96 thoughts on “October 5, 2011: Chase Field”

  1. Looking at MLB.com this morning, it looks like it was quite the game. I trust you enjoyed yourself, spooks?

    1. It was a blast once the grand slam shut up the row behind us (seriously, it was night and day before and after that at-bat). I spookied the granny, although I get that feeling a lot when a team of mine has the bases loaded in a big game.

      The event staff there is the hottest bunch of women I've seen in a while. They came up to throw shirts in our section because of the results of an on-field diversion, and I caught the eye of one of them and smirked coyly and pointed at myself. It worked, and the girl attempted to throw the shirt right at me. I went for it right above my head and it slipped right through my hands and to the guy behind me. The girl passed by me, laughed and slapped my shoulder.

      The Milkmaid rolled her eyes and grinned at me. "Nice try."

      1. Oh, and people in the crowd pointed out on the jumbo screen: Roger Clyne (Refreshments; Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers), Larry Fitzgerald and Rickey Henderson. Jim Gray was sitting next to Fitzy for some reason. When Fitzgerald was shown in the 7th or 8th inning he got a huge ovation, and this was the one time the Brewer guy behind me felt the need to yell anything out after the grand slam. "He's not Greg Jennings!" Dude, nobody cares.

        What was so tedious about this group is that until the 5th, they took their cue from the crowd. They made a point to cheer louder if the crowd booed, like they were there for purely antagonistic reasons.

        After the win, Clyne performed the Diamondbacks fight song, which apparently he wrote. He must be there a lot because they absolutely love him.

        1. Sounds like Brewer's/Packer's fans to me. I'm assuming they were fair weather Wisconsin-ites who high tail it out of here before the snows. (sorry, I'm having a rough week and am very cynical and judgmental today.)

          So, can we expect an hour long special when Larry Fitzgerald becomes a free agent?

          1. Larry Fitzgerald was in my brother's high school class, so I've always enjoyed the way he has manipulated his image in media (I suppose it helps to have a father in the industry even if he writes for a paper with a readership of approximately 25 people).

            1. Well, yeah, but we're talking high school here, too. I come off much differently from the way I did as a rotten teenager, but it's not because I'm manipulating my image. I just don't say and do horrible things all the time anymore.

          2. Yeah, I thought at first it was that row, but out in the concourse and on the street after the game, others were behaving the same way, yelling out Brewer chants right in the faces of Diamondback fans, and some girl was just yelling out to random people, "Yeah? Who won the first two games?"

            These teams aren't even rivals. Their whole schtick was just weird.

            1. I always like to tell my story about the time I was walking into my local grocery store wearing my TC hat when a couple of broskis in Brewer's shirts decided they needed to tell me to "f*** your Twins." This was even during one of the Twins good summers, as opposed to this one.

              1. I kept expecting something like that from behind me, but surprisingly, it never came. I was all ready to respond, too. "The Twins suck!" ... "I watch them every day, dude. I know."

                  1. If it's any consolation, after leaving the Brewers game that I went to where Matt Capps made my daughter cry, I was walking out and a couple of Brewers fans were whooping it up when they admitted the following: Minneapolis is a helluva lot better city than Milwaukee.

                    1. And to add to that, at least now they can't say: "Hey, at least its better than the Metrodome."

                    6. And to add to that, at least now they can't say: "Hey, at least its better than the Metrodome."

                      Noooo, they can still say that.

        2. The only game I've seen at bank one (or whatever they're calling it now in Phoenix) was the exhibition game between the D-backs and RedSox at the end of spring training 05. RedSox fans must have outnumbered the locals 3-1. A group of 5 or 5 college age, drunken, monday to friday bosox fans chased a dude wearing a yankess t-shirt into the mens room, circled around the stall he went into chanting, "yankees suck, yankees suck". They didn't budge, and followed the dude back to the stands chanting the whole time.

          It was at that point I decided to really, really, dislike boston sports teams and their fans.

          1. Wow, that nonsense in Phoenix? I assume the locals were rolling their eyes. That's ridiculous.

            I actually saw a handful of Yankee hats, but no Red Sox. Every playoff team was represented but the Rays from the people I saw, and I even saw another dude with a TC hat on.

            1. Around 2005 or so, I saw a guy walking on the trail in front of my house in Brooklyn Park wearing a Devil Rays cap. The forest green style. It was so weird.

              1. I'll often play MLB blackout bingo in huge crowds, and the Rays are almost never represented. I guess Florida is a place people move to, and not from.

                2. The fellow had white hair and was definitely in his late 60's if not much older. I assumed he was either a snowbird with split alliances, or he found the cap for a steep discount and figured, "It covers my head."

      1. I called Dwight Siebler a few years ago after reading about him in Chaps' birthday series, but never got to talk to the man himself.

        Has anyone ever read Gladstone's book?

  3. the Viqueens push for a new stadium hits the big time.

    I look forward to opening of the L.A. Vikings era. Will they load up the trucks in the middle of the night, a la Robert Irsay?

    1. Even if he wanted to leave town, the N.F.L., which would have to sign off on any move, prefers that the Vikings stay in Minnesota, where there are avid fans and several key advertisers

      Is this equivalent to the "vote of confidence" NFL head coaches receive two weeks before being fired?

    2. There is no way the NFL would let the Vikings move. The owners don't want to move a team to LA, they want to expand to LA and pocket the $1B expansion fee.

        1. Exactly. And the current rules make it incredibly difficult to move a team. The current city has to practically say we don't want you, get the hell out. Jerry Jones is upset that he has to revenue share with the Vikings? Ziggy wants the public to subsidize his real estate development? Boo-effing-hoo.

          (But boy am I glad the Twins got their deal locked in when they did. Contradictory? Well, I am large, I contain multitudes.)

          2. I'm probably just a baseball partisan, but I would assume there's a better effect on the local economy outside of what the team controls from 82 home games in downtown during the time of year when people like to be outside, vs. 8 home games (plus two obligations preseason games) ten miles away from everything else, with half of those games potentially with snow on the ground.

            The article also mentions seat licenses. I've never understood this: you have to pay for the right to buy tickets? Do I have that right? The NFL just sounds like a giant scam, and I keep wondering when the balloon's gonna burst.

      2. Isn't all the rage now to move the team first and then expand into the void you just created? It seems as though the calculus from the owners' side is that you can extort more from a city for a new stadium when the city gets a new team, so they'd rather have a new team in LA followed by a new team in Minnesota rather than just one new team in LA. If they expand to LA before the Vikings get a new stadium in Minnesota, then they have a weaker bargaining position from which to pry money from Minnesota taxpayers.

        1. There is certainly something to that, but my understanding is that it is particularly difficult to move an NFL franchise given the internal rules the owners have put in place due to the Colts/Raiders/Browns moves. And I bet that it'd be a lot easier for an LA group to come up with that franchise fee than a MN group.

  4. Also The L.A. group wants to own the NFL team that moves there. I don't think Zygi is quite willing to sell the Vikings or give up a controlling interest. San Diego, Oakland, Jacksonville, and St. Louis, are all more likely candidates (and in that order).

      1. oh, I was reading it as those cities not having NFL franchises, which was funny. Reading it as franchises more likely to be sold is less funny, if more true.

        1. Here I thought there was some LA connection to all those teams. Oakland and St. Louis moved from LA, then maybe the NFL expanded to Jacksonville instead of LA? Then I got stumped on San Diego and realized I was probably reading into it too much.

          1. Actually, I looked up San Diego, and it seems they were in LA just prior to joining the NFL. So, there you have it.

          2. hmm, seems awfully wolvish. :o)

            Nope, no jokes or hidden meanings here. Just 5 clubs that have questionable ownership (Oakland, St. Louis) bad markets (Jacksonville) or bad stadium deals (San Diego)

  6. It appears that some of my Facebook friends on both sides already feel the need to turn their avatars into mean-spirited political messages for the next election. Really? It's time to start putting up with that crap already?

    I love this place.

    1. Is it that time already? Seems like the last election just ended.
      I hate to bring it in here, but...

      For: Bagwell, Edgar, Trammell, Radke, TJ Mulholland, Jose Lima, Raffi, Murph, Magoo, Walker

      Against: Morris, Bernie, Mattingly, Phil Nevin, Ruben Sierra, Tony Womack

      If you have strong feelings different than these, then it's obvious that you want the Yankees to win.
      If you don't have strong feelings, then you effectively want to allow the Yankees to win.
      Something something Hitler.

    1. I fall firmly in the "I'll autodraft and have no idea if my team is good" category, but if that works, I'll give it a go.

    4. hj, I tried to sign up and got this message:

      A team cannot join this league; the teams have been finalized by the commissioner. (Error #649)

      Did I miss out?

        1. I tried as well, and am in now, but if it's the last spot I'd be more than happy to give it up to CoC

  8. The US Open Cup Final last night was great. Chicago played well, I thought, holding possession for fairly long stretches at a time, but Seattle ultimately had a little more offensive firepower. Fun game, for sure. I thought the Fire fans showed well, the visitor's section was at least as full as it is for league games, with less notice for the game for fans to plan flights, etc. Depending on how the Champions League tiebreakers work out, if Seattle wins MLS Cup, then Chicago might get a berth to the Champions League being the runner-up for the USOC.

  9. Sorry if I am stepping on anyone's toes, but we've hadn't had a lot of these lately and I saw the image in a travel mag recently. So where is it? (also please don't look at image source, I don't know how to change the file name).

    1. That building on the right looks very similar to the City Center. It's almost as if they reoriented (and shrunk) Target Field.

      2. Ding, Ding, Ding. I was in Crookston Minnesota. Winnipeg is the the getaway destination up there. What clued you in, the skyline?

        2. I can't believe I didn't get this immediately. I've never gone to a ballgame there, despite spending tons of time up there in the summers. I may have to next year.

  10. Soooo, who knows how to compress video? I have a 321 MB file I need to compress down to 30 MB. I think I'm googling the wrong stuff. Plus, asking here is faster than sifting through junk I generally have no interest in.

      1. i remember trying to do something similar with windows movie maker or sumthin'. that was not the right program for the job...

    2. Steve Jobs was endlessly fascinating while he was alive, and that certainly won't change now that he's left us. I will miss his uncanny ability to surprise and delight, and his technological prescience.

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