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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > October > 30
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Cancun becomes Can’t-cun
Never, never, never take a trip with me — not on a bet, not on your life, not ever, ever, ever.
Just returned from Cancun and the worst vacation of my life. The highlights: It rained every day but one, so Nadine and I were on the beach once. I contracted food poisoning the third day and spent one entire day getting right with The Almighty because I was sure I was in the last days of my life on earth.
It started when we landed in Cancun and they told departing passengers to “declare” any prescriptions they were bringing in. Nadine was the only passenger on our flight to say she had prescription drugs, so we were stopped and her luggage was searched. Everybody else — most carrying pX drugs, walked through.
The hotel sent a van for us, and as we left the airport the policia, or the federales, stopped our van. They took our driver back to their car to scan his papers. Then one of the officers walked around the van peering in the windows at us. Satisfied that we were not unsavory, they let us go.
Our hotel was excellent, except it was $20 via cab to the nearest civilization that had restaurants and shops. Everybody took U.S. dollars, but gave change in pesos — which was 12 pesos to one dollar. I nearly choked at the first restaurant when I saw my meal was $875 on the menu. But that was pesos — about $40 U.S.
Nadine had a club sandwich at the hotel and had a Cracker Jack-type prize between the bread — a piece of plastic.
The food was below average and I’m sure the chicken mole I ate one night was the culprit that knocked me off my feet — diarrhea, fever, cold sweats, chills, dizziness that had me bouncing off the walls as I tried to walk to the bathroom.
One plus: They sold Cuban cigars (fairly cheap) out of backpacks on the beach. And they were legit, not phonies. For $50, I got five pyramids from a guy on the beach. For the same cigars, they wanted $27 FOR ONE at a shop downtown.
They told us to be at the Cancun airport three hours in advance to go home. We were there. It took us 15 minutes to check in. We figured we still had to go through customs. Wrong. You go through customs on your first stop in the States, for us it was Charlotte.
So we had to kill almost three hours at the airport. When we got to Charlotte, we had 1:20 to make our connecting flight. Customs, of course, was jammed. Took us 1:10 to get through and we sprinted to the gate and were the last to get on our Dayton flight.
Alas, as we pulled from the gate and headed for the runway, a young passenger up front had a panic attack or a seizure. He was screaming. They took us back to the gate and we sat for an hour. US Airways did give us a cup of water and one cookie and didn’t charge us, as they usually do for coffee ($1), soft drinks ($2) and adult beverages ($7).
Amazingly, after an hour, they announced that there had been a medical emergency on board, but all was OK now and they were putting him back on board. After another 20 minutes to add fuel, we left. The guy began screaming again.
But he stopped and apparently the drugs kicked in and he fell asleep until the end of our Trip From Hell.
Did get to see bits and snatches of the World Series, broadcast in Spanish.
And what did the 2008 World Series prove?
ONE — The season needs shortened. How about 148 games and some Sunday and holiday doubleheaders?
TWO — A neutral site for the World Series, such as a warm climate in California or Florida or in a domed stadium.
Watching Game 5, played in a downpour, convinced me. Baseball is not meant to be played under cloudbursts and in cold, cold weather. The only gloves that should be worn at a baseball game are the ones players use to catch baseballs. Gloves to keep hands warm are not for baseball games.
Sorry Tampa Bay didn’t win, but happy for the much-deprived Phillies fans.
One questions: Why did Joe Maddon start Grant Balfour when Game 5 resumed? Why didn’t he go with David Price right way? From what I saw, Maddon was outmanaged throughout the Series by baseball lifer Charlie Manuel.
More later.
