* Leave at 9am
* Rawley’s
* Mass Pike rest stops
* Fenway parking
* tickets
* the game
* the bullpens
* Summerfield

I decided months ago that the September 21st Orioles game versus the Detroit Tigers would be the last home game I would see in 2006. The game was the result of a May 11th rainout and the day I heard about the Thursday afternoon September 21st makeup game I decided that was going to be the one to go to, mainly because of the increased ball snagging chances. With the game in mid-September there wasn’t going to be a ton of kids there and with the Orioles chances at winning the division way out of reach, the crowds would probably be minimal as well.

I grabbed a couple of great seats off a lady on craigslist which consisted of a pair of tickets 17 rows behind the Tigers dugout and a B/C lot parking pass for below face value. The day was set.

There was on bit on anxiety however. I had read through Zack Hample’s blog that he was actually planning on hitting Camden Yards that day, with a CBS Evening news crew filming him to boot. Not only would it be kind of weird to be using the trick that he invented in his presence, it also would have felt kind of weird competing with someone in general. It was going to be interesting.

As it turned out, someone on Zack’s film crew called the Orioles office and told them that there wasn’t going to be any BP that day, so Zack decided not to go. I was bummed that there wasn’t going to be any batting practice. I love BP. But with the great weather that day I was hoping that maybe they would change their minds.

After a quick oatmeal breakfast and a bit of preparing for the camping trip the next day, I got off at about 8:10am. I filled up at the Exxon station and made a quick drive to Baltimore with only one rest stop and only one mishap. I was driving in the left hand lane a mile before Aberdeen and I noticed a guy in a yellow vest stepping out into the lane. At first I thought it was a crazed construction worker or something who stepped out on accident. The guy them started signaling for me to pull over and that’s when I realized it was a cop. Wondering what I had done wrong I pulled over and was informed that I was going 77 in a 65. License and registration please. No problem. As he went to check on my driving record I noticed the car who had been pulled over ahead of me was from Florida. As he pulled out I saw the car ahead of him was from New Jersey. Hmmm. I started trying to figure out how much a ticket would be in my head and how many points it was and how it would affect my insurance. Then I started thinking
that 77 in a 65 really wasn’t that bad. It was then that the officer returned with a bundle of papers in his hand and my cards. Instead of a ticket in his hand however it was a big piece of paper with the word ‘WARNING’ on it in red. I was then asked to slow down and be on my way.

I started to get really hungry 15 miles outside of Baltimore. My choices were 5 Guys (yet again) or anything else I could think of. I had read a few things about Lexington Market on the web the night before and decided to punch it in the Nav and see where it was going to take me. In actuality I thought the Lexington Market was the one near Fells Point but my car was taking me far away from Fells Point. I wondered where I was going (I was later corrected by Kristin who told me that one I was thinking of was actually the Broadway Market.)

I approached Lexington Market at about 11:10am. It was a non-descript brick building about a block in length with a parking garage next to it. I parked in the garage and then walked in. Inside, among the many shady looking characters I found a bunch of unique food stands. Burgers, island food, seafood. This looked pretty cool. I made a round and thought that was it until I turned a corner a noticed a TON more food stands. Wow. I kept looking to my left and right almost overwhelmed by the number of stands. Fried chicken stands, a bakery, soul food, fresh chicken, fresh fish, breakfast, almost anything you could think of. I made a couple trips around and around and then I decided that I had to grab a hot dog from Konstants hot dog stand. The sign said ’since 1896 so it had to be good right? Did they even have hot dogs in 1896? I bought a dog with chili, mustard and onions and it was great. The chili sauce was awesome - sweet and hot at meaty at the same time. Very good.

I then bought a bag of UTZ chips from a very unique UTZ stand which featured chips prebagged in a paper bag - not the usual sealed plastic bags. For $1.00 it was a steal. I went to work on the bag as I wandered around Faidley’s fish market, checking out the fresh fish and raw bar and then sizing up their menu. I also read an article about a trip the Zagat’s took to Faidley’s and how they also became fans of a cookie from a place called Berger’s. I decided to see if I could find this stand. After wandering around twice I found it and gazed on a bunch of cookies covered in a ton of chocolate. The cookies were priced by the 1/4 pound so I asked the guy behind the counter how much a single was. 50 he told me. 50 cents I asked? No… 50 dollars. “Do you take credit cards,” I shot back? “I do if you’re going to pay that much,” he replied. I handed him 2 shiny quarters and took my cookie. As I ate it I wondered if it could technically even be called a cookie - it was more chocolate than anything else and tasted great.

After the cookie I texted Kristin and asked if she had time to meet me for dinner after the game. She said that she would be at happy hour and to give her a ring when the game was over. She ended the text by telling me to get a crabcake. No problem I thought. I decided to head over to Faidley’s again and get one. As I walked over, I noticed a sushi place selling sushi by the piece. Nigiri sushi was about .95 cents a piece while roll peices were about .45 cents. Cool.

At Faidley’s I grabbed what they called the “regular crabcake” as opposed to the much more expensive jumbo lump and the slightly more expensive backfin. It tasted great nonetheless and I it with crackers and mustard.

At this point it was about 12:20pm and I decided to head over to the ballpark. I drove down Russell street and into the C lot easily thanks to my B/C lot parking pass. I decided to see if the autograph hounds in front of the main entrance were out and sure enough they were in full force. I then took a walk around to see if I could find a bathroom. I had to go. No luck in the Sports Museum. I walked over to the convention center and down the stairs and found a mens room. After that I bought a lukewarm soda from a vendor and then checked out a t-shirt vendor selling black ‘Free the Birds’ shirts for the organized protest that day.

Seeing that it was still fairly early I decided to watch the autograph hounds again. Most of them were armed for war with newly bought baseballs, albums of baseball cards and bats ready to sign. A huge majority of them were waiting for players from the Tigers. Every so often a Lincoln Towne Car limo or SUV would pull up and drop players off and then the swarm would begin. Most of the requests were ignored. Pudge Rodriguez played the old cell phone trick. It was kind of funny.

I went over to check out the entrance to the Orioles players lot and struck up a conversation with a older guy who had just gotten Brandon Fahey to sign. As I talked to him a car or SUV would pull in with a player inside. Bruce Chen in his Lexus. Melvin Mora in an Escalade. Raul Chavez in an H2. It was kind of cool. Most of them took the secret stairway to the clubhouse however. At 1:45pm I decided it was time to go and line up.

Instead of Gate H I decided to wait at Gate A today. I spent a second reapplying some liquid bandage to my injured finger and then I waited it out. At about 2:05pm the gates opened and I was let in. Running over to the flag court entrance I looked over at the field and noticed no one was taking BP. However the BP fences were up! The Tigers were going to take BP! Awesome! Flashing my season ticket I was let into the seating bowl and headed over to left field. A couple guys with gloves also headed over and for 30 minutes we hung around waiting for the Tigers to come out and hit. While I waited Erik Bedard and Leo Mazzone begand a side session in the bullpen and I got an up close look at his fastball and curve. A guy nearby joked that he could hit this guy. Too funny. At around 2:30pm the Tigers began BP and I got into position. 3 minutes later a ball rolled to the wall and was ignored. I had to reel it in a bit but I got it fairly easily. Ball #1. Later on another ball rolled over to the right of me and I ran over and grabbed that one too. I then heard a gruff voice saying, “Hey! I’m going to need that ball back!” It was Tigers reliver Joel Zumaya. Not wanting to mess with a guy who threw over 100mph I quickly threw the ball back and wondered why he was so adamant. Maybe he really did want the ball back or maybe he had seen me reel in the other one. As I turned around the people around informed me that he was just screwing with me and he lobbed the ball back at me. I decided to give that ball to a kid I had seen before. Minutes after I did that I found out that he already had 3 balls. Dang kids.

BP ended without any other ball opportunities. I did see 3 stray balls in the Orioles bullpen so I hung out there for awhile. 10 minutes later Leo Mazzone came in and picked them up. I said a quick, “Hello Leo!” to him and he replied back and asked how I was. Then he said, “I suppose you want a ball?” to which I replied, “If you don’t mind…” He lobbed one over to me, then stopped to talk to a couple guys he knew who were at the bullpen fence.

As I left the area I noticed there was another ball by the batters eye so I ran over the the right field bleachers and hung around just above it. Bullpen coach Larry McCall came over, picked it up and pitched it up to me. His first throw fell inches short but his second was right on. Thanks Larry.

At this point I decided to head over to my seat. Before I did so I decided to try something. That morning I looked on craiglist to see if anyone else was selling tickets for this game. I happened upon a listing for an unsold pair of tickets 2 rows behoind the Orioles dugout. They gave the exact section, row and seat number. Seeing they were unsold I decided to try them out knowing they were unclaimed. To say they were awesome would be an understatement and I didn’t get bugged at all.

The game itself was great with the Orioles coming from behind in the bottom of the eigth. My seats afforded me of a great view of the “Free the Birds” rally in the LF Upper reserved seats and I enjoyed the constant cheers they gave, wishing it was like that at the stadium all the time.

I jumped seats a couple times, checking out my actual ticketed seats and then moving to section 34 right behind home plate. I got some great looks at some Chris Ray fastballs and tried to grab a ball from the umpire at the end of the game with no luck.

After the game I met Kristin at Nacho Mama’s. She was at the bar with a half finished margarita so I ordered up a Natty Boh. We were both kind of full already so we only ordered up crab nachos (always required) and some buffalo empanadas. We spent the next hour talking about broken fridges and Los Angeles. After dinner Kristin showed me the building she worked in and we stopped in a Starbucks to talk to her friend Vera. I ordered up a Grande Latte for the trip home. At 9:40pm I was off and at 12:30pm I was home.

We didn’t even put a dent into those crab nachos so I took them home in 2 seperate containers.

Checking in and getting past security was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There was NO line at check-in and as such, there was NO line at the metal detectors either. I did the drill: take off shoes, take out laptop, put all metal objects into ‘World Famous Comics’ bag (Thanks Justin!), head through the metal detector, then do the reverse.

I checked the seat map to see if there was a more desirable spot open only to find that the flight was 100% full. Actually more than 100% as the kiosk was offering a $250 voucher to take another flight. Any other time and place maybe but not today for me. How about just moving me to first class?

Before returning the car and heading to the airport I had the traditional dinner with Carrie. This time we headed to a place on my To-Do list - fat Fish on Robertson. I had heard their happy hour was awesome and fairly cheap. I arrived at around 6pm and headed into the lounge. After a quick glance at the happy hour menu I ordered up a Lychee Sake-tini. Carrie arrived at about 6:25pm and ordered up an asian pear sake. When they brought her one glass she corrected them and ordered a large sake carafe. Must have been a long day I guess. Indeed I found out it was as she then told me about how insane her boss is. So insane that she only relays instructions to her via insanely worded Post-Its. I should have taken a photo as some of them spanned 2 or 3 Post-Its and it looked like some kind of wacky puzzle when you tried to put them together,

After the drinks we ordered an insane amount of sushi while watcing the Steelers/Dolphina game on the plasma tv. Shrimp and sweet potato tempura. Spicy Tuna Roll, Fried albacore roll and a seatlle roll along with edamame and salt & pepper shrimp. Awesome.

Carrie made me pour her sake for her claiming it was bad, bad luck to pour your own drink. Eventually I got my own sake glass so I could try some with Carrie pouring for me.

After a bit of venting and making fun of/complimenting people from back in the day we left the lounge, not before saying goodbye to our cool bartender Perry.

Location: Gate C-136

Time: 6:04am

I’m off to LA again, this time to organize the Movies Askew Film Festival in Hollywood. Security wasn’t too much of a pain this time but it amazes me what people try to carry on with them. I saw some huge bags that barely fit through the metal detector. The laptop and shoes had to be removed and I took off all metallic objects. Not too much of a hassle.

The crowds here are much larger than they were back in July because of the holiday and the econo-lot bus stop was packed when I got there at 4:40am. Thankfully due to the self-check-in thingy’s check-in was super smooth.

Here’s to hoping that I get a whole row to myself on the plane.

Update 4:32pm

I came THIS close to getting the entire row to myself but at the last second some lady decided to switch to my row and took the window seat. So close.

The plane took off about 15 minutes late but got us to LA almost right on time. The breakfast - same as last time - cheese omelet in a pita, fresh fruit, cherry yogurt and a muffin. I drank in order - OJ, OJ, water, Diet Coke.

The movie - the very dreadful X3. Good thing I brought my headphones from the last trip.

Ironically while waiting for the car shuttle, 2 Adantage Rent-a-Car shuttles passed by before the Budget one did 15 minutes later. I can’t win. To add insult to injury I was told that because of the demand my car wouldn’t be ready for 30 minutes or I could rent a mini van. I said I’d wait. Then I was offered a Trailblazer - same price. It’ll be a pain to park but I took it.

When I arrived at Haven’s at about 11:30am everyone was up for the morning. I greeted Yollie, Doug, Amelia, Ana, Dylan, Haven and Tony. As I tossed Tony the baseball I brought him he asked if I wanted to see a Dodgers game. Uhhh… let me think. Yes. We’re going tonight.

I was asked if Philippes was ok for lunch. Uhhh… let me think again. YES. We all loaded into two cars and headed over to Chinatown and Philippes. We had planned to eat inside but Amelia fell asleep so we decided to get it to go and eat at Garfield Park. I ordered the works when we got to the order counter. Beef French Dip - Double Dipped. Macaroni salad, picked egg, chili with beans and a Dr. Pepper. It was PACKED inside so Doug and I waited in one line and Tony, Dylan and Haven waited in another.

We headed to the park and ate at a park bench. Tony handed over some of his secret mustards because they didn’t pack any with mine. Then we took the kids to the playground.

After the playground Haven picked up an ice cream cake for the three birthday kids (Tony, Doug and Amelia) and then we hung out for a bit before Doug and family had to leave for Yollie’s family.

We hung around for awhile and then I think Tony started to notice how antsy I was getting so it was time to head to Dodger Stadium!

After a brief stop at Vons (for cash I think) Tony took me down the 134 and we went down the 2 and then the 5 I think and ended up right near Dodger Stadium. Now here came the tricky part. We didn’t have tickets yet so we had to negotiate with a scalper - and do it shrewdly at that as we didn’t want to get ripped off. Tony saw a couple guys and instructed me to pull over slowly. The we began the exchange: what you got? How much? As it was it started to look like we were catching a really luckly break. Not only did this guy have 3 tickets in a row (a rarity) but he was willing to part with them for $45 (their face was $18/each), and then lowered that to $40 when Tony couldn’t produce a $5. Sweet! Tony loved this deal and it was the talk of the night.

After purchasing tickets Tony directed me to this secret parking spot right next to a local park. Free secret parking! From there we walked across the street and into the main Dodger parking lot. I saw some BP balls flying into the sky and dipping down into the seating bowl so I started to get really excited. We tried walking into the feidl level ticket entrance but was then directed to the entrace where our seats were way,way,way,way up the stairs. Oh well.

After a brief look at the team store (broken bats for $124.99??!! No thanks!) we grabbed food, beers, Dodgers Dogs and Gordon Biersch garlic fries and hit our seats, which turned out to be in the second row in the upper reserved section.

The game turned out to be a fireworks display as the Dodgers pulled away early and won handlily 14-3. The one moment of excitement came in the bottom of the 8th when someone fouled one up and over to us. It went over my head, bounced off Ana and into some morons hands. Later one Ana told us the guy ahd actually shoved her to get the ball. Things happened so fast that I didn’t even see it. I told her I’d get her another ball.

After returning at around 11pm I hung around a bit then headed to the Best Western. What a cool day.