The Air Conditioned Chase Field

Right now we’re about halfway between Phoenix and Ft. Stockton, Texas, where a hotel bed will be waiting for us, and here are my reactions to watching the Sox play in Arizona.

Chase Field, the D-backs home field, was unlike any stadium I’ve ever been to. It’s indoors, which I have no problem with because they air condition the enter place to a 78˚ haven compared to the outside world, but that’s exactly the problem. Like I said Dodgers’ Stadium was an eerie experience, but at least I felt like I was watching a baseball game. The D-backs don’t play on a baseball field, they play in a airport hanger or a gigantic and abandoned warehouse that just happens to have some grass and seats and hot dogs. Even when the roof is opened, it doesn’t feel like I’m outside.

I remember going to watch the Red Sox play at Safeco Field in Seattle back in 2005. Yeah, it was kind of weird being in a domed stadium for the first time, but I got you used to it pretty quickly. When the roof closed, the sides were still opened so I could feel a breeze ever once in a while. The only breeze I felt in Phoenix came when the hot air swirled at the top of the stadium, which was of course was where our seats were, and came back to smack across the face.

And my final beef with Chase Field came during the Sunday afternoon game. I was expecting them to open the roof to let the sun in, because, well, I thought it was against the rules of Major League Baseball to play a day game without any sunshine. But it never did. Now I’m not complaining because we all would have roasted alive had the place not been cooled down, but again didn’t feel like I was watching a baseball game. I mean there were lights on during a day game. Tell me there isn't something wrong with that.

Thankfully, I was distracted by the pitcher’s duel between Randy Johnson and Dice-K Matsuzaka. Johnson had 9 strikeouts through 5 innings, but then again two of those were on Dice-K, who just wasn’t used to American pitching. Maybe he was just sitting on the gyroball. Who knows? All I know is that we were there to see Matsuzaka bat for the first time in an MLB game, and we have a lot of driving left to do. It’s about 1000 miles to Houston and thunderstorms are expected in Southern New Mexico. Lucky us!