Futures Game

For the past three seasons, I have been making the occasional trip down to San Diego for games. It really only amounted to maybe two or three trips, but being compared to the dozen or so Angels and Dodgers games, it was but an afterthought. To be honest, I don’t know why I had chosen that path of Baseball Road Trips. Especially now that I am really focusing on experiences and holistic day trips, San Diego needs to be farther up on my list. For the first time this year, back on Sunday, I made it down to San Diego and Petco Park to see the MLB All-Star Futures Game. It was a great experience and it was another reminder of why I love going to games in San Diego.

My girlfriend and I drove to the Qualcomm Stadium Station to catch the trolley. Since the game started at 4, we got to the city early and made a stop in Old Town San Diego before heading into Downtown. I hadn’t been to Old Town San Diego on a Baseball Road Trip since 2010, but I had made a visit back in December. This turned out to be a very wonderful experience because Old Town is so interesting. Also, after driving down to San Diego combined with the 1800 or so miles I had driven the week before back-and-forth to Oregon, a walk about was just the remedy for my cabin fever.

Old Town really was the Downtown of San Diego until the late 19^th century. As San Diego grew and was finally connected to a rail line, the current townsite where Old Town sits was too far away from the deepwater port of San Diego Bay. Businesses and the population began to move southward to a new town center that eventually grew into Downtown San Diego. Old Town did have its rough spell, but now it is a bustling State Park that is outfitted with numerous neat shops, restaurants, and historical museums. It has been refurbished and cleaned up to reflect a 19^th-century township, and all the people who work in those shops, restaurants, museums, etc. are dressed in period pieces. With everything to see there, you could easily spend an entire day wandering Old Town.

I had two stops I wanted to make in Old Town. First was the Old Town Tea and Coffee House for a much-needed cup of ‘jo. Lining the walls of this thatched roof replica building were hundreds of jars of teas and coffee. It had to be the sweetest smelling building in all of San Diego. I could have spent all day there just smelling and tasting the teas that they had there, but I settled for a simple cup of house coffee instead. My second stop was the Coyote Café for some handmade cinnamon tortillas. These warm and flavorful snacks are made right on the street by the Café and are absolutely to die for. My coffee and tortilla smorgasbord kept me content and occupied while my girlfriend did some shopping of her own.

After our Old Town excursion, we jumped back on the Trolley and headed for Petco. Along the way, the Trolley was picking up dozens and dozens of passengers clad in baseball team apparel from all over. It was here that I realized it was All-Star Weekend in San Diego. The Padres landed the All-Star Game festivities early last year, so my planning for the event began quite a while ago. While I knew I wouldn’t have the money for tickets to the actual MLB All-Star Game, or the time to drive to San Diego for a game that starts at 5pm on a Tuesday, I had marked the Futures Game as my contribution to the All-Star Game experience. It seemed like everyone on the Trolley with my girlfriend and I that day had a similar intention. When the Trolley let us off in the Gaslamp District, the steady stream of fans lead us to the gates of Petco.

I had never seen Petco this crowded before. Granted, the Padres haven’t been very good since I started going to games, but the team had done up quite a festive atmosphere for the All-Star Game that obviously drew the fans in. All the streets around the park were shut down for a massive block party that was sponsored by Pepsi. The adjoining Convention Center was hosting a massive FanFest. Inside the park itself, the atmosphere was teeming with pure baseball as fans lined up to get special t-shirts and have their picture taken with the All-Star logo. All of this was going on for the Futures Game, which made me envious of how it would be at the actual All-Star Game two days later.

The Futures Game is a neat event. The best prospects from across Minor League Baseball come together and are separated into two teams, USA and World. They play an exhibition-style game a day before the Home Run Derby. The game is broadcast on MLB Network, and it drew a crowd of over 40,000 to Petco on a Sunday afternoon. It featured a pre-game show from Navy SEAL skydivers and a parade of flags representing all the different countries in the game. It certainly had the feel of an All-Star Game, but the real show was on the field. The best part about the Futures Game, from my perspective, however, was the ticket prices. Sure, they were nosebleeds, but $13 for the two of us to go. Compared to the $250 per ticket for Tuesday's All-Star Game, it was a steal of a deal.

Personally, I think the MLB All-Star Game has been watered down a little bit over the years. There is so much caution put into the game so players don't get hurt. Heck, this year, the representatives from the Mets didn't even play, and the Mets coach was the manager for the NL Team. In the Futures Game, the idea is so much different. Prospects who are on the cusp of getting to the Big Leagues see this game as a fantastic opportunity to play the best in a huge setting, thus impressing the scouts and earning a potential call-up. As a result, the game is a lot more intense and enjoyable for the fans because the players are really getting after it. For example, the starter for Team World, St. Louis prospect Alex Reyes, threw some major gas touching 102 mph on the radar gun in the 1st inning. Secondly, hot-shot Boston prospect Yoan Moncanda hit a huge two-run shot in the 8th inning to vault Team World into the lead. You also had Houston prospect Alex Bregmann finish a homer away from the cycle. In the bottom of the 8th, Padres prospect Manuel Margot made an incredible over-the-wall catch of a home run ball. Yeah, it was a very enjoyable game to watch.

Team USA raced out to a 3-0 lead until the 8th inning when Yoan Moncanda hit that two-run bomb to give World the lead. The wheels eventually fell off for USA in the 9th when Team World plated seven insurance runs, capped by a Chicago Cubs prospect Elroy Jimenez home run, to beat Team USA 11-3. It was the first time that Team World has won the Futures Game since 2009.

After grabbing a quick beer downtown, we headed back on the trolley to the car to drive home. As we were driving, I said to myself that I need to make it down here to San Diego more than just a couple times a year. The day was so much fun, and I didn't even bring my bike along. To be honest, while I love going to LA and up to see games at Dodger Stadium, I much rather prefer San Diego and the day trip down there. I've been to some great cities over the years, but San Diego certainly is one of the best. Every time I go down there, I always have a whale of a time and it is actually hard to get myself to leave.

The Week of Baseball is over! These four games in six days were exhausting and tiring, but definitely well-worth it. As July nears its end, baseball will mainly be here in San Bernardino with my monthly trip to Anaheim on the 31st. My parents are in town for a couple weeks, so I am taking just a little break from the Baseball Road Trips while they're here. I will try and get out a post this week while there here with an update on life and planning I'm doing.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)