Interleague Special: Yankees vs Padres and Mets vs Mariners

I got to spend the better part of a week in the New York City area and of course with Yankees Stadium and Shea Stadium closing at the end of the season, I made sure to stop by both for a game.


New York Yankees vs San Diego Padres 06/19/08
On this page: Mostly Yankees (the Padres blended in with the umpire at home plate)
We sat in the bleachers for this game and it was a very different experience from Minute Maid. The fans were highly enthusiastic and had several traditions that were unique. Some of them were a bit disruptive to me as an outsider but oh well. I got jeered at for my Hunter Pence t-shirt but hey, at least they know who he is.


New York Mets vs Seattle Mariners
On this page: Not much
Hernandez gave us the gem of hitting a grand slam on the first pitch of his first at bat despite being an AL pitcher. <3 It stunk for the Mets who I was honestly rooting for but oh well. I liked the atmosphere better at Shea and it and the fans felt more like Minute Maid but that could have been because I was in the infield seats and not the bleachers.

On the new stadiums: New Yankees Stadium is awesome for not getting a sponsor name and having some nice details but it seems too much like the original Yankees Stadium and aside from the addition of new luxury boxes, seems to be almost pointless. I didn't catch if they were extending the outfield at all. I didn't realize Yankees Stadium was so small... here I thought Minute Maid was tiny.
Citi Field looks like it is going to be gorgeous. The brickwork reminds me of Minute Maid but it still has a classic baseball stadium feel about it.
I find it humorous that both new stadiums are being built right next door to the older ones. It made me wonder if Astroworld had closed sooner, if we would've put Minute Maid across the freeway. However the Texans' stadium is next door to the Astrodome instead so perhaps not.

Astros Vs. Brewers

The last game of the series was a weekday day game so it was unusual for me to go but it was better for mom as far as taking off work went. Unfortunately the boys lost but I still got some sketches done and got to take my poster down to the fence before the game.


Astros Vs. Brewers 06/12/08
On this page: Matsui, Lee, Wigginton, Geary

The BLT+P poster was well received! I had fans, security, and some of the trainers compliment me on it. One of the trainers asked if I was selling it and I politely claimed permanent ownership of the poster but that I would gladly do some work for him if he wanted in the future.

But possibly the biggest compliment came from none other than my favorite active player, Hunter Pence!

It was his opinion that himself and Lee were spot on but that I needed "...to work on Tejada". I tried to explain I hadn't gotten to see Tejada play much as this was only my second game to attend this season, but I was tongue tied and I'm not sure if I got the point across.

Later however, Tejada himself came by and signed the poster as well! I didn't get a shot of him doing such as it was unexpected but I did get a shot while he was signing another fan's ball right in front of me.


Maybe I can use it to reference future work.

Drawing Day 2008

I just found this when I logged in to post my drawings from tonight's game.

It's called Drawing Day and you're encouraged to make at least one drawing on June 7, 2008, and share it with the world.

http://www.drawingday.org/blog.html

So I won't be able to get to tomorrow night's game and use that to contribute, but I should be able to get some sketches done. :)

Astros Vs. St Losers and BLT+P Poster

Astros vs. Cardinals 06/06/08
On this page: Moehler, Berkman, Blum
What a great game to come home to! Beat the snot out of the Cardinals, made some awesome runs (even if a good deal of them were off Cardinals errors), Loretta was 4 for 4, and there were fireworks! To top things off, they had used Hunter Pence to promote the Guitar Hero contest before the fireworks. I was grinning ear to ear!

Here's the BLT+P Poster all colored as it debuted tonight!

I didn't get to the game early enough to hold it up down by the dugout to show it to any of the players and Tejada didn't play tonight but there's always next time.

Astros @ Pirates and BLT Poster

Tonight I did some more sketches from TV while out at dinner. Sadly it was the last inning so I only got our 3 up and 3 down before we lost 2 - 3.


Astros @ Pirates 06/04/08
On this page: Villarreal, Erstad (happy birthday!), Pence, Wigginton
I never realized Wigginton held his bat so high above his head. I got to see replays of some of the plays earlier in the game and I was very impressed. I haven't seen Pence play like that in a long while! And Bourn is definitely keeping up his end. And Berkman is so wonderful when he's excited. <3


A fan coined the BLT theme for Berkman, Lee, and Tejada, and some of the announcers decided Pence was the pickle on the side. So I ran with that theme. I have other similar ideas for later.

Spring Training 2008

2008 was my first year to attend an Astros spring training game! It was well worth it!


Spring Training or Bust poster
I used sketches from pages of the 2007 season to create this poster that went in the back of my friend's bus as she drove us to the game.


Earlier before the game had started, I managed to get Dave Barkowski's autograph on a blank page that I then used for the game's sketches.


Astros vs. Marlins - Spring Training 03/21/08
On this page: Barkowski
At first Oswalt was pitching so all I got of Barkowski was him sitting on the bench but eventually he was told to warm up. I was standing right by him the whole time so I got a lot of up close sketching in.


At one point, Michael Bourn came by and I got a high-five outta him!


Late in the game, Hunter Pence came out of the game and signed some autographs including one on my poster I had made for him in the 2007 season.


I used this sketch from a 2007 game to reference the poster.


And here's the poster itself, autographed and all! It now hangs up on my wall along with the ticket stub from the game and an article I found on Pence.