LEGO Swinging Friar Mascot at Legoland California

Yesterday at Legoland California we noticed that they have a cool Swinging Friar (San Diego Padres mascot) made out of LEGOs outside of the Upper Deck Sports Cafe. There is of course some baseball themed stuff inside the Sports Cafe, too, but the Swinging Friar statue is by far the coolest part. Especially, since I have become more of a Padre fan than a Dbacks fan (of course, Nats are still my fav) with the Padres AAA team playing at least the 2011 season in Tucson before moving to their new permanent ballpark in California.

Wrigley Field: San Diego Padres 1 @ Chicago Cubs 0

Last night I went to my second Cubs game at Wrigley Field this season. I now realize I never did post about going back in April when the Nats were in town and it was my first night game at Wrigley. Anyways, this was another night game.

I sat in section 226, which is on the first base side. This was different for me in that I have always sat on the third base side before except when we sat right up behind home plate on the road trip last year. I was only one row (22) from the top of the section and it kind of stunk that I could not see the scoreboard (my favorite feature of Wrigley), but I cannot complain because someone gave me the ticket and I could still see all the baseball action. There was also one of the poles in the way between the pitcher and home plate, but it was not a real issue and that is just one of the quarks of Wrigley being an old ballpark.

The game itself was not exactly exciting, as it was low scoring and there was not many hits or even fly balls to the outfield. However, I like games like that when it is close and it is more of a pitching duel. Although, there were quite a few walks and a couple errors. The end of the game was pretty exciting with the Cubs final out being with one man on and the guy at bat hitting a long ball that looked like it would make it out of the park, but was caught in the ivy. I would have liked to see the Cubs win, but it was still a lot of fun to see another game at Wrigley.

I also like that I got a photo of the Harry Caray statue at its current location, as after the game I read they are moving it so it is closer to being outside the bleacher section during the next homestand. They are putting another guy (I cannot remember who right now and am too lazy to look it up, although I am pretty sure it is Billy something) where Harry is right now. Anyways, I am kind of sad I forgot to go to the front of the stadium and take a photo of the macaroni statue (Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ad), but I did already photograph the one they have at Navy Pier.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: PetCo Park All You Can Eat Section 2010 Version

Last summer we sat in the All You Can Eat Section at PetCo Park when we went to the Padres game. It was a totally awesome section in a good location. The All You Can Eat was the best we experienced, as it included not only peanuts, hot dogs, popcorn, and soda, but also ice cream treats and best of all for me, veggie dogs!

When we decided to go to a Padres game at PetCo Park on July 16, 2010, I automatically looked up the All You Can Eat section tickets. I was quickly sad to see the section was moved, but the real sad part is that the selection was seriously downgraded. I get the getting rid of the extras like nachos and ice cream treats, but it is extremely disappointing that they also cut out the veggie dogs from the offerings. The only improvement is that they now give the drinks out as little bottles of soda and water, which is so much easier to stock up on for the later part of the game when the All You Can Eat service ends (2 hours after start time).

Mik still loved the hot dogs. He had 3, but he was too quick eating them for me to sneak a photo. He says the hot dogs are better than last year, but he was kind of sad they did not have nachos like last year.

Petco Park: Arizona Diamondbacks 1 @ San Diego Padres 12

I did not plan on going to several ballparks this year after going to all 30 last season, but a little over halfway through the season I have been to 3 (Dbacks Opening Day, Nats @ Cubs in April, and then Petco park). Only the Dbacks Opening Day game this season was the three of us, but I am going to still keep updating this blog as I visit and revisit various ballparks and baseball things.

Mik was definitely baseballed out after last season and only planned to go Dbacks opening day and the Luis Gonzalez bobblehead game coming up in August. However, when I told him that the Dbacks were in San Diego when we were there in July, he happily agreed to go to a game. By the way he also got mad at me for saying I might fit in a Twins game in August to check their new ballpark off the been to list. He called last summer the Summer of Hell, but since he has been to the other 29 current ballparks he thinks he might as well visit the 30th.

Anyways back to the main point of this post - Dbacks being slaughtered by the Padres on July 16, 2010, at Petco Park. It was a sad game for Mik the Dbacks fan, but it was still kind of exciting. We have been to Petco Park pretty much every year since it has opened, but yet again we got totally lost because we were sitting in the new All You Can Eat section (not as good as last year and will report in a Mik Food Scrapbook post later).

Petco Park is overall a nice ballpark if you sit in the right parts (i.e. not next to the building), but it is so dang confusing (see my post about getting lost in 2008). Just like in 2008, we wandered in circles for a while, but this time we ended up with a very helpful usher, who was manning the elevator priority, that actually wandered with us some more and eventually got us to the section. He never works the side of the park we were sitting and even he was confused and asked several other ushers before we got to the place. It was greatly appreciated that he put the effort in and figured it out for us. Unfortunately, we did not get to the ballpark until 30 minutes before the game and by the time we got to our seats we had missed the only run the Dbacks ended up scoring that game.

Mik enjoyed seeing his team play, but by the 7th inning he was ready to go (mostly because his team was getting slaughtered). Since it really was his choice of baseball game, I gave in and we left the game in the 8th inning. Amazingly, he did not even take his video game system out of the backpack at this game. I think he is slowly becoming a real baseball spectator and fan, although he will not admit it.

Car Stickers Update: San Diego Padres

At the game last night we got a Padres sticker to add to the National League side of the car. Dad put it on right after the game before we even left the parking garage, but I did not get around to taking a photo of it until this morning. I still forgot to take a photo of the lettering on the back of the car, but it is basically just the All the Ballparks 2009 Road Trip lettering because Dad messed up on one side and when he ordered new lettering it came with two sets of it.

Update: I now realize it is kind of hard to tell with the little thumbnail photo that it is there above the red Dbacks one. It is clearer if you click on the photo to see the larger version of it. The Padres one is actually pretty fancy in comparison to the simple Dbacks one.

Accessibility Review: PetCo Park

PetCo Park can be a pain in the butt with a wheelchair if you do not know where you are going. Last summer we ended up having to go up and down a bunch of elevators before finally go up one of the long ramps to the section. That section happened to be one over from the one we sat at last night. This time we had no problem, though, because the ticket taker actually asked us if we knew where we needed to go and when we said no she gave us very clear instructions.

To get to 229 we just had to walk straight along the Park in the Park area behind the outfield to the first elevator under the stands. It is actually a very straight shot from where we entered the park by the Team Shop. Last time, though, we ended up in the first elevator by the Team Shop and then on a Club Level, where you cannot go through if you do not have tickets for that level and just keep getting crap round and round directions to our seats.

The seats in 229 were good. They are up above some rows in the section, but you cannot even tell there are any below you. The view of the field is also very good since the bar in front of the seating is low enough not to be in the line of sight. Plus the location was great for being on the other side of the wall from the bathrooms and the concession stand, which being an All You Can Eat section we kept sending Dad back to to get food and soda.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: PetCo Park

Since we sat in the All You Can Eat section Mik did a lot of eating at PetCo Park. The only food we had to go to another section to buy was the trademark food, fish tacos, and Dippin' Dots in the mini helmet. It certainly was a great deal since the tickets were not that much more expensive than the cheapest handicap seats without the All You Can Eat option.



Mik started with nachos. He says that was his favorite item he tried at the PetCo Park. They were basically just regular nachos, but they were good.



Next Mik moved on to a hot dog. I even had two veggie dogs. Mik liked the hot dog.



I had Dad get me Dippin Dots to get my mini helmet for the Padres. I ate a little of it before Mik decided he wanted Dippin Dots and I let him finish it off so Dad did not have to go back down and buy another. He declared it nothing special since Dippin Dots are at several sports venues, but still good.



Next Mik had his fish taco. He was disappointed in it. He says the fish was good, but he did not like that it was made with a corn tortilla and cabbage instead of lettuce.



From the All You Can Eat section we had some ice cream treats. It was kind of chilly at the game, but it is hard to pass up "free" ice cream. Dad had an Eskimo Pie, I had a Drumstick, and Mik had an ice cream sandwich.



The one other thing we tried was the popcorn. It was good popcorn. Even Dad did not think it was too salty.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Light Blue Padres

The mini bat selection has not been all that interesting so far on the trip besides finding the '09 World Baseball Classic one. Most of Mik's collection is buried in the garage and we could not confirm what ones he had before the trip, but we knew he already had either a natural wood or dark blue Padres logo one. Thus the choices were either this light blue one or a pink one. Obviously, Mik went for the light blue one. All of them just had the same San Diego Padres logo. When we found the 40th Anniversary Ball for my collection we had hoped there would be a mini bat with that logo, too.

Kj's Baseball Collection: Padres 40th Anniversary Year

I am mostly trying to collect souvenir balls with the ballparks name on them on the trip. I could not find one at PetCo Park and that did not matter too much to me anyways, as I do have a Inaugural Year PetCo Park ball in the part of my collection currently sitting in storage. I ended up getting the Padres 40th Anniversary Year ball, since it is specific to this year. It has a Friar batting Padres logo that says Anniversary Year on top, has 40th in a home plate symbol, and says the years 1969 and 2009. Even if they had had a PetCo park ball I still would have chosen this one.

Game 2: Chicago Cubs 0 @ San Diego Padres 4

Last night we saw Game 2 of the trip. Game 2 was overall a great experience considering the circumstances. For one Petco Park is just not one of the better ballparks and we know that having been there inaugural year and last summer. Secondly the Cubs lost. That is the end of the bad list, as even Mik was for once very well behaved.

The seats in 229 in the All You Can Eat section were great and sure there was a bar in front of the seats, but it was not in the line of site at all like at the Diamondbacks game. The seats are located in the upper level behind right field and while a small part of center and right field (mostly warning track) cannot be viewed from the seats there were not any plays in that area during this game, so it was not really a noticeable issue. Not to mention that is very typical of seats in this type of location in any ballpark.

The All You Can Eat part was awesome. The veggie dogs were significantly smaller than the regular hot dogs, but they were still good and it does not really matter when you can get as many as you want. It was nice they also had some Nestle ice cream treats as part of it. More on the food to come in a Mik's Food Review post later (he's still sound asleep), though, including his verdict on the fish tacos.

The game itself was of course disappointing since the Cubs lost and Dad and I like the Cubs. Most sad is the first run was scored in the first inning without the Padres even getting a hit. Zambrano walked two and hit a batter with a pitch to load the bases with one out and then the Padres' Kouzmanoff hit a sac fly to center field to score the first run. The Cubs did get on base a good amount of times including loading it in the 9th, but they just could not get a run in. It did not help that the Padres pitchers combined to get 16 of the 27 outs of the game by striking out Cubs batters. It also happened to be the first time the Padres have shut out a team at home this year.

Below are a few of the photos from the game. You can see the rest in the album for the game by clicking on any of the ones below.

Baseball Museum 2: San Diego Hall of Champions

The San Diego Hall of Champions was not even originally on the plan and we did not even realize it existed until we saw it across the parking lot from the San Diego Automotive Museum. One of the main sections of the museum is a baseball exhibit and the only other sport with a decent section is football. There are a several other sports represented, but most just have one little display each.

We pretty much just checked out the Baseball section since Mik was getting burnt out and obnoxious again. The Baseball section was pretty cool. It was mostly about the Padres and it was interesting to learn about the history of the team from being a Minor League to the current Major League team. It also had some interesting displays with Major League players with ties to the San Diego area, such as Ted Williams. It was actually a lot of fun to see this museum, especially since we did not know it was there.

Click the photos below to see the rest of the photos from this museum and today.

Padres @ Nats Game Wrap Up

Today I went to the Padres @ Nationals game as the final game that came in my partial season ticket package. It was not a good game if you are a Nats fan like me, as the Nats lost 6-2, but at least they got on the board including a home run by Ryan Zimmerman. Plus, I picked up my free leftover promo item of a Panda Webkinz. Also, blogging from my phone worked out good. Anyways, I have a more full game wrap up on my D.C. blog here.

Click thumbnails below to see the whole gallery of photos I took at the game.