San Diego Padres - Mandi

Sorry it has taken me so long to write. My computer died, been working, and finally just got back to Texas with Dan! 

Last summer, the end of July, Dan and I took a trip to San Diego.  First of all, San Diego is an amazing city and I would recommend going to anyone!  We went on the beaches, mountains are beautiful, botanical gardens, and baseball games.  It's a great date city for sure.  I can't remember the names of all the places we went, but when Dan gets home, I will ask and update!  The very first night we were there, we went to a Padres game.  We were seated in the upper deck.  It was a perfect view of the whole stadium.  During the innings, they played games like they do at minor league games which was very entertaining.  Of course being with Dan, we walked around the whole stadium, which was open, so we were able to stand behind home plate and watch as well.  Pretty cool.  I think Dan would do better at rating this stadium than I would so I will let him do the honors there. 

It was located in the middle of the city.  We took a trolley to get there because we were staying on the Navy base.  Everything you can do in San Diego is within reasonable driving distance. I will write some more later, when Dan gets home and tells me the name of things!  I can't remember the names, but I do remember it was one of the best vacations Dan and I have ever been on together! 

Classiest Move In Baseball (Dan)

In baseball news, the Texas Rangers drafted the University of Georgia's Johnathan Taylor in the 33rd Round in this year's Amateur Draft. What's so special about this? Mr. Taylor was paralyzed from the waist down after an on-field collision with a teammate from this past season. The Rangers had expressed interest in him and had been scouting him for some time apparently:

"We thought selecting Johnathan was the right thing to do," Rangers director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg said. "We would have drafted him either way, regardless of any other circumstances involving his injury or Zach's draft status. Our area scout in Georgia, Ryan Coe, has had a relationship with Johnathan since he was a high school player. The club has always liked his passion and ability as a player."

 Absolutely the classiest thing I've heard done by a baseball team in a long time. Way to do the right thing, Texas Rangers. I wouldn't be surprised if this was approved as far up as Nolan Ryan, the principal owner of the Rangers, who is known to be one of baseball's "good guys."

You can read the whole article here, courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.

Which Sport is the Best for a Date? (Dan)

According to Brit Martin Rogers, baseball is! From his article (a self titled "Sorta Scientific Study"): 

"Most people buy tickets in sets of two and a large proportion of sports spectators are people on dates," Lehrman says. "Many couples don't enjoy watching sports on television together but like attending it live.
"We have found that baseball tends to be the best couples sport. The action is not continuous, which allows for time spent talking. It has the widest range of food options and there are plenty of natural breaks in the action. If you are looking for a winner on a first date, you can't go wrong."

 I couldn't agree more. He ranks baseball, soccer, hockey and basketball in that order, though I think most Americans would likely have football in that list somewhere too. Despite the fact that he is predisposed to enjoying soccer as a Brit, it's good to see he realized the potential that baseball games have for perfect dates. There's plenty of food options at every stadium, usually some fun antics in between innings and breaks occur naturally instead of a penalty, which is more common in the latter two sports. His article is a fun read as he had to find four different female companions to take to four different events and rate each date.

Something I would also add is that baseball stadiums and fields are all unique - sure they have the same infield dimensions and general shape, but that's about it - and that's part of what makes baseball so great - the Yankees with their short right porch and facade, the Rockies with their mile-high stadium, the warehouse in the right field of Camden Yards - every single stadium is unique, especially nowadays, whereas one basketball/hockey stadium is hardly different from one another, not to mention the playing dimensions are all the same. Baseball stadiums are becoming more and more part if a city landscape and are more and more representative of a city's culture as well, which I think adds something great to a date.