Interleague Road Trip

Is anybody else taking the trip to see the Twins in Pit and Cin this week? In about 45 min I'll be departing Minneapolis heading to Beloit for tonights game. Saturday in Detroit to see the Rockies. Sunday go north of the border for Jays and Phils. Monday in Rochester to see the 2011 left side of the Twins infield. Tuesday the hometown 9 at PNC, Wednesday the hated Indians take on the Reds in Cleveland, Thursday no baseball (gasp), and Friday see the hometown 9 again at GABP. Finally a quick stop in Cedar Rapids on Saturday to see the Snappers fight the Kernals, then driving home Saturday night.

It'd be a pretty big coincidence if anybody else had the exact same itinerary, but I'm curious what, if anything other Twins fans are doing this week?

I am doing ...none of that. But I am jealous.

Wow, awesome trip itinerary. Hope you chronicle your adventures here.

Esoteric Ball Guy, sounds like a great week of baseball.

I'm more of a homer, we will catch the 3 games at home against the Brewers this weekend and then head to Pittsburgh for the three games against the Pirates. Then drive to Cincinnati on Friday morning and we will see both the Friday night game and the Saturday game against the Reds before flying home on Sunday afternoon.

I've been looking forward to this week since January. I've never been to PNC or Great American Ballpark and interested to see how they compare to Target Field.

Have a great week and maybe we will see you in Pittsburgh or Cincy.

I am so jealous of that trip. Both of the described trips actually.

I'm thinking about taking a road trip myself in August, to visit all the Twins minor league affiliates. The schedule aligns almost perfectly to get in 2 games at each club and still be able to drive between them. I might also be able to take in another MLB game (in Cincinnati) and some other minor league games in other towns as I drive through/stop for the night.

Call it a mid-life crisis, or being inbetween jobs, or whatever.

What a great trip! Have fun!! I'll be watching the TWINS on FSN.

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Originally Posted by Esoteric Ball Guy

Is anybody else taking the trip to see the Twins in Pit and Cin this week? In about 45 min I'll be departing Minneapolis heading to Beloit for tonights game. Saturday in Detroit to see the Rockies. Sunday go north of the border for Jays and Phils. Monday in Rochester to see the 2011 left side of the Twins infield. Tuesday the hometown 9 at PNC, Wednesday the hated Indians take on the Reds in Cleveland, Thursday no baseball (gasp), and Friday see the hometown 9 again at GABP. Finally a quick stop in Cedar Rapids on Saturday to see the Snappers fight the Kernals, then driving home Saturday night.

It'd be a pretty big coincidence if anybody else had the exact same itinerary, but I'm curious what, if anything other Twins fans are doing this week?

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Have fun... What a great trip... I don't know you... You could be an ax murderer but I'd go with you anyway.

You will need to eat. If I could suggest some regional foods for you to partake in.

In Beloit... Cheese Curds and Beer
In Detroit... Cornish Pasties
In Toronto... Peameal Bacon Sandwich
In Rochester... A white hot garbage plate.
In Pittsburgh... a Primanti Brothers Sandwich.
In Cleveland... a Clambake and Sauerkraut Balls.
In Cincinatti... Have the Cincinatti Chili.
in Cedar Rapids... A Maid rite or two.

My wife also wanted me to mention to eat seem fruits and veggies on occasion.

The Voice of Reason, some friends and I will be in Pitt on Wed and Thurs, probably catching the Wed game. Then we'll be in Cincy on Friday, but probably catching the Saturday game. I'd be up for a meetup before one of those game, though Cincy might work better as I don't know how early we'll get in on Wednesday.

Day one in the books. Snappers win 6-3. Post-game fireworks way more impressive than the actual Twins, but mortar fireworks are legal here so I guess that makes sense. It was 90s night at the park and none of the players or staff appreciated my nineties style because they were 8 years-old tops in 1999. The $25 ticket for all you can drink/eat free beer and hamburgers/brats tickets is awesome, and so are the super cheap Jameson prices at the local bars when you get to your hotel.

Sano only had one hit, but he hit it very hard up the middle and he was the only baseball player who had a man sized body tonight. It's incredible how young these players looked. I'm only 28 but I felt like I could have been each of their fathers...except for Sano, he looks like a grown up.

Fox for whatever reason picked Rockies v. Tigers as worthy of national television so I have to get up at 7 in order to see the first pitch tomorrow at 3 central time. I'll try to update tomorrow, but it'll be a big day of driving, so you might have to wait til a full Sunday in Canada. There can't be too much to do in the Great White North so i'll have plenty of time to update the roadtrip.

You put together a pretty nice schedule of games.

See you in the car.

We're in Chicago, but this first leg of the trip is with the kids, so we aren't making it to Wrigley. Instead, we had a different interesting event happen.

After we arrive at our hotel, The Boy changes into his bathing suit, and stuffs his suitcase back into the bottom of the closet. There is a crash sound. I turn to see him holding his head and The Voice of Reason acting a little frantic. He's claiming he's OK (while holding back tears from his aching head).

"Can you get him a bag of ice for his head?!?" orders TVOR
"Huh? Why?"
"He got hit in the head!!," she exclaims.
"By what?"
"An iron!"
"What?!"
"AN IRON."
I grabbed the bag of ice.

At that point the boy looked a little more stunned, but couldn't help but start laughing. The whole thing was so absurd. The iron holder on the closet wall had stripped the wall screw and would lean out, sliding the iron off. While he pushed his suitcase into the closet, it fell right on his head. Fortunately, he was fine.

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Originally Posted by John Bonnes

We're in Chicago, but this first leg of the trip is with the kids, so we aren't making it to Wrigley. Instead, we had a different interesting event happen.

After we arrive at our hotel, The Boy changes into his bathing suit, and stuffs his suitcase back into the bottom of the closet. There is a crash sound. I turn to see him holding his head and The Voice of Reason acting a little frantic. He's claiming he's OK (while holding back tears from his aching head).

"Can you get him a bag of ice for his head?!?" orders TVOR
"Huh? Why?"
"He got hit in the head!!," she exclaims.
"By what?"
"An iron!"
"What?!"
"AN IRON."
I grabbed the bag of ice.

At that point the boy looked a little more stunned, but couldn't help but start laughing. The whole thing was so absurd. The iron holder on the closet wall had stripped the wall screw and would lean out, sliding the iron off. While he pushed his suitcase into the closet, it fell right on his head. Fortunately, he was fine.

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John, have you inquired who the hotel's insurance carrier is?

Esoteric - keep the updates coming. Looking forward to them!!

Twins Geek - Glad to hear that The Boy is alright! Kinda scary though!

Cheerio all from London Ontario!

As predicted the early start time of today's Tigers game reeked havoc with the morning schedule. Instead of being able to sleep off the morning hangover we were on the road at 8am. Traffic wasn't too bad in Chicago, and everything else was smooth sailing to Detroit.

We got into the downtown area about half hour before game time and tried to find parking. The first few lots were full, but we found a lady that said the next lot down had spaces so we headed that way. The attendant (cocktail in hand) asked for our parking pass, we didn't have one but told us not to worry about it and to follow him. He walked next to us as we slowly drove a few blocks down and told us about a women who just took a piss right in front of "his" bar. Eventually he lead us down an alley and pointed at a recycling dumpster. Very nervously we asked if this was actually where he actually wanted us to park and he very confidently reassured us it was cool. We got out of the car, asked how much ($20 plus the tip he asked us for) and walked the block to the park wondering what would be left in the alley when we got back.

We got into the stadium just as the anthem was finishing up. We watched from a SRO area as Miguel Cabrera launched a moonshot over Cuddy, it was pretty cool. For 2/3 of our party this was a repeat visit to Comerica, but it was the first time for my gf so we took her to the statues in left center. For those of you who aren't familiar with the statues at Comerica google them, they are the coolest thing in baseball. The Tiger greats are enshrined in action shots, Cobb sliding in spikes up, a baseball rocketing off of Greenberg's bat, Al Kaline leaping to catch a ball. They are absolutely incredible. From there we climbed the stairs to our seats in the upper deck down the third baseline. The seats had my least favorite feature, cup holders on each armrest creating an extra narrow place to sit down (think powerball pavilion at TF). Highlight of the game action was Delmon ripping a ball down the line and Cuddy nailing him trying to stretch it into a double. The close second for game highlights was Cabrera hitting a one hopper to the pitcher that he misplayed, and threw past Helton into shallow RF, Rockies catcher got to the ball and attempted to get Cabrera heading to third, this was also booted and Cabrera trotted home for a little league dinger. For the last 3 innings we wandered the park eventually settling in some awesome padded box seats in the lower level that a Tiger usher invited us to sit in. After the game we beelined to the car hoping the car would be intact. It was and we headed out of the motor city.

From there we made the uneventful drive to border town Port Huron MI. We loaded up on some duty free liquor and crossed the bridge to Canada. The last stop of the evening was Tim Horton's for a sandwich and donut combo and then after another 45min of driving arrived at our hotel in London On. Tomorrow's drive to Skydome should only take a couple of hours, but it's a day game so still have to wake up fairly early. That's all I've got for tonight. This ended up being a really long post, so thanks to all of you who enjoyed my rambling account of today's activity.

Thanks for the updates.

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Originally Posted by minn55441

I've never been to PNC or Great American Ballpark and interested to see home they compare to Target Field.

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I have been to PNC and when I first went to Target Field, it reminded me a lot of PNC.

My family and a couple of friends will be in Pittsburgh Thursday and Cincinnati Friday and probably Saturday. Looking forward to seeing both parks.

speaking or road trips,I just got done with a 6 day roadtrip, and start another one next weekend.
Sunday June 10 in Appleton for Beloit vs Appleton
Monday June 11 in Appleton for Beloit vs Appleton
Tuesday June 12 in Des Moines for Omaha vs Iowa
Wednesday June 13 in Des Moines for Omaha vs Iowa
Thursday June 14 in Beloit for Peoria vs Beloit
Friday June 15 in Beloit for Burlington vs Beloit

My next one looks like this
Sunday June 24th Beloit in Cedar Rapids 2:05
Monday June 25th Round Rock in Des Moines 12:05
Tuesday June 26th Round Rock in Des Moines 12:05
****Wednesday June 27th in Kane County Beloit at Kane County at 11****** I may go to this game under proper circumstances, it is still being debated
Friday June 29th Peoria @ Appleton 7:05 (brother has college testing near Appleton)
Saturday June 30th in Beloit for clinton at Beloit.
Sunday in Milwaukee 7/1
Monday in Beloit 7/2
Tuesday in Beloit 7/3

Cool roadie jtrinaldi, I love the minor league vibe.

Today was a very easy, fun day. Left London around 8:30 and parked a few blocks from Skydome around 10:45. It was cool to see a Metrodome era ballpark that was built specifically for baseball, and with a mindset towards innovation as opposed to utilitarianism. There was a steady drizzle for most of the drive to Toronto so it wasn't surprising when we arrived and the roof was closed. It was very muggy and uncomfortable inside, but that didn't stop us from exploring the steepest and highest corners of the stadium. After 2 hours of exhausting exploration we settled in our seats in time for both national anthems. To everybody's delight after the 1st inning a the roof started to creep open, and an extraordinarily pleasant breeze hit us hard in 100 level of LF. The Jays jumped out to an early lead, but Gentleman Jim Thome started the Phils rally with his 100th dinger as a Phillie, in the process becoming only the 4th player to hit 100 homers for 3 different teams. The score remained tied for a few innings but the Jays started scoring runs, and the Phils did not so the hometown crowd went home happy.

As soon as the game ended dozens of bulldozers, forklifts, and other pieces of heavy machinery took the field and started doing awesome construction work. Homeplate and the other base posts were dug out with pick axes before the back hoes started attacking the dirt. Giant tubes were placed 20 feet apart as they prepared to roll up the turf. Nets were removed, auxiliary seating taken down, fences in front of were bullpen dismantled. We watched for about 45 min before we were asked politely to leave. When we asked why all this mayhem was taking place the security guard told us "the Argo's are playing on Tuesday!", we also saw posters for a Roger Waters concert in a week, and the Jays won't be back until June 28th. Couldn't have been luckier this visit. Seeing the roof open and all that machinery totally made up for the $11 beers.

Tomorrow, leave the gf in Canada (she went to school up here and is visiting friends while I have a quasi bachelors party week with my buddy who is getting married shortly after getting home), and head towards Rochester. The soon to be married individual went to school in upstate NY so we'll be tearing it up with old college chums. Updates are going to be scarcer as I'm using the gf's laptop, however I'll do my best using my iPod, and his iPad.

Good night from Canada!
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