Visitors:

We're about to embark on our next journey!

July 20 - Rockies @ SF Giants

July 21 - Rockies @ LA Dodgers

July 22 - Cards @ SD Padres

July 23 - Vegas bound!

July 26 - Mike gets married

In our last poll, BPRT readers falsely predicted Nomar to be the starting SS for the AL All-Star Team (37.5% - 27.5% over A-ROD). Though Nomar had a strong win in the Player vote, A-ROD edged him out in the eyes of the fans.

The Trip:

Getting back and forth from coast to coast is not a trivial matter when trying to collect all of the major league baseball parks but a major advantage to the BallparkRoadtripper has developed within the past few years. The dawn of per-segment-rated airlines has revolutionized the way people can travel and visit baseball parks. Companies like Southwest and now JetBlue have made the entire continental United States accessible without worrying about starting and ending in the same spot. Mike and I will be taking full advantage of this relatively new travel concept by flying from the east coast to Dauber’s stomping ground in the Bay Area. The Pi Lambda Phi brotherhood infiltrates virtually every major market so we’ll be able to flex those connections again by crashing with Dauber while in town. Then we’ll load up his Blazer for the trip to L.A., San Diego and Vegas after paying our respects at the shrine on McCovey cove.

The Game:
The Rockies at the Giants should be a decent matchup of NL West rivals. The Giants will be spending 162 games defending their NL title this year while keeping their roster pretty much intact. Despite the loss of Jeff Kent at 2B they bring in formidable veteran Ray Durham who fills that void nicely. They’ve got a decent rotation, picking up starter Damian Moss in a trade with Atlanta shipping out Russ Ortiz. Moss was worth noting as a rookie last year putting up some promising numbers. Their pen is questionable, but Nen is an elite closer who can seal the deal.

Bonds is the man. We’re all looking forward to seeing a first ballot hall-of-famer and baseball legend play in front of us.

The Rockies are sucking wind at this point. Their pitching is questionable at best. Helton should pick it up after having a below par season last year. The acquisition of Charles Johnson may be interesting. Poor Charles has been scuffling in Florida the past couple of years, but there may still be some pop in his bat. I’ve wagered on him being a sleeper in two of my deeper fantasy leagues. Jose Hernandez will also be an interesting prospect. The light air may allow him to straighten out his swing and make contact more often. Hopefully he won’t be looking at 170-180 K’s again like last year’s debacle in Milwaukee.

The Park:
Oh Yes, Pac Bell! I think this might be the Fenway/Wrigley of the west. It only holds about 40,000 fans and is quaintly located adjacent to the ocean. Like the classic parks, Pac Bell isn’t geometrically boring, it conforms to the geography and is restricted by the streets and waterfront. The “splash-down” effect is genius in the current era of home run hitters, especially with this being Barry’s house. It even has it’s own bizzaro-mini-monster in right field (rather than left). It seems that the Red Sox may be taking a page out of Pac Bell’s book by adding seats on top of the timeless Green Monster. I particularly look forward to sampling some of the sushi at in the greater Pac Bell area. San Francisco is famous for their seafood. Interestingly enough, this will my first trip EVER to the west coast. As a result I’m very impressionable, but don’t expect to be disappointed.

Legend

= already visited

= scheduled

= not visited