LoanDepot Park, Miami (MLB #14 - On the Road Again)

 

 

We are back on the road again for Year Three of our quest to see all 30 MLB parks (two games in each park) plus all 30 AAA parks in a five-year period. So far, we’ve been to 25 parks, including two (Oakland and Salt Lake City) that are no longer being used by MLB or AAA. This year, we plan to see 13 more. So we’re on track to get to all 60 in a five-year period, although there will be more short trips to one or two cities, the total number depending on how many times we get rained out.

For the first two years, most of our games were parts of long-ish (two to four weeks) driving trips from our home in Tucson. But we’ve now gotten to all the parks west of the Mississippi except for Seattle and Tacoma, so we’re starting a different mode this year. We have two two-week long trips planned to specific areas of the country, where we’ll fly into one city, drive to various parks, then fly home. However, it turns out that the way commercial travel works, we have constraints other than the baseball schedule.

Rules of the road

For our first trip of the year, which started today, we’re flying into Miami, going to two Marlins game, then renting a car, driving up to Tampa, Jacksonville (AAA) and the Atlanta area (the Braves and their AAA team, the Gwinnett Stripers), then driving back to Miami and flying home.

Wait. Why are we driving back to Miami? Why not just drop off the car in Atlanta and fly home from there?

First rule of the road: Both the airline and the rental car company that we’re using (American and Enterprise, respectively) charge $200 or more for dropping off the car in a different place than where we rented it, or for flying back out of a different city than we flew into. Actually, we’ll go to two games in Miami, then take a Lyft or Uber to the Miami airport and rent the car there, because the drop-off charge applies to renting in downtown Miami and returning at the airport, as well.

But aren’t there airlines and/or car rental places that don’t have ridiculous drop-off charges? Maybe, but

Second rule of the road: Travel companies give perks to regular customers (“frequent flyers”), so it makes sense to try to stay with one company for a particular service. For us, we fly American Airlines, rent from Enterprise, and stay at hotels in the Marriott chain whenever possible. I’m not going to argue that those three are the best, but I’ll pay a little extra for a known commodity.

I’ve been flying American most of the time, so I’ve now got enough frequent flyer miles that I can almost always get the seat I want (exit row, by the window, to maximize leg room; Kerry’s OK with the middle seat next to it), we get to board very early, and we can even pay for some trips (like this one) with miles I’ve built up over the years. I’ve never been a particularly faithful car renter, but I finally realized I was renting more and more with Enterprise, mostly because I don’t have any horror stories with them. As far as hotels go, Marriotts are ubiquitous and I generally know the layout of a Fairfield Inn or a TowneSuites as soon as I walk in (I can’t afford to stay in J.W. Marriotts enough to get to know them). And every once in a while, when things get wonky, having enough status with American or Marriott can help, because when an employee sees your “number” they can immediately see that you spend enough money with them that they should be nice to you.

Third rule of the road: Even with the places where you’re a regular, there are subtleties, so you have to be careful. The drop-off charges or extra cost for three-city itineraries is one, but there are others. When buying plane tickets with miles, the connections are often far from optimal, and the cost in miles varies depending on the connections. For this trip, we did OK, but on our next trip, we’re flying in and out of Philadelphia, and will have two layovers each direction. Also, being a Marriott member doesn’t get you the best deal at a Marriott – being a member of AAA (the auto club, not the minor league baseball organization) gets you a similar rate, but you can cancel or change your reservation up until a day or two before, whereas the equivalent Marriott member rate is non-changeable. And with car rentals, you have to read the fine print – Enterprise does give you a spouse or domestic partner as a driver at no charge, and also lets you take most vehicles into Canada (to see the Blue Jays).

Fourth rule of the road: When possible, stay in hotels that provide breakfast, and buy food in supermarkets. I like eating in restaurants (or in ballparks!), but that gets old quickly. That’s going to be much more difficult when we’re renting a car, but we’ll find out what we can do.

Rules of the quest

It’s our quest, so we make the rules (like going to two games in each MLB park), but there are some aspects we haven’t decided on yet.

What about MLB teams that change parks during the five years? We saw the Athletics in Oakland, and we’ve seen a game (albeit AAA) in Sacramento, so we’ve decided that we’re not going to make another trek to Sacramento. We were planning to see the Rays at legendary (legendarily bad, that is) Tropicana Field this year, but a hurricane wiped out the field, so they’re playing in the Yankees’ Spring Training stadium this year. The latest Tampa Bay politics are such that they may repair the Trop, so if they do, will we make another trip? What if they move to Salt Lake City or Oakland or Montreal before we’re done? That’s TBD.

What about AAA teams that change parks or cities? Salt Lake City is in a new park this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one or two AAA teams that we saw in 2023 or 2024 are playing somewhere else by 2027. I think it depends on whether they move to a place we want an excuse to visit. And finally,

What if we get rained out? Our only rainout so far was in Round Rock last year, and our schedule was such that we could go to a game the next day and then just make a long, long drive the day after that. But I fear this will happen to us again somewhere. Oh well, I’ve got lots of American miles, and we’ve already done one trip (to Salt Lake City) where we flew in one morning, saw a game that evening, and flew back the next morning. But flights from Phoenix to Salt Lake City are plentiful, and fairly short. What if it’s Rochester, N.Y.? I suspect we’ll make the flight (buying it with frequent flyer miles, and with terrible connections).

In any case, this quest is a great way to see the U.S. (and Toronto), and to see lots of baseball.

The game:

Miami beat Cincinnati, 4-3. The game was a generally well-played pitcher's duel through 5 innings, with Cincinnati leading 2-1. The Reds got another run in the sixth, in large part because they stole three bases in the inning, then the Marlins got back one run in the bottom of the sixth, and two in the seventh. The eventual winning run scoring when the Reds' pitcher picked up a ball trickling along the first base line - maybe it would have gone foul, maybe not - then tried to throw it over or around the batter running to first (I don't think he had decided which), and threw it past the first baseman, allowing a run to score. 

The most intriguing player of the game was definitely the Marlins catcher, Agustín Ramírez, playing in his second major league game. The first thing I noticed was that he was having a lot of trouble throwing out baserunners. The Reds had four stolen bases in the game, the same number of stolen bases we'd seen  in the five previous games we've been to this year - total. He also tried to steal third when the pitcher wasn't looking, except that he's not that fast, and the pitcher noticed in time to throw him out. On the other hand, he got on base every time he batted, with a walk, a single, and two very hard hit doubles. In fact, after two games in the majors, he has three doubles, two singles, two walks, and one out. Will he throw out a baserunner before the major league pitchers find the hole in his swing? It will be interesting to see, but at the moment, he's really fun to watch.

The park:

LoanDepot Park (corporate names for stadiums are often pretty ugly) has some things going for it, most notably a great view of the Miami skyline when the roof is open (see the photo at the start of this entry), and a quirkly bobblehead museum (more about that later). Unfortunately, not many people get to see it. Tonight's attendance was 7,996. The first game we went to this year, the Cubs were in Phoenix, and the crowd was over 49,000. It was Opening Day, which helps, but the attendance at each of the next two games was over 35,000. I like to walk the concourse a half-hour or so before the game and see how many people have gear from each time. When the Cubs played in Phoenix, my count before the first game was about 500 to 200, in favor of the Diamondbacks. Tonight it was 42-24 in favor of the Marlins. The were also about 40 in the concourse with U.S. Navy uniforms, and 18 members of a high school baseball team in their uniforms.