shawnwright.blog

Even though I've lived in Oklahoma for 18 years now, I'm still more of an NFL guy, when it comes to football, than a college guy. But it has come to grow on me. I watch quite a bit college ball these days. Yet I remain largely unmotivated to attend college games live. And it's not like I'm averse to sports venues. I've been to 24 pro baseball venues and multiple pro football, hockey, and basketball venues, so I'm veteran as far as that goes.

Today, however, my hand was forced by the last minute illness of my brother, who then could not use his season ticket. It's difficult to convey the magnitude of this moment. My brother has been attending University of Oklahoma home games for almost his entire life. He doesn't miss them in general. And a bedlam game against Oklahoma State? No way he misses those. Yet there I was at 6:30 in the morning learning that I had been "called up" to fill his spot with just a few hours to head to the stadium.

While I was generally displeased by many of those same things that have kept me away from these events in the past (ridiculous traffic and parking, shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, impossible concession lines, etc), the actual game experience was quite excellent. Of course, it helps that OU won. By a 27-0 shutout nonetheless. And that it wasn't cold considering it was a late November day. I believe it was 71 degrees when I left the game. So I must say, if it had to happen, the conditions were probably the best possible, for which I am thankful.

Here's a halftime picture from the game.

Labels: sports

Being not anywhere near the target market, I am the only hardcore Phillies fan at my office. I know, shocking. But around these parts you tend to find Braves, Cardinals, and Ranger fans for various reasons mostly involving television markets. We actually do have another former Pennsylvanian in the office that likes the Phillies, but doesn't really follow them until, well, about now. There are also a couple Yankee fans, as well as a Red Sox fan, in addition to several "anybody but the Yankees" fans. Given this breakdown, in the preceeding days before the World Series, the battle lines have been drawn. And the Phillies fans -- okay so they're mostly anti-Yankees fans -- struck first. Just before a meeting today, we changed the desktop background on the conference room computer. The Yankee fans were displeased to say the least...

Labels: baseball, Phillies, sports, work

Tonight was the Thunder pre-season game to which I had previously won tickets. Aside from the losing part, it was a fun time, and I like the improvements made to our arena in the off-season. Many of the changes were more subtle, but the most obvious and appreciated change is the scoreboard.






Big improvement, huh?

Labels: sports, thunder

I've been asked the question many, many times. Why do I love baseball. But it's difficult to answer in a concrete way. There's just so much to love about the game, and it all fits together like a puzzle. So any answer I could give should be considered woefully incomplete by virtue of the impossibility to be precise in this regard.

But here are some of the key tenets...

The sacrifice and the truest team sport
My most favorite thing about baseball is the sacrifice. In what other sport can you purposely do something wrong for yourself, but good for the team, and have it not count against you statistically? Baseball is one of the most statistics oriented sports ever devised by man, but you can lay down your statistical reputation for the sake of your team, yet no one -- not even the statistician -- holds it against you. I just don't think there's a better way to instill the value of the team endeavor.

Additionally, very rarely does having the best player in the sport on your team assure any sort of enduring success. I feel baseball is the truest team sport. Who would argue that Albert Pujols is not currently one of if not the best players in baseball? His team? Swept from the first round of the playoffs. We've seen it time and again.

The venues
I just love that each and every baseball venue, while the same in essential dimensions, offers a unique experience up to both the player and the fan. I've been in many football, hockey, and basketball venues, and there simply aren't enough differences (and we're not talking amenities) in the experience to put them on the same level as baseball venues.

The history
I won't say much about this, as it is largely self-evident. Pick up any good baseball book and you'll find an unbelievably rich history from which to draw inspiration. I received this book for my birthday this year, and I have to say it is rather amazing. Even my thirteen year old daughter loves this book.

It's not over 'til it's over
Like Oklahoma weather, everything can change in an instant. And there is no running down the clock, because there is no clock. It's over when it's over. It's done when we're finished playing. And there are no ties (well, except that one time, which was ridiculous). Down to the last strike, of the last out, of the last inning, of the last game in the season and then some, no outcome is certain. I don't know of another sport where in the very last second of the game you can be behind by an insurmountable sum, but where a single act can turn everything around. The ninth-inning comeback is simply unparalleled in sports in my opinion.

There is almost no better example of this than what happened last night.

As Mr. Stark so aptly put it, "The magic is in the moment". And I couldn't agree more.

Labels: baseball, Phillies, sports

I attended an OKC TweetUp tonight on a whim. Knew about it. Didn't really feel like going. But on the way home figured what the heck. Well, it paid off to be spontaneous for once. Not only did I meet some nice people, but I won a door prize. Free tickets to a pre-season Oklahoma City Thunder game!


Here's a pic of Thunder mascot Rumble the Bison and I...

Labels: sports, thunder, tweetup, twitter

Not to advertise for them, but the Philavania.com "about" page has what must be the best definition of a true Philadelphia sports fan I've read.

We "...are under the impression that the Delaware Valley is the center of the Universe. In this respect, we are right. We got the Birds, we got the World Phuckin' Champion Fightin's, we got cheesesteaks and soft pretzels and hoagies and Tastykakes and all sorts of stuff nobody else has. We're kinda crappy but kinda awesome.

We never forget where we're from. We were losers for all those years (we're still trying to get over not being losers anymore) but we kept our heads up and stayed proud.

We get in fights at Eagles games with anybody wearing anything that remotely resembles Cowboys paraphernalia. When we find out that it's not a Cowboys fan but a horse-mounted state police officer, we still ask him if he's a Cowboys fan in a threatening manner.

We show up in the thousands to away games in cities like Tampa, San Diego, Phoenix and Minneapolis. We make so much noise that the other team's fans look around and say to their friends 'where the hell are these guys coming from?'

We used to go to Eagles games with our grandfather when we were 6 years old. We remember yelling at Cowboys fans even then. We also remember that guy in section 301 of the Vet with the beard in the tie-dyed overalls who started the E-A-G-L-E-S chant. May he rest in peace, and may his voice be heard for 100 years more.

We remember Harry Kalas. We've spent hundreds of hours talking to our friends in our best Harry Kalas impersonation. We loved that guy. We miss him terribly, but we're so damn happy he got to call that final out before he himself was outtahere. We think Harry would like that joke.

We love our city, we love our people, and we're proud of all of it--the good and the bad."

Labels: Eagles, Philadelphia, Phillies, sports

I made a surprise visit to Philadelphia over Mother's Day weekend. When I got in Friday night, I caught the premier of Star Trek with my best high school buddies. Then I spent the rest of the weekend with mom.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Labels: baseball, Philadelphia, Phillies, sports, trip

(Update
Some photos have been uploaded to the album.)

Intro
I've been back from Toronto for a little over a day, though I'm still crazy tired. The trip was probably not the best idea given the times, but it seems to have been worth it looking back from this short distance.

Premise
After my 2006 inaugural World Baseball Classic experience (see game summary, trip summary), it seemed a no-brainer to attempt to attend the second WBC. However, it was not without its twists and turns.

I went, in 2006, with a like-minded sports-loving friend and all was right with the world. It was in Phoenix, a town I enjoy, we participated in tons of great sporting events, and I got make the short trip to Tucson to see my ailing grandmother for what turned out to be the last time. With minor exception, looking back a few years, it was a really great trip.

Prelude
The intent was basically to do it all over again this time around, only the WBC folks decided to mix it up on us, having the first round of the classic in cities outside the United States. This became known as the first problem. While we could have caught the second round in Miami or the semis/finals in San Diego/L.A., there was a bit of risk in not fulfilling what I felt was the key goal of this endeavor... seeing Team USA. I mean, I'm all for seeing some great baseball games, but in less than a month, I'll have a number of options in that regard within a few hours drive. Why make a long plane ride if you're not going to see Team USA? So, given that Team USA COULD have lost in the first round, the only logical choice seemed to be to pack for Toronto.

The second problem this year was that my previous WBC travel partner became decidedly unavailable (though later quite the opposite, however not in time to join plans already in progress). So I had to find a new travel partner that understood the merits of making an international trip to see a baseball game. Not an easy task in my part of the world (college football country). But I did convince a close college friend, who has attended a number of ballgames with me in the past, that this would be a worthy trip.

There was a third problem as it turned out, in that my friend wanted to bring his wife. I don't mean that to sound like "it was a problem that he wanted to bring his wife". It's just that I knew his wife wasn't as into sports as he and I, and so the problem became a fairness issue, or how to balance the trip out with non-sports activities.

So I created an itinerary that was reasonably well balanced, I thought, with the WBC game, an NBA game, and a trip to Wayne Gretzsky's restaurant on the one hand, and museums, shopping, and a theatre show on the other. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. Which is not to say the trip wasn't rounded and excellent. It just didn't quite go according to plan.

Before getting into the trip details, I must note that there was actually a problem four... my friend did not have a passport. And there was some uncertainty as to whether he could get one in time. Fortunately, he was able to do so, averting a trip planning crisis.

Adventure
Thursday morning I hit the road for Dallas. It was decided early on that, living in different parts of the country, we would all meet-up in Dallas and fly to Toronto together. I don't disagree with this plan in retrospect, but the three plus hour drive with road construction threatening to delay your trip doesn't exactly relax you. Traffic delay and parking uncertainty overcome, I made it through security in short order and met up with my friends with great anticipation of a remarkable trip ahead. Aside from long waits in airports, the Dallas to Detroit to Toronto flights were mostly uneventful. Well, there was the incident involving beef jerky, but that's mostly just embarrassing and revealing of my ignorance, so we can skip that part.

The customs line in Canada was not too bad, though I thought the Canadian border agent was noticeably less nice to me than he had been to my friend's wife. Not that it made a difference. It took us no time at all to find a cab to take us to our hotel, though I did feel like the driver took a longer route than necessary, having studied the map a little ahead of time. The cab fare was our single biggest cash expense of the trip. Almost everything else we paid via credit cards, as was recommended on many travel sites.

The hotel, a Holiday Inn, wasn't particularly fancy, but it would do fine. After we checked-in, we got situated in our rooms and then met for dinner and to discuss the itinerary for the next day. Dinner in the pub and grill attached to the hotel hit the spot just fine.

The next morning we met downstairs and began our short walk to a breakfast place down the road. Called "Over Easy", the food there was quite tasty with hearty portion sizes. Breakfast concluded, we walked across the street to visit the Royal Ontario Museum.

We spent a good four to five hours at the museum, which resembles New York's Natural History Museum. As far as content, the ROM seemed more thorough in some areas than the NY NHM, but less thorough in others. I realize this is an unfair comparison, but I've been to both and so can't help but compare. Following our visit to the ROM, we walked back to the hotel for a short break before catching a subway ride downtown.

The plan called for a touristy visit to the CN Tower, Canada's largest structure, and one of the largest structures in the world, followed by dinner and an NBA game. Unfortunately, I didn't buy Raptors tickets in advance, which turned out to be a poor decision. I was trying to keep the agenda somewhat flexible, and I thought for sure in a city like Toronto with SO MUCH to do, they surely wouldn't sell out a basketball game for a team that wasn't in contention (sure, we sell out our very non-contending Oklahoma City arena quite often, but we just got the team, so we're still so darned excited about it). While I did have a plan B, it was based on a fairly narrow time frame, which also turned out to be problematic.

Well, the CN Tower portion of our day went quite excellently. Having been atop the Empire State Building (yes, even the 102nd floor), and as splendid as that was, I have to say the CN Tower experience might be just a tad better. I mean, wow. The views were spectacular... the city, Lake Ontario, the glass floors, etc... just amazing. Well, okay, the glass floors were just plain scary, but they added a dynamic to the experience not achievable in New York. You should have seen my reaction when trying to step out onto the glass floor when someone else jumped on it, making it shake. Did I mention I'm not great with heights?

We followed our tower observation with a meal in the aptly named 360 restaurant. Very much like the former "Nikz at the Top" restaurant in Oklahoma City, the 360 rotates, giving you a 360-degree view of the city and lake while you enjoy your high-priced meal. The atmosphere was remarkable and the food was excellent (also like Nikz). But we couldn't linger too long because we had to execute plan B following my NBA miscalculation.

The plan involved enjoying a show at a local mystery theater. Unfortunately, as we left CN Tower, we were notably behind schedule and needed to walk a significant distance to make the subway (I led us in the wrong direction, north instead of east, meaning we had to go to the St. Andrews station instead of Union Station costing us valuable time). Looking back on this, we should have just caught a cab and we would have been fine I think. Though it didn't take us long to figure out the value of cabs. When we finally reached the subway, we noticed how impractical it was becoming that we would actually make it to the mystery theater on time (thus keeping it a mystery in a sense). So we began discussing Plan C. Trouble is, I hadn't written a Plan C, so we were having to make it up on the spot.

Plan C became the let's just walk back to the main entertainment district and catch a movie plan. Seemed reasonable enough. It was a Friday, Watchmen had just come out, what a nice fall-back. So, we got off at the next subway stop, walked probably about as far as we did going from the CN Tower to the subway, and we got in line for tickets. We new we were too late for th 7pm showings, and that we'd have to wait for 9 or 9:30 showings, but we should also have accounted for the possibility of sell-outs. Ugh. As we were in line, we saw the marquee message that read "The next available showing of Watchmen is 11pm". There was nothing else even showing until 9:45, and we weren't sure that one was worth the wait. So, Plan C was turning out to be as much a flop as A and B. We stepped out of line and went to the book store cafe next door to contemplate the evening.

Not much discussion was needed before we determined the details of Plan D. It was stunningly simple and at that point the most value we could achieve without further spinning our wheels. (Technical note: Much of this aimless bouncing about would not have occurred if I had been able to use my splendid smart phone... but U.S. mobile providers have criminally high [IMHO] international data roaming rates, and so I was very much lacking in the actionable intelligence gathering abilities I'd come to rely on in the states.) Plan D was to, in fact, head the heck back to the hotel and get some sleep because we were bloody tired anyway. At the time I was disappointed with this plan (because hey, I don't sleep anyway), but once I got back to my room, I enjoyed it quite a lot. And this time, we caught a cab, so our trip back to the hotel was quick and without further walking.

Our last day in Toronto started out with another breakfast at Over Easy. We had plans to try another place, but decided we liked our previous day's breakfast enough to do it again. Then we hit the subway (once we found the darned station... you know, in New York subway stations are VERY obvious... in Toronto, not so much... or is it just me?) to one of the bigger malls in Toronto to do some gift shopping. We just spent an hour or so walking around the mall and making our selections as we didn't want to stay too long, have travel issues again, and possibly miss part of the game, which was the reason for the trip to begin with. So, we got back on the subway and headed back downtown.

Lunch plans called for a trip to Wayne Gretzky's restaurant. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Trouble is, pretty much everybody else going to the game thought of that as well. This time I had plans B and C prepared as well, and we did have to go with C, as B was just as packed. My friend's wife had the excellent suggestion of Plan D (skip external lunch and just get hot dogs at the game). Being men, we ignored that plan and stuck with Plan C. And then it started to rain. And we had window seats and so we saw how wet the people were getting walking to the game. Wonderful.

After scarfing our lunch, we headed to Skydome (yes, I know it's called the Rogers Centre now, but to me it will always be Skydome), getting plenty wet and wishing we had listened to the wife. Thank goodness for domed stadiums. And we arrived at the stadium early enough to catch the tail end of batting practice and to take plenty of pictures.

We had decent seats (35 rows from the field, between third and home). But the lower-bowl was a packed house and I started to wonder if the more spacious upper bowl might have been a better option for comfort purposes (attendance was in excess of forty-two thousand, much more than 2006). There were some obnoxiously loud and drunk Team Canada fans behind us (many in the section agreed they were too loud and annoying, so it wasn't just us), and to the left of us there were a couple of French Canadians that I'm sure were talking about us in French, concerning our American flags and frequent cheering for Team USA in a Canada-friendly crowd. Also, they got up every ten minutes to get a beer (where did they PUT all that beer they drank?), though they couldn't go at the same time. Seemed like every five minutes one of them got up to go get something else.

ANYway, this was about the game. And the game was quite excellent. Unlike my last WBC game, which was a Team USA blowout, this game was close the whole time, with USA victory not assured until the last out of the last inning with a full count. You can't ask for better baseball than that. As a bonus, I got to see three 2008 World Champion Phillies (Victorino, Rollins, and Stairs -- though playing for Canada) perform well, AND I got to see my childhood baseball hero Mike Schmidt coaching third base. What was decidedly less exciting was the fact that I blew an opportunity to get autographs from Victorino and Stairs following the game because the game went longer than expected and I made dinner reservations much too soon afterward. Oh, and did I mention it was still pouring outside?

The original plan called for walking to dinner. With the length of the game and the rain, we opted out of that plan rather quickly. However, catching a cab outside of a building with thousands of people exiting turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated. We ended up getting rather soaked again before we finally got a cab. Fortunately, we made it right on time for our reservations.

Dinner at an acclaimed Italian establishment, was excellent, and the desert was WAY larger than I expected. And I hate wasting perfectly good cheesecake. But once again my planning didn't turn out so well, as we finished dinner much quicker than expected (unlike the previous night), and so we had quite some time to wait before the next item on our agenda, a show at the (in)famous Second City Theatre, where many greats of comedy got their start.

Of course, that show required another walk in the rain as there were no cabs to be found. Did I mention that I gave my umbrella a good hard look before I left OKC, but though surely I wouldn't need it? Well, even with all weather crud on the trip, it all turned out to be worth it, as Second City was amazing. As a huge fan of sketch comedy, I had long wanted to get a live look at where SCTV came from, and at the very beginnings of many SNL players' climbs to the top. And SC didn't disappoint. It was a completely amazing and funny show, and I am reasonably certain I will someday see some of those same stage actors on my TV set, whether in SNL or some other hilarious endeavor. If you're ever in one of the SC cities, don't miss an opportunity to catch a show.

Not unexpectedly, it was still raining after the show, so we caught a cab back to the hotel. Considering we were being picked up by an airport taxi at 6am, AND that we had to spring ahead for daylight savings, there really wasn't much time for sleep, so, after setting up a wake-up call, I had to hurry up and pack so I could get at least SOME sleep. Even though I don't do that much, the trip was starting to catch up with me.

The trip to the airport the next morning and the trip back through customs and onward to Dallas was unremarkable (though we finally got a big enough plane to stretch out in, oh, and we think we saw the mini-me actor at the Detroit airport), as was my drive back to OKC. But it had been about fourteen hours of traveling of some sort, so I was very much like a zombie upon my return. I picked up the kids from their mom's, got some to-go dinner, and went HOME. It was SO nice to be home. Though there are some things to miss about Toronto.

Conclusion
While I didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked, Toronto, in my experience, is an excellent place to visit. Very New York-like with plenty of international flair (it's a VERY diverse city). With its close proximity to the U.S., the lack of language barriers, and the general similarity of most things (except money, metrics, and temperature), Toronto is a fantastic alternative to Europe if money and time are an issue. I'm eager to bring the kids back during a future summer so we can do all the kid-friendly things I skipped-out on this time around.

Labels: baseball, pictures, sports, Toronto, trip, World Baseball Classic

Got to see Team USA beat Team Canada in Toronto today... what a blast!

Labels: baseball, sports, Toronto, trip, World Baseball Classic

You think I picked up too much World Series memorabilia?

Well, I only bought the shirt and hat on the right. Mom picked up the rest for me. Thanks mom!!!

Labels: baseball, Philadelphia, Phillies, sports

Six friends were taking an RV trip over the Independence Day weekend to Milwaukee for a concert and asked if I wanted to go. Nah, I said. But then I checked the Milwaukee Brewers schedule, noticed that they'd be in town the same night as the concert, and decided to join them. I doubted there would be another opportunity like this for me to see Miller Park. And I'm glad I went, as it turned into a decent little adventure.



The first leg of the trip, we stopped at a couple wineries in Missouri, and stayed overnight at a Springfield, Illinois campground. The second leg got us all the way to Milwaukee, but we were running so behind that I got dropped off by the RV in front of the stadium just in time for the game. The RV then proceeded to the RV park to "connect" before everybody caught a shuttle to the concert.

While some may question making such a trip for a ballgame, I can say unequivocally that I have no regrets. Not only is Miller Park a beautiful ballpark, it was a great game, won by Prince Fielder in the bottom of the ninth with a game-winning walk-off RBI-single. Good stuff.



I caught a taxi back to the RV once the game was over, with a few hours to myself before everyone else returned from the concert. The next morning we packed up and hit the road for home (so yes, a very quick visit).

You can see a few pictures from the trip in the album, or if you'd like to see more pictures of the ballpark, you can find them in the picasa album.

Labels: ballpark, baseball, Milwaukee, pictures, sports, trip

After I picked up the girls from their mom's today, we went to check out an open house at the Museum of Women Pilots, which was pretty cool, and I hope inspirational for the girls. Aside from the exhibits, they got to see a Black Hawk helicopter up close. They each even got to sit in the cockpit.








They also got to watch the helicopter take off from less than a hundred feet away. Of course, in the spirit of the day, it was piloted by a woman. Warning, the girls are NOT in the video. Just neat seeing a helicopter taking off.




Upon completion of a short visit to the park and then dinner, and keeping with the themes of they day, we went to the Women's College World Series, as we have for the last two years. We got to see the closing innings of the Tennessee/Arizona State game, and then watched Texas try really really hard to beat UCLA. While it looked like Texas actually played a little harder, they just couldn't score, and lost the game despite the HUGE Texas fanbase that showed up. There were more than seven thousand in attendance, which was a record for a non-championship WCWS game. While Shelby is never generally into such things, Darby was pretty into it. At least until the day caught up to her and she fell asleep (photo courtesy of Shelby).

Labels: Darby, Shelby, sports, video, Women's College World Series

We just got back from a marathon vacation that spanned five states over ten days and included such activities:

- Visit to the Grand Canyon
- Visit to the Hoover Dam
- Visit to Las Vegas (Caesar's Palace, Barbary Coast, MGM Grand, Mirage, and of course Circus Circus)
- A wedding
- Visit to Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix for an Arizona Diamondbacks game
- Visit to Tucson, Arizona to see relatives


Here's the trip summary:
Total miles - 2988
Round-trip travel time - 48.75 hours
VUE MPG - 23
Total Fuel Cost - $200
Digital pictures taken - 433 personal, 128 business

Needless to say, I am really really tired. Of driving in particular.



Travel stories and many many pictures will be posted to the appropriate places on this site as I have time to do so...

Labels: ballpark, baseball, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, sports, trip, Tucson