First off, apologies for taking so long to get to this blog post. My two-game road trip in late July was part of a week-long trip through New Hampshire and Maine, and it was a holiday trip with my wife more than a baseball-specific trip. So, I’m now catching up on things.

Anyway, as you may have previously read, I took in my first New Hampshire Fisher Cats game last September, and had an awesome time. If you want to read my blog about it, click here. And if you want to read a full ballpark guide to Northeast Delta Dental Stadium on my website, TheBallparkGuide.com, click here.

On this trip to the east coast, I wanted to hit a Portland Sea Dogs game. But since we were driving through New Hampshire, it only made sense to catch the Toronto Blue Jays AA team for one game.

One of the coolest things about Northeast Delta Dental Stadium is the on-site Hilton Garden Inn with field-facing rooms. I’m a sucker for places like this. I stayed here last year, and had to do it again this year.

We arrived around 3 p.m. on the day of the game and checked in. When I anxiously got to our room, however, I was dismayed to see it was right behind the batter’s eye:

(I later took a look at the outside of the hotel from the ballpark, and our room (#201) is probably the only one with an obstructed view. I could’ve complained, but I didn’t want to mess around. I couldn’t tell if the batting cages were up for BP, though since the Fisher Cats played a double-header the day before, I severely doubted it.

Either way, I took a rather limited panorama …

… and waited for a bit until the Reading Phillies came out to stretch:

The hotel has an outdoor eatery called The Patio. It’s directly over the outfield fence and you can sit there at any time, including for batting practice. Last year, the teams didn’t take BP, and unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards again this year. I was really hoping to snag some home runs, but I guess that will have to wait for my next visit.

Here’s the view from The Patio:

And here’s a panorama shot from roughly the same spot:

With no BP to watch, I took some photos of the Phillies, who looked like they were having fun despite the temperatures of nearly 100 degrees:

Eventually, the Fisher Cats came out to run, too:

I’m not sure who the guy on the left is, but I believe the other guy is Henderson Alvarez, who’s only 21 but has an impressive 7-4 record with a 2.82 ERA.

My wife and I decided to have an early dinner on The Patio, and the food and service were great. I’d recommend staying at the Hilton Garden Inn if you ever go to a Fisher Cats game, but either way, check out this eatery prior to the game.

After eating, we headed around the corner of the hotel …

… and right to the Fisher Cats ticket office, where we got our tickets. I took my customary ticket shot:

And since my wife wanted in on the fun, here’s a shot with both our tickets:

We entered the stadium as soon as it opened, and climbed the big flight of stairs up to the concourse:

When I got on the concourse, I took a look back at the hotel. I think you’ll agree that our room (which is circled) was the worst of those facing the field:

All those umbrellas directly between the hotel and the outfield fence are part of The Patio, so you can see what I mean about being close to the action during BP.

The concourse was crowded with camp kids, but we made our way through to the area behind home plate where last year, I visited the Ted Williams Hitters Museum and Hall of Fame. Here’s what it looked like last year:

And here’s the scene this year:

Hmmmm.

We continued our way around the concourse to the right field corner, and I snapped this panorama:

Soon, the Fisher Cats came out to stretch again, so I made my way down to the first base line to try to get some autographs. Remember how the Phillies looked loose and fun before the game? The Cats were that way, too. First baseman Mike McDade (#40) seems to be telling some sort of funny story here:

Here are Moises Sierra, Mark Sobolewski and Adeiny Hechavarria getting stretched out:

As the players got warmed up, I noticed that one of the rotary display boards on the scoreboard wasn’t working:

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only problem for the Fisher Cats on this night. The main scoreboard was dead, too:

(As you’ll see above, that guy up the ladder finally did get the rotary display to work correctly.)

I managed to get six autographs, which I’ll blog about at a later date, as usual. For now, I’ll say I’m pretty pleased with how I did.

As the players awaited the start of the game, I snapped a quick shot of the dugout, which is very nice by AA standards …

… and one of catcher Travis D’Arnaud, who was a key figure in the trading of Roy Halladay:

Note: I think D’Arnaud is giving the stink-eye here to two kids who ran to the railing screaming, “Catchercatchercanwehaveabat?Catchercanwehaveaball?Catchercanwehaveabat?”

When the game began a few minutes later, we took our seats down the third base line, where we had this view:

From our seats, I could see that The Patio was really packed with people watching the game, and I could even see fans watching from their hotel rooms:

On this visit, jets flew overhead at a frequency of maybe one every 10 to 15 minutes. I don’t remember this last year, so maybe the Manchester airport’s flight plans have changed? Either way, it was cool to see the jets so low. Here’s the FedEx one …

… which was followed a few minutes later by the UPS one.

As for the action on the field, our close seats enabled us to get a few decent shots. Here’s Fisher Cats manager Sal Fasano:

Adeiny Hechavarria:

Anthony Gose:

And Mike McDade (photo courtesy of my wife):

After a few innings, we took a walk around the concourse and my wife snapped a sunset shot of Manchester over the Merrimack River:

We then relocated to behind home plate in the same row as some scouts. We had this view:

While in this area, we got dinner. Last year, I had a clam strips basket, which was no longer on the menu. I wanted to try the clam chowder, which was a big seller last September given the cold weather, but didn’t seem too popular given this game’s hot temperature. It came with oyster crackers and was tasty. I mean, it’s not exactly homemade, but it tasted like Campbell’s soup, which isn’t a bad thing at a ballpark:

As you can see here, it’s got loads of chunks, too. It’s not just broth:

Following our meal, we went down the third base line to a relatively empty area behind the Reading bullpen:

We spent the rest of the game here, watching the Fisher Cats continue to put up goose eggs. Despite three errors by the visiting team, the Phillies won 6-1:

Next up, Portland — home of the AA Sea Dogs.