadium. 

via

It was full of all kinds of Maryland sports history, heavy on the Orioles and Ravens of course. Lots of odds and ends like World Series and Super Bowl trophies, and the giant numbers from the night Ripken broke the record.

It was actually really interesting, and worth the $7 to stay out of the pouring rain for a while. We got out of there around 3:30 and it was still coming down. Went to talk to the guys at the ticket booth - game's still on. So we headed over to The Bullpen, one of the four college-esque bars outside the left field gate. It's a tiny bar, whose only draw is the "cheap ass beer" (that's what the sign out front says, hand written on poster board) they serve all the time. We had a couple of beers, watched Sports Center, and waited for the rain to stop.

Which it did. Thank god.

sorry for the terrible cell phone photos, my camera died in Philly

Turned out to be a beautiful night for baseball. With the exception of 20 minutes of rain in the 4th inning, everything went off without a hitch. We bought cheap seats in the upper deck, and sat out in left field. If you've ever watched the O's on TV, you'll understand that you can sort of sit wherever you want.

via Chris

My only regret from the evening was not heckling the Twins fan behind us more. It was a group of about ten guys, all O's fans except one. The loud mouth of the group, of course. They were all quite obviously drunk and openly gambling on each batter, not a problem, until you start talking shit about my Brewers hat. It was mostly fun banter though. Not like the Philly fans the night before. But at the end of the game, after the Twins lost 11-0 to the Orioles, I turned to him and here's how it went:

Me: (clapping hands) Great game. Solid offense. Thanks for coming all the way out here.
Him: (shaking his head, confused) I don't even understand you right now. You've got an Orioles shirt on and a Brewers hat. You don't even know who you're cheering for.
Me: The Orioles shirt says "I'm rooting for the Orioles." The Brewers hat says "I hate the Twins."  My team won 9-0 (i.e. The Brewers who beat the Phillies in Philly that same night), yours just lost 11-0 and you're going to talk shit to me. Go back to Minnesota.
His Friends: (clapping)
Me: (triumphantly walk away)

And to cap off the evening I got a $2 post-game cotton candy from a questionable cotton candy vendor outside the stadium like I used to do when I was a little kid going to O's games with my neighbors. Nothing tastes like victory like cheap cotton candy. I could have pulled out my own teeth by the time we got back to the car. No wonder I had so many cavities as a kid.

It was an amazing trip.  Nothing like baseball in the spring and a road trip with a friend.

So, if you hadn't been keeping track here's the rundown from the entire trip.

6 days
3 states, 1 district, and 1 commonwealth
5 teams
4 baseball games
3 ball parks
2 Brewer wins
10 batting practice balls total
1 very successful trip

Back to the real world tomorrow. Today was the first day this week I haven't been to a baseball game. I'm going through withdrawals. Need. More. Baseball.