Text 25898, 100 rader
Skriven 2015-04-11 21:34:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: spring training 496
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Breakfast was the usual Hampton thing, only better.

The fruit cup had mango slices in addition to the usual
orange, grapefruit, and pineapple.

The meat was a respectable, not off-brand kielbasa, and
instead of prefab scrambled eggs or omelets, there was
prefab french toast, though you could make your own waffle
- the kitchen staff was kept busy preventing idiot guests
from burning the place down. The usual run, perhaps more
variety than usual, of breakfast breads and pastries.
Oatmeal, which I have begun to investigate at the behest
of Lilli, who thinks I should eat the crap for my cardiac
well-being, had a bit of texture.

All in all, a good way to help dodge the temptations of
dried-out burgers and dogs at the ballpark, and I went
back for thirds of kielbasa.

-

Before the game I had to repack Swisher's wound - a
horrendous slash that two millennia ago would have made a
believing Thomas out of me. There's a reason I didn't become
a physician. Seeing his internal parts thus exposed really
didn't do much for my frame of mind, and I got the job done
as fast as possible.

TEX@OAK Hohokam Stadium 1

This used to be the Cubs' spring training park, but they
became too popular and had a bigger new stadium built a few
miles up the road; Hohokam was renovated and is now the home
of the Athletics, whose Phoenix Municipal digs have been
bequeathed to ASU. The Mesa Hohokams, a fraternal
organization, still retain the ushership responsibilities
here as well as providing the staff for new Sloan Park.

I looked for my friend Annie's friend Junior, who used to be
head usher here, but it turns out he is now head usher at
the new place, so I didn't get to see him.

The beer selection is okay here, I started off with a can of
Kilt Lifter from the local Four Peaks - a brew that my friend
the famous Alex had introduced me to years ago when he was a
student at ASU, following that with what I thought the best
draft available there, Lagunitas Pils (the IPA is also on
tap, but I don't tend to drink IPAs in the dry heat).

As my budget for the day was nearly exceeded, for my third
round I had a Carly's Italian Ice, because it was blue -
blue raspberry, which tasted like nothing, paired with lemon,
which tasted like Ty-D-Bol, and lime, which was kind of good.

It was a neatly played contest, for spring training. Though
trailing most of the game, the home team pulled it out in
the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff 3-run homer by Mark
Canha, 7-6.

After which, a complication. The course of true baseball
never ran smooth.

Originally, we had planned to have the day's game out west
at Surprise, but after we bought the tickets, this had been
turned into a night game, and Swisher had arranged the A's as
a consolation prize, hoping to refund the Royals game, but
it was more hoops than he was willing to jump through to
get the money back, so we decided to try to make both. If it
had been myself alone, I'd have simply disputed the credit
card charge and been done with it.

SEA@KC Surprise 6

Plan. Go out up and over, hit the new hotel (Hampton Peoria)
at around 5, get Swisher's medication done, out of there at
5:45, to the park by the second inning. Hah. The exits to
the loop freeway from near where we were were closed for
massive reconstruction, so we were forced to go through
town, which meant that we were smack downtown at 5, so we
crawled through, and that took nearly an hour in itself. I
suggested that we just go to the stadium and cause a stir by
infusing his antibiotics out in the left field stands, but
he didn't want to do that. Off to the hotel (6 pm), check
in, do the routine, go to the stadium. 8 pm. We ended up
catching the last three innings only, by which time the game
was a foregone conclusion.

I drowned my sorrows in the best available food and drink,
which were a $10 Dos Equis and a $5 cheeseburger. The beer
was worse than I anticipated; the burger better, despite
having two triangles of unmelted Velveeta on it, after I
loaded it up with onions at a condiment stand.

The Seattles were far overmatched - when we'd gotten there,
they were down 5-0; playing against Royals rookies and subs
whose numbers averaged in the 80s, they only managed one
run, making the final 5-1.
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