Game 18 - Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Mets

Another early morning as we piled into the van to head toward New York to watch the Philadelphia Phillies take on the New York Mets. When we got to Queens where the Mets play, I was shocked to see all of the automotive places around the ball park. Queens wasn't exactly the nicest neighborhood we have seen. There were many run down places and all together it looked pretty junky. It was strange to see such a nice ball field in such a crappy part of town. We were patted down before heading in through the gate, but after seeing where the field was located I wasn't at all surprised. Our seats were one row from the very top just left of home plate. The Phillies couldn't get much started in the first two innings. In fact, they didn't even reach second base until the third when they scored their first run of the game. The Mets however, did not waste any time putting up some crooked numbers. The short stop, #7 Reyes, started the game with a triple. The Mets collected five hits in the first inning and scored four runs. They continued their hitting streak into the second inning until the catcher, Thole, tired stretching his double into a triple as his hit sailed to right field. He was caught in a pickle and tagged out on the 9-5-4 relay. (9-5-4 are the positions, right fielder, third baseman, and second baseman.) The Mets still managed to pick up another four run on five hits. At the end of the third inning the Mets had a commanding 8-1 lead. The mets added one more run to put the game out of reach at 9-1. The Phillies tried to rally back in the last two innings scoring three runs int he eight and another in the ninth inning to make the final score 9-5 as the Mets came out victorious.

Game 17 - Padres @ Nationals

Today, we got to the field somewhat early, so we decided to get another game of wiffle ball going. While my team was in the outfield I saw a kid playing catch with his dad in the parking lot. His ball rolled away from him on the hot cement and toward us. I said to the kid, "Hey, you wanna play with us?" He was hesitant when he replied with a "No" but I saw that he had interest, so I told him that we needed extra fielders so he quickly changed his mind and jumped in. I asked him his name as he walk up beside me. He told me his name was Jordan as he took a spot over at third base. I welcomed him to the game and introduced him to the rest of the class. When it was our turn to hit, Jordan smoked a frozen rope past the third baseman. I was so impressed with how good he was. We later found out that he was going to be on the field for competing in a pitch, run, and hit competition. (A sort of punt, pass, kick for baseball.) A little while later a new teammate joined. Nick, was also going to be in the same competition. It was exciting to see the kids on the big screen and yell for them when their names were announced. This wasn't the only time we yelled for someone getting on the big screen that day. Before the game started a Nike trivia game was about to start, when they show Danny on the screen ready for a competition. We yelled for him as he smoked his opponent 3-0 about Nike trivia and received a $25 gift card to a fan store inside National Park.

Game two for the Padres and Nationals matchup started off slow again. We watched as the Padres took the lead this time in the four inning scoring two runs on three hits. The Nationals hit a homerun in the seventh inning to make it a 2-1 ballgame, that that's as close as they could come. After the game was over, Kyle knew someone who works for the Nationals marketing department. He was able to get us down on the field after the game was over. It was so exciting to be able to be on the field and go into the dugout where the players had just been. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and standing in awe. It was probably one of the most exciting things that we have been able to do on the trip. Tomorrow we will head to New York to watch the Phillies again as they take on the Mets.

Game 16 - San Diego Padres @ Washington Nationals

Today we took a short little drive from our Baltimore hotel to Washington DC for a Nationals game against the San Diego Padres. We departed early for the night game so we would have time to see several things in DC. We started out going to the Capitol building and the Library of Congress. It was really interesting to see all of the history and art pieces at the Library of Congress. The only bad part was that you were not allowed to take pictures of anything inside. This is how it was most places we went to, unfortunately. After we were done we went to meet Dr. Bob for lunch at the American Indian museum. There were so many eclectic choices, but it was really expensive to eat there. After lunch we split up to go see different museums and exhibits. I convinced my group to view the African American Art Museum. I was really interested in going because I took an African Art history class at the University of Iowa. It was really exciting to see some of the work up close and have some idea of what I was looking at and the tribe it came from. My group then walked to the Washington monument which was really neat to see, I was shocked by its grand size as I came closer to it. I was a little disappointed when we got there though. The reflecting pool was being re-done or getting fixed and was drained. I would see the Lincoln memorial but the walk there looked so painful that I didn't want to put my feet through any more than I had to. We then walked to the Smithsonian museums. My favorite part was the Natural History part which had all sorts of animals to look at. After that it was time to meet up with Dr. Bob again at the van to go into the game.

Even though the score might not show it, this might be one of the most exciting games I have seen thus far. The game went scoreless for five innings until Nationals second baseman, Espinosa jacked one over the fence. This must have been a game of homeruns because in the bottom of the ninth inning the game was tied at 1-1 when Padres short stop, Bartlett, cranked one. While everyone thought this was going to be another extra inning game like we just saw we still had the bottom of the ninth inning for the Nationals. Michael Morse, the Nationals first baseman was up to bat. With a crack of the bat, the first pitch to Morse received was gone. I had just witnessed a walk-off homerun I stood up in excitement as the Nats ran out to greet Morse rounding third base. It was amazing to see a team get so excited. After a face full of shaving cream for Morse the game was over 2-1.

Game 15 - Royals @ Orioles

Before the game started I signed up to win tickets at the Ford booth outside the stadium. Just before the game was about to start I got a call that I had won the tickets. The intersting thing is that I was giving the guy, who was around my age, a bunch of crap before I went in. Ford was handing out signs that said "Go Orioles." I told him that I wanted a bunch of signs to take with me. He allowed me to have four, but no more. I convinced everyone else to grab some for me to have to take back to Springville. When I had gotten that call that I had won two tickets to a game I went back down to the booth to accept my prize! I was so excited to have won, but knew I would never get the chance to use the tickets. After getting a picture taken by the red Ford Focus I asked another worker if I could have a bunch of the signs. He said, "Yeah take as many as you want!" So I reached for the whole stack and picked up about 50 when the kid my age said, "Hey, you can't take all of those, we need them!" He said I could have half of them as long as I agreed to hand them out inside the gate. I put about ten back and promised to do work for Ford, but of course I kept all of them. I was so excited to tell my girlfriend Kalli's mom, that I had gotten almost fifty "Go Orioles" signs. She was thrilled, and said she could give them to teachers at the school.

As for the game, does anyone remember the show Lamb Chop? Well, if you don't, at the end of the show they would always sing, "This is the song that never ends." Well that's what could have been said about game two of the Orioles and the Royals. Both teams started out scoring quick. The Royals didn't waste any time scoring int he second inning putting together a series of five hits to score four runs. In the bottom of the inning the Orioles were only able to get one run on a solo homerun by #14 Reimold the left fielder. The score was 4-1 when the Oriole offense started to come alive. A single and a bunt put runners safely at first and second base. There were two easy fly balls to the outfield and runners stranded when a hit to the outfield scored one run to make it a 4-2 game. This brought Reimold up to the plate again. This time he cranked a three run homer to make the score 5-4 for the Oriole advantage. The Royals tied the game at 5 each in the fourth inning. The game tied sent it to extra innings. From there on it was still scoreless until the 12th inning of play when the Orioles, Guerrero, had a single up the middle scored the runner from second base for a 6-5 win.

Game 14 - Kansas City Royals @ Baltimore Orioles

We left earlier than normal today to go to a few museums in Maryland including the Babe Ruth birthplace and history museum and the Sports History Museum, just a few blocks away. I really enjoyed seeing and learning about Babe Ruth, his family, and Maryland's athletic history which included exhibits of Cal Ripken Jr. and Michael Phelps. We found our seats on the upper concourse and settled in for a 7:05 ballgame! There were a lot of different things the Orioles did that we haven't seen before and a lot of history in Baltimore. For example, during the Star Spangled Banner the flag that was show was on top of one of the buildings outside the stadium, the Flag that was waving in the wind was the Ft. McHenry flag which has 15 stripes and 15 stars. Another interesting fact about Camden Yards is that Babe Ruth's fathers saloon was in the outfield. It only took the Orioles four innings to take their commanding lead. They scored eight runs on six hits and almost batted through the line up twice. The Royals tacked on two runs in the fifth inning, but could not come any closer. While the Orioles added one with a homerun by the third baseman Reynolds in the bottom of the eighth and ended the game 9-2 with a Baltimore Orioles win.

Wiffle Ball at the Jersey Shore

Today was our first day off from a game. We were excited to have the day to do what we wanted. We all ate together for lunch and then walked back to the beach to play our second game of wiffle ball. This game was a lot more challenging. It's a lot harder to run and play in sand, but we managed to do it. with the bases loaded Conner "The One Hit Wonder" stepped up to the plate. WIth one swing he sent the ball clear onto the board walk! It was pretty amazing to see a wiffle ball crushed that hard! He certainly hit the cream cheese out of that one! A new pitcher came in for our team and never allowed Conner on base again! (Thankfully) We all had a great time playing and taking pictures at the beach. We then packed up from the beach to head to Baltimore, Maryland for a five night stay to catch the Baltimore Orioles play a few games.

Game 13 - Toronto Blue Jays @ New York Yankees

The van ride to New Jersey was actually a lot of fun. In honor of the Jersey Shore, we started to get our accents going and started to give each other nicknames. We found a Jersey name generator online and enjoyed the hillarious names it came up with. Our favorites were, B-booty, The Mistake, and K-Train, we also came up with a few of our own including Stallion, and Droochie! When we got to our hotel, we were right along the beach so most everyone got excited and started fist pumping! The Empress Hotel was lit up with colorful flashing light, we thought it was interesting to say the least. Dr. Bob then found out we needed to be on a train very soon if we wanted to get to New York in time to see the game. Dr. Bob went to buy our train tickets while part of the class went to scope out a place for us to get food to eat on our way. The Windmill restaurant was where we landed. A gentleman began talking to us about our trip and asked where we were staying, when Dr. Bob told him the Empress hotel, he gave a little grin and said, "Nice choice!" We all figured it must be a nice place to stay, but the sarcastic tone in his voice said something else. Dr. Bob later informed us that we were actually staying at a gay hotel. We teased him about his choice as we made our way to the Asburry Park station. We ate our delicious food quickly at the station before the train came to take us into New York. When we got to our final stop we had to switch trains. The train system put me completely out of my element. Everything is so fast paced in New York, you have to keep up or get trampled. I was glad that some people new how to use the trains to get us where we needed to go. I was really excited to see some of New York, when we got off the train, I wish we could have spent more time there too see some of the amazing things New York has to offer. The last train we were on took us right to Yankee Stadium. I was amazed by the size of the stadium and couldn't wait to see what was on the inside. We got to the field early for batting practice. As game time got closer we were asked to leave the outfield seats. Just as we were getting ready to leave a ball was heading right toward me. I saw it bounce off the second level and come back down towards us. It was only a few rows from me, I leaped over two sets of bleachers diving to the ground for the ball. I was extremely excited to have a ball from Yankee Stadium. When I got to my feet Danny was in shock that I had gotten one, and the row of girls I leaped past gave me a glare as the said, "Next time, watch our stuff!" I said I was sorry and gave the one girl a pat on the back. I think she was just jealous that she didn't have it. We found our seats for the game out in right field. They game started off with a Jose Bautista homerun in the first inning giving the Blue Jays the early 1-0 lead. Bautista is the current league leader in homeruns. We were privileged to see his 19th of the season. In the fourth inning the Yankees got a baserunner when center fielder, #14 Curtis Granderson, walked. A single past the second baseman moved runners to first and third. Robinson Cano tied the game up 1-1 on a RBI sac-fly to the centerfielder. The Blue Jays started scoring again in the sixth A double to start the inning followed by an intentional walk put runners on first and second. A sacrafice bunt moved runners to second and third. Another intentional walk loaded the bases. A hit past Jeter scored one run, followed by a walk, and a Double to right centerfield made the score 6-1 for the Blue Jays. The Yankees picked up a run in the sixth inning to make it 6-2. The seventh inning stretch might have been one of my favorite parts of the game. The grounds crew that drug the field was so entertaining. While prepping the field the "YMCA" song came on. The crew dropped their stuff and danced to the song! This wasn't the only entertainment for the game. For me, I was just in awe of all of the history the stadium had to offer. A team like the Yankee's have been around a long time so there is so much history that is incorporated with the stadium. The electricity of the crowd was so exciting. Their energy was so high, they were always cheering even though the score wasn't in their favor. For example, during the bottom of the seventh inning the section next to us started the most amazing "wave" that went throughout the entire stadium, it was so neat to see all three levels of 41,946 fans getting into it! Both teams tacked on an additional run in the eighth inning for a 7-3 final score.