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S U N L I F E S T A D I U M
September 21, 2011
Atlanta Braves v. Florida Marlins
7:10pm
Florida 4, Atlanta 0
WP: Vazquez (12-11, 3.77 ERA)
LP: Lowe, D. (9-16, 4.92 ERA)
Attendance: 22,240
Time: 2:35
86 degrees, partly cloudy
Sun Life Stadium is known better by its original name, Joe Robbie Stadium. It is a multipurpose stadium, not unlike The Coliseum in Oakland. It’s home to the Dolphins and “The U”. Fortunately for the Marlins, after tonight, they only have to suffer three more games in this place. They will have their own stadium next year. It is currently being built on the site of the former Orange Bowl in Little Havana, located just 2 miles from downtown Miami. The move will also result in a name change...the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins season is long finished. The Braves are thankfully slumping, which will hopefully lead to their Wild Card demise. Javier Vazquez was on the mound for the Marlins--he pitched 7 scoreless, making for 25 consecutive scoreless innings, a Marlins record. Derek Lowe was on for the Braves, and his season of torment continued. The Marlins went up early and ended up winning 4-0...a combined 2-hit shutout. Combined with a Cardinals victory, St. Louis is now 1-1/2 games out of the Wild Card.
The Atmosphere: Not a place for baseball, hence the new ballpark. Bigger crowd than I expected so that helped some. Really enough said...hopefully, it will be better in the new place! It’s not as depressing in person as it appears to be on TV.
The Scorecard: I was pleasantly surprised to see that they even offered a scorecard here. How can they have one here and not at Fenway or Yankee Stadium? It’s a bifold card. The good stops there. It’s glossy, making it hard to write on with pencil. I made no mistakes, so I didn’t have to tryout erasing on it. It would not have been pretty. Pesky diamonds. $1. Oh, and you probably can’t tell, but my scoring is off by an inning. The first column of boxes with a diamond is apparently not the first inning, it’s the “position box”. What the heck is that? You’d think they would have someone test drive these things out before printing thousands of them. I’m willing to come on as a consultant...I’d even do it for free.
The Hot Dog: I actually had a hard time finding a hot dog. Yes, a hot dog. The only ones I saw were at a Kosher dog stand. Not sure if it was Hebrew National, but it was good. I didn’t see any hot dogs at the few regular concession stands that were actually open. I later saw someone who clearly had a dog from a different stand, but I never saw it. I shouldn’t have to look that hard. It’s a hot dog. This is a baseball game.
The Broadcasters: I thought they were pretty good. I wouldn’t throw them in the top 5, but they told stories between pitches and kept it interesting. Not classic radio voices but better than a lot I’ve heard. They also have a Spanish station, which would probably be interesting to listen to.
Entertainment: They have a set of cheerleaders which is reminiscent of the high school dance teams that are out there. They even play the annoyingly loud music so they can dance on the field. ‘Marlins Pachanga’ is a little mariachi-like band that plays in the stands. The Goodyear blimp was in the air. I have no clue why they were here. Waiting for football this weekend? Just lost? I have no idea.
Scorecard.
The have game-used items, though it’s not particularly well organized. The good is that everything was on sale and all the money goes to the Marlins charity fund. I ended up getting a game-used ball from a previous game for $5. They later went down to $2! I even picked up an old lineup card from a game they played against the Cardinals last year.
Other Views:
Other words: I guess I will be back in Miami in the next year or two, so I can continue to say that I’ve been to all the current MLB ballparks!
Gripes: Fix the scorecard. Offer more hot dogs. Get a new stadium--they are following this piece of advice.
S U N L I F E S T A D I U M
M I A M I G A R D E N S , F L O R I D A
H O M E O F T H E M A R L I N S
The gates open up 90 minutes prior to first pitch, never earlier. There’s not a lot to see here so that didn’t bother me. But, as I’ve said in the past, if you want to see your team take BP, you’ve got to get the gates opened earlier. Hopefully, this will change when they move. They confiscated my ever dangerous bottle of water at the gate. Nice of them to do when it’s 90 degrees with 156% humidity. Water in the stadium is $4, the same as a Coke. $4...for water...a plentiful natural resource in this area. I had a Bud Light.
The Crowd: 22,000+ which isn’t bad considering where they are going and how the team is doing. They were into it as much as I would expect them to be. No scorecards. No radios.
The Stadium: Horrible place for baseball. They are playing over the football grid. At one point, the announcer said, “...and he catches that in the end zone.” What else do you want to know? If you’ve ever seen a game on TV, you’ve seen how bad the lighting is here. It’s pitiful. That worked out for the Cardinals a couple nights ago, as Chipper lost one due to the lighting. You’re surrounded by Dolphin orange seats and the names of Don Shula and Dan Marino. Very little evidence that the Marlins live here. Very limited food. The basics, but that’s it. This place is not as bad as Oakland, but it’s close. It’s obviously in much better shape when compared to the Coliseum.
S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E
MLB Games Seen
35 of 37
Days
82 of 86
Driving Miles
15,290
Estimated Gallons of Gas
804
States / Provinces
37 + the District of Columbia + Ontario
(no new states since I flew into Orlando to get to S.F.)
Hot Dogs Eaten
Too Many
Border Crossings
2 of 2
P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E
(AFTER 28 OF 30 GAMES)
Current Stats (Predicted Total through all 30 games)
Runs
266 (249)
Hits
504 (512)
Errors
34 (36)
Home Runs
70 (65)
Doubles
113 (101)
Triples
11 (10)
Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)
28 (31)
Strikeouts
431 (415)
Walks
175 (189)
Home Team Wins
18 (17)
Snuck over.
Complete Games
1 (1)
Shutouts
2 (2)
Second one was today.
Saves
17 (15)
Blown Saves
9 (7)
Balks
2 (2)
Thank you, Mr. Lowe.
Wild Pitches
9 (19)
Not going to get close to this.
Hit Batters
18 (18)
Walk-offs
2 (2)
Stolen Bases
32 (40)
Caught Stealing
13 (15)
Ejections
3 (4)
Smallest Crowd
11,617
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
September 1st, Toronto v. Baltimore
Largest Crowd
47,744
Yankee Stadium, New York
September 3rd, Toronto v. New York
B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S
A quick note about my Stadium Rankings. There’s a lot of good ones out there! When good parks like the Rangers and Nationals Parks end up near the bottom, you know there is a lot of competition. Just because they are low, doesn’t mean they aren’t good. Baseball has just been stepping up the bar over the last few years.
The Stadium
1. PETCO Park, San Diego
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Fenway Park, Boston
4. Target Field, Minneapolis
5. Comerica Park, Detroit
6. Yankee Stadium, New York
7. Wrigley Field, Chicago
8. Safeco Field, Seattle
9. PNC Park, Pittsburgh
10. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
11. Minute Maid Park, Houston
12. Chase Field, Phoenix
13. Progressive Field, Cleveland
14. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
15. Citi Field, New York
16. Miller Park, Milwaukee
17. Coors Field, Denver
18. Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
19. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
20. Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
21. U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago
22. Turner Field, Atlanta
23. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City
24. Rogers Centre, Toronto
25. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
26. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
27. Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens
28. The Coliseum, Oakland
The Atmosphere
1. AT&T Park, San Francisco
2. Fenway Park, Boston
3. Target Field, Minneapolis
4. PETCO Park, San Diego
5. Yankee Stadium, New York
The Crowd
1. AT&T Park, San Francisco
2. Fenway Park, Boston
3. Target Field, Minneapolis
4. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
5. Yankee Stadium, New York
The Scorecard
1. Target Field, Minneapolis
2. Comerica Park, Detroit
3. AT&T Park, San Francisco
4. Citizens Bank Ballpark, Philadelphia
5. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
The Hot Dog
1. Coors Field, Denver
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Progressive Field, Cleveland
4. Yankee Stadium, New York
5. Citi Field, New York
The Broadcasters
1. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Miller Park, Milwaukee
4. Target Field, Minneapolis
5. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
Kosher dog.
The Braves taking BP. You’ll never see the Marlins take batting practice here.
Wait until they move here.
The scoreboard.
Vazquez pitching en route to 25 consecutive scoreless innings.
80-year old Jack McKeon, the second oldest manager in MLB history.
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