Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Arizona Diamondbacks Baseball Game

(Phoenix, AZ) Hi 92 Lo 66 – In my continuing quest to attend games at as many major league stadiums as I can in our travels, today I drove about 20 miles to downtown Phoenix to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)

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The drive downtown was smooth and quick, and there was plenty of parking in one of several large parking garages within a couple of blocks of the ballpark. I chose one right across the street that cost $12 to park.

I never have a problem getting a single ticket for a game. Today was no different. I usually get one of the cheapest seats I can and then “seat hop” during the game. Today I got a seat on the upper deck behind home plate, which is my favorite view of the game anyway. It cost a very reasonable $17.

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It’s funny, I asked the lady in the ticket booth for a seat that will be out of the sun. (Dee made me slop on sunscreen before I left just in case.) After she plotted the course of the sun over the ballpark and considered which side of home plate would be more shaded, she finally picked the best location for me. I then remembered that Chase Field has a retractable roof, so I asked her if the roof is open or closed today? She said it’s closed. What??? Sure enough, when I got inside it was a comfortable 72 degrees and no sun! I can’t believe she went through all that sun path analysis…

The game wasn’t very exciting. The Diamondbacks played the Washington Nationals to a 1-1 tie until the Nats scored four runs in the top of the ninth to win the game. Two home runs were hit. As I usually do, I walked around the ballpark to get some different views. I pretty much had the run of the place as there were only 18,000 or so fans in attendance. (The place holds around 49,000.)

Here’s the retractable roof. Notice it’s closed?  Smile
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This view is from the highest seat behind home plate. It’s really high up there!
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The video screen in center field is huge. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but those are windows on each side of the video screen looking out on the street.

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Out by the foul pole high up in the corner.

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There’s a restaurant beyond the outfield wall that offers these unique seating areas, hanging out over the field.

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The concourse area is nice and wide, as at most modern stadiums.
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I have to mention the very family friendly concession prices. They have hot dogs for $1.50 each, which I’ve never seen at a major sporting event before.

I had a great time. Of the 30 major league cities I’ve now attended games in 17 of them. (That includes games I’ve attended over the years before we were full time RV’ers.) I hope to get to a few more before this summer is over.

While I was gone Dee had a day to herself. She did some RV cleaning (like she usually does when I’m out of the house) and watched some of her recorded TV shows.

Tomorrow is a travel day. We’re off to Flagstaff, about 140 miles away where it's a LOT cooler. See you in two days.

6 comments:

Mike and Terri said...

You check out major league stadiums like I check out racetracks... try to get a view from every angle and check out every nook and cranny!

Have a safe trip and enjoy Flagstaff.

owensontheroad said...

So cool that you got to experience that ballpark. I guess it was a waste of sunscreen, huh? :)

KarenInTheWoods said...

Great way to spend the day! So silly that she spent all that time trying to find you a shady seat, and then to only find out the roof was closed! LOL

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Donna W. said...

have you been to the new cardinals stadium

Bob and Jo said...

Yeah I can comment. Great tour of the ballpark, felt like I was there.

Tumbleweed Jim said...

Donna, I've been to many games at both the old and new Busch Stadiums in St. Louis. We lived in the St. Louis area for 12 years when I was in the service, and our son lives there now. Go Cards!

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