Minute Maid Park

Minute Maid Park
501 Crawford Street
Houston, TX 77002

August 17, 2017

Basically the only good thing about our over-priced hotel was its location. We were able to easily walk over to the ballpark. We got there early enough to do a little walk around.

 

 

 

 

 

On the sidewalk are small plaques commemorating famous Astros' players like this one:

Minute Maid Plaza:

 

We entered the stadium through the Union Station entrance, which was really pretty.

 

 

Before we did anything else, we stopped into the team store. First, we f*cked around.Then we made purchases. A mascot for $10 and a hat for $25 as per the usual souvenirs.

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On the wall, the store posted the lineup for the day's game.

And of course, we had to take a photo with the cowboy boot. It was a necessity.

 

Nearby was an activities section, which we, again, simply had to partake in.

 

There is a kids' zone. Also delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In centerfield, there is a new batter's eye, Shake Shack, Torchy's Tacos, and the Budweiser Brew House. This replaced Tal's Hill, which was kind of stupid anyway. Who makes their center fielder run uphill to catch a fly ball? Also, there's this painting:

This gas pump tracks every Astros' home run hit since Minute Maid Park opened its doors. 

 

Here are the token photos of us:

 

We grabbed food before heading up to our seats. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we needed to take a photo for the blog before inhaling it. We each ordered a briskett sausage sandwich and french fries for $13.25.

They were solid. Not awesome. Solid.

This is the view from our seats. As you can see, the dome was closed. And thank god because it was hot as f*ck. And humid. So humid. The percentage of quality photos of our faces from this trip is low. Very, very low. Oh, also? The temperature at game time was 96 degrees. Only two degrees less than a popular 90's boy band.

 

 

Things to report on regarding the game. No one showed up. Granted, it was a Thursday afternoon, but the Astros are very good this season. Mid-week day games at Yankee Stadium or Citi Field are still pretty crowded. Even when they suck.

In the top of the 4th inning, the Diamondbacks went back to back with an inside the park home run (which neither of us have ever been present for) and a triple. It was not a good day for the Astros. They ended up losing 4-0.

The train in left field goes off at the start of the game and during an Astros home run. We saw no home run, but this is what a strikeout looked like:

In the 8th inning, we needed ice cream. We kept seeing people walking around with real ice cream in helmet cups. Real ice cream, not soft serve. That is very exciting. Lisa got two scoops in her cup - Orbit's birthday cake and cookies n cream. Serena got Orbit's birthday cake as well, but with homemade vanilla. The cup cost $7.

As we exited the stadium, we stumbled upon this fantastic vehicle:

 

 

We briefly hoped that Orbit was inside, but after being level 5 offenders and peering into all of the windows, we were disappointed.