Ballpark Rankings Update - O.co Coliseum

While I was in the San Francisco area I was able to get to an Oakland Athletics game. They play in what is now called the O.co Coliseum. O.co is the new name for Overstock.com. It's a terrible name but the sponsorship makes sense, since the whole Moneyball theory the A's operate on is based on trying to get quality players at a cheap price. Anyway, O.co is an old place -- older than the Vet. It opened in 1966 for the NFL Raiders and the A's moved in from Kansas City in 1968. So old that the men's room had troughs instead of urinals. I've taken a vow to never use a trough.

Being one of those multi-purpose places, the sightlines aren't so great in some areas. And even where I sat (seven rows behind the visitors' dugout; thanks for not buying up the good seats, A's fans), it seemed far away because there's a lot of room between the stands and the foul lines. That helps pitchers a lot, because foul pops that go into the seats in many places are easily caught here.

I stood up between innings of the game (in which the former Philadelphia A's beat Detroit, the day after the Tigers clinched the AL Central title) and circled around to take this video. YouTube is having issues again, or something, because the sound

Travel And Leg Updates

So I'm headed off to San Francisco this evening for a week to take care of the stuff I have to do regarding my dad's estate. I did buy a new laptop but I'm not sure I'll have time to actually write any blog posts, so this may be the last one until I return.

As for my leg, I have an appointment to see a surgeon on October 11th. As I mentioned in my last post, I was concerned that my leg might get worse during my trip without any further antibiotics. My doctor said I should be fine as long as I don't develop a fever. I have an old digital thermometer, but it's very old and I wasn't sure how reliable it is so I bought a new one. I'm going to carefully monitor my temperature to make sure it's okay. Here's a question, though: the last three days I've taken a reading with both thermometers. The old one has registered a temperature that's 0.4 or 0.5 degrees higher than the new one. Is it safe to assume the new one is the more accurate one? That's the one I'm taking with me.

I went for the ultrasound and x-ray. They asked me if I wanted to have a report sent to the doctor, or if I wanted them to give me films or a CD of my x-rays. How the hell am I supposed to know??????? I finally decided to take the CD because it would be easier to carry. So they burned my x-rays onto a disc. If I get around to it I may post it.

Amazing Race: Trickery, Then Victory, Then Bitchery

Because it's the finale and because I'm writing about this tonight, rather than waiting a few days, I'm going to begin with the ever-so-popular SPOILER ALERT!!!

You've been warned.