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May 20, 2005
Enron nee Minute Maid Field II - Return of the Traitor
Well, the first trip to Minute Maid Field was so much fun that Sara and I decided to go back last night to see Benedict Clemens pitch one last time. The $12 tickets were a major draw too, I spent more money on beer than the get into the park, which requires some determination in Fenway but didn't even make it unsafe to drive last night.
I probably saw Benedict pitch in person 7 or 8 times now and for some reason I can vividly remember the first time I saw him pitch, a complete game blowout in Yankee Stadium in 1986 that featured, among other things, a Billy Buckner stolen base. I found the boxscore for that game at the excellent Retrosheet, the date was 6/16/86, so I imagine that trip was a present for my 11th birthday believe it or not.
Most of those 7 or 8 games came before Benedict offered West Point to the British, as it were, so it was a nice opportunity to unleash some pent up bad vibes. And the air was thick with karma as two first inning errors lead to three runs for the Diamondbacks and what amounted to a insurmountable deficit for the hapless Astros. Benedict took the loss, which served him right.
A less famous Citgo sign. The real deal can be seen here and here.
The final verdict.
On the way out, we checked out the view from the left field standing room area underneath the train tracks. Not bad at all if you don't mind standing and walking a bit for your beers.
And finally, I discovered possibly the only benefit of the giant sunglasses being popular with the ladies these days, which would be that they allow you to take much better reflection pictures with all that extra surface area.
I wouldn't quite call that a silver lining, maybe bronze or tin though.
Posted by stan at May 20, 2005 09:28 AM