OK, firstly, I must confess this is a slight departure from my usual Saturday posts. Yes, its a ball game, no its not in Essex and no its not with a football.
I was on holiday in the USA and got invited by my good friend and fellow Police Unity Tour cyclist, Mike to join him and other mutual friends at the game. Thanks for sorting out the tickets Mike.
The only problem was that I got invited to this game after booking my holiday flights. I was due to arrive at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey at 2030 ( USA time or 0130 UK time) on the evening of 16 September, some 450 miles from Cleveland. This game was an afternoon game, so I had to be in Cleveland for around 1400 the next day.
After getting out of airport, we ( my drinking partner in crime aka my son or according to many on this trip, my brother Tom!)drove around 150 miles to an overnight stay in Pennsylvania. By the time we got to hotel, around 0130, I had been up for 24 hours. Luckily for him, Tom was not insured to drive, being under 25 years of age, so he could drink on plane and sleep in car.
Five hours sleep and we were back on the road again heading to our hosts house in Hudson near Cleveland. Only another 300 miles to drive this morning. Remember, driving a strange vehicle the size of a small country and on the wrong side of the road.
The one good thing was my friends and hosts, Phil and Tiffany drove from Hudson into the centre of Cleveland. The first thing that I noted was that Phil was able to stop immediately opposite the turnstiles to drop us off, and then parked the car in a car park next to the ground. Imagine pulling up outside Old Trafford, or Stamford Bridge and trying to park within 100 yards of the ground. Mind you parking was $25 for the game, so not cheap. However, and this is a constant feature of our trip. Parking is readily available in US cities because people are prepared to pay for it.
Getting into the ground, there was noticeably a lack of aggressive policing or stewarding. Indeed inside the ground there was no obvious sign of police or stewards. There were stewards there, but instead of the in your face approach and hi viz you get in the UK, they blended into the background and were there to help not order you around.
An example being when entering the ground I set off the metal detector and had to go through additional security. This was all done with good grace and great humour. The security official even sending me on the way with the comment, "Enjoy the game, mind you, its not cricket"
The ground is a new 30,000 seater stadium in the heart of a regenerating Cleveland. I was last in Cleveland around 4 years ago and it is amazing to see how much this former industrial city built on the steel industry has re generated. It is a beautiful and seemingly thriving city now on the edge of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. It is the home of Rock and Roll.
We had excellent seats, behind the batting position nearly in line with pitcher and way up high on level 5. A top of table clash between 2 of best sides in country, and only $18 admission. The game itself was a top of table clash with both sides going for the play offs. At the end of normal time ( 9th innings) it was still 0-0. In the first extra innings, Cleveland got a home run to win the game. 3 hours or so of excellent entertainment.
Between innings, there was lots of entertainment and activity, including, mascot races, give aways, competitions etc. All designed to add to the fun. A bit more interesting than the meat draw at half time at non league football grounds.
What did I learn?
- A modern well designed sports ground makes a ground more attractive to spectators
- There are lots of food and drink facilities in the ground
- They employ people to bring beers to you at your seat ( and for any Northern League officials watching this, there was no trouble despite this being a top of table derby game)
- Beer is expensive - $9 a can, That is around £7 for a can of beer.
- Scoreboards are huge in USA.
- Floodlights are far more interesting than in UK.
- I actually enjoyed the baseball - mind you that may have had more to do with the company. It was good to meet up with friends from Police Unity Tours gone by.
- Despite it being a top of the table clash, fans were treated with dignity and respect by the stewards and officials. This was repaid by the behaviour of the fans.
- There appear to be no programmes at games.
- I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and have to say would rather watch sport like this than the way fans at sport are generally treated in the UK (certainly at the higher levels)
After our meal and drinks, we headed back to the car park, only to find it was locked 90 minutes after the game finished. The car park was secured and no way to get vehicle out until the following morning. Now, Phil and Tiffany live 30 miles or so away from Cleveland.... but fortunately they have such good friends, that one of them drove a 60 mile round trip at around midnight to pick us up and refused to take any petrol money. That is what I call a good friend.
The Winking Lizard pub did serve a beer specifically named for me.
This was the first full day of our holiday and a fantastic welcome to the legendary hospitality of our US cousins.
Finally, thanks to the wonders of twitter, I was able to know that Spennymoor Town had won in the FA Cup that day. All in all a good day.
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