Anaheim: Angel Stadium
Baller on a budget.
“This week, we’re going to live like rappers.”
Erin and Scott’s wife Mindy were in the car for no more than two minutes after landing at John Wayne Airport when Mindy threw down this gauntlet.
I don’t know how many times I’ve expressed on this blog that one of the supreme challenges of hitting all 30 MLB ballparks in a single season is the budget one needs to adhere to in order to complete the journey. Tickets cost money. Food costs money. Gas costs money. Hotels cost money. Living on the road for two months comes with a ton of expenses, some planned for and some not.1
Throwing that budget out the window for a week didn’t seem like the thrilling proposition that Mindy intended. That said, if showing Erin a great time in California meant a couple more supermarket deli ham sandwiches at rest stops for me later on down the road, so be it. I can make it work. I’m flexible. Easy breezy.
First expense: quarantine hotel. With Scott in the worst throes of his COVID and me on the mend, I didn’t want to expose Erin to the germ farm we were cultivating in our room for the two days before she and Mindy got to Anaheim. I couldn’t get another room in the same hotel, but the one next door had a suite available for four nights. I offered to stay in the original room with Scott and Mindy, but Erin told me she didn’t care if I breathed disease on her. File that under the definition of true love.
Second expense: luxury at a discount. Despite calling this blog “Bleachers and ‘Bleeds,” I’m not necessarily always buying the cheapest game tickets I can find. In fact, sometimes the cheapest ticket isn’t even cheap, like our $60 nosebleeds in Houston or $45 standing room tix in San Diego. If I can find a good deal on a posh seat, I’m all in for it, which is exactly what I went for at the Angels game. The Moon bible recommends club seats, padded for your comfort, mostly in the shade and with in-seat food and beverage service. Face value for these tickets is north of $100 each; I found four for a couple ticks over $30. Like rappers, but, like, indie rappers.2
Third expense: ridiculous impulses. Scott and I had some time to kill after we arrived in Anaheim since our room wasn’t ready for us before check-in time, so we got drive-thru lunch from In-N-Out Burger — Double Doubles animal style, fries and strawberry shakes — bought gas at $4 per gallon and drove to the beach. Not sure if there’s a more California trifecta than that. A day later, before I made the airport run to pick up Erin and Mindy, I decided to go for a walk. I ended up at Angel Stadium where the team was giving away Rally Monkey hand puppets. Our group was planning to attend Sunday’s game to give Scott maximum recovery time, but I snagged a $5 ticket on SeatGeek right before first pitch, paid the $7 in additional fees, got my puppet, bought two value beers for $5 each — which I promptly poured into the RTIC cooler cup3 I carried in with me — then walked out in the middle of the second inning and enjoyed my “roadie” back to the hotel. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.
Fourth expense… I mean, they can pretty much all be filed under ridiculous impulses from here on out. Let’s leave this tired narrative device by the wayside and introduce a new one.
Saturday
Erin’s a big fan of the Doughboys podcast; it’s pretty much the soundtrack to any of our road trips. Last October, as we were driving back from a week on vacation in the Hudson Valley, we listened to their episode on Zankou Chicken. The panel gave Zankou the highest rating of any chain restaurant reviewed on the show in its nine year run. We resolved at that moment that we had to have it.
We each ordered a rotisserie plate at the location in West Anaheim, mine a half chicken and Erin’s a dark quarter, each accompanied by hummus, tomatoes, pickled turnips, pita bread and Zankou’s famous garlic sauce. This lived up to every bit of Doughboys hype, and maybe even surpassed it. The chicken itself was perfect: tender and juicy with crispy skin and seasoned simply to accentuate and not distract from the meat. Dipped in the pungent garlic sauce, each bite bordered on decadent, which is where the acidic pickled turnips and tomatoes helped to defeat palate fatigue. My only disappointment is that we didn’t go back again later to explore more of the menu.
After a quick stop at the Cerritos mall4 we drove down to San Pedro, put the windows down, cranked up Double Nickels on the Dime and took in the coastal scenery from Lookout Point and Angels Gate Park. It being a Saturday afternoon, a group was setting up for a wedding next to the Korean Friendship Bell overlooking the Pacific. We didn’t see an open bar for us to crash, so we drove up the coast a few miles to Point Vicente in the tony oceanside city of Rancho Palos Verdes with hopes of seeing some whales or dolphins from the high cliffs. Instead, we found another wedding setup in progress, this one markedly more bougie than the last. Still, the stiff sea breeze, the warm sunshine, gorgeous auburn cliffside and ideal company all combined for a serenity that money couldn’t buy.5
We headed back to Anaheim, stopping for beers at the highly lauded Green Cheek Beer Company. From the time we coyly approached the bar — afraid we had cut in front of another group — to the bottom of our first round, the line for service had grown, snaking through the taproom all the way back to the front door. Severely understaffed on a Saturday evening, it took a little more than 20 minutes to make my way to the front to order a second round from the only bartender on duty. Meanwhile one of the owners, I’m guessing, cut a couple of his friends ahead of the paying patrons and proceeded to yuk it up with them rather than, oh, say, bussing empty glasses or opening up another point of sale to mitigate customer wait time. Maybe it’s an Anaheim thing, I don’t know, but a line like that ought to have a rollercoaster at the end of it, not just some sorta clever-named beer and an owner content to suffer the slings and arrows of a rando from Ohio who writes a blog read by literal tens of people. We closed our tab and went over to Bottle Logic, whose beer is as good or better and whose staff was helpful, friendly and fast.
Scott and Mindy were off having their own adventure in Hollywood and Beverly Hills throughout the day, then got in touch about finding some late dinner. I made a couple of suggestions before we landed on Tacos Los Cholos, a no nonsense taqueria with a vast array of meats, all cooked over flaming pits out back behind the kitchen. We smelled the place before we saw it, the intoxicating aroma of smoke and beef wafting through the air in a half mile radius around the grills. After a short wait in a briskly moving line, we ordered maybe a dozen or so tacos and quesadillas among the four of us, with meats ranging from simple but delectable pork adobado and chorizo to higher end options like cured beef cecina and filet mignon. Every single thing we ordered was outstanding on its own, and even better when accented with the many house salsas available. Stuffed like four burritos, we retired to our hotels for the night with a full day behind us and a plan for the next.
Sunday
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? I often skip it in favor of an extra cup of coffee and an earlier lunch, but on this day where my first meal would otherwise have to be something underwhelming at a ballpark, we made plans to kick off the day the right way. I directed us to Lola’s by MFK — short for Modern Filipino Kitchen — after searching recommendations for the best breakfast or brunch in Anaheim. I was second guessing my instincts when we were able to get a table immediately,6 assuming the place would be jam packed due to it being walking distance from Angel Stadium and that day’s promo giveaway: a Mickey Mouse bobblehead for Disney’s D23 fan club.
All doubts were laid to rest as soon as drinks were served. We all ordered cold brews, perfect for this rapidly warming Orange County Sunday. I got the buko pandan coffee, amped up with sweet coconut milk and the floral, vanilla flavors of pandan, which made the drink a pleasant shade of green when all mixed together. Mindy also ordered a mimosa kit for the table — baller, right? — which included a bottle of bubbly and glasses of orange, mango, hibiscus and calamansi juices.
Before we knew it, our entrees arrived: avocado toast for Mindy, a breakfast burrito for Scott, a Spam musubi breakfast bowl for Erin and, for me, bangus sisig, a sizzling skillet of chopped milkfish, eggs, onions and peppers. Shortly after we dug into our excellent breakfasts, our server brought out an order of ube French toast that the kitchen had made by mistake, noteworthy for its stunning purple hue and decadent, nutty flavor. The enormity of our brunch feast meant we only ate a slice or so of the French toast, but it was the perfect capper for our pre-game meal.
Angel Stadium is just a half-mile walk from Lola’s, but we decided to drive because we’re pretty sure that’s what rappers would do.7 We also needed to stop by a Target so Erin and Mindy could buy smaller bags to conform with the ballpark’s draconian security policy. With satchels in hand and contents transferred, we made our way to the stadium’s main gate, flanked on either side by giant Los Angeles Angels baseball caps, which according to the American haberdasher’s gauge of head circumference, are size 649-1/2.8
Opened in 1966, Angel Stadium is the fourth oldest active ballpark in Major League Baseball, premiering four years after Dodger Stadium — 27 miles away — in the game’s era of westward expansion. Originally designed exclusively for baseball, the Angels would have to share their home in the ‘80s and early ‘90s with the Los Angeles Rams football team. This dual occupancy required the addition of some 23,000 seats, primarily accomplished by enclosing the area beyond the outfield wall, blocking the view of the San Gabriel and Santa Ana mountains, and necessitating the move of the Big A, the stadium’s unique scoreboard structure, to the parking lot adjacent to the 57 freeway.
Luckily for the baseball team, the Rams skipped town for St. Louis in 1995.9 When Disney took control of the Angels franchise a year later, they made significant renovations to the stadium, including removing the football stands and replacing them with a rock and water feature known as the “California Spectacular,” a name so inspiring yet devoid of meaning that only Disney’s imagineers could have come up with it.
Despite a few rounds of remodels, Angel Stadium feels every bit of 58 years old as you make your way through the closed concourses, the well-worn concrete punctuated by frequent splashes of Angel crimson to draw your eye to concessions and retail. However, as you enter the seating bowls, the mid-century charm comes to the fore, putting baseball front and center, demanding your rapt attention. The field and views are picturesque, even if the team on the field has more often than not been tough to watch, including this season as they battle to stay out of the basement of the American League West.
The tepid Angels offense would eke out just three runs on three hits in this game against visiting New York Mets starter Jose Quintana, but enjoyed a rare strong performance from their own hurler, Griffin Canning. He kept the Mets mostly in check for the first five innings despite shaky defense behind him, turning over a 3-2 lead to the bullpen, which would preserve it for the victory.10
We had it made in the shade — literally — in the club level, beating the heat with in-seat service. Craft beer options were few and far between, with the stadium leaning in hard on a sponsorship deal with Brewery X,11 but the club seating drink options included a fun smattering of cocktails as well. Erin ordered a greyhound, which neither of us had heard of because we’re bad bartenders, a simple mix of gin and grapefruit juice over ice. Gin and juice… where have I heard that before?12
Too wiped out to do anything after the game, Erin and I lounged in the hotel for a few hours until we got hungry, opting for another trip to In-N-Out: her first time, my second. Got the fries “animal style” this time, which is the move and I didn’t realize it the first time around. I also ordered a neapolitan shake, another “secret menu” item I wasn’t previously aware of.
I’m not 100% convinced that we achieved the opulent experience that we set out to, but we still had another day to spend in L.A., plus a jaunt up the coast ahead of us. Plenty of opportunities to contribute to the world’s fifth largest economy.
NEXT GAMES:
Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Aug. 5, 7:10 p.m. PDT, Dodger Stadium
Chicago White Sox at Oakland Athletics, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 12:37 p.m. PDT, Oakland Coliseum
Detroit Tigers at San Francisco Giants, Saturday, Aug. 10, 1:05 p.m. PDT, Oracle Park
Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, Monday, Aug. 12, 6:40 p.m. MST, Chase Field
I had three oil changes in my budget. I did not have repair cracked windshield in my budget, but that’s what I had to do on my way back east when a kicked up rock in New Orleans gave me a half-dollar sized spiderweb. Luckily, our comprehensive auto insurance paid for it and I didn’t have to reach into my own pocket.
I have three RTIC products on the trip with me: 30 oz. cup, soft-sided cooler, 53 qt. rolling cooler. Sponsorship?
When was the last time you set foot in an actual mall, like, with a food court and a movie theater and a Hot Topic and the whole bit?
Well, I suppose, at the very least, there’s a cost to the couple gallons of gas it takes to get to someplace this breathtaking.
I realize I’m all over the board in this post about whether waiting in line is good or bad. Consider me unpredictable.
I’m going to claim ignorance on the subject. I can’t string together rhymes to save my life, so I have no idea what choices people with this marketable talent would make.
Measure the circumference of your head in inches and divide by π. For reference, my hat size is 7-1/2, which is perfectly normal, thank you very much.
They’ve since returned to L.A. after getting a new stadium built for them in Inglewood.
Home teams are now 10-12 on the Bleachers and ‘Bleeds tour, and have won five in a row.
Yes, that’s their name. I didn’t just leave in a placeholder while I searched my notes.
We did roll down the street smoking indo as well. It’s always nice when “how to live like a rapper” comes with easy to follow instructions. As of this writing, I am laid back with my mind on my money and my money on my mind.
California Love BB! Now to get you a Gang of Tanqueray
Serengeti is dope. That's a Bop for sure