AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants)

I've been to one game at this stadium back when it was pretty brand new. It is a very nice stadium, one of my favorites.

Our family got seats located in two different places. I sat for the first half of the game in the upper deck down the third base line. I moved down to our other seats which were amazing, a few rows up right by first base. It was fun watching Furcal rifle throws from short.

The game was a dandy as well. It was Greg Maddux v. Livan Hernandez in a pitcher's duel. Maddux budged first by giving up a pretty deep solo home run to left by Jeff Kent in the sixth. But Livan immediately gave it away by giving up two runs in the seventh and received the eventual 2-1 loss despite only allowing two hits. It was a great time.

Here's the link to the box score:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN200108170.shtml

Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals)

I have been to a game at this stadium once. It's a nice stadium and looks awesome from the freeway at night.

When my brother moved to Virginia for Dental School, he lured me in to help him drive across the country by showing me that we would be in Kansas City the same day the Bluejays were playing the Royals. It was a clever ploy. I went with my brother and my Pa.

My last blog post was about my first ever Jays game. This one was my second ever Jays game. It was during the same season. And as was my luck, Ty Taubenheim was again named the Jays starter. Ugh. So at that point I had only attended two Jays games ever and Ty Taubenheim started both of them. If you don't recognize the name Ty Taubenheim, it is probably because he only started nine games in his career. And I witnessed two of them. I've attended more Ty Taubenheim games than just about anyone ever.

This game was a dud. Just like how the Jays didn't have a baserunner until the 5th inning in my first game, they didn't get a baserunner until the 4th and were already down 4 - 0. The best part of this game was that the cheap tickets were really cheap and we sneakily sat down low on the fourth row right by first base. The stadium was nearly empty because the Royals hadn't become a trendy bandwagon team yet. The only cool things I remember from the game was a sweet diving catch by Eric Hinske in RF and a very, very deep homer from Vernon Wells to left in the ninth.

Here's the link to the box score:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260706107

Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)

I  have been to this stadium one time. It was for my first ever Bluejays game. I was living in Utah still and convinced two "Rockies fan friends" to go with me (they are FINO's - Fans in name only - so I was surprised when they decided to come along).

When I picked up my friend in the wee early hours, his mom said, "That's an awful long way to drive for a little ball game." I drove the entire way there. I kept trying to tell my friends to sleep a little because I would need their help for the drive home (because we were driving right back home after the game). But instead they fought off sleep in order to contribute as little as possible for the drive home. On the way home I drove for a few hours and then switched. My next friend drove for a little more than an hour and then had to switch. Then the other friend drove for not even an hour and had to switch back to me. I then drove more than half of the rest of the way home. Thanks friends.

Anyway, we got to the game a few hours early and got to watch some BP. That was fun. We got super cheap seats up high in straight away center field. $4.00 seats I believe. Can't beat that. I'm sure those seats are much more expensive nowadays. It was a pretty rough game for the Jays. They got shut down hardcore by Jeff Francis. They didn't have anyone reach base until a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth. In the ninth, Alex Rios hit a double off the wall in left center that I thought for sure was a homer off the bat. Other than that, the only other highlight of the game was the Dad behind us giving sips of beer to his 4-year-old. Good old Coors Field. The lowlight was listening to my "FINO" friends cheering like they actually cared or knew anything about the players and team they were cheering for.

Another thing to mention about this game is that it was Ty Taubenheim's major league debut. He was the Jays starter who didn't do great but didn't really do too badly all things considered. He was saddled with the L though at the end of the day.

Here is a link to the box score:

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260520127

Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)

Just an absolutely gorgeous field, in my opinion. In fact, several years ago, when asked where is the most beautiful place I have ever been, my answer was Safeco Field.

I have been to a handful of games here. My sister used to live in the Seattle area and lured us out for visits with promises of Mariner baseball games. We went to the second ever game played at Safeco Field. I remember sitting out in the right-center field seats.

Here is the box score for that game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA199907160.shtml

We also went to another game (maybe the next day?) and had sweet seats down low on the third base line. I'm not posting a box score because I can't say for sure what game it was.

Now that I live in the Portland, OR area, Safeco is the closest MLB park to me, about three hours away. Last season we drove up to Seattle to catch a couple Jays games. A friend of mine who lives out here (the same friend from the last post who got the Choo HR ball) is a Mariners fan. I talked him into going to the games with me. I told him that Jays fans turn out really well for the Seattle game so we need to make sure to get tickets early. I don't think he was expecting the type of Jays fan representation that takes place at Safeco. Neither did I, at least to the degree of representation. I would say that there were probably more Jays fans than Mariner fans at the two games we attended. It was crazy. Just tons of blue all throughout the stadium. Tons of "Lets go Bluejays!" chants throughout the game. Whenever Seattle would score there would be chants of "USA!" After the game my friend said, "Well, now I know what it feels like to attend a Bluejays home game."

The Mariners won the first game as I had to again watch King Felix carve up my Jays. And Marco Estrado was uncharacteristically off his game. We sat in the center field seats which were fine, but I never like not having a good view of the scoreboard.

Here is the link to the box score:

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_07_24_tormlb_seamlb_1&c_id=sea#game=2015_07_24_tormlb_seamlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

Fortunately, the Jays won the second game. Poor starts from both pitchers with Drew Hutchison getting lit up like he was all season on the road and J.A. Happ walking tons of batters and getting the early hook. It was looking pretty bleak until Ezequiel Carrera hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to tie the game in the 8th. I was confused why he was pinch hitting and was voicing my displeasure with the move when he randomly hit the homer. Needless to say, I was very happy to be proven wrong. Jays took the lead in the ninth on a two-run single by Chris Colabello. It was a nice come from behind W. We sat up high down the third base line. I liked sitting up there better than center field.

Here's the box score:

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_07_25_tormlb_seamlb_1&c_id=sea#game=2015_07_25_tormlb_seamlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

Here's Carrera's HR:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v293851683/torsea-carrera-hits-gametying-tworun-homer-in-8th/?game_pk=415112

Colabello's go-ahead single:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v293951183/torsea-blue-jays-take-lead-on-colabellos-single/?game_pk=415112

And the Osuna save:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v294035083/torsea-osuna-fans-gutierrez-to-save-86-win/?game_pk=415112

The videos are cool because it really shows how many Jays fans are in the Seattle stadium. Also, it was very shortly after these games  that the Jays season took a turn toward playoff contention after making some big time trades. It would have been fun to see the playoff version of the Jays play last season, but this was fun too.