Alex's Baseball Across America: Angel Stadium of Anaheim Review

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A N G E L S T A D I U M

O F A N A H E I M

July 9, 2011

Seattle Mariners v. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

7:05pm

Los Angeles 9, Seattle 3

WP: Pineiro (5-3, 3.90 ERA)

LP: Pineda (8-6, 3.03 ERA)

Attendance: 44,111

Time: 2:41

74 degrees, clear

Angel Stadium of Anaheim is one of the older stadiums in the Majors, and not necessarily considered to be one of the good ones. It was given a face lift at some point in the past 10 years...new seats, some work done on the outside of the stadium, some changes in centerfield (the main change in center being the rock/water structure, which is suppose to represent the California coast according to the website). I never did go to Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, but I feel this is what it probably looked like, aside from the changes above. It has no real views, unless you consider a view of I-5 beachfront property. It has a large parking lot--they give you a card to write your location so you don’t forget where you are--I didn’t do that and should have. The outside of the stadium behind home plate features the unique Angel helmets. The bullpens are different from most parks.

Outside the stadium behind home plate.

The rock & water structure in centerfield.

It’s okay, but why not put more bleachers there?

The gates open 2 hours prior to game time and the lot opens 2-1/2 hours prior. I got there just in time and only waited a few minutes to get in. Parking is $10 in their lot. The weather was perfect for taking in batting practice. It wasn’t overly crowded but there were enough people there to still make it fun. I asked one of the ushers what kind of crowd she expected tonight. She said, “I hear it’s a sell-out.” “Really?” “Yeah, Dierks Bentley is doing a concert after the game.” It turned out to be the largest crowd the Angels have had all year. She also said I was there on a good weather day because Wednesday was a day game and it was “so hot and muggy”. It was 91. Otherwise known as a mild day at Busch Stadium.

The bullpens are stacked in right field.

4th of July. 200 new Air Force recruits took their oath.

The Atmosphere and The Crowd: Descent crowd and atmosphere. We obviously don’t see many Angel games in Arkansas unless it’s playoff time, and over the last 10 years they have made it more times than not. They definitely get into it come playoff time. Not that they weren’t today, but it sounds like it would have been a much smaller crowd had there not been a postgame concert. The kicker for me was after Torii’s second homerun...that’s an automatic curtain call in St. Louis. Not here. It was just another homerun. The crowd was about 50% there at game time and 100% were still there at the end...BUT, some dude I had never heard of was about to perform, so they were all waiting around for that. I left after game, which gave me plenty of time to find my car. I think this goes in this section...the crowd attempted to do the wave. A couple comments on this. One, THE WAVE DOES NOT BELONG AT A BASEBALL GAME. It’s not football. Two, if you are going to “start the wave” at least pick a direction to go and stick with it. They would “start” it and half the people in the sections to the right would do it and half to the left would do it. It wouldn’t carry for more than a section. It was kinda sad.

The Scorecard: DNR. Otherwise known as “Do Not Rank”. They weren’t available individually. You had a buy a $3 New York Post size program. It was glossy, so it was hard to write on. The size made it completely awkward to write on and to carry around. You couldn’t just sit it up on the ground between innings or at bats because it would just collapse. If I had sweat any more than I was, I would have smeared the printing all over it. I saw one guy keeping score and he was using a generic pad. Good call!

The Hot Dog: They have one hot dog here. The Angel Dog. $4.50. Plain Jane hot dog. They offer you raw onions to put on it. They are Wienerschnitzel brand. The dog appeared grilled but there was no proof...they grab them from under the counter and hand them to you. No taste. Not impressed. Almost earns a DNR.

The Broadcasters: I liked these guys. They broadcast on AM830. They were more entertaining than the last couple sets of broadcasters, and they managed to talk about things going on from all around baseball...from Jeter’s #3000 to the Cardinals 7-6 win in the bottom of the 9th. The Angels had kids “working” in different areas today (from their version of Team Fredbird to the TV casters to the PA announcer). The broadcasters did well with the kid they had in the booth.

Entertainment: Not a lot but more memorable than the Rangers game. The Kiss Cam took the cake. At the end, they placed the cam on 2 of the Mariner players. They were good sports about it and it definitely got a good laugh. After the 7th inning stretch, they sing “Build Me Up Buttercup”--I have no idea why. One of the guy selling peanuts was absolutely hilarious...completely inappropriate but it’s all in name of fun. Instead of baseballs jumping out of bean cans, they place Angel tickets in Ustorage moving boxes and shuffle those around. Oh, and yes, there were multiple t-shirt cannons. They play “Spirit in the Sky” when introducing the Angel line-up.

The so-called Scorecard.

The Dog.

Joel Pineiro.

They do have an authentics store. It’s better than the Rangers store, but I couldn’t get the guy to work with me. I ended up getting a game used ball from sometime last month. He said there was no way for me to get a ball from today’s game without coming back to the stadium to get it. They had a lot of stuff but it was a one man show...it looked like he had no help. The Cardinals definitely have it figured out! Now, the rest of MLB needs to catch up!

Views from Around the Park:

The “A” in left field.

This guy spent an entire hour pouncing on the bullpen pitching mound.

When he was done, it looked the same as it did before.

Other words: I know I wasn’t overly positive on everything above, but this is a good place to watch a game. It’s not new. The location isn’t perfect. But, it’s still baseball and these people watched the game. They really need to get a scorecard, though. And, I wouldn’t mind some additional hot dog choices. The broadcasters asked the kid...”What’s your favorite thing to eat here?” “I already had one. It’s the hot dog. It’s my favorite anywhere.” We need to get him to Busch for a Kosher dog.

Gripes: Hmm, did I mention the scorecard? This is my only genuine gripe.

Overall, Angel Stadium was a good experience. The weather was perfect, except for the first 30 minutes when I was in the sun. The crowd was into it. They could use a peanut guy like this one in every park. They need a new park...in a new location. But, there’s no room for anything else around here and California is broke.

S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E

MLB Games Seen

3 of 31

Days

8 of 86

Driving Miles

2,695 of an estimated 18,735

Estimated Gallons of Gas

141 of an estimated 1,102

Hot Dogs Eaten

3 of 30

Nights Under the Stars

0 of 12

States

8 of 35

Border Crossings

0 of 2

P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E

(AFTER 3 OF 30 GAMES)

Runs

32 of 249

(current rate: 320)

Hits

60 of 512

(current rate: 600)

Errors

5 of 36

(current rate: 50)

Home Runs

8 of 65

(current rate: 80)

Doubles

12 of 101

(current rate: 120)

Triples

1 of 10

(current rate: 10)

Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)

3 of 31

(current rate: 30)

Strikeouts

43 of 415

(current rate: 430)

Walks

19 of 189

(current rate: 190)

Home Team Wins

2 of 17

(current rate: 20)

Complete Games

0 of 1

(current rate: 0)

Shutouts

0 of 2

(current rate: 0)

Saves

1 of 15

(current rate: 10)

Blown Saves

0 of 7

(current rate: 0)

Balks

0 of 2

(current rate: 0)

Wild Pitches

1 of 19

(current rate: 10)

Hit Batters

2 of 18

(current rate: 20)

Walk-offs

0 of 2

(current rate: 0)

Stolen Bases

5 of 40

(current rate: 50)

Caught Stealing

0 of 15

(current rate: 0)

Ejections

1 of 4

(current rate: 10)

Smallest Crowd

38,035

Minute Maid Park, Houston

July 3rd, Boston v. Houston

Largest Crowd

44,111

Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

July 9th, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim v. Seattle

B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S

Atmosphere/Crowd (Overall)

1. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

2. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

3. Minute Maid Park, Houston

The Scorecard

1. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

2. Minute Maid Park, Houston

30. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

(yes, that’s a 30)

The Hot Dog

1. Minute Maid Park, Houston

2. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

3. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

The Broadcasters

1. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

2. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

3. Minute Maid Park, Houston

Entertainment

1. Minute Maid Park, Houston

2. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim

3. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington

A N G E L S T A D I U M O F A N A H E I M

A N A H E I M , C A L I F O R N I A

H O M E O F T H E A N G E L S

It was almost like a Cardinal family reunion at the game. Joel Pineiro and Cesar Izturis started for the Angels. Adam Kennedy and Brenden Ryan started for Seattle. For some reason, the Cardinals and Angels have a lot of common players. Jim Edmonds, David Eckstein, Dan Haren. Not sure why that is. The Arkansas Travelers are the Angels farm team (unfortunately). The game featured Torri Hunter knocking out 2 homeruns. It was another relatively quick moving American League game, which has surprised me. I mentioned the ballgirls in Arlington. The Angels put ballboys out there and they also warmup with the outfielders...but, it’s actually entertaining to watch because every time the right field ballboy would throw the ball wide or short, he would act like he somehow tweaked his shoulder. Ichiro wasn’t enjoying it.