#7/30: Angel Stadium, Anaheim

Trouble on the train tracks

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

I went to a game at Angel Stadium. The Los Angeles Angels were playing the St. Louis Cardinals - my home team. Like any other evening at the ballpark, it was a fun time.

But the real story is how I got there. So let’s break protocol and start with…

Extra Innings

When I first began planning all these trips I tried to make it work with no planes. Trains and automobiles only. I don't mind air travel, but something seemed more authentic about staying on the ground. Airplanes seemed like cheating.

Long story short, I quickly concluded that there's no logistical way to hit all 30 ballparks in one season without some flying. If one plans to keep up any other responsibilities during that time - like say, a career - then utilizing the efficiency of jet engines is essential.

Having said that, I still wanted to travel by land whenever I could. This was the first opportunity of the season to take a train. Amtrak’s Pacific Superliner runs from San Diego to Los Angeles every two hours.

I took the 12:01pm that would get me to the Anaheim train station, within blocks of both my hotel and Angel Stadium, by 2:08pm. That’s four hours prior to first pitch - 6:07pm.

We were right on schedule until 12:56pm. That's when the real fun began. An announcement was made about another disabled Amtrak train on the tracks ahead. We would make one more station stop before reaching that train, at which point the plan was to connect to that train and push it to the next station. I probably should have gotten off at that last stop and taken the $50, hour-long Uber ride the rest of the way. But nah. Stuff like this is part of the adventure of travel, and I had plenty of time to spare. First pitch was still over five hours away.

We reached the disabled train at 1:32pm. 10 minutes later our train was powered down (including the air conditioning) so that crews could work on both trains together. I tried to watch as much of the repair work outside as I could, but mostly we just sat and waited. Every once in awhile a worker would walk by with some unidentified piece of train…

Troubling?

At 3:08pm people started getting uneasy. A person from my car pried the emergency door open and passengers started de-boarding with no apparent purpose. There were announcements with unreliable timelines and suggestions to call 1-800-USA-RAIL with questions/complaints because the train crew had no answers. We were given free bottles of water and snack boxes. It was textbook crisis management from a customer service standpoint. I can't imagine what it was like for folks on the other train, which had been sitting dead on the tracks for quite awhile before my train joined the party.

Fast-forward another hour and more than a few times where I considered ditching this train… and finally the power came back on at 4:02pm. A few minutes later we actually started moving. We made it about 100 feet down the track, rather slowly, then stopped abruptly. At 4:20pm we moved a little further, then stopped again.

Under two hours until first pitch. Normally I'd be waiting at the stadium gates by now.

By 4:35pm we were moving at a steady crawl of maybe 10mph on course to the next station just a couple miles away. When we got there at 5:01pm, we were instructed to de-board and wait for the next train if our final stop was Los Angeles or earlier. That meant me. I really didn't understand why getting on a train behind us would do anything other than add time, but that’s what we were told. I followed orders.

One hour until first pitch.

The next train did arrive quickly. By 5:15pm, for the first time in over three hours, I was traveling faster than a motorized scooter. Things were looking up, but time was really running short by this point. Here’s how the final stretch panned out:

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Now to the ballpark itself.

The Los Angeles Angels, who play their home games at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, are not good. They’re one of the worst teams in baseball. The same can be said about their ballpark - it’s nothing special. Technically it’s one of the oldest venues in the Majors among the likes of Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium. But those three are all gems. Angel Stadium is… not. It underwent extensive renovations in the late 1990s so it sort of feels more like a 25-year-old ballpark. There’s an odd and unsatisfying combination of features - the exterior and the outfield appear to be newer, but the concourses feel old and plain. Tie that all together and you have a stadium that feels remarkably forgettable.

My seat, though, was actually in a really cool spot. The corners of the outfield have seats right behind the wall right at field level. I was in the front row on the left field side. The only thing separating me from the field was a three foot wall. Not bad, especially for $15.

I sat down in the bottom of the first inning. After all the hustling I had done to get there, I was in the mood for a crisp soda rather than a beer. At quick glance, the concessions near my section only offered the most basic of domestic beers anyways. I’m always going to pass on those, especially when they cost more than my actual ticket to the game.

Unfortunately, the bottom of the first inning was where the game was lost for my Cardinals. They gave up four runs in ugly fashion with old timer Lance Lynn on the mound. The first was a leadoff homer by Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel. Then after a couple more hits, another run scored on a costly fielding error by our young shortstop Masyn Winn. A third run was surrendered on an infield hit that should have been the third out. And finally, with two outs and two strikes, Lynn threw a wild pitch that scored the fourth run. Yikes. Go Cardinals.

The rest of the game was pretty calm, however the highlight “play” of the night came right before the bottom of the fourth inning. After a few warmups, Angels left fielder Taylor Ward threw a ball right to me!

My Angel in the Outfield. And I was wearing a Cardinals hat. I guess he was keeping his enemies closer?

A few more runs got on the board in the later innings, including a satisfying home run by Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. But ultimately my Cardinals never recovered from that messy first inning. Final score - Angels 7, Cardinals 2.

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Next stop: May 16, Los Angeles