New Thing #237: Chick-fil-A

We're going to have to put the politics aside for this one. I went to Chick-fil-A while I was in Florida.

My friend Kevin told me I absolutely had to try their chicken sandwich.

OK...maybe one political comment: I do not agree with the company's political views.

But, man do they make a good chicken sandwich.

The place was packed.

Kevin and I planned on going in and eating there, but with the line nearly out the door we got back in the car and went through the drive-through.

That meant hungry old me had to sit in the passenger seat with a couple of chicken sandwiches and a bunch of fries in my lap as we drove.

I should mention this all took place while we were in Gainesville - and we did this before we hit the football stadium.

Our plan was to take the food into the empty bleachers and sit and eat.

Turned out, when we got to the stadium, there was a closed football practice going on. I forgot to mention that in the post about Gainesville. So we had an hour or so to kill, which we began by sitting on a nearby picnic table, eating chicken sandwiches.

My wife tells me, as I write this, that she's surprised I've never had Chick-fil-A before. She tells me there's one in the Burlington Mall food court. I don't spend much time there, so I didn't realize there was a location so close.

Still, I will not patronize them again, even if they open a location even closer.

I'm going to hop on my political high horse.

Boycott begins.......now.

New Thing #236: Video Roulette

I don't spend a whole lot of time at casinos. But every once in a while I'll scratch that itch, realize it's not as easy as I think it is, and I'll go home poorer and think, "I'll get 'em next time."

And next time won't happen for a long while.

If you'd asked me if going to a casino would have ended up on the agenda for my trip to Florida, I would have told you that was very doubtful.

But I wouldn't have ruled it out completely - you know, things happen.

And as it turned out, there was a casino and Hard Rock Cafe on some Seminole land in Tampa.

And Kevin and I decided to check it out.

The casino was mostly slot machines. There were very few tables. And my favorite game - roulette - was only available in the video format you see above.

I didn't know whether or not to take the plunge..then I figured, New Thing. So we sat at the video roulette table.

You sit at a console like this:

And in the middle of the various consoles is the wheel, automated and under glass. And above the wheel is the board that shows you the current number as well as the last few that came out.

As sometimes happens, I started off kind of hot by just playing the outside - picking red or black, and the occasional "first 12" or "bottom of the board" or whatever.

But then I start thinking it's easy, and I start to lose money. Fast.

It happened quickly for Kevin and I. (Speaking of quickly - the amount of time you have to place your bets is timed, and it's not all that much. Like 30 seconds or so - much faster than when there's a human spinning the wheel. So when I say it happened quickly - it happened quickly.)

Usually I have some stock numbers I pick when I play the inside - 8 is a big one because it's part of my anniversary, my wife's birthday, and, of course, it's Gary Carter's number. Rarely, though, do I hit on the inside numbers.

When things started to fade I returned to the outside. A string of black numbers had come up. Obviously (I'm such a sucker) the next one was going to be red. I put my remaining chips on red, chasing my losses.

Not only was my final play of the day a black number - it was an 8. It was like the universe telling me, "Not today champ." (And probably not ever.)

Kevin was not much luckier.

All told, we drove about 40 minutes to the casino to spend only about 40 minutes wasting some money. Then it was 40 minutes back.

But the more I thought about it - the casino might have actually saved me money. I only brought a limited amount with me - who knows what we would have done otherwise. I might have spent more doing something else.

You might see this as a disappointment.

Sure, we would much rather have won some money. But we were back in St. Petersburg by lunchtime. It worked out rather well.

New Thing #235: Gainesville

If you're keeping score at home (and I know you are) you know I mentioned Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville this week. "When," you're probably asking yourself, "will John tell us about Gainesville?"

Well, today's the day.

But before I launch into my Gainesville experience, I need to give you a little history.

Because my time in Gainesville was literally a dream come true.

I have no idea why, but I have recurring dreams about two sports-related places: the football field at the University of Florida and Mile High Stadium. (Maybe it's Invesco Field at Mile High - I can't remember if the dreams go back as far as the Broncos' original stadium.)

In the Florida one I walk out from a corner end zone and look up at the sea of seats. In the Broncos dream I'm sitting way up in the stadium - like, second-to-last-row-type seats, and I'm with some family members.

So when I knew I was visiting Gainesville, I knew I'd want to swing by the football stadium. My friend Kevin was way ahead of me - we'd be visiting the stadium, he said, because that's about all there is to do in Gainesville.

When we walked to the stadium I was disappointed because the outside looks nothing like my dream - it's kind of like a brick outer facade. That's what you see above. Then we walked in.

We emerged at one of the corners and walked down towards the field. It was kind of surreal because other than a different type of seating it was very, very similar to my dream. It also didn't stretch as high into the sky as my dream. But I certainly felt familiar with the place.

I think two things about this whole weird experience. I would like to think I have some kind of second sight (is that what it is? ESP? Or just being weird?), but I think:

1) Both the University of Florida and the Denver Broncos are orange and blue, just like the New York Mets. So maybe that aspect about them and their respective stadia (plural for stadiums?) stand out to me and work their way into my subconscious.

or

2) Later that afternoon, reverting back to our college days as we do often when we're together, Kevin and I sat down to play some video games. Our choice was the version of NCAA Football that he had. As soon as the game started loading up, it occurred to me that I probably dreamt about Florida Field so much because I played this game so much years ago and it was drilled into my head. The more I think about it the more sure I am that this is the case.

Beyond the field, Kevin was right. There wasn't a ton in Gainesville. But next to the field were the football offices, and on the ground floor of that building is a great little museum - not even a museum. A display center. In glass cases are Florida's three national championship trophies, displays of national championship teams and award-winning players, and the three Heisman Trophies won by Florida players. (The Heisman Trophy is much, much larger than it looks on TV.) This was very cool.

We also poked our head into the track/swimming/basketball facility, which was neat. And we stopped by the bookstore and I bought some University of Florida souvenirs for my girls.

But none of that quite reached highlight status of the trip for me.

After all, I've never dreamed of stepping foot in those places.

New Thing #234: Buffalo Wild Wings

I probably gave you the impression a couple of days ago that Jacksonville was a mere necessity on my trip through Florida - the city from which I flew home and nothing else. Well, that's mostly true.

But we did do one New Thing in Jacksonville before heading to their beautiful airport.

For the first time in my life I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings.

I'm sure you're aware, if you've ever watched a sporting event - or television of any kind, really - of Buffalo Wild Wings. Their commercials are all over the place.

But there are none near me, so I've never been. (Surprisingly, there are at least 4 in Massachusetts. I just did a search on their website - it's one of those 'within ___ miles of [zip code]' searches, and there are 4 within 50 miles of my home. 3 within 30. There doesn't seem to be a list of locations anywhere on the site. I'm shocked there are 4 in Massachusetts - I didn't even think there were any in this region. Which always surprised me because of how many commercials are on. But I guess now all the ads make sense...even though I've never been, I certainly knew the brand.)

The only bad thing about the timing of our visit was that it was last Saturday afternoon, and there were hardly any sporting events on. There was the Little League World Series when we were there, and the Arena Bowl. I kind of wanted to get the full experience by watching some games while we were there...but I could also see it being one of those totally overwhelming game-watching experiences because of the quantity of TVs. (There was a fantasy football draft happening in the bar area while we were there. And Buffalo Wild Wings seems to cater to the fantasy football crowd - they are celebrating 'draft weekend' this coming weekend and inviting fantasy leagues to have their drafts there by reserving tables and such. Me from 10 years ago thinks all of this is very, very cool.) There were also a couple of trivia games on a few of the TVs. That seemed to have potential, though I didn't play.

Of course I had the wings. I went with the boneless option per my friend Kevin's suggestion, and I had a teriyaki sauce. It was delicious.

The service was great too. Very accommodating staff. (Interesting thing about Florida - they always ask if you want checks together or separate. In most other places I've been that feels like a burden. Every place we went to in Florida they offered to split the check. Buffalo Wild Wings even went a step further and rang up our order itemized so we could see exactly what we owed - so we paid a total bill but we could see it broken down by what we ordered.)

Overall a great experience...worth the drive if I was so inclined to visit one of the Massachusetts locations. But I don't know if I'm so inclined. (There are 8 locations within 20 miles of my parents' house in New York....)

The only other drawback of no games on TV while we were there - I couldn't employ the bartender to press the secret button that results in the delay of game so we could stay out longer.

I always wondered if that was a real thing.

New Thing #233: Tropicana Field

I love ballparks. Most of you know this about me...but I'm sure there are people who will read this who don't know my history. (This a good place to start for most of my writing about ballparks I've visited. That page links to the parks I've visited and wrote about between 2004 and 2010. I can track down others if you're interested.)

The most recent new ballpark experience is the one I thought I would be least interested in seeing: Tropicana Field.

And I have to admit - I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing we did when we got into Tropicana Field was check out the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. You may remember this place from when Williams died back in 2002 - that's where much of the local Boston reports were centered. It was located in Hernando, Florida, which is really in the middle of nowhere. I guess it moved to Tropicana Field (I had no idea until we walked into it), and man is it worth a visit. Great displays about Williams, and a good selection of other hitters and team items are on display. The only fault I found was this plaque featuring Rays' managers, with Joe Maddon's name misspelled. Seems like the type of thing you should get right.

Seriously, I could write a whole other post about this museum, I was so impressed by it.

We went to two games at Tropicana Field - both against the Mariners. The Rays won the first after coming from behind, scoring a run in the bottom of the 9th to win (that's what you see above), and they won the second 7-1. We had great seats, which we got walking up to the ticket window (we never saw a line) and paid just $40 for.

It makes me simultaneously sad and happy. I loved kind of having a ballpark all to ourselves, walking around wherever we wanted because there were no crowds, but at the same time the Rays are a good team and it's a shame that no one is coming out to their games.

By the second game, we had kind of exhausted most of the things there were to do at the park. But out in center field there are a couple of attractions that we took in. First of all, we watched the first couple of innings of the second game from a barbecue restaurant that is in straightaway center field - Everglades BBQ Company - which was probably a better bargain than the concession stands. I liked it, though the green tinted windows were a little too green.

Then on the way down, there was no crowd at the rays tank, which houses what are probably the best-fed rays in the world. You can reach in and touch the rays, and even feed them. We did not feed them....but we did touch them. (Yes, I did. It was kind of a weird sensation. I didn't love it.)

This was the first time I'd ever been in a baseball game in a full-on dome. I've been to retractable roofs (Houston, Seattle, Arizona) and a football game with a roof (Indianapolis), but never a baseball game inside. (Even in Arizona, where the roof didn't open when we were there, it felt a little more open.)

The dome at the Trop made this field feel very close. But the lack of fans in the seats opened things up again. I think this: That place could get loud. It could be a tremendous home field advantage. The fans that show up are passionate, they ring their cowbells - it got kind of loud with very small crowds when we were there - and the ballpark isn't bad. It's clearly not drawing crowds...but if the Rays can figure out how to get fans in there, it could be a place that opposing teams won't want to go.

I liked the '162 Landing' down the left field line, where Evan Longoria's homer landed in 2011 when the Rays clinched their playoff spot on the last day of the season. I liked the in-game entertainment. I liked the scoreboards and videoboards and in-game stats.

Oh yeah - and the baseball the Rays played was pretty good too. I leave you with this - the moment Jason Bourgeois made contact with the fly ball to right that brought home the game-winning run Wednesday night, setting off the celebration picture you see above:

Let me know if you can find the ball - I think it may just be out of the picture to the right, but I'm hoping it's in the frame.

And for goodness' sake - if you're in the Tampa area and the Rays are at home...check out a game. It's a good time.

New Thing #232: Tampa/St. Pete

I spent most of last week in Florida. I flew into Tampa, stayed in St. Petersburg, spent a day-and-a-half in Gainesville, and flew out of Jacksonville.

Or, as my brother put it, I took a trip that he would take.

He's exactly right, though I can't explain why that makes sense.

Usually, though, he's playing a guitar in all of those cities.

I did not...but I did check out some ballparks.

Ballparks are a little obsession of mine. More on that later this week.

The purpose of this trip was to visit a friend. (I've mentioned him before I think. His name is Kevin.) Kevin lived in North Carolina for 12 years and every year I thought about getting down there and I never did. So when he moved to the University of Florida, I made sure I set some time aside to get down there. Thanks to my wife, I was able to work in a Wednesday through Saturday trip while she stayed home with the kids.

Gainesville will be getting its own post this week. So will the Rays games, as will some other New Things we tried out down in Florida. I'll keep this post pretty general.

When some of you head down to Tampa, you might make sure you hit a beach. Or get out on the water. That's not quite how we roll.

Our primary purpose meeting in Tampa was to go to a Rays game. (Or two.) And while we were in the area we made sure to check out Raymond James Stadium (where the Buccaneers play - pictured above) and Steinbrenner Field (where a Yankees minor league team plays...and I think where they have their spring training games - pictured below right). (Yes, those are pictures I took from a moving car...something I usually don't get a chance to do because I'm usually driving and barking orders to my wife about which pictures to take out of the window. I thought I did pretty good.)

We didn't go into these parks - or walk up to them, I should say - because we couldn't find a good place to pull over and access them. But I'm glad we saw them.

We found a nice little hangout area in St. Pete - I think it was Central Avenue - not far from the University of South Florida campus. We went to a couple of restaurants in the area. We particularly enjoyed The Midway and their delicious popcorn.

All of our driving helped me get a little more familiar with Florida geography. That's kind of a big state. The St. Petersburg-Gainesville-Jacksonville loop is not an easy drive. They're pretty big cities...with not a whole lot between them.

I know what you're wondering - no, we did not see the stadium where the Jaguars play. (Is this weird? The Buccaneers played in New England when we were in Gainesville, and the Jaguars played the Jets in New Jersey when we were in Jacksonville. Those are the two places I am most likely to see a game, when I was in the cities of the opponents. Chew on it. Let me know.) What I did see was the Jacksonville airport, which was beautiful. Kevin decided it must have been a stipulation of their 2005 Super Bowl. Nicest airport I've ever been in, I think.

So that's where I spent the end of last week. I'll be telling you about it most of this week, because there were a lot of New Things.

Of course, that will include the ballpark where we actually went inside.

New Thing #231: DJ Kitty

My only regret from the time I spent in Florida last week is that I did not get a video recording of what I'm going to tell you about today. I was hoping I'd come back from my trip with some kind of local new music experience.

I did...but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.

Allow me to introduce you to DJ Kitty.

Maybe it's for the best I don't have a video of it - it's truly best if you experience it in person. (And for that, I'm sure Rays management would be appreciative. There aren't many people experiencing Rays games in person. More on that later in the week.)

I'm not sure I knew this phenomenon was happening. From the videos that are available online (click here so you can at least get a taste of DJ Kitty), I'm assuming it dates back at least three years. Maybe a game I was watching showed it and I didn't know what it was out of context...but this is one of those fun ballpark things that I feel people should know about.

I went to two Rays games, and DJ Kitty popped onto the scoreboard in, I think, the middle of the 8th inning in both games. The crowd, obviously, loves it.

I don't remember which song comes on with the video - it could very well be the one in the video I linked to above - but the song doesn't matter because of the video of the cat and the crowd shots and dance club shots shown over the music. (My favorite is when DJ Kitty raises its hands in the air and moves back and forth.) I get the impression they show DJ Kitty with different songs in different years.

(The other funny thing the Rays do which is music-related is when there's a conference on the mound for the other team they play some cheesy music video - at our two games it was a David Hasselhoff number and a Mr. T song and they pull back to show the music in a thought bubble and then they attach the thought bubble to the conference on the mound. It's amusing.)

(And while I'm parenthetically throwing out Rays trade secrets - they're trade secrets because no one goes to the games and therefore no one knows about them - when the Rays win they play another video clip after the last out that the fans love. It's a good time down there in St. Petersburg.)

DJ Kitty is the best one, though. And the Rays know this - they have DJ Kitty souvenirs on sale. I considered getting one.

I really liked DJ Kitty. And that's coming from someone who does not like cats.

Here's what it looks like from inside the stadium: