The main destination, of course, was Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. That being said, it's a 12-hour drive from the Chicago area to Cooperstown, and while that's doable, I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing it all in one shot.
Cleveland is about the halfway point, and we stopped there from two days July 20-21, and of course, we took in a game between the Indians and the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field on that Saturday night.
The Tribe had a big crowd, much to my surprise, and we ended up with seats in the nosebleed section. We were in the upper deck, in the last section down the left-field line. Or maybe they just stuck us up there because the person at the box office noticed my Chicago hat.
Anyway, here was the view:
Yeah, we were way up there. It was about 95 degrees with a heat index of 106 that night, and I give full credit to the ushers in Cleveland: They passed out free cups of ice to anyone who wanted one. That seems like a small thing, but that would never happen at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, where they apparently inventory cups for some reason.
One feature of the ballpark I liked? Well, what's the one thing Sox fans have in common with Indians fans? We both like Jim Thome, and Thome is prominently featured with a statue and a plaque in the Indians' ring of honor in center field:
For the record, the Royals beat the Indians, 1-0, on a home run by Hunter Dozier in the first inning. I wasn't expecting a big pitcher's duel between Jakob Junis and Adam Plutko, but I wasn't complaining about a game that finished in less than three hours on a hot, humid night.
Plutko gave up that homer the third batter of the game, and Junis and three Kansas City relievers combined on a three-hit shutout.
One thing I learned early in my logistics career is that cups are a MAJOR inventory item. Most outfits count how many sodas were sold based on how many cups were used. Even though a lot of the sales are logged at the register now, the cups are still used as a frequent double-check. It's why McDona'd's, Taco Bell, etc. give you a different-looking cup when you ask for tap water. So if this cup thing wouldn't happen at Sox Park, it's because the concessionaire SportService is counting the cups.
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