Road Trip to Cooperstown: San Diego to Oklahoma City
Wed, Jul 25, 2007
by Geoff Young
I am so sick of beef jerky and granola bars. Seriously, you have no idea.
- Two common billboards that adorn the highway in New Mexico are those that sell fireworks and those that preach abstinence. There is a joke here somewhere.
- The aunt of Khalil Greene’s wife works at a bank in Amarillo. She was very helpful.
- Oklahoma is nice, but how many Arapaho words for “flat” do you suppose there are?
Day 1 of the Ducksnorts World Tour got off to a shaky start. I forgot that Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings, got caught in a few nasty thunderstorms between Phoenix and Winslow, and then spent 40 minutes driving around parts of Albuquerque that — although quite “interesting” — did not contain a baseball stadium.
I eventually found the stadium — it was less than a mile from my hotel room (guess I should’ve gone there first) — but by then the game was nearly over and, after 16 hours of driving, I was in no mood to do anything. Still, I managed to catch a few innings of an Arizona League game that morning in Surprise, so all was not lost.
Day 2 went much better. I fired up some Jimmy Eat World and followed my very simple driving directions for the day — get on I-40 east and drive 542 miles till I’m in Oklahoma City and I see a ballpark.
Watched most of the game between the Oklahoma RedHawks and Portland Beavers. Saw many familiar faces on both teams — Freddy Guzman plays for the RedHawks. Couldn’t tell you much about the game itself; I know the Beavers gave up a few homers, but mostly I was just looking around at stuff and taking in the atmosphere (everybody sang Rodgers and Hammerstein in the middle of the fifth — very odd).
More to tell, but time is limited. Wednesday’s drive, to Knoxville, Tenn., is brought to you by current or former Padres who were born in those fine cities:
- Dusty Allen
- Joe Carter
- Bubba Trammell
Should be fun, just me and 870 miles of highway. And beef jerky and granola bars…
Mickey Mantle is one of many Oklahoma natives honored at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
July 25, 2007 at 7:13 am
Padres Prospect Report
You will not see the Padres at the bottom of an organizational ranking list. Last year’s number one (Cedric Hunter) is struggling yet we barely notice because of the talent doing well…
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
AAA
No significant performances…
AA
Postponed…
High-A
Robert Perry: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 0 RBI; 2B, BB
Kyle Blanks: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR
Low-A
Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO - .270/.327/.341
Short Season-A
Yefri Carvajal: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR, 2 SO – Eugene debut
Mat Latos: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR
Rookie
Brad Chalk: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
Felix Carrasco: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2 BB, SO
Commentary:
Nothing to say…
July 25, 2007 at 7:27 am
Oh man! I can’t wait to get to Cooperstown!!
July 25, 2007 at 8:08 am
I’m glad you got to see the Bricktown Ballpark last night, Geoff. What did you think about the place? I’m heading there tonight, myself.
And yes, western Oklahoma is flat. You’re not going to find much of interest on I-40 west of Oklahoma City. Or east of Oklahoma City. Or if you went North of Oklahoma City……you get the picture.
And the state song, it’s truly loved by most Oklahomans around here. It may seem odd to someone not from the area to hear a Broadway song played at a Baseball game, but once you’ve been to a few Oklahoma sporting events including an OU football game, you’ll get used to it.
July 25, 2007 at 8:50 am
That’s so random that you met Khalil’s wife’s aunt. Very bizarre.
And, for those that are interested. Here’s my proposal for a group meeting at Cooperstown:
Ok, so here’s the plan:
We have three of the frighteningly awful orange beach towels from 2005 that have all of the different jerseys from over the years on it. Once we’re in the region, we’ll go to Walmart and either pick up PVC or some kind of posts. We’ll figure out a way to get these suckers up, but essentially, we’ll have three bright orange beach towels to mark off our spot. I think we’ll stake off territory about halfway up the hill. This will give us a good vantage point and it should also provide us some decent gathering space.
So there’s the plan. We’re still gonna get there around 6. My entire family will be wearing the retro TG visors they gave out on Friday nite. I’ll be wearing a white “Tribute to Tony” shirt. Feel free to stop by and say hey at any point. I’ll see if I can snag some of our Ducksnorts buttons to put them on the towels.
July 25, 2007 at 9:21 am
Jimmy Eat World? How many teenage girls do you have in your car?
July 25, 2007 at 9:34 am
4: Oh man, you’re trying to ATTRACT people with those towels? Good luck with that.
July 25, 2007 at 9:46 am
5.
BURN!!! Haha actually a couple of their older albums are pretty fantastic and make for good driving music. I mean it’s not like GY was like… “Just as I was rolling into New Mexico the new FERGIE song came on my playlist and it made the long drive so fantastic!”. Can’t you see it, GY getting into it like that scene from “Tommy Boy” where they are singin along to the music.
July 25, 2007 at 9:51 am
Clarity and its predecessors are great albums even Bleed American was good.
July 25, 2007 at 10:28 am
A great HOF prep article …
http://www.baseballhalloffame......y=hof_news
Gwynn said there are four chartered flights slated to wing east from San Diego for the ceremony: Three sponsored by the Padres and one by the alumni of his alma mater, San Diego State, where Gwynn is the head baseball coach.
… and that compares to 200 buses from Baltimore
July 25, 2007 at 10:59 am
Jimmy Eat World isnt exactly Good Charlotte, all their albums have been pretty damn good.
July 25, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Mighty XX’s website says that Hensley got called up and Sledge got sent back down to Portland. KT says we need as much help as we can get with the bullpen right now.
July 25, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Geoff,
NEVER dis showtunes. ‘Specially those from the greatest single piece of American 20th century musical theater.
Just a girl who cain’t say no,
BG
July 25, 2007 at 2:46 pm
11 … hmmm … Sledge vs Brocail (or Linebrink?) … I’m not sure I agree with that choice … now we have 13 relievers? Yikes …
12 … amen! One of the best out-of-the-box/comfort-zone decisions I ever made was signing up to be an extra in the cast of Oklahoma in high school … it prolly helps that I have deep mid-west roots …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma%21
… says “It was a box-office smash and ran for a then unprecedented 2,212 performances”!
July 25, 2007 at 8:36 pm
#3: The song definitely caught me off guard. I enjoyed the ballpark. The statues — Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench, Warren Spahn, etc. — are very cool.
#5: Their music seems a tad sophisticated for most teenage girls, IMHO. Bleed American is a fantastic album.
#12: Sorry, I really don’t “get” that genre.