Posted By Jeff Fletcher on October 19, 2009 9:58 am

Doing a rare bit of morning posting to the Travelogue because I arrived at Angel Stadium about 30 minutes earlier than I needed to be here. I had allowed for traffic and there was none. Took me only about 25 minutes to get here from Torrance. Gotta say, I’ve mostly lucked out on the traffic so far in LA. (By the way, I think there is a Best Buy at every freeway exit in Southern California.)

Being in Anaheim all by myself is depressing, because I’ve come here so many times with my family to go to Disneyland. I could see the Matterhorn and the Tower of Terror at California Adventure from the freeway. Makes me sad. Being in Anaheim alone is sort of like walking through a casino with your kids. Just all wrong.

Last night after finishing off this story on Vladimir Guerrero and watching the beginning of the Phillies’ pounding of the Dodgers (which has made me a huge Phillies fan for today’s game), I went to play in a poker tournament. Came in sixth place! (Well, there were only 24 players, so I still didn’t win any money. Ran into pocket aces. Bummer.)

Anyway, back Angel Stadium. Here is a little photo gallery. These first two are self-explanatory.

And here is a shot of the Nick Adenhart memorial that is outside the park. Adenart, as you may know, was the Angels pitcher who was killed in a car accident back in April. They’ve kept it intact all season, even having someone with the Angels remove it when there’s a threat of rain and then reassemble it afterward.

And now, to the most important part of the ballpark, the press box. Here you can see one full shot of the press box, which is nice and roomy. Normally I’d say it holds about 75ish writers, but they’ve doubled the size for the playoffs by adding some temporary wooden risers in the back, creating two extra rows. I’m in row 4, but that’s OK. I’m straight behind the plate. I can see home plate without having to sit awkwardly to see over my laptop (which is the case in some ballparks where the press is higher, like Dodger Stadium). And I’m right next to the router, so I’ve got a great WiFi signal.