Holes In Thoughts: Baseball in Phoenix

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Baseball in Phoenix

I visited my family this last weekend.

It was good to get out of the house. Nice to see the family. Awkward to admit that we had given away the dining room table that we inherited from the grandparents. Grandpa seems to believe that the furniture he bought us is indestructible.

He's half right, actually. I think the couch we got (and are forever upholstering) would outlast most nuclear blasts. But then, it was built in the '60's.

I have been assured that the fact that I haven't heard any repeat stories from my grandparents in a few years entirely stems from the fact that I don't see them as often. I don't mind, though, even if/when they are. Grandpa actually knows what he's talking about usually, even if he is stubborn. I fully expect to be at least as stubborn when I'm in my 80's. Seems like a perk of getting old to me.

After an awesome barbecue dinner (I arrived at around 7; it takes an absurd amount of time to fight through traffic in both Tucson and Phoenix), I considered going home but was persuaded to stay another day. It was the first time I had been detained in Phoenix for a reason other than a broken vehicle in quite a while, and that was refreshing indeed.

The next day, I got a chance to sit down and hang out with Steve & Tanya. It's rare I get the chance, mostly because they live in Russia, but also because usually I only see them at family gatherings where the conversation is strictly PG. I live in a very liberal town and while I wouldn't call myself liberal or conservative, I'm much more conservative than my grandparents.

Back when the presidential election was up in the air over Thanksgiving, I decided to declare that I was, in fact, an adult at the dinner table and asked my grandmother what she thought about the election. She said, "The weather's fine, Steven."

Steve's perspective is that of an international businessman and he's generally a conservative in the old-school, balanced-budget/not-insane type. I picked his mind quite shamelessly. I also managed to get Tanya's new PDA (a Palm like my new phone) to check her email. Unfortunately a lot of it was in Russian, and I didn't have time to get a language pack.

To end the day, we went to a Diamondbacks game at what used to be the BOB (Bank One Ballpark) and is now Chase Field. It's just down the road from the Suns' home arena, what used to be AWA (America West Airlines) Arena, but what is now US Airways Center. Which can be abbreviated U SAC. Say it out loud.

Nice.

Anyway, I've now watched a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, a Sidewinders game in Tucson, and a Diamondbacks game at Chase Field.

Chase Field is huge and impressively has a retractable roof. Unfortunately, only about half of the people in the stadium - which had 33,121 people in it - can read the score boards. There's a huge one on one side, and a pair of teeny ones that are too small to be read by humans from the other side of the place. Thankfully I had my awesome camera and could zoom way in, take a picture, and see what it said on my camera. This shouldn't have been necessary. But it did give me a rare instance in which I could both (A) give my camera a true test of its abilities and (B) out-gizmo my globetrotting uncle.

While my camera could make out the 1st baseman's number, it was just a few meters shy of being able to make out the name. Considering the guy must've been a quarter-mile away, that's not shabby. Also, the players were all in the shade, so it's possible it could've resolved the name if I didn't have to have the ISO so high.

On the other hand, the ratio of food booths to attendees was about 4:1 (for you hard of mental math, I'm exaggerating to the tune of saying that there are 8,250 food vendors in the arena; a more realistic ratio would have been 4.5:1). The lines for food weren't nearly as bad as at a Suns game for this reason.

Actually, since I saw a few Suns games last year, I was struck by how different a Suns game is from a baseball game. I am once again reaffirmed in my belief that baseball games are picnics in bleachers, and that's great. Though, I think Steve was right - it's right expensive when soda is $5 for a cup.

After the game, I wandered around the downtown area a bit with my camera. I didn't realize how much I enjoy doing that sort of thing. Eventually, one day, I'll be able to take pictures of people without feeling weird.

I also bought a nice bookshelf for Rachel from IKEA on the way back. With a little luck, we'll have our living space arranged before the month is out; our last place took 10 months.

Labels: basketball, family, Phoenix, sports

posted by Steve @ 1:08 AM

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