5/23/09 @ Minute Maid Park

At the start of the season, my friends Dirk, Sam, Shawn & his dad Donnie, and myself decided to get tickets to this game. It was a 3:05 game on a Saturday, so we were going to drive down that morning, catch BP, see the game & drive home that night. Sounds easy enough right? Well, it was, kind of. Here's us at 8:00 in the morning before hitting the road....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

From left to right: Me, Sam, Dirk, Shawn, Donnie

We took my minivan, because the only other choice was Dirk's Dodge Dakota, and we didn't think 5 grown men would fit in there too well on a trip that was 4 hours one way. Not the coolest ride in the world, but we were comfortable! The DVD player helped too, watched "The Rookie" on the way down, and "Major League 2" and "Field of Dreams" on the way home. Well, they watched and I listened.

We got to Houston and found a parking lot at around 12:30 or so. Thankfully, the lot was only $5 and it was about 5-6 blocks from the stadium. Here's a random shot as we piled out of the van....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

This was our first view of the stadium as we walked up the street....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made our way around the stadium to find the Will Call booth, and made it there at about 12:45ish. Here's Shawn, Dirk, and Sam at the window....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

And this is the line at the Home Plate entrance, which we decided to use since we were right there....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally made it inside, I ran around to right field. I didn't take one photo along the way, because my only thought was all the balls I was missing out on, since the Astros were already taking BP. This is the 1st photo I took from inside the park, which is where I stayed for the Astros portion of BP....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute Maid Park has a retractable roof, for those of you that don't know, and it was closed due to potentially bad weather. The centerfield wall is made of HUGE glass panels that open when the roof is open, and in front of the glass is a train track for the homerun train. Anytime the Astros hit a homerun, the train whistle blows and the train rolls down the track. Except for today, for some reason, it didn't move at all. But here's a look anyway....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the seats out in left field? Those are the Crawford Boxes, and underneath that section is the visitors' bullpen. Kind of different, but still cool to me anyway.

I came close to 2 balls during the Astros' BP, closer than I have ever been and not gotten them. The 1st was a HR that I misjudged, and it cleared my glove by no more than an inch. I thought it was coming right to me, and it did. I thought I could jump and get it, but I couldn't. I was upset, the ball hit the empty row behind me & flew back on the field, oh well, there was more BP to go. The 2nd was another HR that I played perfectly. I was on the aisle and the ball was hit straight to the staircase I was at, and all I had to do was go down about 2 steps, here it comes..., raised up my glove, getting closer..., about 10 feet away..., then right at the last second, some (@*&$#!) very anxious guy stuck his glove in front of mine and snagged it. To say I was upset with that one would be an understatement. I wasn't mad at the other guy (I was at first) as much as I was mad at myself for not positioning myself right in the first place. That one took a little longer to shrug off, but I did, 'cause there was still more BP to go.

I met up with the guys for the Rangers' portion of BP. They were one section over towards center. I didn't even get close to any this time, but Shawn was able to snag a HR on the fly from Hank Blalock. Pretty cool too, he ranged about 10 feet to his left and snagged it between about 2-3 other people. I was happy for him, then I realized it's kind of sad that we had to travel all the way to Houston just to snag a ball during Rangers' BP.

Towards the end of the Rangers' batting practice, Shawn noticed Josh Hamilton along the 3rd base line signing autographs. He wanted to get his BP ball signed, and I had my 2008 HR Derby ball with me (bought it on ebay). I have taken it to every game I have gone to since I bought it, with the intention of getting Josh to sign it, so far unsuccessfully. There was a TON of people over there already, and we didn't know how much longer he would be signing, so we ran over there as fast as we could (getting told by security to slow down along the way). When we finally got over there, we squeezed our way down to the railing, just as Josh was making his way past our spot. He was slowly making his way toward the outfield, and we knew he would start coming back our way. Here's a shot as he passed by the first time....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He did come back over, in fact he came over right next to Shawn, because there was a young boy from the "Make a Wish" foundation that was trying to get a bat signed. Josh signed the bat, posed for a couple photos with the boy, and took off towards the dugout. Pretty cool moment. No autographs for us though, but that's okay, that young man had his "Wish" come true for sure.

The game itself was good, the Astros got on the board first with a Miguel Tejada solo homerun that had to be reviewed by the umpires. First time for the Rangers to be involved in a review of a HR. They wanted to make sure that a fan did not interfere with the ball as Nelson Cruz was trying to make a play on it at the RF wall. It was ruled a HR. Oh well. The Rangers got theirs later in the game!

After about the 3rd inning or so, Dirk and I decided to wander the stadium. We made our way from our seats in RF, towards centerfield. Minute Maid Park has a pretty cool "Wall of Fame" in straight away center. (It's not officially called that, but I like that name). They showcase Jeff Bagwell and his 449 career homeruns. Here's a photo of Dirk in front of it....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each one of those white dots is an actual ball that has been fastened (I'm not sure how) to the wall. They're all rubbed, scuffed, and smeared in different ways, which leads you to believe that they are actual game-used balls.

Also on the "Wall" is a photo timeline of Craig Biggio's 3,000 hits. It's pretty cool, if I liked the Astros I may have been more interested and taken some pictures. What I did take a photo of is the Homerun Pump. Here's the pic....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From what I can tell, it does nothing more than keep track of the homeruns hit at Minute Maid. And I'm not sure if it's just the Astros' HRs, or all of them. Does anyone know?

After seeing the pump, we walked over to LF behind the Crawford Boxes, which are what those left field seats are called because Crawford Street runs right behind the wall at left field. Here's a couple views from that spot....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were standing there, Nelson Cruz hit his 2nd HR of the day off the CF wall. Followed immediately by Hank Blalock's solo shot that landed 3 rows in front of our seats! Figures. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, we wouldn't have had any shot at getting that ball (even though the guy who caught it threw it back).

Here's a shot of the centerfield concourse area....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we continued on our journey around the park, stopping in the obligatory gift shop to see what they offer that the Rangers don't. Which is nothing, by the way. Although Dirk did purchase some Astros inflatable bats for his 2 kids.

This is what the concourse behind our seats looked like....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

We made our way back to our seats somewhere around the 7th inning, and stayed there until the end of the game. The Rangers won 6-3, thanks to Nelson Cruz blasting 2 HRs. Scott Feldman went 6-2/3 innings and picked up his 3rd win (3-0).

And, of course, we did our usual "scavangering" (is that a word?) after the game, and I came away with 3 ice cream helmets, 4 cups (their cups are pretty cool compared to the Ballpark in Arlington), and some tickets. Here's what they look like....

                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trip home was somewhat of an adventure. When we reached the van after the game, we realized that one of the tires was flat on the van. After about an hour delay, we were on our way home, after stopping for some Mexican food of course.

Attendance: 36,019

Next game: Monday 5/25 vs. The Stankees....