Photos by Randy Stern

Last year, I took a couple of trips during the summer to get my baseball fill. Unfortunately, I was unable to punch my Major League ticket at any of the stops I made. On one trip, I did visit a Major League ballpark, but it wasn't the same as actually sitting down for nine innings and watching a game inside.

I've had my fill of the minor leagues over the years. After years of exclusive attendance in the bigs, I'm sure our fellow blogger Jonathan Mayo will appreciate the fact that I have patronized the minors as far back as 1996. Not exactly a deep history, but I've seen plenty since then.

With stops in Lake Elsinore, Woodbridge, Bowie, Richmond, Beloit, Appleton and a couple of other stops outside the MLB network, I was ready for some further adventures in the minors. I've been in ballparks that ranged from rickety to fancy, seen all levels of talent...some of whom went on to make it in the bigs. I was amazed at Prince Fielder when he was in Beloit. I still am now as he has become one of leaders in the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse.

Last year added two more stops en route the Majors: Columbus, Ohio and Portland, Oregon.

First, it was a weekender to Columbus to catch up with friends and meet up with new folks. On top of my visit, I managed to take in a ball game at old Cooper Stadium, just west of downtown. This is the home of the Triple-A Clippers, the last stop before a prospect reaches the Washington Nationals.

The switch of affiliations from the New York Yankees to the Nats was one of the changes Central Ohio baseball fans experienced. The second is under construction. While Major League clubs are running out of new ballpark construction ideas, the minors are catching up quickly. Columbus was due for a better-than-decent ballpark, so it broke ground on the land behind Nationwide Arena for the new diamond. Next year, the Huntington Ballpark will open to solidify Triple-A baseball for the Columbus area.

In the meantime, the 76-year-old ballpark offered 15,000 seats with lovely sightlines and ample comfort. However, the Clippers do not draw a crowd. It seems that they had at least third of the capacity in attendance...just over 6,400 on a Sunday evening. If you have a General Admission ticket, the ticket booth can upgrade your seat to the best in the house for the balance of the ticket price. Talk about an affordable upgrade!

One thing I was taken aback whenever I visited Triple-A games was the attendance. It seems that getting fans to catch a game at this level has been hit-and-miss depending on the market. A friend of mine reported how the Omaha Royals are having trouble filling Rosenblatt Stadium. The large ballpark south of downtown Omaha can fill the seats for the College World Series, but find itself at least half-empty for its longtime baseball franchise. Similar to Columbus, the city of Omaha wants to build a smaller ballpark to accommodate the Royals and local college baseball teams, leaving Rosenblatt alone for the NCAA Championship.

During the game, I had a chance to talk to some local fans about their Clippers. They seem very knowledgeable about the team, however they are keenly aware that Columbus is not a baseball market. It is not because of the professional presence of Major League Soccer's Crew and the National Hockey League's Blue Jackets. It is because of The Ohio State University. Buckeye sports rules the state capitol and generates revenue beyond what the professional sports franchises in the city earn combined.

However, I found few diehard Clippers fans. For a minor league franchise to thrive in its market, you need to keep the diehard fans entertained and attain the support of the business community to help augment the loss in ticket sales by the occasional fan. The Clippers reach out to the community and include various parts of it to help promote the team. In the end, a ball club must fill seats, not just rely on suites, business accounts and their parent Major League club to help them get by.

To the fans in Columbus that did not fill Cooper Stadium on that June Sunday evening last year, you missed out on a good ballgame! Your sub-par ball club served a shutout to a contender in another division, the Syracuse Sky Chiefs, 4-0. Wished you were there.

The next month, I was out in the Pacific Northwest stopping in both Seattle and Portland. This particular trip evokes some memories going back a generation at the time my mother first arrived in Los Angeles in 1941. After years of the Cincinnati Reds and the Detroit Tigers, they were entertained by the Pacific Coast League and the Hollywood Stars. In fact, my mother's family lived several blocks away from old Gilmore Field.

The Portland Beavers were a part of the old PCL. They returned not too long ago to the league and took root in their ancient home now called PGE Park. The old stadium was built in 1923 and has stood the test of time. The old Portland Beavers played here when the Hollywood Stars ruled the PCL. After an extended absence and a Rookie League presence by the Rockies, Triple-A baseball returned to Portland in 2001 with the new-look Beavers.

The ballpark is unusual as it is a multi-sport facility that seems to never accommodate its tenants properly. For the Portland Timbers soccer club and the Portland State University football team, the lack of a grandstand opposite the press box gives viewing either sport a challenge. Yet, it seats just fewer than 20,000 for sporting events.

Where the old ballpark shines is the convenience of an urban backdrop that thrives in a baseball atmosphere. From downtown, the TriMet MAX light rail train drops you off by center field and you walk around the main marquee to enter in the ballpark. That marquee sits behind the left field corner. Fans may notice some construction and a few empty storefronts. Be patient, more condos and apartments are going up along with more retail for fans and residents alike.

Inside, the seats are comfortable and the fans are friendly and knowledgeable. Then, you look up. Notice the roof above the 200-level seats in the single bowl That is real Oregon timber up there! Even the scoreboard in left is manually-operated!

Behind right field are the facilities of the Multnomah Athletic Club. Its members have the privilege of catching a game from a couple of vantage points from the north side of its main facility, including a few rows of bleachers. Right below them is where former Major Leaguer Rodney McCray famously crashed into wall when making a running catch. His feat is commemorated on a panel next to the right field bullpen.

In all, you would probably consider comparing PGE Park with a certain urban ballpark and a similar overall atmosphere. It is not exactly Wrigleyville, but Portlanders would welcome the comparison once all of the construction around the ballpark is complete and the occupancies at these new condos and apartments are filled.

What about the game I attended? The Beavers looked OK, but the Tucson Sidewinders were even better. A crowd under 8,000 witnessed the Beavers losing their fifth straight to the tune of 6-2.

Last year's experiences were incredible. Being away from my friendly confines of the Metrodome, my visits to Columbus and Portland helped in getting back in touch with baseball's roots. There is a possibility of a repeat later this summer to another minor league ballpark...or two. If so, I'm sure to keep tabs with Jonathan Mayo and the Minor League Baseball crew of what I experienced on the road.

Before this becomes an all-American League blog, equal time needs to be paid to the Senior Circuit. Living in Minnesota sometimes makes you forget there is another league. The errant Milwaukee Brewers or Chicago Cubs fan will remind you of that fact.

What about the Senior Circuit? How about that Central Division? That's a tight one, isn't it? All of the sudden the Cubs have company. Not just its cross-state rival the St. Louis Cardinals (proof time and again that not everyone in Illinois roots for the Cubs), but the Houston Astros began to crash the party on top.

In 2007, both the Cards and the 'Stros were out of contention in the NL Central. The Brewers and the Cubs quarreled up at the top of the table for the last part of the season. Some pundits did not think that either team would be in contention, let alone win the division flag. The general consensus was a repeat of last year with the Cubs and the Brewers again doing battle up top of the division.

Can anyone ever question the tenacity of the Cardinals and the Astros? Have you looked at these rosters? If you stocked a team around Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman, both from the 2005 NL Championship club, with guys like Carlos Lee, Kaz Matsui, Miguel Tejada, Darin Erstad and Mark Loretta, how can you not get a shot at another division title? Cecil Cooper has his work cut out with veterans, most of whom had post-season experience, willing to get the 'Stros back into contention.

What about the 2006 World Champions? The Cards let go of a few from the championship team, but kept its nucleus. Albert Pujols is still in St. Louis. There was no way he was leaving any year soon, regardless of any speculation you have read or heard over the past off-season. There are some new names on the roster that have helped Mr. Pujols and Tony LaRussa get back into favor and contention again. The Cards went for high level talent instead of star power this time around and the strategy has paid off.

The Cubs may be standing alone on top, but not with the Cards and 'Stros bubbling below precariously waiting for a downturn on the North Side. Will it happen? Not with new management expecting nothing but a World Series championship out of Lou Piniella and his club. One hundred years is too long for a fan base to wait for something really good to happen to them. Besides, the goat's getting too old to be sold at Dominick's.

While everyone watches the top of the ladder in the NL Central, it seems that the bottom of the pack may have given way to the top three. Not these other three. Four-and-a-half games are the distance between the two trios.

Aside from the aforementioned Brewers, both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds are improving steadily creating one of the tightest division races going into June. Yet, being 6-7 games back may be tough to maintain, as long as the Brewers, Pirates and Reds continue to stay above .460. With the talent on the Brewers alone, one would hope that Ned Yost can persuade his team to push harder for a .500 or above season (without the help of Ozzie Guillen's "shrine," thank you!). I wouldn't count them out to create havoc for either of the top three.

For the Bucs, their early start helped them to gain confidence at this stage of the season. John Russell came in without major league experience and has become a beacon for a young ball club looking to do more than sit at the bottom of the NL Central. In fifth place, the only way for the Bucs to get back into the form of the early 1990's is to continuously develop the young roster into a gelled club...such as the Tampa Bay Rays.

As for the Red Stockings, one thing can help Dusty Baker and his club gain momentum: Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 600th home run. The commentary here is not just the impending career milestone, but of a ball club full of fantastic talent looking to break out. The leadership of Dusty Baker is a given. He demands a lot from his team. When they deliver, Baker rises to the occasion. For the most part, Baker is a patient man. The arrival of Jay Bruce to the lineup is a huge boost needed for this club. He is indeed a Dusty Baker kind of ballplayer.

Irony alone, the Cards and the Astros, along with the Pirates and Reds, are engaged in critical series through Thursday. Before they get into June, we will see how these series will shake out in shaping the race. The race can get tighter and there could be a middle closing the gap between the top and bottom trios. I can possibly see the Cubs winning the pennant, but not without any bumps and bruises going into the postseason.

As for the World Series, the goat might get a stay in execution.

In this blog, I try very hard not to be too partial to one team. Yes, I live in Hennepin County and go try to go to as many Twins games as my free time will allow me to.

However, there are clues inside my earlier posts that indicate a partisanship to the Boston Red Sox. I simply cannot help it. This has been an issue dating back to the mid-1970's and it has reared his head again in light of its second World Series championship last season.

Yes, I am a closeted member of the Red Sox Nation.

This year, I've decided to out myself as a Red Sox fan again. For the record, there were no attempts to rid me of this affliction. I'm quite proud of my love for the Red Sox. Heck, every day is Red Sox Nation day!

There are many compelling reasons why I've return to the Nation's fold. Some are quite obvious and only a Red Sox fan can understand. All I ask that anyone who is a New York Yankees fan reading this blog to refrain from negative commentary. The bathroom's down the hall, if you are so inclined.

My reasons...

The History: When I was a child, I knew the Sox were magic. There were some magic moments to be had since the mid-1970's, though I understand the pain and suffering the fans in New England gone through with broken promises of pennants and championships attempted. But, these guys were magic...despite the traveling secretary booking 25 tables for one on the road and the covert racism the team had for years.

Today's Nation: Things have changed since John Henry and his partners bought the club and brought in Larry Lucchino and Theo Epstein to create a paradigm change on Yawkey Way. Now, the players will stand up for their coaches, everyone gets along and the traveling secretary can book a very long table with everyone sitting at it on the road.

David Ortiz: The only baseball jersey I own is of his. It's an authentic version with last year's World Series patch on the sleeve. It's simple: He's Big Papi, I'm a big guy. He's just exciting to watch.

Manny: Who can scale a wall, catch a fly ball, high-five a fan and let his dreads fly with glee? Who can say whatever he likes and never apologize for it? Even within reach of his 500th homer, you have to love this guy! In a time when we lack true character in baseball, Manny makes up for it in ways the game has never seen before. And, we love it!

Jon Papelbon: Cue the Dropkick Murphys, please? Can you think of anything to get the fans going at the end of a game? The whole Eric Gagne "Game Over" shtick back in L.A. has nothing on some serious Boston Celtic-Punk and the loosest pitcher this side of Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Oh, and he's quite good, too!

Jon Lester's No Hitter: Clay Buchholz did it last year. It was Lester's turn. A post-season hero turned his career another notch by making regular season history.

Everyone Else on The Club: Let's see...Coco's back with a vengeance. So is Tek, Youk, Dice-K, Drew, Ellsbury, Lugo, Beckett, Wakefield, Javy Lopez, Dustin, Alex Cora...and the rest of the guys! Now that Bartolo Colon's healthy, let's see what these guys can do now...

Fenway: I get the podcast from XM Radio called "Baseball Confidential: Voices of the Game." So far, everything points back to Boston and an undying love for the old ballpark. I was one of the lucky ones in June, 1993 who got that magic item New Englanders covet today: A ticket to Fenway. To me, this was the anti-Chavez Ravine. Candlestick, the Metrodome and every other ballpark I've been to can never feel like Fenway. This is an experience a true baseball fan must go through before their death. Just being outside on Yawkey Way isn't truly enough to absorb the place.

Terry Francona: Dick Williams is going to the Hall of Fame this year. Darrell Johnson...anyone remember him from managing the 1975 team? Don Zimmer's consulting the Tampa Bay Rays. John McNamara never recovered from 1986. Neither of them have done what Francona achieved in 2004 and 2007: World Series championships.

All the Ballplayers I Remember: Let's rattle them off, shall we? There's Yaz, Pudge, Jimmy Rice, El Tiante, Dwight Evans, The Spaceman, Boomer (That's George Scott, BTW), Freddy Lynn...and so on!

Is it wrong to have "Shipping Off to Boston" on your iPod Shuffle while commuting across The Cities? I don't think so. I think back at the all the Red Sox Nation that descended on Twins Territory a couple of weeks ago and think of the ultimate cool thing to be. Last weekend, I was taking photos of the Minnesota AIDS Walk along West River Parkway and I had a few Sox fans wave, say "hello" and even high-five me. It was that we understood each other. Sure, it helped that I had my Red Sox t-shirt and cap on, but, hey, who can blame me?

Just remember, if you're down with the Nation, you're family.

Memorial Day weekend segues into the pre-All Star Break backstretch. This is where teams position themselves for the mid-July-to-end-of-August calm before the September storm.

To get through the summer is to be in a position to keep pace in the divisional race. Every loss must be answered by two more wins. Every player on the disabled list is monitored for a necessary return before the race heats up.

The world's full of surprises. So is the game of baseball. Every year, there is always a contender that no one expected to see in the running by this time on the schedule.

Who's this year's surprise? I'm sure there are arguments as to which team fits the bill. Last year, it was the Milwaukee Brewers. Remember that team and how they almost won the National League Central had they not run out of gas towards the end? Then again, no one expected the Chicago Cubs to grab the division flag in the end, either.

The candidates for surprise team of the year so far are plentiful. Yet, one would argue that most these clubs are on a comeback rather than a surprise. The comeback teams I can see are the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins. Their tenacity was duly rewarded with restocked rosters, healthy players and a healthier outlook.

Yet, the true surprise is the Tampa Bay Rays. If you've seen this team a couple of years ago, you probably had an inkling that something special was about to happen in St. Petersburg. The formation of young talent made it to the big club and a nucleus was born. An active winter help changed out some personnel for some bright talent to augment the young nucleus already on board inside Tropicana Field.

Frankly, this is an exciting team to watch. So many of baseball's best young talent, managed by Joe Maddon, just love being out there to play and have fun out on the field. There's a joy inside every one the Rays, from the veteran Carl Crawford to the bright lights of Evan Longoria and Andy Sonnanstine.

The Rays are of interest because of the deal with the Minnesota Twins sending Delmon Young and Brendan Harris north. Tampa Bay got Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza in the trade. Twins insiders have been pretty impatient with both Young and Harris in hopes they would get up to par with the Justin Morneaus and Joe Mauers in the Metrodome. Yet, something strange occurred on the other side of the transaction. Bartlett has found a home inside the Trop. Garza's not doing too badly, either.

Even better has been veteran (and ex-Angel) Troy Percival from the bullpen with 12 saves, third in the American League. He's one of a few Rays with a World Series ring and is primed for another one with this young ballclub. The starting rotation's pretty darn good, too. Sonnanstine has a 6-2 record, third along with seven others in victories in the league, whereas Rays' mainstays James Shields and Edwin Jackson have struck out over 40 batters each in this young season.

One thing to note is that the Rays' pitchers defy convention. In a time when complete games and shutouts are rare by a single pitcher, Shields leads the American league in shutouts and is second in complete games behind the Toronto Blue Jays' Roy Halladay.

The offense has been steady, giving the Rays some consistency to compliment their record. Crawford still steals bases when he can, but the run threat has doubled with B.J. Upton. Both players have a combined 23 stolen bases in a game that has changed away from utilizing this strategy.

The long ball is where it's at in today's game. Veterans Carlos Peña and Eric Hinske, both recent acquisitions to the Rays, lead the team in homers with 9 and 8 respectively. Pena is among the leaders in homers, tied with 3 others and just 3 round-trippers off of the White Sox's Carlos Quentin's pace. Crawford is also in the top 5 in the American League in runs and triples.

Defying convention is what the Tampa Bay Rays are all about. No one should dismiss the team for being young and inexperienced. Not with Percival, Hinske and Peña on the roster. Even if you exclude Crawford from this summation...you clearly have a balanced and gelled club making the best of the first two months of the season.

What they truly are is an exciting team to watch. There is never a dull moment following this team. Certainly, they are not the Boston Red Sox and their absolutely insane roster of high octane ballplayers. You won't get Carl Crawford or B.J. Upton scaling the wall and high-fiving a fan. Nor will you get Troy Percival coming out of the bullpen to the tune of Dropkick Murphys or the local equivalent to them. Instead, you get an honest dose of fun out of this ambitious team.

There is nothing Joe Maddon's guys want more is to embarrass the team owned by a local businessman with certain business interests up in The Bronx. The same guy whose name is emblazoned on a single-A ballpark across Old Tampa Bay from the Trop. There's nothing sweeter for the Rays to upstage the entire Steinbrenner family at the end of this season.

How many cities can you name where you can glide to the ballpark on public transport without worry of fuel prices and parking fees? Certainly the fans in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia can attest to the convenience of public transit to the ballpark, but you'd be surprised where else you can leave the car behind and take another way to see your favorite team.

Aside from writing this blog, I also write on automotive issues, including alternative transportation. Plus, I commute by public transit to work and back as a hedge against the rise in petroleum prices. Furthermore, I utilize the convenience of our MetroTransit system to get to the Metrodome to feed my baseball addiction.

We are pretty spoiled having our light rail drop right at the Dome. It makes life easy...unless the trains are packed. That's another story entirely.

When I was younger and living in Los Angeles, the RTD offered a special bus from downtown Los Angeles to Dodger Stadium. That meant for the local transit agency to use their crappiest buses for those who chose not to drive to the park. When it was hot and smoggy, these buses lacked air conditioning...and we're talking the early 1980's!

Right now, the RTD's successor does not offer any transit link to the ballpark. It goes without saying that at over $4.00 a gallon for gas that city needs something for its fans!

Going from Southern California to the Bay Area was a Godsend! A's fans know that BART is the best way to the McAfee Coliseum. However, in my day, the Giants played down at Candlestick and MUNI can get you there by bus. With AT&T Park in full swing, I was glad to see that MUNI and the city linked the MUNI Metro light rail right to the ballpark's front gate.

Right now, you can feasibly take some sort of public transit to 28 out of 30 Major League ballparks (except for Dodger Stadium and the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington). Luckily, a huge majority of these ballparks are now built in or near the center of a city where transportation is plentiful. A few cases show some improvisation on some part to ensure they get to the ballpark before the first pitch even as they transfer a few times across town.

If you're the math, you may have found something interesting. If I took a family of four from the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville and compare a drive in an average family sedan to the Metrodome against driving up to a Park-N-Ride lot near the Mall of America and using the light rail line to the ballpark, a single trip would end up a wash between the two options. That is if I took out the cost of wear and tear on the vehicle, then transit would have the advantage cost-wise.

If I did the same comparison in Major League cities where the price of fuel is higher, the driving distances are longer for suburban fans and the cost of parking is higher, I can certainly see why it makes more sense to take transit to the ballpark. Even with transit, there are cost cutting items you can do to gain a further hedge on fuel costs. Day passes or round-trip tickets save some money.

You can also add more value by making it a day with some local dining nearby the ballpark in various places and doing some pre-game shopping or milling around if there's ballpark or team-sanctioned activity around the ballpark prior to the first pitch. Think Yawkey Way outside of Fenway Park...and many other ballparks that are trying to add some of that flavor outside of their walls.

I know that there is a perception that taking public transit will expose you to perceived dangers and your safety and security would be compromised. Consider this thought: When you think of "safety by numbers," consider the fellowship of the fans on board a bus or rail vehicle. A subway car or bus full of the same people who shared the same experience you did is part of the culture that is baseball.

Hopefully, by taking public transit to the ballgame will help evade your fears of the rise in gas prices. If you simply leave the car at home, or drop it off at a free Park-N-Ride lot en route to the ballpark, you can feel some extra comfort knowing that you can afford to make your game experience a "greener" one. Well...unless you drive a Toyota Prius, but that's another post on another blog.

It is an honor to thank my co-worker Dave for buying two out of the five tickets I purchased back in January for last Friday night's Twins-Red Sox series opener at the Metrodome. He bought them at the right time when I found out that I registered for a class that meets on Friday night; he stepped up and grabbed two for him and his son. A professional in South Minneapolis snagged the remaining three.

What did I miss? A good game, I read. Brian Lamb connected off of Jonathan Papelbon to get Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez home for the Twins to beat the reigning World Champions in the bottom of the ninth, 7-6. I also read that Boof Bonser was his usual self, giving up 6 runs and 7 hits before getting yanked in the fifth inning. No surprise there. In all, I certainly missed plenty of action.

So did Dave. He and his young son left before the end of the eighth as they were pretty tired. He finally caught up as to what happened. He joked throughout the week that if the Twins lost, he would ask for a refund. Well...no refund, but plenty of entertainment at that!

Dave reported that the section he was sitting in had some entertainment. There was a guy a few rows down who was standing up for most of the game, part of it were spent talking on his cell phone with his girlfriend. Dave was yelling at the guy to sit down. So were the rest of the sections 134 and 135. Candy and popcorn was being thrown but the guy never sat down. When his girlfriend showed up, she was later escorted from the section. It turns out he wasn't escorted out, either.

This would've been a good chance to defy Bob Casey's old words "not to throw anything or anyone" into the field of play. I wished the fans in sections 134 and 135 done something more than throw candy and popcorn at the guy.

I asked Dave if there were plenty of Red Sox fans in attendance. Of course there were! They were the loudest fans inside the Metrodome! It just seems to be that way anywhere you go when the Sox are playing on the road. In fact, I noticed a lot of Sox fans in and around downtown Minneapolis and at the airport. I turned in a car at the Lindbergh Terminal at MSP when I saw two Sox fans heading to the Light Rail station with just their backpacks on. Did they come from New England for the day? That would not surprise me.

One such encounter with the Red Sox Nation came when I was leaving a bar and two young guys asked where the Holiday Inn was by the West Bank of the University of Minnesota. They were walking the opposite direction, so I pointed them down Washington Avenue to the hotel. It was raining, though. I should've given them a ride but I didn't have my Red Sox jersey or cap at hand to show them I was also one of them.

With the weekend full of the Nation inside Twins Territory, I felt as I was at the games during this weekend. Yet, I felt untrue because I had liquidated my seats. To throw some gasoline on the whole thing, I ended up swapping that Friday night class for another one starting later in the summer. I found out that things will intensify at work during the next months, so the study load would be a bit much.

Have I been kicking myself for ridding myself of those tickets? No. I always believe in sharing the things I love with those who share them just as passionately. If I cannot partake in something immediately, there will always be another time.

Because of the class swap, I have to off yet another ticket to a game I won't be able to attend. My luck...

L: Outside the Metrodome before the Mother's Day game, 2007. Photo by Matthew Stern.
R: Mother's Day at the Metrodome, 2007. Photo by Randy Stern

A family that spends time together is a family indeed.

Two years ago, I visited my brother Matthew back in Southern California for the first time in 10 years. He was content with his life at his home in South Orange County. Matt has been married to his wife Elizabeth for the past 18 years and is raising two wonderful children, Stephanie and Benjamin. The latter is playing in their local Little League organization.

It was a gap of 15 years since my brother visited me. A year ago, Matthew took the opportunity of a conference for technical writers in Minneapolis to spend some time with his brother. As part of his extra time in town, it seemed appropriate that we would share part of our time together at the ballpark.

Looking back 38 years ago, my first recollection as a family going to the ballpark was a vague one. We were at Dodger Stadium with our parents on a typical Sunday afternoon. Late in the game between the Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, my father had a heart attack. It would not be the first or the last time dad would have coronary issues. From that point, our parents separated and our mother took the banner of baseball for family entertainment. My dad went to a couple more ballgames, including the 1978 All-Star Game in San Diego. In the end, my father proved to be a sports fan like his ex-wife and his children.

The last time Matt and I went to a ballgame was...I couldn't remember since it was so long ago! All I can recall that it was at Anaheim and against the Seattle Mariners.

The Metrodome is not exactly Angels Stadium of Anaheim. We attended games at "The Big A" before the Rams brokered the deal to build seats in the outfield as they exited Exposition Park via Super Bowl XIV at the Rose Bowl. I hardly recognize the old Orange County ballpark when I passed by it two years ago. I recalled when Matt and I would watch Angels games on Gene Autry's old television station when the Twins played at old Metropolitan Stadium. The Met since gave way to the Mall of America over two deacdes ago.

During his visit last year, I drove Matt around and stopped by the Mall. He asked if the MOA people marked where home plate was from the old Met. They didn't. Apparently, the Simon Property Group would rather feign ignorance to the fact that they built this monstrous paean to mass consumerism on top of a piece of this region's history!

The Dome is now 26 years old, built the same year of my high school graduation. I figured it was time Matt and I caught a game before the Pohlads and the Twins head to the North Loop and their new ballpark.

On the eve of Matthew's conference, we caught the Twins and the Detroit Tigers for a Mother's Day Sunday evening tilt on ESPN. Strangely enough, Matt's last outing before his trip to Minnesota was to The Big A for an Angels-Tigers tilt last month courtesy of his employers. Funny, I've never seen the Tigers live before despite visiting Comerica Park on my trip out to the Motor City in November, 2006.

We sat somewhere to the left and above John Miller and Joe Morgan as they piped the game through cable lines and satellite signals nationwide. Since it was exclusively on ESPN, the guys in Bristol did not have to worry about Bert Blyleven circling anyone in the ballpark on his telestrator for the TV audience. Around the fourth inning, an ESPN cameraman peeked around the tunnel, saw our section, aimed at our row and panned down to the press box. Matt and I were on television. We wondered on if our mother had cable up on heaven.

The game experience was surreal. Considering it was Mother's Day, Major League Baseball ensured that it was commemorated with the pink ribbons to fight breast cancer and pink bats for players who want to show their support for the cause. The Twins' pink bats responded to the tune of 16 runs and 22 hits over the Tigers 4 runs and 8 hits. Why did the ESPN viewers and my Dodger/Angel loving brother witness this well of offense? Simply to make up for the horrific game the day before broadcasted on FOX.

Maybe the Twins play better on ESPN? Maybe then-Twins Centerfielder Torii Hunter needed to smash his two homers on a Sunday evening rather than Saturday afternoon? Maybe Jim Leyland needed to show both first-time starter Virgil Vasquez and reclamation project Jose Mesa that they're crap pitchers for the edification of the nationally televised audience?

Regardless, Matt loved the Metrodome. He loved the Twins and our fans. He complimented our fans as ones who truly support the ball club through thick and thin. On behalf of Twins fans all over, thank you, Matthew! This is why I became a fan of these Little Piranhas (Thank you, Ozzie Guillen!) because they truly care and support this team all the way.

Then, we saw a familiar sight: Fans leaving at the seventh inning. In Southern California, fans leave early to fight traffic. I had no clue why our fans would leave after six or seven innings except for the fact that it was a Sunday night and the Twins were already up 10-4. In baseball, if you leave early you will most likely miss something. In this case: three homers. Matthew and I stayed all the way through along with half of the 25,037 in attendance.

Sunday evening's game brought the family together again. The game our mother passed down to us is still in our blood and our hearts. Under the cloth roof of the Metrodome, the sons of Barbara Stern shared the game once again. I felt her presence as she took her Dodger Stadium Field Box seat in the sky as she peeked through one of the holes in the roof.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Ozzie Guillen's at it again.

As the Toronto Blue Jays were decimating the Chicago White Sox for the entire weekend, the Southsider's manager unleashed yet another tirade upon the press. It all began with a "shrine" involving bats and female blow-up dolls prior to Sunday's game. The sign was suppose to induce motivation upon the Sox: "You've got to push." Push what, you ask? Moving right along...

The team did not hide the shrine from a diverse group of reporters. When Guillen was asked about the "shrine," he offered up the explanation of getting the team out of its slump. You hear of motivation pieces, such as posting newspaper clippings on bulletin boards of reported smack talking by the other team. Then again, when do you ever encounter anything such as a shrine to motivate on the basis of crude sexual innuendo?

The "shrine" took on more than just a motivation piece in Guillen's mind. He went on to point out how his team lacked the respect of Chicagoans because the Cubs were the team the city loves the most. Of course, any tirade of Guillen will include language that will not be written into any post of this blog. Though, I found it ironic that he would use an insult towards women and dogs to describe how the city of Chicago feels about the White Sox.

Irony still that today's Chicago Sun-Times questioned if anyone was man enough to own up the "shrine" or to point out how wrong it was. The paper even stated that were women in the clubhouse interviewing Mr. Inappropriate with the "shrine" in plain view.

The White Sox manager does not mince words. He never has...and never will yield to the sensitivities of a pseudo-politically correct world. Not even the threats of General Manager Ken Williams of terminating the Venezuelan-born manager will keep Mr. Inappropriate from being crude, rude and always off-the-cuff.

Two years ago, a Sun-Times reporter was on the business end of a homophobic epithet courtesy of Mr. Inappropriate. In its wake, Guillen tried to spin the situation by stating that he has no problem with the LGBT community and that he wanted to attend the Gay Games being held in Chicago that summer. The result of that last tirade was Commissioner Bud Selig's order to Guillen to attend sensitivity training.

Looks like it didn't work. Yesterday, Guillen didn't offer an apology for the "shrine" or his tirade. Instead he defended it and stated that anyone offended by Sunday's actions "don't really know much about baseball."

You'd think that after a long history of epithet-laden tirades, hateful remarks and acts such as the "shrine" that Williams, Jerry Reinsdorf and everyone else in the front office of U.S. Cellular Field simply had enough of Guillen. The team stated that they are looking into the matter. Good luck with that.

In the meantime, we simmer over another Guillen media explosion and halfhearted apology the day after. However, I find it all amusing. Why? Because Guillen's an act. Like Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel and Billy Martin, we love to see them implode or say the craziest thing not fit for print or discussion in front of your most sensitive company.

It's not baseball without its insanity. Then again, there is a line somewhere that needs to be drawn. Has Guillen crossed that line? It depends on where it was drawn in the first place.

Then again, did anyone see that line? Not Ozzie Guillen.

It is a well-known fact that everything has its own language. Baseball has a language of its own. You might even know some of it.

Whenever I go to a game, I talk it up a bit. I try to encourage the team I'm supporting in the best way I can. Plain English (or Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Taiwanese...etc.) doesn't cut the mustard here. No, it's baseball talk!

Baseball talk is learned early in Little League. I caught it when I was scorekeeping for my high school junior varsity team. It never left my vocabulary since and is used whenever appropriate. It is a second or, possibly, third language to me.

What is baseball talk? Well, let's start with a term I threw in a couple of paragraphs ago: "Talk it up." It is a form of encouragement for the players by other players on the field. In the Majors, it seems that no one talks it up from our perspective in the stands. You definitely see this in Little League or in the teen leagues, including prep baseball.

Once you have decided to "talk it up," then you have to know the vocabulary. Most of the stuff is positive and encouraging, so I'll start with those. For example, even when your team is at bat, and you are in your teens and older, the old "hey, batter-batter" no longer works. If you have kids under the age of 11, let them chatter that line...for the opposing team at bat.

Instead, try former San Francisco Giants manager Roger Craig's old saying: "Humm, Babe." It is the ultimate encouragement as it encourages the batter to think of hitting one out of the park. In reality, the word "Humm" is a drawled take on the word "Home." In reality, you're saying "Home, Babe!" Since the ultimate goal for a batter is to reach all bases, including home, it makes sense.

If you are not comfortable calling your favorite player "Babe," try using their name, nickname or a shortened version of either. For example, "Humm, Del" for the Minnesota Twins' Delmon Young or "Humm, Papi" for the Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz. If you don't know a player's name and he looks like he's new, try "Humm, Rookie" or "Humm, Kid!" Well...you might want to be careful using the latter if he's older than you.

When your team is on the field and there's a runner at first, the term to encourage a quick exit to the concession stands is "Shoot two." That term encourages the fielders to turn a double play. This worked for me at the last game I attended between the Twins and the Cleveland Indians when Nick Punto and Justin Morneau were involved with turning four double plays that game.

Your team has a runner on base and you want to keep the rally going, you can also shout, "Break two." What you're saying is to have the runner at first break up a potential double play. Just hope you don't encourage the runner to go in spikes high or to cause bodily harm to the fielder in front of him. That would not be good on your part and you may want to cease talking it up for the rest of the game.

Now, for the real negative stuff...and I'll keep it simple. The term "Meat" does not refer to something you get in-between innings at the concession stand. It refers to a player who is less than capable of being at the level he is playing in. "The pitcher's meat" is used when the pitcher is getting hit, run on and has lost control of the game. For example, half of the New York Mets' Johan Santana's starts in his career! Up until this year, the Twins' Boof Bonser was major meat.

To further the insult, there is an old heckle line that Los Angeles Dodgers fans used to say: "Send him back to Albuquerque!" I still use this, but knowledge of a team's entire farm system helps in pulling this off. For the Tampa Bay Rays' Matt Garza, when he pitched for the Twins, the insult of "Send him back to Rochester" actually happened a few times.

Want some real psychology to use at the game? If your team's runner is at first and is ready to steal, if you want to play mind games with the opposing pitcher and the fielders, just yell "No wheels!" What that tells the fielders is that the runner is not worth keeping at first and he is not a threat to steal. In truth, what you're saying is that he has the most stolen bases on the club and that you're sick and tired of the constant throws from the pitching mound back to first. You want the runner to advance...or "break two."

Baseball certainly has a colorful language to go along with the game. When you're in the stands and want to talk it up, go ahead and freely use the terms in this post. Granted, you probably have even more colorful terms you'd rather use instead. I've heard it all...I know what you're saying. Just be mindful that you do not get escorted out of the ballpark after you ran out of colorful things to say to the opposing team. Hopefully, you are sober by the time this happens.

Talk it up, fans! Show them that you love 'em!

The worst thing you want to see at dinner is an ambulance on a baseball field. Even if it's on television, any presence of emergency medical personnel on the field is not a good sight.

While I was in Los Angeles with some old high school classmates, I witnessed the immediate aftermath of home plate umpire Kerwin Danley's brush with a Brad Penny 96MPH fastball. It was at a Chili's near California State University Northridge where I looked up at a television set and saw the ambulance. The volume of the TV did not reach our table to know what Vin Scully described on channel 9. All I saw was the ambulance on the Dodger Stadium grass for a long time.

When I returned back to my hotel room in Woodland Hills, I read exactly what happened online. I saw the video of the incident to examine exactly the impact of Penny's fastball on Danley. This incident was played out in front of the umpire's hometown crowd and his family.

As Danley gets back on the field, there shouldn't be any fingers pointed in this case. There may have been a miscommunication between Los Angeles Dodgers Catcher Russell Martin and Penny over a botched sign, but there should be some sort of time out to check the sign and call for a different pitch. Unfortunately, Penny's fastball was released and Martin could not web the glove enough to save the ball from the nasty hop into Danley's facemask. It was an accident that could've been avoided with proper strategy of the battery, but, in baseball, we know how the ball loses control when the trajectory of it is not executed properly.

Foul balls, common in the game, are a good example of this. A ball may be pitched properly, but if the bat does not connect with it at a proper angle or location, the ball to projected elsewhere outside the area of play. There is no telling where it will go after it is disturbed.

In this case, the ball was lost control as soon as Penny released it. Once it reached Martin's glove, it was trouble. No physics lesson can explain this fully, but what the fans at Dodger Stadium and on television saw was an outcome that became unavoidable in milliseconds.

I found it ironic this incident had on some periphery events during the weekend. One of the diners with me, a old classmate, mentioned her son who is a junior in high school and was being looked at by college scouts to play baseball beyond his prep years. It is good to see the next generation of our class raising children to enjoy the game that we enjoyed in the most competitive league in the Los Angeles City Section of the California Interscholastic Federation. She mentioned that her son wanted to take his mother for a ballgame on Mother's Day on the road. I offered up the Metrodome with the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox on tap. This was intermixed with the visions of the ambulance on the floor of Chavez Ravine.

Then, I read my brother's blog about how his son took a ball at his lip in Class AA Little League in Orange County. In this level, the boys are learning how to pitch and how to control the ball. Sometimes, mistakes happen...as Penny made the mistake of following through with a botched sign on that fateful pitch. My nephew is fine. He shook it off with a cut on the lip. He was very lucky, indeed...as was Kerwin Danley.

From what I read, Danley is recovering. Though he has suffered some headaches from the incident, Danley is expected to head back onto the field soon. There's no question that the game can be fragile with the slightest misdirection of the ball. Yet, everyone takes their lumps...and, for the most part, come through just fine.