Four of us (Jason, Fish, Matt, Jeff) made the trip to Houston for Minute Maid Park. And we saw Johnson Space Center. And that's pretty much it. Oh we took this trip after seeing the Foo Fighters at GABP the night prior. Quick weekend!
Monday, August 5, 2024
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
DLBT Resumes!!!
Following a 2-year hiatus due to Covid, the DLBT finally resumed in 2022. It was pretty simple. We originally were just doing San Diego and Anaheim, but the Dodgers had one final afternoon game on a Wednesday so it worked out perfectly.
Wednesday: Nationals at Dodgers
The game started at 12:10 Pacific Time so our 7am flight to LAX allowed us to go straight from the airport to the stadium. And thankfully, everything worked out for us to do just that. It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous setting as you'll see by these pics...
Game was over after the first inning as the Dodgers put up 6 in the bottom of the first. Couple Dodger Dogs and afternoon baseball beers were on the menu on this great day!
Thursday: Rangers at Angels
Easily the worst of the three stadiums we visited but Angel Stadium is perfectly fine. It was a perfect evening for baseball and we got to see Shohei Ohtani pitch (and hit). He allowed just 2 runs but the Angels couldn't muster any offense of their own (Ohtani went 0-4) and lost 2-0. More beers and Angel Dogs on the menu for this one as well. Pics...
Friday: Twins at Padres
Great park and a great crowd showed up for a Friday night beatdown. Padres rolled to a 10-1 win hitting 5 homers. And this is before they added Juan Soto at the trade deadline from the Nationals. Had to continue the trend of beers and dogs. The Friar Frank was delicious just like the Dodger Dog. The Angel Dog was solid but not on the level of the other two. Pics...
Saturday morning back to the airport and back to Cincy. 3 days 3 parks checked off. Ready for 2023!!
Thursday, May 7, 2020
2020 Trip Canceled
Well, they finally stopped us. After 21 consecutive years of the DLBT, the 2020 trip was canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Divorces. Births. Family vacations to Antigua. "Going away" for 11 months or just one month. Anniversaries. Nothing had been able to keep us from taking our annual trip to a new ballpark(s) or city(cities).
But a global pandemic was able to do the trick. So we wait for 2021 and hopefully fans will be allowed to watch games in person. And if so, we will resume our tradition.
Divorces. Births. Family vacations to Antigua. "Going away" for 11 months or just one month. Anniversaries. Nothing had been able to keep us from taking our annual trip to a new ballpark(s) or city(cities).
But a global pandemic was able to do the trick. So we wait for 2021 and hopefully fans will be allowed to watch games in person. And if so, we will resume our tradition.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Miami 2019 (Marlins)
Getting lazy with these posts. Miami, in short, was humid but fun. Our second trip where we flew. This one was a Sunday - Wednesday trip to accommodate the school calendar.
Some pics...
Some pics...
Saturday, March 2, 2019
2018 Tropicana (Rays)
Forgot to write this one up. But as you can expect, Tropicana is as nondescript as people say. It's a dump. No one wants to go there. I can't believe the Rays ever get any free agents to willingly play there. But, we crossed another one off the list.
We stayed in St. Pete which was actually really nice. The hotel we stayed in was fantastic. It was located on a busy corner where we parked our chairs and enjoyed the "scenery".
The most notable thing about this trip was it was the first time we'd ever flown for a trip (our 20th btw). Every other trip, be it Boston for 14 hours or Minneapolis for 12 hours, had been driven. Combined with the fact we just don't want to drive anymore and that we've seen pretty much every stadium within driving range we're going to have to make this more common.
Welp, that's about all there is to say about this trip. Oh, Fish jumped over a homeless guy.
Next year (well this year since I'm writing this up in March of 2019) is to Miami to see the cavernous Marlins Stadium minus Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, JT Realmuto, and just about every notable Marlin who has ever made any money playing for that franchise.
We stayed in St. Pete which was actually really nice. The hotel we stayed in was fantastic. It was located on a busy corner where we parked our chairs and enjoyed the "scenery".
The most notable thing about this trip was it was the first time we'd ever flown for a trip (our 20th btw). Every other trip, be it Boston for 14 hours or Minneapolis for 12 hours, had been driven. Combined with the fact we just don't want to drive anymore and that we've seen pretty much every stadium within driving range we're going to have to make this more common.
Welp, that's about all there is to say about this trip. Oh, Fish jumped over a homeless guy.
Next year (well this year since I'm writing this up in March of 2019) is to Miami to see the cavernous Marlins Stadium minus Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, JT Realmuto, and just about every notable Marlin who has ever made any money playing for that franchise.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
2017 NYC (Mets)
Two years ago we got extremely lucky when we stayed in the Financial District of NYC on the southern tip of Manhattan. We had no idea it would be so cool and laid back. So we tried it again and again it was great. Sadly, and again due to some extremely wild circumstances of which I'll leave out of this post we were without Keith. It was Paul (who decided NYC > Antigua and re-joined us), Jason, Matt, Fish, Shane, and myself.
Thursday
Due to the 10-hour drive it was mostly a road day. But we made it to our hotel around 4:00 and had the rest of the day to chill in the courtyard, have some pops, and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately for some who will remain nameless, food was NOT high on our agenda and it came back to bite them
Now I won't disclose who this is, but it rhymes with "Mason". So the trip was off to the races. Shane decided to fall down. Fish and Matt entered a stein holding contest in which they both "lost" but won the free beers they were holding
Friday
"Hey let's walk across the Brooklyn Bridge". Great idea!!! OK well it wasn't sweltering in New York but when you're baking in the sun for a while it seems a bit toasty. But we walked anyway and it was pretty cool and something we'd never done before so yeah another new experience.
Following the bridge, we walked to Little Italy and had a good, albeit expensive, lunch. Then we meandered around the neighborhoods looking like total tourists.
After this it was off to Shea-errrrrr Citi Field in beautiful Queens/Flushing. If you have been to Shea Stadium in the past you know the place was hot garbage. I mean the last time we went we couldn't see the whole field from our seats. And not that we were blocked by pillars or columns, we were blocked by the roof over our heads. It was terrible.
Citi Field, however, is a palace. It's easily one of the best "new" parks we've been to. It's definitely nicer than the new Yankees Stadium. So we sampled the fare, watched some baseball, and left before the mad dash to the train.
Saturday
Super low key. Took the Staten Island Ferry because, well, we had never done that before. We spent literally no time on the actual island. We got off the ferry and immediately went around the corner and boarded the ferry coming back to Manhattan.
After that, we had lunch at Shake Shack (another first!), visited Times Square, then hung out on a supposed "roof top" bar...which had a view of nothing. I think by this time we were done. We're getting old so we can't just go go go anymore. So sad.
Winding down, we had some BBQ back at the courtyard by the hotel and called it an early night due to the impending 10-hour return trip to Cincinnati.
And that's about it for the 2017 version of the DLBT.
Next year is our 20th trip and we're attempting to return to Boston for the first time since the very first ball trip...way back in 1999. Unbelievable!!
Note: I'm well aware this blog is not aesthetically the prettiest thing to look at. I'm aware it gets about 5 views per decade. It's more about writing down the details of the trip for us to look back upon down the road. And I'm cool with that. But hey, thanks for stopping by.
Thursday
Due to the 10-hour drive it was mostly a road day. But we made it to our hotel around 4:00 and had the rest of the day to chill in the courtyard, have some pops, and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately for some who will remain nameless, food was NOT high on our agenda and it came back to bite them
 |
| That does not look like a bed |
 |
| Fish "trying" to win the contest |
 |
| Matt also giving his best effort |
"Hey let's walk across the Brooklyn Bridge". Great idea!!! OK well it wasn't sweltering in New York but when you're baking in the sun for a while it seems a bit toasty. But we walked anyway and it was pretty cool and something we'd never done before so yeah another new experience.
 |
| Other tourists |
 |
| Oh look, cars! |
 |
| Yes, we walked across that |
Following the bridge, we walked to Little Italy and had a good, albeit expensive, lunch. Then we meandered around the neighborhoods looking like total tourists.
After this it was off to Shea-errrrrr Citi Field in beautiful Queens/Flushing. If you have been to Shea Stadium in the past you know the place was hot garbage. I mean the last time we went we couldn't see the whole field from our seats. And not that we were blocked by pillars or columns, we were blocked by the roof over our heads. It was terrible.
Citi Field, however, is a palace. It's easily one of the best "new" parks we've been to. It's definitely nicer than the new Yankees Stadium. So we sampled the fare, watched some baseball, and left before the mad dash to the train.
 |
| Hey, it's Citi Field |
 |
| View from our seats |
 |
| The boys: Matt, Jeff, Shane, Fish, Jason, Paul |
Super low key. Took the Staten Island Ferry because, well, we had never done that before. We spent literally no time on the actual island. We got off the ferry and immediately went around the corner and boarded the ferry coming back to Manhattan.
After that, we had lunch at Shake Shack (another first!), visited Times Square, then hung out on a supposed "roof top" bar...which had a view of nothing. I think by this time we were done. We're getting old so we can't just go go go anymore. So sad.
Winding down, we had some BBQ back at the courtyard by the hotel and called it an early night due to the impending 10-hour return trip to Cincinnati.
And that's about it for the 2017 version of the DLBT.
Next year is our 20th trip and we're attempting to return to Boston for the first time since the very first ball trip...way back in 1999. Unbelievable!!
Note: I'm well aware this blog is not aesthetically the prettiest thing to look at. I'm aware it gets about 5 views per decade. It's more about writing down the details of the trip for us to look back upon down the road. And I'm cool with that. But hey, thanks for stopping by.
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