Living Large in Houston
We had two days to ride to Houston from Dallas. We stocked up on our last hotel luxuries and hit the road again early. 6 AM early.
Our goal for the day was to end at College Station. Home of the Texas A & M Aggies. Now of the SEC. Neat destination for us. Usually our destinations were towns at we had never heard in that barely even had a gas station. Needless to say, we were pretty excited to see the home of the 12th man.
Thing was, we were just under 150 miles away. No hay problema for the Biking for Baseball team! We knocked it out and then met at C & J’s BBQ for some good ole Texas BBQ. Our first in the state. Delicious.
We headed to nearby Gibbons Creek Reservoir for a night of camping. It took a bit of convincing to get someone to let us in the campground. But eventually the park ranger let us in. Nice little campground. Pretty reservoir, great campsites, shade from trees and a view of an oil rig. Gorgeous.
The next day we made the final 65 miles into Friendswood, a small town just south of the center of Houston. We had fantastic hosts. The Bulot family. They were out of town celebrating their wedding anniversary and they allowed us to stay in their house while they were away! That’s just crazy nice. And what a welcome!
We instantly did a story with the local Friendswood Reporter and then headed to Red River BBQ for our second dose of Texas BBQ in two days. Can’t get enough! Xtra-large actually had some family in Houston that he had never met. They graciously took the B4B team out to dinner. It was great! Thanks Linda and Gary!
We were well rested and ready for a big day Sunday.
We headed to Settegast Park in downtown Houston. Local Fox Sports Houston writer Tully Corcoran came out in the morning for an interview with the B4B team. He was a great interviewer and great to just talk to. He wrote one of our favorite articles on our story and you can find it here:
15 matches showed up for the day and they even brought fans to fill the seats at the stadium!
We had several kids who had never played baseball before. Always a treat to have rookies and introduce them to the game of baseball. Bring them in to a new sport. Get them all excited to play. See them smile from ear to ear. And then talk about the next time they are going to play. We just got someone new hooked on baseball!
We had a lot of awesome highlights on the day. Dillon had recently won the fastest kid at the Arian Foster football camp. Kid could FLY! He got to everything. Keiland caught his first pop flies and Haley had her first hit.
Everyone braved the heat and humidity for a couple of hours for some baseball fun with biking for baseball. Thanks to Holly and Karen for helping ensure a successful event from the BBBS-Houston side. It was successful indeed!
Thanks everyone for coming! Time to head to catch our 10th home team of the season.
It just so happened that that game we were attending in Houston was also Astros Bike to the Ballpark Day. What an awesome coincidence! So after packing up from the event, we hopped on our bikes for the 1.6 mile trek to the stadium from the park. Not a very big ride at all, but it was a very quick way to get to the stadium, and we got through pre-game traffic very easily. We needed to get through traffic quickly, as we were cutting it close on time after chatting with some BBBS staffers and tending to flat tires.
We met an AP photographer who snapped some pics of us biking to the stadium for a future story, and then we headed straight to will call to pick up our tickets. Usually, we either get tickets donated through BBBS or we buy our own tickets to the game, but neither was the case for this game because of a generous Astros employee. The neighbor of our Phoenix hosts, Mike and Dawn, is a scout for the Astros. His name is Mike as well, and he was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule preparing for the upcoming amateur draft to hook us up with tickets. Thanks Mike!
With tickets in hand, and still not much time left before first pitch, we head to the bike valet that is part of Bike to the Ballpark Day. The Astros do such a great job with this event, its actually kind of a race with bib numbers, and they have a great bike valet. Its very cool, and they encourage people to cycle to games, which is something we hope to share with other teams and stadiums. They safely valeted our bikes and that allowed us to easily get into the stadium with plenty of time before first pitch. Well done Astros!
This game was much better than the last one we saw. Our tickets were the best we’ve had so far; we were 23 rows behind the visiting Cincinnati Reds dugout. Its much different seeing a game from this perspective compared to the cheap seats. You can see the players so much better and are able to see reactions to things you wouldn’t see from our normal perspective. Joey Votto of the Reds was by far the best player on the field, and in his first at bat he was clearly frustrated with a swing he took and fouled a ball off. It looked like he was right on the ball because he fouled it straight back, but he probably thought he should have lined it up the middle or something. Whatever was the case, he had a professional at bat and took a walk. Moneyball style!
We were also able to meet up with a huge baseball fan and stadium connoisseur, Paul. On the side, he travels to stadiums (any stadium, not just baseball) and writes reviews for http://www.stadiumjourney.com/. What a cool gig! Seeing new stadiums is obviously something we share a passion for, so we chatted for a few innings by the home run porch in left field. He says he goes to about 100 baseball games a year. Awesome! He has a great twitter account @Sportingpuma. Follow him. Great to meet Paul.
It was while we were hanging out in left field that the Astros hit the decisive home run of the game. It was a huge pinch hit shot to left field by Justin Maxwell, but we happened to be directly under the home run train display in left field. So we didn’t see that, but we did see a home team with a victory! That evened up the home teams to a .500 record at 5-5. Not bad.
After retrieving our bikes, we pretty much went straight to Ninfa’s Mexican restaurant at the recommendation of Tully Corcoran and several others we’ve met. Tacos al carbon was incredible. Best meal yet. What a way to end a great day in Houston. Off to the Bayou!
Gm 1– 4/13 @ Safeco Field – Oakland A’s @ Seattle Mariners
Oakland wins 4-0 (WP – Colon, LP – Hernandez)
Gm 2 – 4/24 @ O.Co Stadium – Chicago White Sox @ Oakland A’s
Oakland wins 2-0 (WP – Milone, LP – Floyd, SV – Balfour)
Gm 3 – 4/27 @ AT&T Park – San Diego Padres @ San Francisco Giants
San Diego wins 5-3 (WP – Luebke, LP – Hacker, SV – Street)
Gm 4 – 5/3 @ Angels Stadium – Toronto Blue Jays @ LA Angels of Anaheim
Toronto wins 5-0 (WP – Morrow, LP – Haren)
Gm 5 – 5/7 @ Dodger Stadium – SF Giants @ Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodgers win 9-1 (WP – Lilly, LP – Zito)
Gm 6 – 5/8 @ Petco Park – Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres
Padres win 3-1 (WP – Suppan, LP – White, SV – Thayer)
Gm 7 – 5/11 @ Chase Field – San Francisco Giants @ Arizona Diamondbacks
Diamondbacks win 5-1 (WP – Cain, LP – Cahill, SV – Casilla)
Gm 8 – 5/20 @ Coors Field –Seattle Mariners @ Colorado Rockies
Mariners win 6-4 (WP – Beavan, LP – Guthrie)
Gm 9 – 5/30 @ The Ballpark in Arlington – Seattle Mariners @ Texas Rangers
Mariners win 21-8 (WP – Beavan, LP – Holland)
Gm 10 – 6/3 @ Minute Maid Park – Cincinnati Reds @ Houston Astros
Astros win 5-3 (WP Lyles, LP – Arroyo, SV – Myers)