Red Sox vs Indians ALCS trip report (long w/ pics)

[Lazy Meatball]

After making short work of pink eye Garret Anderson and the Anaheim Angels the Boston Red Sox were ready to go to the American League Championships Series for the third time in five years against the team they tied for the best record in baseball, the Cleveland Indians. Having traveled to multiple Red Sox road games in the past two years including Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Diego, it was only fitting that Phil and I made the 600 mile 8 hour trip from Massachusetts to Cleveland Ohio. We stopped outside Buffalo to get dinner and watch the Patriots trounce the Cowboys.

We arrived late on Sunday night and checked into the Best Western by the airport (at checkout Phil argued and got us the corporate rate) and got direction from the front desk to the nearest bar. We made our way to a crappy dive bar in a strip mall called Whiska’s Pub which had 20oz Miller Lite’s for around $3. A couple guys in Pat’s shirts bought us a round since we were also New England fans. One of them told us about his history as “Waldo the intern” on the Mistress Carrie show on WAAF (Mass rock radio station). They also invited us out to Cleveland PM’s, one of the premier strip clubs of the outer Cleveland area. While this piqued our interest, we went to the gas station to buy beer and headed back to the hotel room as we were pretty tired.


Note the leftover fried calamari from dinner

The next morning Phil and I woke up and each enjoyed a shower beer before heading towards downtown Cleveland. We took North America’s greatest public transportation system into the KeyTower station in downtown Cleveland.


We found our way to the mall to get lunch at Key West restaurant at the mall where we had fairly mild nachos, barbecue chicken wings, and large beers.


From there we wandered the Cleveland waterfront, checked out Browns Stadium, and I took a dump in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As we made our way downtown we found this sort of pedestrian place called Fourth Street and got a pitcher of blue margaritas at some tequileria. We had a good view of the street and I saw many interesting sights, as well as some Tribe fans who gave us the finger.
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I also saw this reunion of sorts:
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There were also some sort of promotional free shot girls near us.
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Which was nice.

We headed into Jacob’s Field early with the series tied 1-1. We managed to watch some batting practice and from the outfield I saw Mike Timlin,

Hideki Okajima,
and Julian Tavarez whose son looks like the goofy kid from Jerry Maguire.

I also checked out the little Heritage Park they have there which was cool.

Phil and I especially enjoyed the 24oz beers for $7, which is the same price as a regular beer at Fenway. We also brought our “It's Tito's October” sign which was so popular at Rally Monday.

Here’s some National Anthem Patriotic stuff

Well Jake Westbrook prevailed over Dice-K

in a 4-2 win for the Indians. So we went back to the Fourth Street tequileria to drown our sorrows. Well apparently I was less subtle with the random picture taking and some staff told us if I kept doing that we’d be kicked out. Phil’s response was “[censored] you, we were leaving anyway.” So we took our beers, stepped over the fence and walked out to the street.

Phil says This is Who I was taking pictures of. Because she might have been kissing some other girl

Apparently a police officer took issue with my violation of the open container law and started talking to Phil as I walked ahead. He asked Phil if he knew me or where I was going, to which Phil gave vague answers. Eventually the cop just told Phil that if he did know me, he should tell me to get rid of my beer, so Phil shouted ahead to me and I dropped my beer in a bush and walked away. The cop left us alone and then Phil revealed to me that the whole time he was talking to the cop, he was also holding a beer.

We took the subway back to the hotel, and then made a quick stop for some Taco bell. Unfortunately I forgot my Tito’s October sign at the bar we left.


Stay tuned for part 2