Game Day: Tuesday, June 23rd
Unseasonably cold last night in Illinois. It felt like a chilly October morning. I thought to myself about the warm and pleasant summer nights in California and in Florida. I don't miss them. They are normally partnered with sweltering hot afternoons. I do miss Bev Mo on Santa Monica Blvd. in West LA and the one on Sepulveda in Culver City. I like Bev Mo more than Binny's and Total Wine. In Tampa, It's ABC Liquors and Leunke's. What I like most about Bev Mo is the name of the store and shopping the single can selection in the cooler. They always had a good selection. In California, I'd often get a 19.2 oz. Arrogant Bastard from Stone Brewing out of Escondido, CA or a 19.2 oz. Anchor Steam from Anchor Brewing out of San Francisco, CA. Two of the best California beers. I drank my fair share of Sapporo too, in the tall heavy metal cans. This was before Sapporo moved their brewing operations to the US. The beer was better then. In Tampa, I would drink 19.2 oz. Jai Lai IPA and 25 oz. cans of Foster's Lager in the oil drum can. I like thr classic (blue can) and the premium (green can). The premium is a softer lager, what I would call a pale lager, reminiscent of a Stella Artois. Foster's brews with codn syrup, so does Miller Lite, they are two of my favorite lager beers. The corn sryup thing doesn't bother me a bit.
We are stuck with Binny's here in Illinois but I did notice that Total Wine has a location in the North Suburbs. I'm not all that fond of Total Wine, they have the best selection out of all the liquor store emporiums, liquor and beer included but I don't like wine and the name "Total Wine" sours my opinion of the place.
It should heat up here soon in the Midwest. It has been a very wet and a very cool start to the summer season. I'm not complaining. I like the cool air.
The Las Vegas Ballpark in Las Vegas, NV is an interesting place. I don't know how they can play day games in May, June, July and August in Las Vegas. I'd think that almost every game has to start at 7:15 PM MDT or later for the weather to be tolerable. I've spent long days in that desert sun, the heat is exhausting.
I haven't paid much attention to the weather in Phoenix. I don't know much about the conditions on the field for games at Chase Field during the summer months. I'd think that they must circulate the air in the stadium in a way that keeps the air cool. I've only passed through Phoenix, Ive never spent any time their but if it is anything like Las Vegas, afternoon games at Chase Field must be a real cooker.
I'm going to look into it this afternoon. The game conditions at Chase Field during the summer months.
Summer heat and the hot sun can wear you down. If you play a home game in the afternoon in 100° temperatures, travel and play a night game on the road the following day, that is a difficult series of obstacles to overcome. The D'Backs are in that spot this afternoon in St. Louis.
Travel schedules, game times, weather patterns all contribute to each teams', lets call it, standard of adversity. A measurement of adversity is an interesting component to a teams momentum that could be measure by assigning a value to consecutive games played without a day off, injuries, losing streaks, travel days, etc... You could quantify adversity.
Right now, the Diamondbacks are facing some significant adversity. They play 13 games in a row without a day off. They played an afternoon game in the hot desert yesterday, traveled to St. Louis where it is damp and cold for a four-game series. It's a seven-game road trip. They take a long flight to play the Rays at the Trop this weekend. The Rays have the best home-field advantage in baseball. Ths Trop is a miserable place to play for opposing teams. Only the Rays are accustom to its' stale, moldy air.
The Diamondbacks are down two starting pitchers. Their 20M dollar arms, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelley, are both out of gas. They'll get a day off on July second before a home series with the Brewers. They play ten straight games into the All-Star break. That stretch includes another seven-game road trip with a four-game series in San Diego and a three-game set with the Dodgers in LA.
No team in MLB is up against it like the Diamondbacks. I don't think they survive this stretch. I think by July 13th, the D'Backs will be finished.
Their GM has been quoted as saying that he is a buyer at the trade deadline. I think he will be reassessing at the end of July.
Eduardo Rodriguez might be on his way out of Arizona. He will no longer be known as "Arizona" E-Rod. Could he become "Chicago" E-Rod. He would be a good fit for both Chicago teams and is likely far more affordable than Tarik Skubal or Sandy Alcantara.
How about Ketel Marte? The Yankees look like a good fit for Marte but Marte has a no-trade clause and significant performance kickers in his contract tied to at-bats. If he goes to the Yankees, he could lose some at-bats. He is also a good fit for an Orioles team that is playing Jackson Holliday at 3B. He loses at-bats on that team as well.
Arizona is an interesting team to follow into the All-Star break and the trade deadline. Marte's situation is also interesting with him having the no-trade clause. Byron Buxton, another olayer with a soft money contract and a no-trade clause is on record, "I'm a fucking Twin..." something along those lines. No.word from.Marte regarding his no-trade clause.
Beer at the baseball game usually sucks. It's warm by the time the vendor pours it if you get it from the beer guy. They have a great beer stand at Rate Field in the left-field corner of the concourse, "Beers of the World".
They have a refridgerator of beers and the beers are nice and cold. They pour them in a cup and if you stand there amd slug one down real quick it is actually cold.
I imagine the luxury suites have cold beer too. I got to sit in the luxury suite at the Bulls' game once. It sucked, I couldn't see the game.
I like sitting in the upper deck at Rate Field but you can't go to "Beers of the World" if you have upper deck seats because it's on the lower-level. So I sneak in a half pint of white rum and put a cork in a couple 40 oz. bottles of beer, that way they can't nail you with the metal detector at the gate. Now that the White Sox are winning games, there are lots of fans in the section I like the most and that's fun but you can't go tipping back on a 40 oz. because they will rat you out. You have to pour your beer into a paper cup. Pick one out of the garbage and rinse it out and you're good to go. I've actually never done this but it is a good idea.
I have been known to sneak a bottle of beer or two into the movie theater. I haven't been to the movies for years. I think the last movie I remember seeing in the theaters was "Ford vs. Ferrari" with Matt Damon. I saw that at the Arc Light in Manhattan Beach. I had some Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball for that show and that is a great beer. Arc Light is a very nice place. There is a Bev Mo right across the street but I got the Hairy Eyeball at CVS, oddly. It is a very rare and delicious beer. Id call it an ESB. They don't distribute a large quantity of this beer. It comes in a 22 oz. bomber bottle and I had two that afternoon while I watched the show. The beer was so good that I actually got up and left the theater in the middle of the film, walked across the street to CVS, and grabbed a second bottle. I returned and watched the end of the film. It was a very memorable day mostly because of that great beer. The film was good too.
The last MLB game I went to was Diamondbacks and Dodgers at Chavez Ravine in 2018. D'Backs win 3-1, it was a very slow game. It was one of those games. I don't eat much beef or pork anymore but I did have a Dodger Dog that day. There is nothing special about it. Chicago has far better hot dogs. I don't eat them anymore but I used to go to Demon Dogs under the El on Fullerton almost everyday after work and nail down a hot dog and fries. It was $1.99 back then and that was as good of a hot dog as you could get. Many Chicagoan's like Superdawg, it's not that good. Weiner Circle, also on the Northside, is a shithole. Rate Field always had great hot dogs, as good as you can find anywhere. Better than Dodger Dogs if you ask me about it.
I'm sort of rambling today. Drinking coffee all morning. On my third pot. I make small pots. That is it for Game Day on Wednesday. Plenty of time to research the games. I should have a pick later this afternoon before post time. I might take the day off. Stay tuned.