Final Thoughts on SoCal

Good day everybody!

I hope all of you are gearing up for an exciting 4th of July and all the surrounding festivities for the holiday. Here in Creswell, we're all getting ready for the large parade through town. I thought I would post this before grabbing a spot on the parade route. I have also delayed this posting because I wanted to gather my thoughts in order about this past trip.

Baseball Roadtrips were a concept I created back in 2007. When I first concocted the idea of traveling around the country seeing games, this particular trip always was forefront on my mind. I think I did a great job planning it, I saw a lot of neat things, met up with some great people, and had an overall great time.

Angel Stadium was a very fun place to see a game. The Angels organization has done a great job of distancing themselves from the Disney-led image to create a pleasurable experience at a game. While I wish that Angel Stadium was a downtown park, I'm willing to cut it some slack because of all the good qualities. It ranks very high in my book of ballparks.

Orange County was a very interesting experience. There is so much money there, but what separates it from other rich metropolises I've been to is the image of it all. Vancouver, Chicago and San Francisco are all cities that require lots of wealth to live in, but it just seemed that Orange County flaunted the wealth more. In Newport, Mazeratis, Porsches, Beemers were everywhere, and the developments of palatial mansions seemed to spread as far as the eye could see. It was something that I was not used to as I grew up in a modest family from modest means. While there were parts of Orange County that were modest, the wealth of a certain few municipalities overshadowed all of it. It makes me wonder if the people who have all that wealth and live in those ocean-view mansions of Newport are really happy with themselves. It is not my place to judge them, but I just wonder.

Arrowhead Credit Union Park was a neat place to take in a game, but it suffers the same fate as the park in Fresno, great ballpark, but lousy location. It was very unique in it's design and I felt very comfortable at the park. It shined with an openness that can only come through a Minor League park. I felt invited and welcomed. If you eliminate the smog, the view behind the fence of the San Bernardino Mountains will probably be one of the best in the entire country. Certainly one of the better Minor League parks I have been to.

The same cannot be said for the city of San Bernardino. The city is decrepit, abandon, dirty and I felt very unsafe walking around downtown after dark. I guess this is an example of a failed attempt to redevelop a downtown area around a ballpark. I said the same thing after my visit to Fresno in 2008, thus I draw a lot of similarities between the two parks and cities. The only inference I can make as to the failure here is that San Bernardino and Fresno just have these stereotypes of grittiness and insecurity in there downtown which dissuades businesses from settling there. The years of neglect really were showing and it is too bad when you consider such a gem of a ballpark San Bernardino had. Maybe it would take an increase in police protection or massive investment into economic redevelopment to save this dying city. It is a shame and it makes me sad inside.

The final park I went to was Petco in San Diego. I had a wonderful time there and it was a refreshing change of scenery from Orange County and San Bernardino. Petco was a quirky park that really created it's own unique identity. The downtown setting was awesome and added to the experience as a whole. I really enjoyed the whole experience of the Park at the Park, I really dug the whole Western Metal Supply Company Building built right into the park but what really made me enjoy myself the most were the fans. Everyone who sat around me were so gracious and pleasant. Nice enough, in fact, that I went out and had a drink with a few of them after the game. I have rarely seen this at the Major League level as most fans are drunk and belligerent.

San Diego as a city was a nice change of pace from the two previous cities. It seemed that San Diegans were more committed to green forms of transportation, i.e. walking and public transit than their neighbors to the north. The downtown area felt safe and inviting. The Gaslamp Quarter around the ballpark is a fun area that even draws people not affiliated with the baseball game. What puzzles me, however, is why San Diego became such a different community than Orange County and LA above it? Why didn't the culture of wealth (not necessarily the prevalence of it as some downtown properties in San Diego are worth millions) seep into the city? Questions that can be answered at a later, but the bottom line is this: I really dug San Diego. Out of the three places I visited, I tolerated San Diego the best.

So, now what? This was the only trip I had planned for the summer. I need to figure out some stuff first before I plan some more. Where to? I don't know. But I will certainly keep this blog running and I will most certainly update all of you as to the status for the rest of the summer.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)