On September 12, 2008, my mom, dad, Tim and I headed to Chase Field for Tim’s Second MLB Anniverary.  Here was our first view of the stadium as we approached from the parking garage:

We were going to see the Arizona Diamondbacks face off against the Cincinnati Reds.  Early in the season, I picked this game for Tim’s baseball anniversary game for three reasons (i) if we cannot make it to Safeco Field for Tim’s anniversary, I plan to take Tim to a different stadium each year on his MLB anniversary game, (ii) the Mariners were on the road, and (iii) I wanted Tim to see Griffey.  As I said, we planned this early in the season.  By the time this game rolled around, Griffey had been playing for the White Sox for more than a month.

Oh, well.  Still, it was a great game.  Brandon Webb pitched for the Diamondbacks and if he could earn the win, he would become the NL’s first 20-game winner of the season.

My folks took a picture of me and Tim in front of these big bats in front of the stadium entrance:

As the security lady checked my bag, Tim was itching to enter the first domed stadium of his life…

…I’m not counting Safeco Field as “domed” because the roof is really just a canopy, its always open-air at Safeco Field.

We entered the stadium in the LF foul corner and made our way around the concourse toward the third base side.  I was happy to see a Randy Johnson poster as we made our way around the concourse: 

Actually, I wanted to go to the game the next day too so Tim could see Randy pitch, but Tim and I took a long nap and my folks let us sleep right through the beginning of the game.  Its okay because Randy got a no decision after pitching 6 innings of 1-run baseball.

Anyway, I love domes.  I have to, I grew up in the Kingdome.  But here is a bad thing about domes…

…dark and boring concourses, no natural light.

The grounds crew was readying the field as we made our way into the field level seats.  Here is a panoramic view of Chase Field as we crossed behind the 1B dugout:

I liked Chase Field, but it did seem quite dark to me with the roof closed.  By the way, I’m not sure why the roof was closed.  It was beautiful outside and not so hot that we needed protection from the heat.

Before the game, we toured around the park a little bit…

…here, we’re looking down at a special group seating area behind the RF fence.

This picture says it all…

…Tim was impressed by his first domed stadium.  The Kingdome must be in his blood.

Eventually, the game started.  And I must apologize, I did a really poor job photographing it.  (Of course, in my defense, I didn’t have an MLBlog at the time…or even know that MLBlogs existed).

Our seats were in section 111, row 7.  But Tim and I watched the first couple innings from the first row of section 111.  We were stationed right behind the ballgirl (or ball lady) down the RF foul line.  We discussed it with her before the game and she agreed that she would give Tim a foul ball if or when she got one.  Sadly, not one single foul grounder was hit down the 1B line.  It ended up being the first time in his 2.5 years that Tim did not get a baseball on September 12th.

Eventually, someone came to claim our seats so we met up with my follks in row 7.

The game was a pitchers dual between Webb and Aaron Harang.  By the sixth inning, there were a couple hits recorded on the scoreboard, but no runs.

Of course, Tim got an ice cream helmet…

…and an ample amount of chocolate ice cream on his face.

By the way, the Diamondbacks ice cream helmet is different than all of the other ice cream helmets Tim and I have collected to date.  Here are some photos showing a comparison with the holy grail of ice cream helmets, a Mariners helmet from Safeco Field:

Hopefully the difference is decipherable in these pictures.  The Diamondbacks helmet is longer than other helmets.  Generally, ice cream helmets can be stacked on top of each other.  The Diamondbacks helmet can sit on top of a stack of helmets, but other helmets do not fit over the Diamondbacks helmet.

Back to the game.  As the fancy scoreboard in CF showed…

…the Diamondbacks broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth inning.  The run was unearned due to an error by Aaron Harang who was also pitching a gem.  With one out, David Eckstein hit a weak grounder to Harang and Harang threw the ball into right field.  Eckstein made it all the way to third.  He then scored on a single by Chris Young.

In the middle of the game, Tim got a little restless in the seats so my dad took him to the kids play area, which is behind the seats in the upper deck out in left field.  Tim had lots of fun sliding and generally monkeying around:

Amazingly, I took zero action shots at this game.  So here is a random picture of us enjoying the game…

…I have no clue why I’m wearing my sunglasses indoors in that picture.  And here are some more pictures:

After seven innings of an excellent pitchers dual, the Reds relievers entered the game in the bottom of the eighth and promptly stunk it up.  After giving up a lead off triple to the pinch-hitting Jeff Salazar and striking out Stephen Drew, the Reds relievers walked three consecutive batters.  The final walk scored Salazar making the game 2-0 in favor of the Diamondbacks.  Mark Reynolds then struck out.  Chad Tracy then strode to the plate and promptly watched the first pitch sail to the back stop.  Another run scored on the wild pitch.  Tracy then struck out.  For the Reds, it wasn’t the most impressive way of striking out the side.

Next it was the Diamonbacks relievers turn to pitch terribly.  After 8 innings of scoreless baseball by Brandon Webb, the Diamonbacks bullpen gave up four singles in the bottom of the ninth.  But, alas, they were unable to blow Brandon Webb’s stellar performance.  The 3-2 victory was Webb’s 20th of 2008.  It was the first (and only) time Webb has won 20 in a season, and he was the only NL pitcher to accomplish that task in 2008.

After the game, we stuck around for fireworks.  After a bunch of waiting…

…they opened the roof and the show began…

…it was fine, but not all that impressive compared to the excellent fire works show we’d seen the prior month in Cincinnati.  Part of the problem was that the fireworks were shot off the top of a building (I think a parking garage) across the street from Chase Field and they barely made it above the framing of the roof.

Nevertheless, despite no Griffey, no catching a baseball, and not overly impressive fireworks display, we had an excellent time spending Tim’s Second MLB Anniversary with my folks in Arizona.

For see the rest of Tim’s MLB Anniversary games (through 2009), follow the links below:

• 2006 – Blue Jays at Mariners
• 2007 – Rockies at Phillies
• 2008 – This game
• 2009 – Orioles at Yankees