Royalty sees Game 2 of the MLB Opening Series in Sydney, Australia!‏

Tickets to Game 2 for MLB Opening Series at Sydney Cricket Ground

After getting a decent amount of sleep, the King & I woke up Sunday morning, March 23rd & we got ready for a full day of activities Down Under.  After we cleaned ourselves up, we got dressed & we went to have breakfast at the DeVere Hotel. When I booked the room, I knew what the breakfast meal consisted of because they had a nice detailed description of it on their website. Needless to say, I got what I expected & then some. They had a wide variety to choose from. In other words, they had hard boiled & scrambled eggs to baked beans as well as other things such as cereal, toast, bacon & sausage. It should be noted that they did have small packets of vegemite but I wasn't daring enough to try it LOL. I knew it was worth buying. Since I put a lot of emphasis on eating breakfast, I wanted to make sure we got our money's worth & we certainly did. It cost us $13 a person but considering the prices of necessities there it turned out to be a sound decision. I know I did good when the King said he was a satisfied customer. Being such a picky eater, that was music to my ears.

Poster of Dodgers & Diamondbacks by Fan Fest area

Me & Stacey Flores in the special booth at Fan Fest

After we finished eating, we went back to our room to get the stuff we needed for the rest of the day. It was around 10AM so we decided since we had plenty of time before the game started at 1:15PM, we wound up walking all the way back to the Sydney Cricket Ground for game two of the MLB Opening Series. After feeling lost the night before, we became pros at getting around literally over night. It took a while but we finally arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground shortly before 11AM which gave us some spare time to play with since the gates weren't scheduled to open until 11:30AM. As a result, we decided to walk around the outside of the venue in the meantime. When we got near right field, the King told me he was going to sit down on a bench to rest. I told him that I was going to walk around when I saw what appeared to be a fan fest type set up. By doing so, I got to take a picture in a special booth they had set up with the Cricket Ground & the Opening Series logo in the back drop. Ironically while I waited my turn in line, all of a sudden, Stacey Flores, another ballpark chaser who I met for the first time at the Light Brigade the day before, got my attention. I told her to join me so we could take a picture together. It was a pretty cool moment for both of us. Timing is everything. We were in the right place at the right time. We spoke briefly then I went back to where the King was. Shortly thereafter, the King & I proceeded to go inside. We wandered around the lower level before we headed upstairs to our seats in the upper level. This time we were sitting over the Dodgers dugout which was situated between third base & home plate in Bay 404 row A. For a change, it was nice to have a slightly different perspective to watch the game. Thankfully mother nature cooperated this time & the game started on time at 1:15PM.

View from our seats in Bay 404 row A at Sydney Cricket Ground

Unlike Saturday, I was able to get connected to WIFI which made for a really fun afternoon as I was able to let family & friends back home know how things were going thus far.

King's 7,423rd baseball game live in person

As for the game we saw, the Dodgers didn't waste time as they scored first again right off the bat. In the top of the first inning, they got a one out single by  right fielder Yasiel Puig then with two outs first basesman Adrian Gonzalez worked out a walk. They had two men on with two outs, center fielder  Andre Ethier delivered a clutch run scoring single to right center field to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. Ethier wound up getting thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double to end the inning. In the third inning, the Dodgers added to their lead when they got four hits which they turned into two more runs courtesy of Yasiel Puig who singled in one & Adrian Gonzalez who hit a sacrifice fly to plate the other one. In the top of the fifth inning, the Dodgers extended their lead against Diamondbacks' starter Trevor Cahill who lost his control. He walked the first two batters & he got pulled from the game. Josh Collmenter came on to pitch in relief. He wound up walking the first batter he faced to load the bases with no outs. Former Met Mike Baxter hit into a double play which drove in a run to made it a 4-0 game. Third baseman Juan Uribe followed up with a clutch two out run scoring double to left center field that made the score 5-0 as the book was closed on Trevor Cahill. On the other hand, Hyun-Jin Ryu threw five shutout innings for the Dodgers who tacked on single runs in the sixth & the seventh inning to extend their lead to 7-0. The Diamondbacks finally broke the shutout as they got a run thanks to a single to right field by left fielder Mark Trumbo in the bottom of the eighth inning. He also drove in their lone run in the opening game. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Diamondbacks put a scare into the Dodgers as they roughed up their bullpen for four more runs but Dodger closer Kenley Jansen was able to finally close the door in a non save situation after he struck out right fielder Gerardo Parra to seal the deal after he allowed a home run to Mark Trumbo which made it a 7-5 ballgame. That's the way it ended four hours & a minute really seconds later. Luckily we had no way to go so we didn't mind the extra long time consuming game. I was happy since I got to use the WIFI longer than I expected.

King & I after the game 

During the game, we did get a visit from fellow ballpark chaser, David Schaffer who came up special to say hello to us. It was great to see him again. He had a seat downstairs where you couldn't go to unless you had a ticket for that area. We did try to go where he was sitting but we weren't successful. With that being said, we did appreciate him coming up to see us. I know other people we met the day before said they were sitting in the outfield. We couldn't see any of them because in order to get to those seats, you needed to go into a separate entrance. With that being said, those people were stuck out there. Ironically, after the game as we were on our way out of the venue, we ran into Stacey Flores again. She was looking for her friend Evan Bates. They had seats on the lower level on the third base side she said. We spoke briefly then Evan came along. we walked outside together as we all said our goodbyes. They told us they were leaving on tomorrow which was Monday to go back to Phoenix. They had come earlier in the week so they already got to see the different sites. They were in a down mood since they knew their party was coming to a close.               

Stay tuned for the next installment as I go into detail about what the King & I did after the game.

Thank you for reading & following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman