Best and worst of the first half of the '08 season

Alright... here is what all 3 of you have been waiting for... THE BEST/WORST OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE EXPRESS '08 SEASON! (applause) On each category, I will tell a little on how the decisions for these prestigious awards were made. Heeeeeeeere we go:

BEST/WORST BALLPARK
BEST: AutoZone Park in Memphis. I know, I know, you all are thinking I am just being a homer and voting for the ballpark in the city I grew up in, but you are wrong! I would have picked the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, but I wanted to make this about cities we had traveled to. Dell Diamond is the best ballpark in the league, followed closely by Memphis. But Memphis if a step above every other park we have been to this year. The outfield walls are not covered with ads, the stands aren't right on top of you, and there is a nice view of the downtown skyline from the field. The only thing I am not crazy about is that there are no bars or nets in front of the dugouts. You have to stay on your toes and keep an eye out for foul balls that could be rocketed right in there.
WORST: Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. Yep, the home of the College World Series is a dump. The stadium is old, the bleachers are rickity, and the field is aweful. Other than that, it is fine, haha!

BEST/WORST CLUBHOUSE
BEST: Again, I am going to have to say AutoZone Park in Memphis. Here we go again you say... but listen. The clubhouse is huge for one. There is plenty of room so everyone is not right on top of each other. It is clean; you don't feel like you are going to catch some horrible disease if your bare foot touches the ground when you are changing shoes. There is also a little weight room. Granted there are only a few dumbbells (5-40lbs), an adjustable bench that won't adjust, and 3 pieces of cardio equipment circa 1970, it is still nice. And, you can get to the dugout from the clubhouse. That is huge for me... I hate fields where you have to walk to the outfield to go to the clubhouse, because that means after I go with the starting pitcher to do their shoulder program and ice their arm, I can't come back and watch the game from the dugout without having to walk down the field.
WORST: Again, I am going to have to go with Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. I have more room in the living room of our apartment than the guys do in this locker room. Cramped, muggy, and stale are just a couple of the words that come to mind when trying to describe this clubhouse.

BEST/WORST FIELD (actual playing surface)
BEST: Principal Park in Des Moines, Iowa. The grass is nice and soft, and the outfield is smooth... always a good thing if you value your knees and ankles while trying to run sprints. The Dell Diamond is by far the nicest playing surface, but like I said earlier, this is places we have been to on the road.
WORST: Zephyr Stadium in New Orleans. It looked like the field had just had new sod layed 3 days before we got there. The ground was uneven, you could see the spaces between the different pieces of sod... oh, and did I mention that the sod looked dead? Yea, that too. Awful.

BEST/WORST HOTEL
BEST: Marriot Courtyard in Oklahoma City. Tremendous hotel! 2 blocks from the gym, a ton of places to eat within a 3 block radius, and the ballpark is a 5 minute walk away. You really just have to go there.
WORST: Valley West Inn in Des Moines, Iowa. Nicknamed "Valley Shit Inn" by some of the players, the name comes from the strong fecal and urine odor you get as soon as you walk in the door. There is nothing to eat around the hotel, unless you love Red Lobster. The water that comes out of the faucets and showers doesn't seem to wash the soap off of you. In fact, it mixes with the soap to make a nice slimey residue all over your skin. Only a towel will get it off, because god knows more water won't. (This is only at the hotel, showering at the field is no problem and doesn't have this effect... wierd.) The bus that they use to shuttle us to and from the field has no air conditioning and could double as a sauna. It too has a lovely bouquet of urine, B.O., and back sweat. The only thing that saves this hotel is that it is a half block from the gym... a very good gym at that.

BEST/WORST GYM
BEST: Defined Fitness in Albuquerque. Huge gym, has just about every type of machine and free weight equipment you could want. It has a special room with an Olympic lifting style platform, bumper plates, and chains (to increase the resistance at the top of the range of motion). A ton of cardio equipment, arranged like a multi-tiered, stadium-style movie theatre. Plays good rock music and has one of my favorite protein shakes ever (Blue Thunder) in their cooler for $2. The only thing is that the gym is about a 15 minute shuttle ride away. A close second would have to be Fitness World West in Des Moines, Iowa. It is a nice gym with a pretty big free weight area. It has bumper plates too, so cleans are no problem there. Plenty of machines and cardio upstairs, free to lift at, and a half block walk from the hotel.
WORST: None of the gyms we have been to have been all that bad. The one in Oklahoma City was more of a fitness studio, so there wasn't a squat rack, or even a barbell in the place. But, the worst gym experience was trying to get the one in OMAHA to work with me. First, the hotel wouldn't shuttle us there... "it was too far of a drive" they said. So it would have ended up being an expensive cab ride. Second, I called the guy and it was going to cost $10/player/day! Or if I had 10 guys, it would only cost $50 total. The most I have ever had go to the gym on the road was 8, not including myself. But, I have found a gym that the hotel will shuttle us to and that is free to workout at, so the next time we are in Omaha, we are set.

That's all I can really think of right now. Like I said, if you have any requests, leave them in my comments box and I will get to them. Until next time...