How it all began
They call it stadium chasing now, and it's become quite the community through numerous Facebook groups and websites and is a travel tradition enjoyed by families and friends across North America. But back in 2003 when my friend, Jamie, and I looked at each other after one of our adult baseball league games and I said “hey, you wanna try to get to a bunch of ballparks this summer?" it was just an off the cuff comment that steamrolled into some of the most memorable adventures of our life.
I'd always had a passion for travel and at that time the idea of mixing travel with my other biggest passion, baseball, seemed like a pretty awesome idea. So the two of us committed to taking 7 days off work around the Canada Day weekend and got to work trying to maximize the art of the possible for that week in 2003.
Back then the internet was still in its grade school years, you could start to see what it might become but it was still learning and growing and wasn't nearly the treasure trove of information it is now. You could ask Jeeves or Yahoo for help but most of the time it would come up with half answers, or wrong answers. Yet over the course of about 3 weeks of meticulous research we were still able to cobble together the makings of a solid, albeit challenging plan to visit seven different parks in seven days. We would do it all by car, with a stack of printed pixelated Yahoo Map pages to guide us, and some pre-booked reservations for hotels that we weren't entirely sure would actually let us stay when we arrived.
Hitting the road
I'm both a morning person and a night owl so the schedule of long days and nights wasn't that daunting, it was exciting. Jamie offered up his Rav4 as our chariot for the trip and it was more than up to the task (despite a slightly bumpy start). Early on a Thursday morning we gathered our meager belongings in dufflebags, left Toronto behind and headed to Pittsburgh, the first stop in our sprint across middle America.
Over the next seven days we drove over 2400 miles and took in 60 innings of baseball across the stadiums in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland before arriving back home safely to Toronto. And while watching baseball was the purpose of the trip, it wasn't always the highlight of the trip because in each city we also took what limited time we had before and after games to explore both the daylife and nightlife of each location. It turned out the week of July 4th was an ideal time to experience these American cities at their most festive. Over the course of our seven day journey we experienced so much more than baseball. He happened upon things like the Taste of Detroit festival featuring tons of food vendors and a free concert by Cake (fitting headliner for a food festival). The Taste of Chicago festival featuring a concert by Counting Crows was running the afternoon before our visit to Wrigley. And we enjoyed some July 4th festivities in St. Louis that included an air show above the infamous Arch before seeing the Cardinals play, along with some free live music in the city after the game. We ate and drank at some of the most popular local establishments of their time like Primenti Brothers in Pittsburgh, the Hofbrauhouse in Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnati, and of course some fine breweries in the home of the Brewers, Milwaukee.
There wasn't a night that ended before 2am or a day that started after 8am but it's amazing what the body can endure when you're on a mission. We were fueled by free Hampton Inn breakfasts, stadium hotdogs, late night fast food and whatever unique local foods we could find for lunch. We were hydrated mostly in the wee hours of the night by whatever the bars were serving. And we were endlessly entertained on the drive to the next city by the rehashing of the previous night's stories, along with the backdrop of our favorite soundtracks playing on the car radio.
Go the distance
The joy and sense of accomplishment from completing that first trip drove us to take the “let's go see some ballparks” comment and turned it into “let's try to see every ballpark,” and once our other baseball loving friends heard the stories that came out of that first epic week, our mission gathered steam. Like Ray Kinsella's ghostly whisperer during Field of Dreams, “Go the Distance” rang through our heads. In the end, over the next 5 summers our trips grew from just the two of us to include as many as seven large guys all cramming into a van and a couple hotel rooms to experience everything America had to offer in the way of baseball, nightlife and scenery. No trip lasted longer than nine days or shorter than five. And like that first year, while our passion for baseball was the inspiration it was the moments between each game that only hard earned, well-planned travel and a bit of luck can create that made it all worthwhile.
Yes, we were fortunate that age was still on our side, as we started this journey in our late 20's and when all was said and done in 2008, 32 ballparks later we were in our mid 30's. While 32 MLB ballparks is a feat itself, along the way we also made the time to visit iconic baseball attractions like The Field of Dreams in Iowa, Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Negro Leagues Hall of Fame in Kansas City and the Little League World Series Complex in Williamsburg. We saw the Alamo, the Hoover Dam, the Vegas Strip, the White House, the Empire State Building, the Space Needle, the Grassy Knoll, the Mall of America, the Hollywood sign and countless other American monuments and attractions. We felt the sand between our toes and the chilly ocean waters on beaches in Atlantic City, St. Augustine, Clearwater, Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles. We wandered down famous streets like Broadway (NYC), Yawkey Way (Boston), Lincoln Ave (Miami), Rush St (Chicago), 6th St (Austin), the Riverwalk (San Antonio), Gaslamp (San Diego) and Hollywood Blvd. I could write 100 pages from the stories and experiences that came from our stadium chasing travels, but blogs aren't the place for that. I look back now and am amazed at how much of America we saw in a relatively short time and on pretty meager budgets, but we were helped by friends (that could get us Hilton friends & family rates) and a willingness to trade luxury for value.
Would I try it all over again at 50 years old? 1000% yes! Though sadly I'm not sure my wallet could handle it now.
Where will your interests take you?
So, as a Travel Advisor, I recommend you try a trip where your passions inspire your travel and discovering every opportunity to enjoy the in-between moments that your destinations offers during your time. The side of the road taco truck with ocean views that only opens twice per week. The unadvertised cultural festival that gave you the chance to try turtle soup for the first time. The free concert in the park. These moments can be around the corner from you without you ever knowing. But I can help you not miss them. Whether or not you travel at a similar frenetic pace as these Baseball Roadtrips doesn't really matter, it's just about Going the Distance and hitting the open road to whatever distance and at whatever pace your passions take you.
Your inspiration for travel might not be baseball. It could be skiing, hiking, chasing waterfalls, immersing yourself in history, beach bumming, cruising the open sea, basically anything that gets you out of your daily routine and into the unknown. I'd welcome the chance to help fuel your own stories through incredible travel experiences and would love to hear about the passions that inspire you to jump in the car or hop on a plane to explore your next destination. Ready to get started?
The world awaits you! Let's find you some unexpected moments so we can trade stories afterwards.