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May 16, 2005
Minute Maid nee Enron Field
Sara and I finally made it to the Field formerly known as Enron last Friday. Nice place, I liked the open concourse where you can still see the field even when you're up getting a beer, reminded me a lot of Dodger Stadium in that regard. As Sara mentioned as soon as we walked in the place, it's much nicer than the narrow, dark, tomb-like experience that is the concourse at Fenway (I believe the direct quote was, "Wait, why am I not surrounded by cement right now?").
Other highlights:
-That extra 6 inches of knee room - at no point did my knees come in contact with my chin, what a luxury.
-Not everything was different, the $7.75 beers were strangely reminesent of Fenway.
-We parked on the street three blocks from the field for free and didn't get stuck in any traffic whatsoever, coming or going.
-Plenty of TVs that actually show replays of the game. In Fenway, they won't replay anything that could even remotely be considered controversial for fear of inciting riot. It was a nice touch.
The matchup left something to be desired, with the pitcher of last resort Ezequiel Astacio vs. the K-less wonder, Kurt Rueter. They, however, were outdone by two anemic offenses which featured, among other things, Morgan Ensberg batting cleanup, Jose Vizcaino & Ray Durham batting 5th and both Pedro Feliz and Lance Berkman sitting soundly on the bench with a day off. By the 4th inning, we had realized that there was only 1 of the 16 position players that night that would crack the Sox starting lineup.
In between innings, Sara and I concocted a plan to get a picture of the delightful Astros Family that was sitting behind us, with Dad Astro, Mom Astro and Baby Astro all wearing matching shirts. So, we faked like I was taking a picture of Sara and the Astro Family was none the wiser. The kid sitting next to us looks as if he sniffed out our plan though.
If at any time during the game you forgot what state you were in, well, there were plenty of reminders.
My one complaint about the night would have to be the urgency the Astros organization seems to feel pack some sort of activity into every single second of when the game isn't going on. I can't even remember them all, there were a bunch of people in the stands walking around with some catapult contraption at one point, the horrible kiss-cam, the "Deep in the Heart of Texas" sing along (in place of God Bless America, of course), and most obsurdly, at one point there was a contest to pick the worst dressed man out of a group and then they made that guy put on a tuxedo, I'm still scratching my head on that one.
They even felt it necessary to inform the fans when music was and wasn't playing, which I tried blurrily to capture above. It was just too much, that stuff never would fly at Fenway.
And the strangest part of the night goes to this guy, who apparently took his sneakers off at the game and watched in his socks.
You see something new every time you go to the ballpark.
Update: Here's another stadium review via Baseball Musings...
Posted by stan at May 16, 2005 10:15 AM
Comments
Nice pics and story about Minute Maid.
Posted by: John at May 19, 2005 02:05 PM