Dodgers-Indians: Cali trip part 6

For those of you that are jumping into the story from here you might want to read from the beginning here. Or Part 2. Or Part 3. Or Part 4. Or Part 5.

Yes, I Phillip James Morgan ... an Angels fan went to a Dodger game at Dodger Stadium. And yes, I the aforementioned Angels fan ENJOYED MYSELF at said Dodger Stadium.

I guess I should start at the beginning of the story huh? (Yeah, moron that's the best place to start.)

Well, if you remember, I had gotten sick Tuesday night into Wednesday day (The day of the Angels game). I thought that it was food poisoning and thought that the rest of my wonderful family would be fine and not get the nasty little bug. ... Boy was I wrong!

Thursday night into Friday morning (the day of the Dodger game), Leslie got a tiny bit of it too, only making one trip to the can as opposed to my 3-5 ... ANYWAY!

She was still feeling under the weather when our lovely son Kendrick also got the diarrhea bug and was not a happy boy. At this point I'm afraid that my SECOND favorite part of our trip was going to get cancelled.

Leslie, being the wonderful (not to mention beautiful ... even sick) wife that she is, said that it would be ok with her if I went to the game and she stayed at her dad's house with Kendrick.

After numerous confirmations that she was serious, I called Michelle (Leslie's sister) about the tickets that she was going to be getting. She said that she knew a guy and that all I had to do was to call him and the tickets were ours. She also mentioned that his tickets were $30 each, which was fine with me.

I call him, not knowing his name (and to this day I still don't), and said, "Umm ... My name is Phill Morgan and I'm Michelle Brady's brother-in-law. She said that you had tickets to tonight's Dodger game?"

"Yeah," came the response, "did you want the field-level tickets ($30) or the loge-level seats($20)?"

"The field-level." I said.

"Ok, how many do you need?"

After checking one last time with Les that she was indeed not going I said, "Just two."

Now this is where it felt really sketchy to me ....

I asked him, "So how do I get these tickets?"

"I'm at a restaurant called 'Phillippi's' ... " and he gave the the address, which from what he said was less than a mile from the Stadium. "Just call me when you get here and I'll meet you outside."

Ok, I thought, I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure that everything will go the way it should.

I packed my "bag of tricks*" for batting practice ...

* -- The 'bag of tricks" includes 3 different types of pens (regular sharpie, fine point sharpie and a gel pen) for autographs, a draw-string backpack (which I ended up having to use because the other back was "too big" bahhh!), a hat for each team (in this case the Dodgers and the Indians. {I'll explain why later}), a cheat sheet with all of the players' pictures, names and numbers on it. Very similar to this one, a camera ,and of course my glove.


... and gave a kiss to Kendrick and Leslie. Before I left Leslie made a very interesting little comment that stuck with me for the entire drive to the park.
"Whatever you do to get the tickets, DON'T GET ARRESTED."

Huh? Arrested? Why would I get arrested? Maybe because this whole situation reminded me of a deal with the mob? You know, the whole "Behind an Italian restaurant is a guy ... knock twice, then once, then twice again and he will give you what you want." type of situation.

I jumped in the car and headed to Phillippi's. On the way I called Michelle, who said to call her once I was at the restaurant. After getting to the restaurant I tried calling Michelle and got no answer. I tried to call Leslie to hear what she thought I should do ... Me being paranoid at this point ... and got no answer SEVEN TIMES!

I decided to call the guy with the tickets. Again, another "mob" twist came into play. "Do you see a Chinese restaurant across the street from Phillippi's?" he asked.

"Yeah I do," I said.

"Go around to the back of that restaurant and I'll meet you there with the tickets."

GULP!

More paranoia sets in as I frantically call Leslie, still without an answer. I'm pacing at this point as the guy comes to the side of the building (looking sketchy I might add) and waves for me to come over to him.

"Are you my guy?"

I nodded, still trying to call Leslie ... still no answer.

"Here are the tickets." He says as he hands them to me and I hang up my last-ditch effort to contact someone I know.

"It's $60 total right?" I ask.

"Yeah," came his reply.

I paid him and that was that.

No cops. ... No "offer I couldn't refuse" (other than the tickets I mean ... they were $60 face value, AND I GOT THEM FOR $30!) ... No "swimming with the fishes" ... Nothing like that.

I decided to just chill for a minute to catch my breath, relax and once and for all get a hold of Leslie. When I still didn't get an answer I thought that I should just get to the stadium parking lot and make the trek to the gates so I could be the first on in the park.

I made my way to the parking lot gate where the attendant told me that the parking lot doesn't open until 2 hours before the scheduled game time, which just so happened to be the exact same time that the gates to the stadium opened too (game time was at 7:40 p.m.), but that they started letting cars lineup at the parking lot gate 15 minutes before they open.

It was 4:50 p.m. That meant that I still had 40 minutes ... 40 MINUTES ... before I could even park my car!

Frustrated, and still trying to call Leslie, I turned around and looked for a place to park. There was nothing on the street and I was panicking again. That was when Leslie finally answered and tried to calm me down. It worked a little bit, and it also improved my luck, as a car pulled out on the side of the road just as I was approaching.

Even though it had been 8 years since I had had to parallel park a car, I still did it with pin-point accuracy.

I grabbed my bag as Michelle called and said that she was on her way and that it would be pointless for both of us to park in the Dodger Stadium parking lot (Parking: $15 ... Finding free parking for one of your two cars on the side of the road: PRICELESS. There's some things money cant buy, for everything else there's Mastercard ... errr ... except for the Dodger Stadium parking lot where they only take CASH lol :0))

I told her that I had already parked and that I was just going to walk to the stadium gates so that I could be the first one in the park. She laughed at me, told me how much of a hike that was and said that she would be there in 5-10 minutes and would pick me up.

I thought that I would start walking and if I wasn't close to the stadium by the time she got there, I'd turn around and go back. Well, I talked to the attendant to see how far it was and he told me a mile. Not too bad. But I felt bad leaving Michelle, so I hung out until she got there.

When she pulled up it was 5:07 p.m. still 8 minutes until we could line up. "Pull up and see if they'll let you line up," I told her. She pulled up to the attendant and he pointed to Lane 2 so that's where we lined up and waited.

I was thinking we would be one of the first cars to park and I could make a mad dash to the stadium gates, so I prepared for "battle", putting the pens in my pocket, folding my cheat sheets and getting everything situated for a quick "look through" by security when I presented my ticket.

However, we were not the first ones in the parking lot and so most of the prep work went for not. Oh well.

I had heard that Dodger Stadium opens up the center-field gate and lets you go on the warning track for batting practice, which is the only stadium I know of that does that.From these pictures (provided by dodgers.com) you can see exactly how it is set up. I thought, however, that the fence to hold you onto the warning track went from straight-away left to straight-away right. I also thought (thanks to picture #2 above) that there would be some room to maneuver and ask players for the baseballs.

Oh how wrong I was ... on both accounts.

We headed straight to center field. I had my pack open and ready for inspection, my ticket in hand and my cheat sheets ready to be read. However, there was nobody to take my ticket. Yes, to stand on the warning track is F-R-E-E (that spells free...credit report dot com ba-by :0) ... free!
If I really wanted to I could park on the side of the road, hike to the stadium, stand and watch batting practice, then walk back to my car and go home to watch the game on TV. It's a good thing I don't live in L.A. or I might just do that A LOT!

When we got onto the warning track, I soon realized that the corral went from left-center to right-center .. a much shorter distance than I had prepared for. It was VERY crowded as well. So we went to the field level (yellow seats) and I squeezed into the first row next to the left-field foul pole.

There was nothing during the Dodgers portion of BP. Sure a few balls rattled into the corner, but nothing that I had a realistic chance at getting.

Remember that I had a Dodger hat and an Indians hat in my "bag of tricks"? Well when the Dodgers left the field and the Indians took BP, I quickly switched hats to look like an Indians "fan".

See, when teams go on the road they like to look for their "fans" and reward them for supporting them on the road by throwing them balls during BP.

So if I look like a "fan" then I have a better chance of getting a ball. When the pitchers came out to shag fly balls Scott Elarton and another pitcher stayed in left field. I called each of them by name, but they ignored me. Finally, about 15 minutes before BP ended Elarton got a ball and turned and threw it in my direction. His throw was 5 feet to my left and I couldn't get to it.

During BP Michelle found some seats and got a world famous Farmer John Dodger Dog. I went and sat with her and took this picture of our view toward home plate.

I got up soon after that and went back to the foul pole because the Dodgers' starter Clayton Kershaw ... who Michelle and I agree looks A LOT like Orel Hershiser ... right?

Anyway, I saw him walking toward left field to start to warm up for the game. I decided to stand behind the Dodger catcher Danny Ardoin (Ar-du-ah) in case of an over throw .... it never came, but I did get a few pics of Kershaw throwing.

Here's a picture that AP took of him during the game.

When they were done warming up I tried to ask for the ball, but no dice. I returned to Michelle, who probably thought I was an idiot for getting up and trying to get a baseball, but for me it's a hobby ... kinda like fishing. You have to be patient, persistent, knowledgeable and kinda lucky.

She explained that no matter what happened during the game that we weren't going to leave early because "Dodger games never start until the 7th inning" ... prophetic words.

Some of the position players came out to run, stretch and throw before the game, so I ran down to the "front row" (Dodger stadium had box seats that you have to have a ticket to get all the way to the real front row so I had to settle for the 10-12th row from the field) and waited for the players to finish with their warm up throws.

I had targeted Andy LaRoche and Andre Ethier. I thought that LaRoche was going to end up with the ball, so I started yell, "Adam (thinking of Andy's brother who plays for the Pirates), could you toss me that ball when you are done," but he fired one last throw to Ethier. I panicked and waved my arms and flashed my glove trying to get his attention. I yelled once more, this time to ANDRE Ethier, "ADAM, could you toss me that ball ... PLEASE!"

Now, I knew as soon as I said it that Adam wasn't his first name, but I also knew that his first name started with and A, so I might be ok. Fortunately for me it was ok. Ethier looked up, saw my Dodgers hat (I switched back before going to see Kershaw) and fired the ball to me. It was pretty beat up (two big gashes and grass stains on half of it) but I didn't care. That pushed my streak to consecutive MLB games with at least one ball to 5. That was it for pregame, I sat down and relaxed as the game started.

I knew before I went to the game that Michelle was a HUGE Dodgers fan, but I didn't realize how big until I went to the game with her. Her enthusiasm for each player was sky high right from the opening pitch. Honestly, I thought that her energy would wain around the 6th or 7th inning ... it didn't. She was constantly on her feet, yelling and screaming for her boys in blue. Les later asked me if I saw a different side of Michelle at the game and I told her that I finally saw the sports fan that I had heard so much about. ... ... And I was glad that I did.

Our view of the field in the middle of the game.

Thanks for a great day at the ballpark Michelle.

Les also asked if I showed Michelle a different side of me ... because I guess I'm a completely different person during BP than I am during the game and outside the stadium. For the answer to that question I guess Michelle will have to post a comment.

Dodgers left fielder Juan Pierre warming up between innings.

As for the game, I knew that it might be an ugly day for the Blue Crew .... which it was for the first 7 innings. Cliff Lee, who might win the AL Cy young award this year, was pitching for the Tribe and had shut out the Dodgers through seven and left the game with one out in the eighth and a 4-0 lead.

When Lee left with a runner on and one out in the eighth, it was the bullpen's goal and objective to protect the lead.

That didn't happen.

The Dodgers got on the board when Rafael Betancourt served up an RBI double to Jeff Kent. And Rafael Perez came in and gave up James Loney's RBI single up the middle to make it 4-2.
That's the lead that was handed to Borowski in the ninth, and it disappeared in a hurry.
Angel Berroa singled and Russell Martin doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Juan Pierre's awkward, check-swing single off Borowski's leg brought in a run with one out. After Pierre stole second, Borowski was forced to intentionally walk Matt Kemp to load the bases. Kent then tied it when he grounded out to short to bring home another run.

It was Borowski's third blown save of the season, yet it wasn't a full-blown disaster. Usually, when Borowski blows one, he does so in dramatic fashion. This time, he was able to get the third out before the Dodgers found the finishing blow.

Because Borowski was able to get out of the 9th without further damage, this game kept going.

In the 10th, an Indians offense that had gone quiet after Kershaw's departure woke back up when Dodgers closer Takashi Saito took the mound.

Saito walked leadoff man Jamey Carroll, then gave up consecutive singles to Ben Francisco and Ryan Garko to load the bases. A fly ball was all the Indians needed to regain the lead, but

Franklin Gutierrez couldn't provide it. Instead, Gutierrez hit a grounder to short that resulted in a 6-2-5 double play.

That could have been the deflating moment that ultimately unraveled the Indians. Instead, Peralta calmly stepped up and ripped a double to right that Andre Ethier couldn't get a glove on (pictured below)."I know I've been struggling with runners in scoring position," Peralta said. "But I tried to concentrate a lot. In that situation, I had to be confident in myself."

"That should be a big lift for him," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "You saw what Jhonny is capable of going down the stretch last season. I can't tell you how many clutch hits he had for us. And in the postseason, arguably he was our best hitter and run-producer. So it's in there for him."

The Dodgers went quietly in the bottom of the 10th and lost 6-4.

Despite the loss I had a blast. Thanks again Michelle for a fun night.

A Night at the BIG A -- Cali trip Part 5

For those of you that are jumping into the story from here you might want to read from the beginning here. Or Part 2. Or Part 3. Or Part 4.

I guess this is my favorite part of the trip and it almost didn't happen. Remember when we mentioned that we went to dinner with Leslie's dad, Cindy and Sarah on Tuesday night? And that I would feel it later ... well here's the rest of that story.

After we went to bed that night, I was restless. My stomach was turning over, I was hot in the covers and I couldn't get comfortable all night. I felt like I was near vomit the whole night and to make a disgusting story less graphic, I threw-up 2 times that night and spent the rest of the night either with the runs or in a cold sweat in the trailer. NOT A FUN NIGHT!


The next morning was the day of the Angels game so I was bound and determined to be healthy enough to go to the game. After taking 5 pills from Leslie's dad -- I learned later that they were clay tablets -- I spent the whole morning on the couch drinking water. I was also on the phone trying to see if we were getting tix from Howie Kendrick through our family friends the Barbers.

The family at the ballpark. Phill had just taken a big bite of the killer nachos in his lap. Mmm.

My plan was to be at Angels Stadium at 4 p.m. so that we were the first ones in the ballpark for batting practice. My goals for the game were to catch at least one ball at to get a baseball signed by Howie. Kendrick trying to eat daddy's hat.

***TIMEOUT**

For those of you that don't know Leslie and I are naming all of our kids after baseball players. "What? Even your girls?" Yes, even the girls. Anyway, I think it would be cool if we could get each kid something special from or about the player that they were named after (i.e. a signed ball, a picture of the player, a jersey, etc.) I already had a ball signed by Jim Abbott and we had got a ball signed by Trevor Hoffman last year when we saw the Padres play the Rockies in Denver before Kendrick was born. So we obviously needed one from Howie and then one from Rex Hudler.

***TIME IN***

More playing with daddy's hat.

After batting practice (BP) I saw Rex, who is an Angels' broadcaster walking across the outfield. I yell to him and got a wave. I didn't think, "where is he going?" so I just explored the park and saw him doing the pre-game show. I called Les, who was in a seat with Kendrick, and she came over as I asked Hud if he could PLEASE sign a ball for me.

"Because you said please," was his reply. I was so happy. I had totally forgot that I could get Rex's in California too.

Rex Hudler's autograph. Look for a better picture on Saturday or Sunday.

As for Howie, I already had a ball signed by him, but I wasn't the one who got it signed, so I felt like I needed to get this ball signed for Kendrick.

"Lets go Angels!!!"

We made the giant trek up to the upper deck just as some of the Angels' players came out to stretch. The first one out of the dugout ... ... Howie Kendrick. I immediately started to go down, but had forgot my glove. I wasn't too far and went back as Leslie said that her fear of heights was kicking in big time and she didn't like our seats. So we decided to try to find seats lower. I ran to the Angels' dugout as she tried to find seats. **Side note from Les: if you've ever been there you would plain scary know how high it is and it's just looking down! And anyways, who really wants to see little spots running around a little field when you can sit WAY closer. A note to everyone... unless you are in the front row you can always get a closer seat. Don't settle for a crap seat... even if that was the one you paid for. :o)

Kendrick cheesing it up for Daddy and the camera.

I slid into the front row,two sections on the outfield side of the dugout from the end of the dugout and started yelling at Howie to come over and sign. I even mentioned the Barbers. Now I'm not sure what made Howie decide to sign, but he came over. Unfortunately, he started at the far end of the fans. I panicked and tried to move to where he was. Just as he was about to where I was he started to go the other way. I decided that as people started leaving, I'd slide my way toward Howie and hope that he'd come back. He did. I was the second to last person he signed for.

Kendrick with the scoreboard during Howie's at-bat.

The conversation went like this:
Phill: "Howie can you please sign this for me?"
Howie: "Yeah sure."
Phill: "I'm actually Vince Morgan's older brother."
Howie: "Really? How is he?"
Phill: "Really good. He's getting married soon. ... Hey, could you sign that 'To Kendrick'? It's for my son."
Howie: "Yeah sure."
Phill: "Thanks we are huge fans."

And that was it. I had accomplished my goal. He wrote on the ball "To Kendrick. From your Pal Howie Kendrick."

Howie Kendrick's autograph. Look for a better picture on Saturday or Sunday.

As for the game, the Angels and starter Jon Garland (pictured below) got down 3-0 early, but were able to take the lead with a run in the bottom of the fourth and then three runs in the fifth.One of the key plays in the fifth was Howie's infield single to David Wright that loaded the bases with nobody out and the heart of the Halos' lineup coming to the dish. Vladdy doubled in two runs, tying the game at 3-3. Torii Hunter then singled in Howie, giving the Angeks the 4-3 lead and puting runers on the corners with no outs. We should have scored a lot more but Torii Hunter made a huge base-running mistake.

With one out, Rob Qinnlan hit a sharp ball to David Wright at third and he threw Vladdy out at the plate. Hunter, who was on first, rouned second and started slowly jogging with his head down to the Angels' dugout (on the third base side). It wasn't until he was half way between second and third that he realized there were now two outs. He got in a run down and was tagged out at third to end the inning and the Angels' momentum.

"Torii just lost track of the outs and that was that," Angels' manager Mike Scioscia said.

The score remained 4-3 until the bottom of the ninth, where Francisco Rodriguez came in to close the game. Rodriguez hadn't blown a save in his past 25 chances before the game against the Mets, converting all 25 and extending his club record in that category. But that night he did. K-Rod gave up a single and a stolen base to speedster Jose Reyes, then a game-tying single to David Wright.

In the top of the tenth, Justin Speier grooved a slider to Damion Easley (pictured above), who deposited the baseball in the Angels dugout.

Justin Speier holds a new baseball as Damion Easley rounds third after his game-winning solo home run in the top of the tenth inning.

The Angels lost 5-4, but we had a good time. Kendrick did not like daddy and the others yelling at the umps. We did make him cry a couple of times but he calmed down with Les holding him and well I had to keep my yelling in check. Kendrick did love clapping with everyone else cheering our Angels on. He enjoyed watching the game and at the end of the night he enjoyed falling asleep in Les's arms and being held by his loving wonderful brilliant mommy, and my wonderful, brilliant, loving and amazing wife!

Howie batting in the fifth inning. I wish I could have taken Bailey's camera with us to get better game shots (and a better zoom), but she needed it at youth conference.

Howie standing at first with Reggie Willits at second with no outs in the fifth.

Our favorite picture of Kendrick hamming it up before he got tired.

Making the rounds -- California trip Part 4

For those of you that are jumping into the story from here you might want to read from the beginning here. Or Part 2. Or Part 3.

When Les was going to go on the trip with just Rachelle we got really excited to show off Kendrick to her cousins, aunts, uncles and old ward members. So that's what we did on Tuesday.
First stop was Leslie's cousin Holly's house. Jared and Holly have a 15 month old daughter named Kaylee, whom Leslie and I had only seen once, when they came out to Utah when Kaylee was 4 months old.

This is the look that Kaylee gave Leslie every time she would look at her. She started to warm up to me a little towards the end of the visit but was great with Kendrick.... Leslie just wanted to put her 2 cents in about this pic. :o)

It was fun to watch the kids play. At first Kaylee was apprehensive, not knowing who this new boy was. Kendrick jumped right in, heading for Kaylee's toys. She did warm up to him though, eventually showing Kendrick her pink and white dog. She was really good at sharing too.

Kendrick started to get tired, but we stopped by a family that lived in the ward. Kendrick was his normal self, smiling and flirting up a storm. He then remembered that he was tired and started fussing again. So we went "home" and put Kendrick down for a nap.


After he woke up we went to dinner with Leslie's dad, Cindy and Sarah (which Phill would feel later, but that's a story for another post). After dinner we were back to making the rounds. We went and saw Leslie's aunt Jan and uncle Ron and then it was off to see her cousin Kelly. Les was super excited to see Pat and Kelly, but especially Tyler their new addition to the family. Here is a pic of Les and Kendrick with Kelly and little Tyler. Little is a realitive term... Kendrick looks so big next to Tyler but there is only about a 5lb difference in their weight!


*** Look for more on the trip soon ***

California -- Part 3

For those of you that are jumping into the story from here you might want to read from the beginning here.
Monday morning we got up and drove the 40 minutes to Sequoia National Park. I had never been there and neither had Leslie. When we were planning the trip we saw that Sequoia NP was close so we started doing some research so we knew what we wanted to see.

We both thought that Sequoia was where you could drive through the tree trunk. Through the research we realized that the tree trunk drive was in Yosemite NP, north of where we were going to be. Sequoia is home to the General Sherman.

The General Sherman sequoia tree in Giant Forest holds the title as the largest living specimen on earth. It is 275 feet (83 m) tall with a massive trunk 36.5 feet (11.1 m) in diameter and 109 feet (33 m) in circumference at the base. Even more remarkable is the fact that at a point 120 feet (36 m) in the air the trunk of General Sherman is still 17 feet (5 m) in diameter.

It is estimated to have a volume of 52,500 cubic ft. (1,486.6 cubic meters). In lumberman's terms, this one tree probably contains 630,000 board feet of lumber. (A board foot is 12 in. x 1 in. plank that is one foot long.) That's enough to build 120 average-sized houses. In fact, a single giant sequoia may contain more wood than is found on several acres of some of the finest virgin timberland in the Pacific Northwest. The trunk of General Sherman alone weighs nearly 1,400 tons. That is roughly equivalent to 15 adult blue whales, 10 diesel-electric train locomotives, or 25 military battle tanks!

The tree is actually really big. It was pretty cool to learn that there was a 1 in 30 million chance that it would grow to be that big. The ranger said that the tiny seed fell in the perfect dirt, in the perfect weather, got the perfect amount of rain and sunlight and was not eaten by the animal life. What a sight to see.

Here are a few more pics of General Sherman and the surrounding trail to the tree.

At the Giant Sequoia Forrest Visitor Center, there is another big tree called the Sentinel Tree.

Here are a few pictures from it.

This is a line on the ground that represents the Sentinel tree. I thought it looked cool so I took a picture of it.

These are a few pictures of us in the park and riding the shuttle to the General Sherman tree.

All in all we had a good time at Sequoia NP. However, by the end of the day we (and by we I mean Kendrick) were ready to go. Plus we had a 4+ hours drive to Leslie's dad's house in Cypress.

The drive took us on the 5, which runs right through my mission. I couldn't help but laugh as I passed exits that I had taken many times before, but hadn't thought about for 3 years. I had called my FAVORITE family from my mission -- the Keiths from Burbank -- to let them know that we were coming through town and I that I wanted to stop to say and introduce Kendrick to them.

Jennifer informed me that they were moving to Indiana within the week. WHAT!?!?

It was a good thing that we went on this trip when we did, or I would have been very frustrated not being able to see them.
We got to Burbank around 7 p.m. and gave Kendrick a much needed break from the car. He loved being held by Jennifer and playing with a water bottle with the Keith's youngest daughter Regan.

It was great to see them. I of course told them about the blog so ... ... I hope the move went well for you guys and don't forget to let me know when you are coming to put Amanda into BYU.

From there is was short drive to Cypress (kinda by Knott's Berry Farm) where Leslie's dad had already set up the pop-up trailer for us. What a guy huh?

*** Look for more on the trip soon ***