Chicago tp Mars - Monday , 29 July 2019

We had agreed not to set an alarm last night, but since the restaurant closed at 9:30, we knew that we needed to be up by 8. We just made it. It was funny to see so many of our tour group who had the same idea. Had breakfast with Ben and Junior, a super nice couple from Honolulu. They were intrigued by my scoring games on my iPad and had tried to do the White Sox game, but realized that there was a learning curve. I suggested that they practice by scoring games that were on TV.

We were on the road by 9:30 and sat for ages in Chicago traffic. No way ever would live there and not be on a train line. 

Stopped a couple of times to use facilities and get gas. Outside of Toledo we ran into a very heavy thunder storm. The sky was that murky green and I wouldn't have been surprised if there hadn't been a tornado warning. 

We made it back to Mars at 6:30 after losing the hour from the Central Time zone. 

When one stops the newspaper, you would think that they could follow directions. We are very glad that we have nice neighbors who looked after us. 

It was a fantastic trip. Jay Buckley handles everything so well and it is a treat to travel with them. Looking forward to maybe a southern trip next year! But for now we need to get through the Pirates' season and try to salvage a few more wins. 

Greensburg, IN to Chicago - Sunday, 28 July 2019

Even though we gained an hour, it was Wheels rolling at 8:00. The Twins/White Sox game started at 1:10 and Buckley Tours always aim to get to the ball parks when they open, which today was 11:10. 

We did stop for about 45 minutes, for a "lunch break" despite it being 10:00 (after the time zone change) We stretched our legs and picked up a snack for the coach for when we got closer to Chicago. 

Guaranteed Rate Field has had numerous names including the second coming of Comiskey Park. It was opened in 1991 and has undergone numerous renovations. Ollie was able to park our coach quite close since the temps were approaching 90°.

 We entered the stadium under the impression that all the commemorative statues were inside the stadium. This was not the case so we missed the tribute to the 2005 World Series team. 

We checked in to get my passport book stamped and our certificate for a first time game at guest relations. Then we walked the entire perimeter of the park and captured some pictures of the the famous White Sox and there were quite a number of them. 

Paul Kenerko

Frank Thomas

Minnie Minosa - I used to love saying that name when he was batting

Carlton Fisk

Billy Pierce

Nellie Fox

Luis Apparicio

Charles Comiskey

Harold Baines - newly elected to the HOF

 
 Then there is the tribute to Goose Island Brewery.

We went to our section and saw that the seats were in the sun. There are actually few seats in the shade in the park. It was intentional not to have overhangs like we had in Kansas City, but boy it's a killer on a day game. Decided we weren't super hungry so no food yet, but a visit to the facility was in order. Well maintained and very clean. 

 

Opted to stay in the shade as the game began, but soon a couple came and claimed their rightful seats. We moved to another shady row, but were soon displaced and so headed to our real seats. 

That lasted about 3 innings since the game was a rout by the Twins over the White Sox 11-1, many people left and we headed back to the shade. 

 Our group was pretty much of a curse on home teams this trip, but for the most part they were all entertaining games. Not so much were the Pirates as they dropped another one to the Mets. 

Back on the coach and headed back to where we started. We cleared out the overhead lockers and went to our room, relatively exhausted. 

Neither one of us had the energy or desire to explore restaurants for dinner so we went down to Harry Caray's again. Earle had a seafood Cobb salad and I had shrimp scampi. Both were delicious. 

Back to the room to do some writing, but that didn't last long and we were in bed by 9:45. 

 

St. Louis to Cincinnati to Greensburg, Indiana - Saturday, 27 July 2019

Had a bit of a reprieve from early morning departures this morning as we didn't have to leave our Hampton Inn in Collinsville, IL until 9:00. Even a half hour makes a difference. I must say the whole group has been very punctual and we never have had to wait for anyone. 

Again, we had quite the drive ahead of us today as we traveled to  Cincinnati, Ohio. This meant that we had to change time zones and actually lose an hour. We only had one stop for lunch on our way and that was about midway through the drive. The Cracker Barrel in Terre Haute did a nice job of serving all 40 of us in a timely fashion. 

Very close to the Reds' park is Paul Brown Stadium, where the Bungals play. 

 

We got to Great American Ballpark about 4:30. The name of the park is derived from the Great American Insurance Company and not because it is a great American park. 

With our Jay Buckley name tags we had free admission to the Reds Hall of Fame. What a wonderful job this club has done with the tribute to their team. It is a two story building that sits next to the park. On the first floor are a group of mannequins representing some of the most famous Reds as well as a theatre. The sculpture of Sparky Anderson was a great image of him. 

Sparky Anderson

 The second floor was comprised of a champions gallery, the Reds Hall of Fame Gallery, a simulation of the broadcast booth where one could make a recording wearing typical clothes of Joe Nuxhall and Marty Brennaman, the Reds timeline, baseball cards of all Reds players, their ballparks, and a history of firsts. This was a most impressive museum and one that I wished PNC Park would emulate instead of so much history being hidden in the exclusive club level seats.

It was nice to see that Pete Rose was not ignored.
 

 We still had some time before entering the park and so visited all the statues. 

Johnny Bench

 

Tony Pérez - it was also Tony Pérez bobblehead nigh

Pete Rose

Peter Rose

Ted Kluszeski - also played for the Pirates

Frank Robinson, Ernie Lombardi

Joe Nuxhall

We scoped out the food options. Earle was disappointed not to be able to find Skyline chile. Instead he opted for a Frybox, that consisted of fries, buffalo chicken, blue cheese, and celery. It was really too gross to photo, but he loved it. I had a Skyline chile hot dog. 

Our seats were quite good as we have come to expect. 

 The park is small and it is really a hitter's park with home runs being hit at a record pace. 

We saw the Reds hit two (Suarez and VanMeter) as they went on to win the game over Colorado 3-1. We were rooting, of course, for the Rockies!

Because of the length of the drive and Ollie's need for rest, we anticipated having to leave the game by 10:00. It ended at 9:53, the shortest game we had seen. 

The coach picked us up right in front of the stadium and we were on our way to Greenburg, Indiana, about an hour's drive. 

Check in was without incident and we were in bed shortly after.
 

Kansas City to St. Louis - Friday, 26 July 2019

That was an extremely short night. Wheels Rolling at 8:30. 
 Before leaving for St. Louis we headed into the city for a visit to the Museums at 18th and Vine. The site features the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum.

The NLBM was well worth the price of admission for any baseball enthusiast. It really is a comprehensive history of the formation and history of Negro baseball teams that originally were formed during Reconstruction and formalized as Leagues in 1920. 

As in most history museums there was an incredible amount of printed material to read. A lot of the history centered around the Kansas City Monarchs (the first of the Negro League franchises), but other teams had good coverage, also. James Earl Jones narrated a 15 minute film on the Negro teams that was very well done. 

I was particularly interested in the Pittsburgh teams that participated in Negro League baseball. Pittsburgh had the Crawfords and the Homestead Grays. Playing for the Crawfords were two of the best players of the Negro Leagues- Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige.

Satchel Paige

Walter Fenner Leonard

Josh Gibson

 A large recreation of a baseball diamond showed the players on the field

The American Jazz Museum was also a very interesting place that I pretty much rushed through. We only had an hour and a half for both museums and I spent a lot of time in the NLBM. Definitely need another couple of hours here.Those prominent during the Jazz age were highlighted with film, music and exhibits.  

Louis Armstrong's Trumpet

Tribute to Duke Ellington

Some of the Jazz bars in the 18th & Vine area.

 We left the museums a little after 10:30 and headed out to St. Louis. It was about a five hour drive and we had a lunch stop in the middle of nowhere! The plan was to arrive in St. Louis to give a bit of time for some sightseeing around the Gateway Arch and stadium.

We got there just about 4:30 and since we had been in St. Louis and done the arch we walked around Ballpark Village and opted to put our name in for a dinner reservation at Cardinals Nation. We had eaten at the Budweiser Brew House on our last trip and decided to try a different place. It didn't take the 45 minutes that we had originally been told and so it ended up as an early dinner. It was a treat for us to break away from ballpark food.
I had a delicious piece of salmon with a double order of vegetables and Earle had Buffalo chicken mac and cheese. 

After dinner we headed across the street to Busch Stadium and couldn't believe the lines waiting to get into the park. It was a Mystery Jersey giveaway and people were clamoring for them. We took the opportunity to find the Cards' statues. Of course the most prominent one was for Stan "the Man" Musial. 

 
Other famous Cardinals included Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, "Cool Papa" Bell, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, Ozzie Smith, and Dizzy Dean. I feel really old since I saw all but 3 of them play or coach. 

Of course a stop at the ladies' room showed another well maintained facility, so unlike PNC park. How difficult is it to remodel those rest rooms?

Our seats were very good - on the first baseline with good views of the scoreboard. 

The Cardinals were hosting the Astros and I had hoped that Gerritt Cole would be pitching, but he didn't. It was a good game, but not the result I was hoping for. Goldschmidt hit another homerun leading the Cards to a 5-3 victory. 

The Pirates continued their slide losing to the Mets 6-3. Agrazal had a difficult time this start. 

It was about a half hour drive to the hotel in Collinsville, IL,  making for another late night. Same routine when we got to the hotel - organize and bed!