cleveland rocked

i found myself in ohio for work late last month, and as fate would have it, the indians were in town. i made sure to take advantage of the opportunity to cross another stadium - this time progressive field - off my list, and am now able to add this card

to my mini-collection of cards representing stadiums i've seen a big league game in. that's a 2019 topps gold parallel of the cleveland team card.

i actually saw two games between the indians and the red sox ("stubs" below), 

but nothing extraordinary happened that warranted a topps now card. the first game (here's the first pitch)

went in to extra innings, with the red sox winning courtesy of a 10th inning jd martinez home run. the second game started after a three hour rain delay 

with 5+ no-hit innings by the red sox starter (tanner houck), but jose ramirez ended my no-hit dream with a solo homer in the sixth, and the indians eventually came back to win. the rain delay gave me plenty of time to walk around the stadium, and i enjoyed every minute of it. wandering around the suite level, i saw a couple of items of interest. first, old friend orel hershiser is featured on an american league championship mural over one of the concourses

as well as on the exterior of a suite

there was another suite that featured frank robinson

the interesting thing here is there are some baseball cards enlarged on the interior wall

1965 topps luis tiant and sam mcdowell cards, plus a custom 1976 topps frank robinson card. cool. as always, i was sure to seek out the retired numbers which are posted in right field

there we have bob feller, lou boudreau, earl averill, bob lemon, jim thome, larry doby, frank robinson, jackie robinson, and mel harder, plus a number for "the fans". to the right of the fans, there is a mural featuring addie joss, 

a hall of fame pitcher from the early 1900s. other cleveland hall of famers that predate uniform numbers are similarly featured with these murals around the stadium.

all in all, i really enjoyed the stadium and the baseball. thanks cleveland!