| Play ball! |
Summer can mean only one thing: baseball. Here we celebrate and document our 2008 pilgrimage.
Come along, won't you? |
Previous Posts |
|
| Archives |
|
| Places to Visit |
|
|
|
| I <3 T.O.! |
posted by Shalar @ 3:41 PM   |
| Friday, June 13, 2008 |
I wrote this earlier tonight but then had to go:
"A couple things before we head out to Ride the Rocket (http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/) to Skydome. This is the first time I've stayed in a suburb in the six times I've visited Toronto since the very first time. That time we stayed in like Yorkville and decided, "This sucks, everything we want to do is downtown" so since then I've never stayed further than a few blocks from Eaton Centre. But this is fine, especially since we have a car to use to get around."
I will now confirm it's nicer to stay downtown because the train ride from out here was danged long - probably an hour. As bad as that ride to Shea and back last year. Well, this was simpler at least.
ANYWAY, Skydome/Rogers Centre - I have no complaints. I feel a vague distaste for domes for baseball although I understand the reasoning for it, especially in those northern cities who have them. I just feel like baseball should be outside, but other than that I guess I don't really have a valid reason for opposing them. So, tonight it was good that Skydome has a retractable roof that consists of three panels, two movable and one stationary, and covers 340,000 square feet but can be opened or closed on steel tracks at a rate of 71 feet per minute (Leventhal 47 - as if a librarian wouldn't cite her source) because it ended up raining. Luckily downtown Toronto has an awesome skywalk system that took us down to Union Station for our train without getting terribly wet.
The game - well, the Cubs lost, 3-2. I'm working really hard on trying not to get tense during games because there's no need to stress out, and usually they manage to pull it out for a win. So I stayed pretty relaxed even when Gallagher allowed two home runs back-to-back in the third, because that's early, and even though so far the Cubs hadn't been very inspiring.
Reed Johnson had one at-bat and everyone got excited, because he used to be a Blue Jay. Cubs fans were hoping he'd be the one to get us out of this tonight, but alas, not to be. I found myself actually thinking many times, hmm, I think maybe Soriano would be able to do something here. I don't want to admit it, but maybe we need him. I just hate it when there's a game in which I'm thinking, you know, this isn't working, they're just not getting it together. I hope the rest of the series goes better. There were a LOT of Cubs fans there, just everywhere. Probably this weekend there will be even more. It's great to have so many showing up for them. I wasn't sure what to expect in Canada. We had Cubs fans all around us, and no one even got into a fight though there was a lot of chatter back and forth among them and the Blue Jays fans. It's fun to bond with fellow fans away from home. So I'm trying to be in a good mood despite the loss. Like me and the Cubs dudes outside after the game said as we gave each other knuckles: "We'll get 'em tomorrow."
I have to say how much I really like Toronto, and Canadians. Obviously, or I wouldn't have visited here so often. I like how they eat gravy and/or vinegar with their fries. I like how being here makes me hungry for donuts. I like how they're hockey-crazy. I like how their beer has higher alcohol content. I like how everyone is polite and friendly. I like how they talk. I used to like how good of a rate we'd get when we exchanged US dollars for Canadian (not true anymore). Raise your hand if you know why this reminds me of a Moxy Fruvous song:
Here are a few photos from the game - D. Lee at bat, Fukudome at bat, the really impressively huge Jumbotron.
Tomorrow morning at a fairly reasonable time we'll be off for Detroit. I promise Kris will write something again one day...
Source: Leventhal, Josh. Take me out to the ballpark: an illustrated tour of baseball parks past and present. New York: Workman Publishing, 2006. |
|
| 1 Comments: |
-
Too bad you weren't there for today's game - turned out much better for the Cubs. Did you make it to batting practice or was it another late entry? Sounds like you saw a good game in Detroit today.
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
Too bad you weren't there for today's game - turned out much better for the Cubs. Did you make it to batting practice or was it another late entry? Sounds like you saw a good game in Detroit today.