Day 21 – “And he said befhienomsef...which is MY name...”

Although we spent a lot of today driving, it was still exciting because we got to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (and the drive there was beautiful!).  I loved visiting the museum because it was an incredible opportunity to learn more about the game and the amount of artifacts they’ve managed to collect was amazing.  It was pretty disappointing that we only got to spend about three hours there because I felt like even a full day wouldn’t be enough to really absorb everything.  I definitely felt rushed the whole time we were there but I do think that I learned a lot.  One of my favorite exhibits was the one about women in baseball.  I had no idea that in the past some women have played for professional teams so that was really cool to read about.  There was a newspaper article about a female pitcher who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig which I thought was fascinating.  I also enjoyed the exhibit highlighting Latin players, mainly because everything was written in both English and Spanish so it gave me a chance to practice my Spanish.  Other parts of the museum that I loved were the collection of baseball cards (I still want to know how much it was worth), the exhibit with a locker for each team showcasing significant jerseys, batting gloves, bats, etc., and the room that showed who holds each record. 

The inductee room was another amazing experience.  There were so many players who I had never heard of but when I did see a player that I had already heard of (like Babe Ruth) or a player that I had been introduced to through readings in these class (Cool Papa, for example) it was fun to read their plaque.  Again, I wish I could’ve had more time to do some reading about their players.  I felt pretty pressed for time at this point so it was kind of a quick walk through and I’d definitely like to go back some day to do some more serious reading and to hopefully see an inductee that I’ve seen play.

We left Cooperstown around 5:30.  We actually had no hotel reservation this night – the plan was to just drive as far as we could to Detroit and then find a hotel on the way.  That is how we ended up staying at the Gatehouse, the creepster motel in Corning, New York (I think).  We all independently came to the conclusion that this was a place were murder scenes in horror movies take place.  The clearly inebriated hotel manager/owner somehow got it into his head that we needed six rooms instead of the four we normally have, so we were all split up all over the property.  I can’t account for the other rooms but Stephanie and I had the pleasure of sleeping in a room with cobwebs behind the bed, weird duck paintings, and a door that didn’t actually seem to lock.  Thankfully, we all lived through the night and met up at the van again in the morning to finish up the drive to Detroit.

Oh, I should also add that despite the creepy experience in Corning, I DID have the BEST piece of pie to ever exist there.  See picture below.

Lou Gehrig's locker

An example from the Latin exhibit 

Tallest and shortest players ever

Seriously. Amazing.

Madison was excited about his, too. But only a little bit.

Day 20: "Hello mister...doctor..."

We were all pretty excited to see Fenway today (especially our resident Red Sox fan, Conner).  We started the day with class and then a group lunch at what Conner accurately described as the “Boston version of Hooters.”  We recommend the pretzel burgers but only if you’re REALLY hungry.  Or if you have an appetite like Bill, who can eat ridiculous amounts of food all the time.  After eating, we were given the day to explore the city.  However, after watching the boys standing on the corner staring at a map with puzzled expressions, Steph and I decided to duck out and head back to the hotel.  I was not about to spend the day lost in the heat, especially with so much writing to do.  Apparently we started a trend because about fifteen minutes later the boys were back at the hotel as well.

I can’t say for sure how much we all got done but we all at least attempted to be productive for the afternoon.  We headed to Fenway around 6:00 and spent some time exploring the historic ballpark.  As you can probably tell if you’ve read any of this blog at all, I don’t know much about baseball but one of the few ballparks I had heard of prior to taking this class was Fenway.  I was excited to see this little piece of history.  Semi-unfortunately, our seats were the few in the whole stadium that hadn’t been redone since 1912.  While they were fairly uncomfortable and cramped (I guess obesity wasn’t really a big problem back in the day), it was kind of cool to imagine all of the different fans that had sat in my seat over the years and to think about how different the game would have been almost a century ago.  I’m sure my seat wasn’t very popular though due to the pole right in front of the pitcher’s mound and the pole right in front of the screen.  Oh well – you win some, you lose some.

The game was a little disappointing because we didn’t get to see the Red Sox win.  They lost to the White Sox with a final score of 7-3.  However, it was definitely one of my favorite games because the crowd was incredible.  This was one of the few games where I didn’t feel distracted by everything else going on in the stadium, like the vendors (I had to ask Madison later if there even WERE vendors) and the big screen (although to be fair I couldn’t really see it).  I felt really invested in the game because everyone around me was so passionate and their excitement was infectious.  I couldn’t help but cheer for the Red Sox even though I had zero knowledge of them prior to the game.  I also really liked Fenway’s Sweet Caroline tradition.  I can only imagine what it would have been like if the Red Sox had been winning. 

Oh that's cool, cause who really needs to see the pitcher's mound anyway?

 Green Monster!

Day 19: "I just burped and sneezed at the same time and there was an explosion in my throat"

We left our home in Baltimore pretty early to get to the Mets Stadium.  Despite our early start time, New York traffic prevented us from arriving at the game as early as we normally do.  After getting ripped off in parking, we walked over to the stadium (which, by the way, will not allow you to bring aerosols in, but that’s okay because you can just hide your sunscreen in a bush).  Our seats were fairly high up but we were behind home plate.  As it turns out, I have discovered over the course of the trip that those are my favorite seats.  I enjoy having an unobstructed, overhead view of the game so I didn’t mind at all when we were up high.  Being down in the action is enjoyable as well but I like being able to see everything clearly. 

Anyway, the game had quite an exciting start.  The Mets scored eight runs within the first two innings so naturally the crowd was ecstatic.  Although the Phillies put up a decent fight, they were never able to catch up and thus the final score was 9-5 in favor of the home team.

The rest of our day consisted of driving.  At this point our relationship with our dear fifteen passenger van was starting to go a little sour and we were all sick of driving.  However, the drive to our hotel in Boston wasn’t too terrible, so we managed to survive. And we also fell in love with our hotel! It was much different than other hotels we’ve stayed at; it was much older and our rooms had quite an interesting layout.  I’m actually a little irritated at myself for not taking a picture but it was really cute.  Steph and I had twin beds and big windows that looked out over Fenway.  We were also pretty pleased because we got to spend the night in bed relaxing watching Harry Potter. #winning

Day 18: "I mean I'll tell them if their shoe is untied.."

We started the day off with some more class wiffle ball, this time taking place in the parking lot outside of the Nationals stadium.  Steph and I didn’t play but luckily some kids that were watching the boys play stepped in.  Shout outs to Jordan and Nick! Jordan was the younger of the two I believe and he was probably one of the best players out there.  I bet he’ll be an MLB all star one day and then we can all say we watched him play wiffle ball in a parking lot.  After that, we found our seats which were split up today into two groups of four and one group of two.  When Dr. Bob was handing out the tickets, Steph and I were the two to get seats in the 200s, so of course we were feeling a little shafted.  However, our seats were AWESOME.  Right behind home plate, cushioned seats, access to a special air-conditioned eating and lounge area, in the shade...it was so legit.  What was also legit is that Danny got himself picked for one of the games on the big screen and he won! His competition didn't even have a chance.  The Nationals, on the other hand, DID have a chance but couldn't pull out the win and lost to the Padres with a final score of 2-1.

Luckily for our class, Kyle has a hookup with a VP at the stadium (his dad’s friend’s cousin...haha) and we were able to go out onto the field after the game! We even got to go sit in the dugout which was really cool.  After leaving the stadium, we headed back to the hotel, got some dinner at the Honey Bee again, watched poor Madison’s pie get knocked to the dirt by Bill, and then had class.  And now, here I am, getting caught up on my blogging.  Sorry for the long delay – it’s been a really busy week and the wireless hasn’t been so great. I’ll try to be more on top of it during our last week of class!

Absolutely beautiful day

Danny on the big screen

Our very own baseball team hanging out in the dugout

Day 17: "I don't know what literally means I just use it okay?!"

Just in case we hadn't gotten enough sun the day before, Mother Nature was heavy on the sun and today was quite the scorcher.  We got up early-ish so as to provide as much time as possible to explore D.C. before seeing a night game at the Nationals Stadium.  Our first stop was the capitol where we paused to take a few pictures, and then we visited the Library of Congress.  One of the things I found most interesting about our time spent in D.C. was how often baseball popped up.  There was a whole section in the Library of Congress gift shop dedicated to baseball; they had a lot of cool books (including one of the books we’re using for our class) and other baseball trinkets.  It just served as a reminder to me that baseball is an integral part of our nation’s culture and history and that I’ll find ways to learn about it even when we’re not in class or at the stadium. 

When we had our fill of Jefferson we met up with Dr. Bob for lunch at the Native American History Museum, which is a really cool place.  It’s a food court divided into different regions, so there were tons of different options and it was kind of overwhelming...but delicious, so it was all good.  From there we walked to the Air and Space Museum which I was excited for because my mom works at an Aerospace elementary school.  It was fun to learn more about the things that I’ve heard her talk about.  I liked walking through the model shuttle and seeing what it would have looked like to live in space (the pull up shower didn’t look particularly enjoyable).  After leaving that museum we parted ways – Steph and Danny headed to Arlington, Bill and Conner had already disappeared, and the rest of us went to explore more of the museums.  First stop was a museum of African art, second stop was the Washington Monument (which I know isn’t a museum but we took a detour for Madison), stop three was the Museum of American History (I was a big fan of seeing the dresses that first ladies have worn to the inaugural balls, although I don’t think my four male companions enjoyed that as much as I did), and stop four was the Museum of Natural History.  We didn’t have much time there which we were fine with because basically we wanted to see the dinosaurs. SO cool.  And now I have the biggest urge to watch the Land Before Time movies.

We were set to meet up with Dr. Bob again at 5 p.m. to get our tickets and go to the stadium so we hoofed it back to the van, a way longer walk than anticipated.  We then walked across the street to the stadium where we get more free stuff! 21+ got free mugs which was disappointing to me at first (as a twenty year old) but luckily the man handed them out deemed Steph and I to be almost 21 and apparently that’s good enough.  After that we went to our seats where a few of us definitely took a little power nap before the game began.  It actually ended up being a really good game, minus the pesky rain delay.  It was more about the pitching than the hitting, with a final score of 2-1 in favor of the Nationals.  The Padres didn’t score until the top of the ninth (with a homer from Bartlett) and then we got to see a walk-off home run from Morse, so that was exciting.  Both pitchers had excellent games.

Day 16: "Lookin' gooood, lookin' goooood"

This was day three in Baltimore and day two at Camden Yards.  We went to an afternoon game today so we met at 10 a.m. to head over to the lightrail.  It was approximately 90 degrees and so needless to say we were feeling hot, hot, hot (was that too cheesy?).  Our seats were up high again but alas, were not high enough to get in the shade, so for most of the game we sweated like it was our job.  Steph and I got fed up and spent some time in the air conditioned stores (but don’t judge us, we were still watching the games on the tvs in there) and then went back to our seats equipped with cups of ice that the stadium was providing. 

Needless to say, I was more than ready to go by the ninth inning.  Unfortunately, neither team really felt like breaking their 5-5 tie until the bottom of the 12^th inning.  Perhaps this is because I’m not a true krank or perhaps it was because I get super agitated in excessive heat, but I found it hard to enjoy much of this game.  Sitting through 8 scoreless innings was not the most fun thing in the world.  However, I survived the game and even the walk to Phillip’s, a seafood buffet that Dr. Bob had taken the writing center staff to during our trip to Baltimore.  Although there were some that aren’t fans of seafood (myself included) we had a good meal and it was refreshing after the long, hot game. 

We then walked back to the lightrail and came back to the hotel for class where we watched another segment of the Ken Burns baseball documentary and then, as always, had the night to get caught up.  We’re all definitely enjoying spending so much time in one place; it’s nice not spending excessive amounts of time in the van and having to pack up and move out every single day. 

Yay! Game's finally done!

Day 15: "Does anybody have any tums?!"

Our first full day in Baltimore was definitely a good one.  We took the light rail to Camden Yards in the early afternoon (even though we were going to a night game) and went out to lunch as a class at Pickle Pub.  I totally got dominated by Danny in sugar packet football (there’s probably an actual name for that but as I don’t know it that’ll have to do...plus it sounds cute) but I’m planning a comeback at some point.  After eating we headed to the Babe Ruth museum which is actually in the house that the Sultan of Swat was born in.  We learned a lot of really cool things there; I’d have to say my favorite part was getting to watch a video of Ruth playing.  We then ventured to the Sports Legends Museum. I personally LOVED this museum because I am basically a little kid at heart and I have so much fun at interactive museums.  Some of the things I enjoyed were getting to make a call in a baseball game (kind of like those choose your own adventure books) and playing dress up with different sports uniforms.  The first thing I tried on was an absolutely gigantic Ravens jersey, which of course looked ridiculous because it went down to my knees.  I also tried on size 19 basketball shoes.  We all tried on various football, soccer, baseball, and basketball jerseys and took some pretty entertaining pictures. 

After finishing up at that museum it was about time to head over to the game.  The Orioles were playing the Royals.  On this night the O’s managed to bring home a victory with a final score of  9-2.  This was a pretty exciting game as 8 runs were scored in the bottom of the 4^th.  And of course I was happy as we all know I love it when the home team wins ;)

Those are size 19 shoes I'm wearing!

Day 14: Drew-chi vs. Droochie

Today we got a MUCH needed day off.  We had class in the morning and then after checking out were able to spend a few hours on the beach where we had a second go at class wiffle ball.  It’s definitely a lot harder in the sand, in my opinion.  It’s hard to run in and the bases are sort of hard to locate at times, but we made it work.  After finishing our game we took some pictures next to the ocean (which was FREEZING) and then had some amazing gelato before heading out to Baltimore.

The van ride wasn’t terrible and I don’t recall anything too exciting happening.  We found the La Quinta (which would be our home for the next five days) and then went out to dinner at the Honey Bee Diner.  We recommend it, for sure.  Then we had the rest of the night to relax and do some reading and writing.  Overall a really fun day.

View from our room

Steph "Snooki-poofed" my hair in honor of the Jersey Shore

So funny...a freezing cold wave hit us right as the lady took this picture, hence our faces