Greazy, here... XL and I left York yesterday at about 3, and beet a path north toward Western New York. Along the way we stopped at Skeeters BBQ, where Inky and I ate a few weeks back. With the aid of Karen, My Aussie voiced GPS unit, we discovered that we weren't too far from Rochester New York, the home of the AAA Red Wings. So we reprogrammed Karen to take us toward Rochester and took in a few innings of a game there.
It's a nice park, and the food and drink options are tremendous. (Note, when I get back to HQ I'll be adding pictures to all of these posts.) We had a white-hot and a Red-hot for dinner, of which we both agree the red-hot is far superior. The Wings used to be the O's AAA affiliate so most of their Hall of famers are one time Orioles including a certain third baseman...no not Cal Ripken (who is honored both in the Red Wings Hall and with his own separate monument) but Jeff Manto who once played the hot corner for the O's as well. He was a scrub, but a hard nosed, hard working scrub and I always liked him. He also once homered in 4 straight at bats.
From Rochester we headed west to Buffalo where we checked into a hotel room in Niagara Falls. (I don't want to sound like a queer or nothing, but the Falls are very romantic.) XL and I got up and at it early today and hoofed it into Canada. We walked down to the maid of the mist and took our ride out to the falls. I think XL was a bit caught up in the moment because he kept 'bumping into me.'
After our morning at the falls we stopped on over at Ted's Red Hots and had us some lunch, more meat. Then we spent the afternoon in downtown Buffalo at Dunn Tire Park. The Hometown Bia-son (that's how the PA announcer said it.) were taking on the Charlotte Knights. As it turned out, Bia-son left fielder, Trent Durrington hails from my favorite country: Australia. And I was wearing my world baseball classic Australia Jersey. Before the start of the 4th inning I called out bit support for Trent, and he took notice of my Jersey.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked. I told him, and the inning commenced. After the first pitch, I heard a loud whistle coming from Left Field. "Who's name is on the back of that" Trent asked. "Mine" is said, to which he replied "Cause that's my number." Who knew Trent Durrington was #7, I got it because the Aussie Star has 7 points. My number is 5, the same as Cal Ripken wore in Rochester. Oh and speaking of third basemen, Jeff Manto's number is also retired by the Bia-son. As Durrington and I were wrapping up our conversation, held at a thousand paces, we both heard the crack of the bat. Looking up I saw the ball screaming toward Left Center. Trent heard it too, but luckily so did the Center Fielder who cut in front of him to make the catch.
Sounds like a lot for one day doesn't it? Well we were far from done. After we finished up at the Buffalo game we high tailed it down here to Binghamton where we caught a game between The home town B-Mets and the Bowie Baysox, the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The team Cal Ripken and Jeff Manto played for. Maybe you've heard of them.
While at the game I discovered that there are some really foul smelling people in Binghamton. I also discovered that when presented with the opportunity to
buy two beers for the price of one, XL will do so. And since I don't drink anymore, he also took one for the team and drank both of them... twice. Four big ole beers later XL was feeling good'a and we were ready to check into the hotel. And that's where we are now. That was one long day!
And we still have two Aberdeen Iron Birds games to go, one in Oneonta and one in Cooperstown. The Ironbirds, you may know, are owned by Cal Ripken, who is going to be in Cooperstown on Sunday for his Hall of fame Induction. Jeff Manto wont be there, but XL and I will.
It's a nice park, and the food and drink options are tremendous. (Note, when I get back to HQ I'll be adding pictures to all of these posts.) We had a white-hot and a Red-hot for dinner, of which we both agree the red-hot is far superior. The Wings used to be the O's AAA affiliate so most of their Hall of famers are one time Orioles including a certain third baseman...no not Cal Ripken (who is honored both in the Red Wings Hall and with his own separate monument) but Jeff Manto who once played the hot corner for the O's as well. He was a scrub, but a hard nosed, hard working scrub and I always liked him. He also once homered in 4 straight at bats.
From Rochester we headed west to Buffalo where we checked into a hotel room in Niagara Falls. (I don't want to sound like a queer or nothing, but the Falls are very romantic.) XL and I got up and at it early today and hoofed it into Canada. We walked down to the maid of the mist and took our ride out to the falls. I think XL was a bit caught up in the moment because he kept 'bumping into me.'
After our morning at the falls we stopped on over at Ted's Red Hots and had us some lunch, more meat. Then we spent the afternoon in downtown Buffalo at Dunn Tire Park. The Hometown Bia-son (that's how the PA announcer said it.) were taking on the Charlotte Knights. As it turned out, Bia-son left fielder, Trent Durrington hails from my favorite country: Australia. And I was wearing my world baseball classic Australia Jersey. Before the start of the 4th inning I called out bit support for Trent, and he took notice of my Jersey.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked. I told him, and the inning commenced. After the first pitch, I heard a loud whistle coming from Left Field. "Who's name is on the back of that" Trent asked. "Mine" is said, to which he replied "Cause that's my number." Who knew Trent Durrington was #7, I got it because the Aussie Star has 7 points. My number is 5, the same as Cal Ripken wore in Rochester. Oh and speaking of third basemen, Jeff Manto's number is also retired by the Bia-son. As Durrington and I were wrapping up our conversation, held at a thousand paces, we both heard the crack of the bat. Looking up I saw the ball screaming toward Left Center. Trent heard it too, but luckily so did the Center Fielder who cut in front of him to make the catch.
Sounds like a lot for one day doesn't it? Well we were far from done. After we finished up at the Buffalo game we high tailed it down here to Binghamton where we caught a game between The home town B-Mets and the Bowie Baysox, the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The team Cal Ripken and Jeff Manto played for. Maybe you've heard of them.
While at the game I discovered that there are some really foul smelling people in Binghamton. I also discovered that when presented with the opportunity to
buy two beers for the price of one, XL will do so. And since I don't drink anymore, he also took one for the team and drank both of them... twice. Four big ole beers later XL was feeling good'a and we were ready to check into the hotel. And that's where we are now. That was one long day!And we still have two Aberdeen Iron Birds games to go, one in Oneonta and one in Cooperstown. The Ironbirds, you may know, are owned by Cal Ripken, who is going to be in Cooperstown on Sunday for his Hall of fame Induction. Jeff Manto wont be there, but XL and I will.
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