By The Numbers
This is probably the last post for the blog. I thought it would be neat to look at some numbers from the trip, at least for the numbers geeks out there.
NUMBER ITEM NOTES 321,762 Attendance, Total 10 Games, CLE not listed because of rainout 41,820 Crowd, Largest MIL - 8/12 19,376 Crowd, Smallest BAL - 8/6 3820 Miles Driven, Total Downingtown to Downingtown, via BAL, PIT, CIN, CHC, MIN, STL, MIL, CWS, CLE, DET, PIT 2854 Pitches Thrown, Total 1489 Pitches Thrown, Home Team 1365 Pitches Thrown, Visitor 673 At Bats, Total 600 Highest Career HR Hit Jim Thome 560 Most Miles, Single Day Minneapolis to St. Louis 466 Longest HR (feet) Michael Morse, WAS - 8/9 348 At Bats, Visitor 325 At Bats, Home Team 169 Hits, Total 140 Gallons of Gas for car 102.50% Largest Crowd/Capacity MIN - 8/10 89 Hits, Visitor 80 Hits, Home Team 78.01% Average Capacity 60 Bases on Balls, Total 50 Total Runs, Home Team 45 Total Runs, Visitors 40.20% Smallest Crowd/Capacity BAL - 8/6 30 Homeruns, Total 28:54 Hrs:Mins of baseball 25 Doubles, Total 18 Doubles, Visitor 18 Homeruns, Home Team 15 Most Ks/Game, Pitchers CHC - 8/9 14 Most Hits/Game, Team COL - 8/8 14 Stolen Bases, Total 12 Homeruns, Visitor 10 Most Runs/Game, Team COL - 8/8 10 Most Ks/Game, Pitcher Chris Carpenter, STL - 8/16 9 Stolen Bases, Visitor 7 Doubles, Home Team 6 Home Team Wins 5 Most Hits/Player, Trip Albert Pujols (2 games), Thome (2 games) 5 Stolen Bases, Home Team 4.09 Highest Gas Price, Seen West end of Ohio Turnpike 4 Most Runs/Inning BAL - 8/6, KAN - 8/13 4 Road Team Wins 4 Most Hits/Player/Game Albert Pujols, 8/11 4 Rain Delays TOR at BAL - 8/6, COL at CIN - 8/8, KAN at CWS - 8/13, MIN at CLE - 8/14 (rained out after 2:55) 3.75 Highest Gas Price, Paid I-70, Ohio 3.27 Lowest Gas Price, Paid St. Louis 3.19 Lowest Gas Price, Seen St. Louis 3 Most team games, Seen PIT and MIN (though MIN was rained out on 8/14) 3 Fewest Hits/Team/Game CHC - 8/9 3 Fewest Opposing Fans Pirates Fans in MIL (other than us) 3 Triples, Total 2 Most HRs/Player/Game Seth Smith, Jim Thome 2 Most HRs/Player/Trip Seth Smith, Jim Thome, Albert Pujols 2 Most Teams/One Player Delmon Young (Twins 8/14, Traded to Tigers and played against Twins on 8/15) 2 Triples, Home Team 1 Hall of Famers Met/Trip Ferguson Jenkins 1 Halls of Fame Visited NFL, Canton OH 1 Times Car was Dented STL parking lot 1 Triples, Visitor 1 Rainouts MIN at CLE - 8/14 0 Healthy Meals Eaten Just checking to see if you're still reading.0 Pulled Over/Speeding Still checking to see if you're reading.
Final Game
Well, it was definitely a bit too late for me to post last night when we got home, but after getting a good night’s sleep, it’s time to get the Pirates and Cardinals game out on the blog. The first interesting thing at the game was seeing our message on the Pirates text board. It’s a bit of a bright picture, so the words may not be easy to read, but it says “Our 11th MLB game in 11 days. Go Bucs!”.
As for the park, the food, the concessions, etc., well, we were at this same stadium 10 days ago, so I won’t repeat myself. I just had a simple hot dog instead of going to Parmanti’s this time.
Our seats for this game were on the lower level, near the back row, but still a great view of the stadium. This would have been a good seat for one of the 4 games that we saw with rain delays/postponements during the trip.
As for the game itself, Andrew McCutchen completely misplayed a Matt Holliday hit into a double to help give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead, but then he came back and hit a huge 3-run homer to give the Pirates a 3-1 advantage.
After the Cardinals tied it up and the score was 3-3 at the end of the 8th inning, this group of 4 decided that it was time to hit the road for the 4 1/2 hour ride home. So we missed the Cardinals taking the lead in the 9th, the Pirates coming back to tie it up in the bottom of the 9th, and Garret Jones’ game winning homerun that cleared the stadium wall and one-hopped into the Allegheny River to win it in the bottom of the 11th. Here’s Garret earlier in the game.
I will be posting one more message (maybe two) to wrap up this tour after I put all my thoughts and info together. It was a blast and I’m so glad that we did it, but it’s also great to be home again with the family.
Home
3820 miles and it’s time to rest. What a win for the Buccos to end the trip!
Game 11
The journey is almost over as we arrive at PNC Park for the second time on this 11 day adventure.
We have had a blast and it’s great to see the Pirates for a third time on the trip. I just hope they can pull out a win in this one after losses to SDG at home and then at MIL last Friday night.
Game 11, let’s get it on!
Football Interruption
We got to Canton at 10:30 this morning. They say to allocate 2 to 2 1/2 hours for your self guided tour. Well, if you only want to see a few things or only look for a specific team, that might be enough time. For us, we were hitting the four hour mark when we left. Hopefully we can get to Cooperstown in the future to compare halls.
Off to Pittsburgh now for the Pirates game tonight.
Begin the Final Day
We were up very early this morning and out of the hotel by 7:15. After a quick breakfast across the street we left for Canton and we should be there at about 10:30.
With all of last night’s excitement about the Thome homerun I forgot to mention a funny incident at the ballpark. As we were on our way out we stopped for a quick break. All of the sudden someone says “Steve” two or three times while looking at me. Then he says “Aren’t you my friend Steve”. I guess I now know where my double lives!
Next post should be after Canton.
Holy Toledo!
Yes, we were here 2 nights ago and now we’re here again in the circumnavigation of the CWS, CLE, DET, PIT games at the end of our trip. Not only is the headline of this story for the city where we rest tonight, but did I mention that we saw Jim Thome’s historic 600th homerun tonight, 2 at bats after I had posted that it didn’t look good! Here is the start of THE swing for number 600, the trot around 3rd, stepping on the plate, and part of the celebration.
I thought for sure that meeting Ferguson Jenkins and shaking his hand was going to be the highlight of the trip, but after seeing this homerun, I think it’s going to have to take over the top spot.
Tomorrow: Radio interview, Canton, Pittsburgh, Home.
Oh, did I mention that I’ll be on the radio again in the morning. 9:10AM on WCHE, 1520AM, West Chester, PA.
We need to get some sleep so we can get out of the hotel by 7:00 in the morning, so I’ll sign off now. Have a good night and we’ll get some more posts out there tomorrow, hopefully.
Jim Thome!!!!
600th career homerun. How awesome is that. Congratulations Jim!!!!!
599!!!!!
Jim Thome crushed one to left center field for his 599th career homerun. Wasn’t someone just saying that it didn’t Look promising?
And then to make the inning more exciting we watched Ben Revere hit a triple to right center where he was thrown out trying to stretch it into an inside the park homerun. And then DET catcher Alex Avila hit an RBI triple in the bottom of the inning. What a game!!!
Tigers and Twins
Got into the ballpark at about 6:00, walked around the concourse and then headed up to our seats in the 300 level club box. No AC here, but not needed. It’s an awesome 75 degrees and there’s a slight breeze.
The game is in the top of the third inning. There have already been a couple of homeruns, but none from Jim Thome. We were hoping for two from him for 600 for his career. Two more ABs left for him to try.
Gary Andrus
