Aces and Diamonds

Several years ago, my amazing wife Missy and I made a deal. When we turned 35, we would go on a fun trip by ourselves. This was Missy's idea because she wanted to take her friend Katrina to Paris, which they are planning to do in a couple of years.
Missy probably knew that since I am two years older, we would have one or two more kids to deal with by the time her trip came around, but I wasn't smart enough to think about that so I agreed to her proposal.
I thought it would be fun to do a two-week baseball and poker road trip, visiting several stadiums and casinos I had never been to before. After graduating from college, I went on a four-city baseball road trip with my friends Kevin and Chad, but I had mono the whole time which was pretty miserable and forced us to cancel a fifth city and come home a bit early.
Kevin and Chad are living in different states now, but I had hoped that the three of us could do the trip together. Kevin was finishing up his PhD in South Carolina and moving to a new job in Florida (way to go Kev!) so he couldn't go, but Chad was able to make it work.
It was a really fun trip, and I'll take you through every stop we made. Wrigley Field is the only stadium on this trip that I had been to before, and I had never played poker at any of these casinos. This is the link to the blog we flooded with pictures throughout our trip.

July 30, Clinton, MO -- I started by driving 5.5 hours to Chad and Aften's home. They have a really nice house in a laid-back, peaceful town. I was quite impressed. We played some basketball, ate some good Mexican food and met some cool people at the Elks Lodge. Aften made us a really nice basket of snacks and gifts to open as we reached each new city.

July 31, St. Louis -- Chad and I embark on our journey. St. Louis has a really cool ballpark village right outside the stadium with huge TVs, bars and restaurants. It was modeled after Kansas City's Power and Lights district and we hung out there before the game. The game itself was kind of a snoozer (the Cardinals beat the Rockies 7-0), but Chad and I invented a game within the game, where we each picked 3 players beforehand and those players earned points based on their performance. We did this for every game on the trip but this was only one which ended with Chad and I tied. After the game, we found a cool old-school diner which featured six White Castle-style hamburgers for $6.60.
Getting out of town was a funny experience, though it wasn't funny at the time. The area around the park (not the best part of town) had streets and intersections all over the place, and we weren't sure where we needed to go so we had our GPS on. The thing had us turning every 5 seconds, but because the streets were so close together, every time we'd make a turn it would take a second to calculate that turn and then reroute us down a different street nearby. This process kept repeating itself so that twice in a 5 minute span we did a full circle and wound up at a stop light across the street from the very diner we had just eaten at. The second time we pulled up next to the diner we just burst out laughing before finally figuring out where we needed to go.

Aug. 1, Louisville -- We stopped in Louisville on the way to Cincinnati and it turned out to be a great afternoon. We had lunch at a place right next to the Triple-A baseball stadium. We sampled a couple local craft beers and took a peek inside the stadium, which was really nice. We then went to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory. We got to see how the bats get made and hold a game-used Mickey Mantle Slugger.

Aug. 2-3, Cincinnati -- We went to the Sunday matinee game vs the Pirates, the only day game on our trip. It was fairly warm outside, which amazingly was the last time on this trip that the temperature was anything but perfect. We got incredibly lucky in that regard. Before the game, we checked out the Reds Hall of Fame. It was really well put-together with a bunch of cool memorabilia featuring the Big Red Machine, the Nasty Boys, and the "Wall of Balls," a three-story-tall wall of baseballs representing every one of Pete Rose's record 4,256 hits.
The stadium was probably my favorite of the whole trip (not counting Wrigley), although I really enjoyed every place we visited. It would be splitting hairs to even try to rank the stadiums. The Great American Ballpark was built around the same time as the parks in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, and all three do a great job of showing off their city's downtown skyline. The only things that would give Cincy the nod over St, Louis and Pittsburgh is that Busch Stadium was a little tricky to navigate and the concourse in Pittsburgh was way too narrow, leading to massive congestion. (In fairness to Pittsburgh, the games we went to were sold out which is pretty rare occurrence there.) The highlight of the game in Cincy was the beanball war that resulted in a couple of bench clearings and five ejections. The Pirates won 3-0.
We played our first poker of the trip at the Horseshoe in Cincinnati. The casino was beautiful and had great food, the nicest one we went to. Chad and I both walked away with a little profit.

Aug. 4-5, Pittsburgh -- The weather was amazing and the view of the city from the river was breathtaking. The Cubs were in town and we went to two games here, the only stadium we visited more than once. We had good seats both nights, once on the first base side and the next night on the third base side. I much preferred the third base side because we had a constant view of the gorgeous skyline. My Cubbies won the first game 5-0 but the Pirates won the second contest. We witnessed long home runs from a couple of my favorite Cubs, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo, as well as a dominating pitching performance from my favorite Cub pitcher, Jake Arrieta.
On Aug. 5, we went downtown early and parked at Rivers Casino, which was almost as nice as Cincy's Horseshoe. After playing poker for a few hours, we walked about a mile from the casino to the stadium. It was so nice outside we didn't even break a sweat. After the game we walked back to the casino and I picked up a little more loose change before we hit the road for Cleveland.

Aug. 6-7, Cleveland -- Cleveland was a bit of a paradox for me. As a city, it was my least favorite by far. But while I expected to be unimpressed by the stadium, I really enjoyed it and this was the most fun I had at a game the entire trip. I would say that in our experience the fans here were more personable and friendly than anywhere else.
We arrived on Aug. 6, which was a day off for the Indians so we played poker at the Horseshoe Cleveland. The casino was just OK and the poker room was really loud. At least Chad made some money there.
I thought the whole town was kinda dumpy, and it didn't help that we saw prostitutes on the street less than two blocks from the airbnb where we were staying. We got this airbnb largely because it had a washer/dryer and we needed to do laundry since this was the midpoint of our trip, however the washer was 30 years old and located in a basement filled with dirt and junk. The dryer didn't work, so we had to air dry our clothes.
On Aug. 7 I dropped Chad off at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn't too interested in it myself because I have a different definition of Rock and Roll than they do, and also I wanted to get in a few more hours of poker. Because the casino is located in the heart of downtown (and right next to the baseball stadium), you have to pay to park there unless you play a certain amount of poker (or other forms of gambling), so I figured I'd get us some free parking and hopefully make some money as well. Unfortunately, I would have been better off financially paying for parking every day for a couple years.
The loss didn't sour my mood for baseball, however, and like I said it was the best game of the trip. Progressive Field didn't show off the skyline like the previous stadiums, but it was built more vertically than horizontally, meaning the park was more intimate and the fans closer to the action. We were in the outfield bleachers and had a great time interacting with the fans by us. Behind us was a group of four Twins fans who had had a few to drink and were quite boisterous. Next to us was three Indians fans who were quite knowledgeable about the home team. Those groups interacted peacefully despite their allegiances. We made it known that we were neutral and thus celebrated every big play with the fans of each team. The game was a see-saw affair that the Twins wound up winning 10-9.

Aug, 8, Detroit -- Detroit was a quick stop for us, just the one day with no attempt to play poker there. We arrived several hours before the game and decided to drive across the bridge to Canada, mainly just to say we were there. We had no problem getting into Canada, and we drove around for about 20 minutes before deciding that Windsor wasn't much different from America and now we could say we've been there, so we might as well head back to Detroit. At the U.S. border, however, we were asked to pull off for a search and some questioning. We ended up being there for an hour and a half, which was a little nerve-racking and not exactly how I envisioned spending our lone day in Detroit. They let us go without incident, but for those scoring at home, we spent 20 minutes in Canada and 90 minutes at border security, which I guess beats getting mugged in Detroit.
Comerica Park was pretty cool, although the kids' area with the carousel made me wish I had my kids with me. The game against the Red Sox was packed, and we had some of the worst seats available in all of Major League Baseball. Still, I enjoyed the brisket nachos and frozen custard at the game. We walked around the stadium and took in most of the game from the concourse at various points of the stadium, carrying on a nice conversation with a lifelong Detroit native and Tigers fan. David Ortiz hit a long home run but the Tigers held on in a great game, 7-6.

Aug, 9-12, Chicago -- We spent Aug. 9 and Aug. 12 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, just outside of Chicago, with the baseball games in between. The casino was kind of dumpy but it was the biggest poker room we played in, and I wound up doing pretty well there and turning a decent profit for the trip. Aug. 12 was my 9-year anniversary with Missy, which I celebrated by eating a lot at the buffet 800 miles away from my wife.
Aug. 10 was Angels vs White Sox at US Cellular Field. We had dinner at a bar across the street from the stadium, but I wish we had eaten the park food, because it smelled amazing and they had a ton of different options. The next day, before the Cubs game, we met a well-traveled Cubs fan who said the food at US Cellular is the best in the major leagues, and I can believe it despite only getting a churro there.
The atmosphere at the stadium was far and away the most relaxed of any place we went. For starters, the stadium was less than half full. But even so, the crowd was passe despite both teams being in the playoff hunt and the White Sox throwing their best pitcher, Chris Sale. After walking around the stadium prior to the first pitch, we noticed there were virtually no ushers patrolling the seats. So instead of heading to the upper deck seats we paid for, we took some unoccupied seats right behind home plate and never had to move. It was pretty cool to see the best player in baseball (Angels outfielder Mike Trout) go against one of the game's top pitchers from such a great vantage point. Sale and the Sox routed L.A. 8-2. If I had to rank the stadiums on our trip, this might be last on the list just because it's the oldest (besides Wrigley) and kinda boring, but I still really enjoyed it and would definitely go to another game there in the future. I really liked the laxxed environment and would love to sample more of the food.
Before the Aug. 11 Cubs game, I had some shopping to do so we headed to Wrigleyville several hours ahead of time. I got shirts for Missy, my mom, and all of the kids. I also splurged for a vintage-looking Andre Dawson jersey since we are naming our next baby Hawk after him.
I've been to Wrigley several times but not since Missy and I came while she was pregnant with Addison 7 years ago. They just put up huge new scoreboards in left and right field, and I was a little concerned that they would take away from the quaintness and old-time feel that makes Wrigley so special and unique. Instead, I was surprised by how much better the scoreboards make the experience. Because they are behind the field of play and the bleachers, you can watch the game without them getting in the way at all. But then after the play, you can watch a HD replay or see stats just like any other stadium. The old hand-operated scoreboard is still up in centerfield with all the out-of-town scores, and you can still see Lake Michigan in the distance. It's the best place in the world to watch a baseball game and the Cubs beat Milwaukee 6-3 on a 75-degree night in Chicago. It was a perfect way to end the trip.

Aug. 13, on the road -- We considered going to a game in Kansas City on our way back, and that would have been a good one as the Angels beat the Royals 7-6 with a ninth-inning rally. But we've both been to that stadium several times (it's behind only Wrigley and Fenway on my favorites list) and we met Aften in Overland Park, Kansas to help load up a couch she bought for them on Craigslist. I was missing my family anyway so I dropped Chad off with his wife and took I-35 all the way home. Woke up in Illinois and went to bed in Oklahoma City, with lunch at Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, MO. It was a long day and a long two weeks but it was worth it. Made a lifetime of memories and even a little money. I'm super grateful to Chad for putting up with me and to Skype for letting me see my family often enough to keep me sane.

P.S. I'll be sure to refer back to this blog in two years when Missy leaves me here with four kids to go to Paris without me.