Pittsburgh Pirates @ Milwaukee Brewers

The second game on our trip was between National League Central Division rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the first place Milwaukee Brewers. For someone like me, it was also extremely important to note that this was our second game in a row that the stadium was selling hot-dogs for $1.  In the past 48 hours I have consumed 10 hotdogs, and only spent $10!!

Milwaukee is a cool stadium because they have a retractable roof, so since it was about 35 degrees and rainy, they were able to cover the whole place, and make the game much more enjoyable. It was definitely like "Kids day" at the park, because it seems like there were hundreds of little kids there, and because of the kids, the ballpark had plenty of games and attractions to keep them all entertained. Of course, Milwaukee also had the sausage races in the middle of the 6th, and today's winner was the Chorizo!


As a whole, the fans in Milwaukee were a pretty interesting bunch, I am choosing to do one of my research projects on the fans at each ballpark, so this was something that interested me the most. In Milwaukee, they were out of control. They were yelling the whole time, but instead of being positive and cheering for their teams, they instead focused on yelling at the pirates and their fans. At one point, they got so out of control that one of them even spilled his drink onto Mikey!


Of course, at Miller Park there was also baseball being played that day. The starters were Wandy Rodriguez and Yovani Gallardo. Neither pitcher had a spectacular outing, but it seemed like for almost the whole game, the Pirates had control! That all changed in the bottom of the ninth, when Khris Davis had a walk-off single after missing terribly on his previous two swings! Brewers win, with the final score being 4-3! I have been to plenty of baseball games in my life, but this was the first walk-off I have witnessed in person! I know as we head west this is just the beginning of the excitement!!

Until the Next Adventure,
Ryan Rey

First real van trip! Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis

Today is the day! After months of planning, eight students and one fearless professor are off to 17 professional baseball games during the next month. We left this morning on our first trip, to Target Field in Minneapolis to watch the Twins take on the Boston Red Sox. We began our trip with a quick game of catch in the parking lot at Coe, and it allowed all of us to stretch out before our five hour drive, in a beautiful 15 passenger van.


On our way up, we made two stops one at a Gas Station/ Culvers for a quick lunch and the other at the Minnesota state rest area, and sticking to the theme of our May Term, we always found a way to make time to play catch.  I hope that as this trip continues and the drives go from an easy five hours to a 20 hour drive from Kansas City to Denver, we continue to make time for catch!

We arrived at our hotel in Eden Prairie Minnesota at around 2, which gave us just enough time to check into our hotels, and take a solid 45 minute nap! The nap proved to be just what we all needed, before we headed into the heart of Minneapolis for the game!

Until The Next Adventure,
Ryan Rey