Believe it or not, last Friday I took in my first baseball game of the 2023 season when I made the trip to Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH to see your Philadelphia Phillies take on the Cleveland Guardians. If you haven't listened to the pod about my experiences, you can find it here:
I had been traveling for work and was coming north from Columbus, OH for this game. It involved me making about a 2 hour detour to get there, but the evening was beautiful and just about as perfect as you could expect for baseball, so I'm glad I did:
On arrival, I found some exorbitant prices for parking near the stadium:
Come on, man. Thanks to my experience a few months back when I traveled to this same area to see the Sixers, I had a much more affordable parking spot planned. My recommendation would be to park further out and take the train in, or walk if you're parked close enough.
I arrived early enough that I was able to rent a Lime bike and ride up to 4th street, full of many shops and restaurants. My destination was Butcher & the Brewer on the right:
After a quick pint, I hopped back on the bike to head down to the stadium:
I didn't know at the time, but the lines were long because of an earlier opening to the stadium. Rather than leave, I chose to wait for about 20 minutes until the gates opened at 5PM, a half hour earlier than usual:
The reason for the early opening was expected high attendance. It was a Friday already, but the stadium was also featuring $2 beers, dollar dogs, free t-shirts, and fireworks after the game. Quite a big to do, I'd say.
Arriving early allowed me to explore even more of the stadium, including these fun standing room areas in several spots throughout the stadium (this one is just past the right field foul pole):
I was also able to take in some batting practice:
And finally, I explored Heritage Park in the outfield, featuring many Cleveland baseball legends. I was surprised at how many plaques there were here:
And those are just some of the first level of inductees. There's a whole extra level downstairs and closer to the bullpens if you keep going:
Notice that one of the walls above still says "Indians." I mentioned the Jim Thome statue on the podcast. Here it is, the centerpiece of the outfield concourse:
It's tough to tell, but I believe he is also the inspiration behind the figures on the sides of the end seats of each row:
Food and beverage options include a coffee and gelato bar. I've never seen this in a baseball stadium before:
I've also never seen a beer tunnel. It was little more than a row of refrigerators with a register, lined up behind this sign:
Rather than go for the tunnel, I chose to patronize brewery stands such as this one, which included the Craft Lager beer of the show from this week:
This installment's edition of jersey watch included many Major League references:
AND, the coolest jerseys, from these ladies who are exploring every ballpark in the major leagues:
Some assorted pictures from the upper concourse:
I mentioned the shipping containers in the outfield (you'll see them below, eventually). Here's the view from the top of one of them:
It was a truly beautiful night for baseball:
I managed to find the mascot at some point:
I held true to my tradition of keeping score as well:
Here's the view of those shipping containers. It doesn't look all that bad since they covered them with pennants and etc, but I'm interested to return once the renovation of this area is complete:
And finally, a fireworks display to end the evening:
The Phillies didn't win, but I still had a good time:
