SeeAll30.com – My Quest To See Them All!

We got up around 7am and was out the door by 8am.  As we made our way down to the lobby to check out I realized that we were actually ahead of schedule.   The first thing we had to do was the tour of Ford’s Theatre at 10am, and it wouldn’t take us but about 20 minutes to get there via the Metro.  So we stopped at the bakery counter for a muffin and OJ and enjoyed our breakfast sitting on a park bench outside in one of the flower gardens.  It was nice and peaceful and the muffins weren’t too shabby either.

Bob at Ford's Theatre - June 16, 2009

I had taken some time to look over a map of the Metro before we left home, so I knew exactly where we needed to go and the best part is that the Metro station was on the street corner directly in front of our hotel, couldn’t be any easier.  We jumped on the Red Line which took us to the Gallery Place station.  From there it’s a short walk to Ford’s Theatre.

This is one of the places I had been wanting to see in D.C. since the first time I had come to town and while I did get to drive by it then, in July 2003, I was unable to take the tour.  The same goes for my next visit, May 2005.  Not this time.  This time we were doing it and with tickets in hand we got to the Theatre and got in line around 9:30am.  The line was already about 50 people deep when we got there.  As we stood waiting for the doors to open we met a family from Iowa that were in town for the week.  We got to talking trips, comparing our stops, and realized that we would be hitting some of the same places over the next week, like Gettysburg and Philadelphia.  Was a lot of fun talking traveling with them and sharing opinions.  I told them when in Philly they had to get a cheesesteak at Geno’s.  I let them know if they didn’t like it, they could cuss me out later

The doors opened promptly at 10am and after we all filed into the theatre a park ranger appeared on stage and started the ‘tour’.  Basically he just spoke about the history of the building and the first thing he let us know is that the ONLY part of the building that was original is the facade out front!  Are you kidding me?!?!?  This kinda took the wind right out of our sails.  To know that the stage, the seats, the entire inside of the building was not original really sucked!  I did not know that the place was gutted not that long after President Lincoln was shot and turned into offices.  This means that while it’s the same building, it is NOT the same place where Lincoln was shot.  The luxury box where Lincoln was shot might not even be in the exact location.  The only things they could say for sure is that the lithograph of President Washington that’s on display is the same one that was there that night as well as the couch and chair that was in his box.  The chair that Lincoln was shot in wasn’t there as it is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI (I was lucky enough to have some friends take me by there to see it and other historical things, and a great Baseball Hall of Fame traveling display when I was back there in August 2006).

When we left Ford’s Theatre we decided to try an add a stop at the National Archives before we headed out to Arlington to tour the cemetery.  The Archives is just 1 stop down the green or yellow line from where we were.  The Metro stop is on the backside of the archives so we walked around front and found a huge line!  There was no way that we were gonna stay and stand in that line.  Just means that we have to add it back to the schedule for Saturday and when we realized we were gonna have to do that, we hurried to get to the train and head out to Arlington.

Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier(s) @ Arlington Cemetery

It’s about a 15-20 minute ride from the Archives to Arlington and when you get there and come up from under ground, you still have a bit of a walk to get to the visitors center.  As we got there Bob took some time to look around at the different things on display, while I got us tickets for the Tourmobile ride up to JFK’s grave, Tomb of the Unknowns and Arlington House.  This is something thats a must and I learned the hard way cause when Sean and I were in town back in 2003, we walked all the way up, in 100+ degree heat,  and by the time I got to JFK’s grave, I thought they were gonna have to bury this fat boy next to Kennedy!!   It’s only $7.50 for the ride around the loop and is so worth it.  While you ride they tell you facts about the cemetery as well as point out graves for you to see, like Abner Doubleday’s (though, they said he “invented” baseball, and well, if you study the origins of the game, you will know thats not at all possible).  The view from JFK’s grave looking back at the city of DC is awesome.  You can clearly see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and so much more.  Not too far from JFK’s grave is where his brother, Bobby Kennedy, is buried with a plain white cross.   Bob overheard someone say while looking at Bobby’s grave, “Look, he has the same last name as that guy over there.  I wonder if they were related?”  How incredibly sad is that?!

We got to the Tomb of the Unknowns just in time to see the ‘changing of the guard’.  If you have never seen this, you must if you get the chance.  This was my 2nd time and it was just as cool as the first.  Honestly, it’s nothing like I thought it would be.  I was expecting this huge thing, I mean to say, a big production… I was wrong.  What it is though is 3 soldiers that move in perfect harmony.  The precision is something else.  It’s very cool.  When it was over we went looking for the grave of the most-decorated soldier ever, Audie Murphy.   It took us a bit, but we finally found it.  It wasn’t that far from the memorials for the Challenger and Columbia crews.

With time running out on us for the day, we skipped Arlington House and headed for the Metro to get back to our hotel to get our car and get outta town.  It took us about 30 minutes and 2 train rides to get back to the Metro stop where we started that morning.  I decided to take the elevator up to the surface, Bob was gonna take the escalator.  I have a real fear of those things, ever since the one that didn’t seem like it was gonna end at the Ballpark In Arlington back in 2000.  On the elevator you ride up at least 5 stories and as I walked out the door onto the street, that made me think, was the escalator ride that long as well?  I stood there on the street corner looking for Bob and I couldn’t see him anywhere.  So after about 3 minutes, I called his cell phone and got a message saying that the subscriber I have called is out of range. Huh?  So I waited another minute or so and called again… this time he answered.  I asked where he was and he said “Still on the escalator!”  He was just about to the top of the longest escalator he has ever seen.  He said there was no way that I would have ridden it and from the sounds of it, I probably would have puked just looking at it!!

Ken @ Ben's Chili Bowl

We grabbed our car from valet and hit the road.  Our first stop was for lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street in NW DC.  Ben’s is famous and has been there for just over 50 years now.  Many Presidents have ate there, including President Obama on Inauguration Day.  Ben’s is also a favorite restaurant of Bill Cosby and his favorite item is the “chili half-smoke”.  So that’s what we tried.  What they are is a big ole hot dog, 1/4 pound half pork and beef, on a steamed bun, with mustard, onions and Ben’s spicy homemade chili sauce and served with some potato chips.  I thought it was really good.  Bob thought it was ok, but thought the chili would be more like we Northwesterners think of chili, the stickin to your ribs, big chunks of meat with beans kinda chili.  I do have to say though, if you’re in town, check out Ben’s, it’s worth it!  Just before we left I wasn’t sure if we had to clear our table ourselves or not, so I started looking for a place to put our stuff and a worker there, Tremaine, came up and took our stuff and asked if we would like a refill of our Cokes for the road.  I said sure and when he returned, we hit the road.

On  the way to Baltimore we had to exchange our car at the airport.  See, when we planned this trip, we were originally gonna fly overnight Monday into Tuesday morning.  Everything was booked based on that and then we found out we could do a Monday morning flight and I was unable to get the car from Avis for Monday, so we booked with Alamo and we had to change cars.  It didn’t take too long to do and we were on our way to Camden Yards.

Oriole Park @ Camden Yards

The Warehouse - Oriole Park @ Camden Yards

Parking at Camden was very nice and only $10!.  We got to park really close, right by Eutaw Street on the 1st base side of the park.  I had been  telling Bob about Camden Yards, the warehouse and all, but it didn’t really sink in until we were walking up and he saw it all with his own eyes.  He fell in love!  We weren’t even to our seats yet, section 98, out in the CF bleachers, before Bob was talking about how he thought this park was awesome!  This was the first time he has experienced a park like Camden, as he had only been to 4 different MLB parks before this (Kingdome, Safeco, new Comiskey and Miller Park).  He loved the coziness.  Loved how it was all about the game, was so quaint.  He thought the warehouse was really cool.   Was a lot of fun watching him check out the park and take it all in.  Then again, who doesn’t love Camden Yards?  For all the reasons Bob mentioned, and sooooo much more!  Camden Yards is a ballpark lovers ballpark.   The red brick, the green steel, the use of surrounding areas, the views (the Bromo Selzter tower), it’s just all so awesome!  This was my 3rd game at Camden Yards and it was as if it was my first again, cause I was drinking it all in.

As we made our way to our seats, which were in center field, right behind us was Boog’s BBQ, as we walked by, we saw Boog there taking pix with people.  I was hoping to get back there and get a pic with him myself, but he was gone before we knew it, just after the start of the game.  Oh well, next time.  The game itself was good.  The Mets jumped to a 4-0 lead in the 4th, the O’s grabbed 2 back in the 6th only to give them right back in the 7th.  The Orioles tried to make a game of it by loading the bases in the bottom of the 9th and pushing 2 runs across, but Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez found his form and shut the Birds down for his 17th Save of the year.

Random Thoughts:

I met a guy with the worlds coolest name, Kenny, who was at Camden Yards for his first time.  He is a Mets fan from Long Island.  He and a couple friends drove down for the game and said  they will be driving back right after the game.  Was great talking to him about Camden Yards, baseball in general and I even got to pick his brain about the new Citi Field.  He told me I needed to eat at the “Shake Shack”.

I also got to meet long time Oriole fans, Cass & Shirley.  They were at the game with their awesome orange bird feather hats on.  They told me how they dont get to come as often as they used to, and how they used to sit down closer to the field but after each of them had surgeries, they just can’t do the stairs any more.  When I asked if I could take their picture they let me know I am not the first and wont be the last.  They said that tourists from as far away as Poland and Russia have been there at games and asked to take their pictures…. kinda puts my Lacey, WA in perspective, huh?

I also got to meet Paul, a Mets fan from New York who was at the game.  I met Paul originally on ballparkchasers.com and it was great to get to met him in person at the game.  We stood out in center field watching the game, enjoying some of Boog’s BBQ.

Boxscore

June 16th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip, Oriole Park @ Camden Yards |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

We left the house headed for Sea-Tac airport just before 7:30am.  The drive up went smoothly and before we knew it, we were waiting at the gate to board our flight.  As we waited we listened to the coverage on the tv of CNN.   There was a shooting at a bus stop in Prince George’s County, just outside of Washington D.C..  We would be driving through there in just a few hours, so that was kinda scary.

Our flight to Baltimore was a long one, just over 5 hours!  It was the longest flight I have ever done.  Best part about it though was that it was non-stop, once we got to Baltimore, we were done, no more flights until the end of the week. We flew Air Tran Airways and while the planes themselves were nothing special, meaning it’s the same room as on any Boeing 737, what made this flight awesome was the fact that Air Tran offers WI-FI (for $12.95/flight) and every seat has its own built in XM radio that offers just over 100 channels to listen to, they even give you headphones to listen if you don’t have your own… and you get to keep them.

We got into BWI in Baltimore about 6:30pm, got our luggage, then jumped on the shuttle to the car rental place to get our car and head into DC.  Things went quite smoothly honestly, we made it into DC around 8pm. Our only plans were to do a drive around town and see some of the sights before grabbing a bite to eat at Gordon Biersch.  That’s exactly what we did.  We drove by the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Arlington Cemetery, Ford’s Theater and when we drove by the White House it caught Bob off guard and made him yell, “Holy F***!!  It’s the White House!”  Was quite funny.

Our hotel for the night was the Wardman Park Marriott, which isn’t too far from Dupont Circle.   As soon as we walked into the hotel, we both felt out of place.  This was a very nice hotel, and here I was in a pair of ratty shorts!  Oh well, I paid the money for the place ($60/night on Priceline vs $299-$339/night if you book direct on their site).  Before heading to our room we checked out one of the 3 bars in the hotel and honestly, the selection wasn’t impressive.  I had a Sam Adams, nothing wrong with that, Bob had a Miller Light cause they didn’t have Bud Light… strange.

Our room is awesome, which is a good thing, cause we need some sleep to get ready for tomorrow, cause the next few days will be busy, busy, busy!!

June 15th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

So we are flying Air Trans from Seattle to Baltimore and we have WI-FI on this flight!  How wicked awesome is that?!?  We have less than 90 minutes to go before we get to BWI, been a long flight (it’s 5 hours total flight time).

Can’t wait to get into BWI, get our luggage, our rental car and head into WA DC!!

WOOHOO!!

June 15th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

As I post this entry, I have 24 hours exactly to go before our trip. I can’t wait, yet I admit that I am nervous about flying, as I always am…especially this time since it’s non-stop to Baltimore and back, 5 hours going and almost 6 coming home next Sunday (which by this exact time in 1 week we will be on the road headed home from Sea-Tac).

With that said, lets look ahead to the pitching match-ups again, as some have certainly changed. I was excited mid-week to see that “Doc” Halladay would be taking the hill for the Blue Jays in Philly on Wednesday, then I saw on ‘Quick Pitch’ that in his start on Friday he left in the 4th inning with a groin pull, and is listed day-to-day. According to ESPN.com he will get the start on Saturday vs the Nationals in DC, and we’ll be there, current park # 30 for me also that night

June 16th – Mets vs Orioles : Pelfrey vs Gutherie
June 17th – Blue Jays vs Phillies: TBD vs Moyer
June 18th – Nationals vs Yankees: Stammen vs Chamberlain
June 18th – Marlins vs Red Sox: Nolasco vs Lester
June 19th – Rays vs Mets: Sonnastine vs Nieve
June 20th – Blue Jays vs Nationals: Halladay vs Detwiler

That takes away the Friday night match-up of Garza vs Hernandez, so that kinda sucks, was looking forward to that.  Looking forward to seeing Moyer, Chamberlain, Sonnastine and hopefully Halladay though.  We shall see.

Looking forward to the weather, it’s gonna be hit or miss.  Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games look good as well as Thursday’s in Boston, but it’s looking like a chance of showers for the Thursday game in New York, as well as Fridays at Citi and possibly Saturday in D.C…. that would suck!

Gonna go take the wife for breakfast, then it’s time to get the last minute laundry done and get the suitcase packed….

June 14th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

So the countdown is getting down to the nitty gritty here. Last night I decided to watch a favorite (baseball related) movie of mine again, “Fever Pitch”. I see a lot of myself in Ben Wrightman. Of course, I don’t live in a Red Sox museum, but if I was single I probably would As I watch him, some of the things he says and does really reminds me of me at times, good or bad, like:

Lindsey: You don’t see us tangled up in the sheets with the Eiffel Tower in the background. You see the Mariners are coming in, and Pedro’s pitching Friday.
Ben: No, on Saturday. Schilling’s Friday.

I could totally see me saying that, probably have at some point… just ask my wife

Reporter: Where do the Sox rank in terms of importance in your life?
Ben: I say the Red Sox… sex… and breathing.

Sadly, I know my wife would agree with this

Lindsey: Let’s try to jerk one out of the park.
Ben: That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.

Agreed!

Ben: It’s what the players wear, its authentic… I gotta be honest, it’s getting me hot!

Yeah, been there, said that… as my wife was putting on her Red Sox jacket at the Yawkey Way store.

Troy: Why do we inflict this on ourselves?
Ben: Why? I’ll tell you why, ’cause the Red Sox never let you down.
Troy: Huh?
Ben: That’s right. I mean – why? Because they haven’t won a World Series in a century or so? So what? They’re here. Every April, they’re here. At 1:05 or at 7:05, there is a game. And if it gets rained out, guess what? They make it up to you. Does anyone else in your life do that? The Red Sox don’t get divorced. This is a real family. This is the family that’s here for you.

This is so true for all of us baseball fans. That’s just it, they never really ever let us down, they are always there for us (unless you’re an Expos fan).

My 3 favorite quotes are:

Ben: Clearly it’s not just a game, if it was then I wouldn’t care about it this much. 23 years, do you still care about anything you cared about 23 years ago? How About 10? How about 5? Name me a single thing you have cared about for 23 years.

Ben: Ok, I’ve been avoiding this. There’s something you don’t know about me. The thing is, I am a Red Sox fan. I’m like a Big, Big Red Sox fan.
Lindsey: I know, I’ve been to your apartment and seen the Red Sox dish towels, glasses and Yankee toilet paper, it’s like you live in a gift shop.
Ben: It’s worse. See when I was a kid I moved here from New Jersey, I didn’t have any friends, so my Uncle Carl started taking me to Fenway Park. I just… got lost in the game. The ballpark, the people, the colors, sounds, smells… and then he got cancer and died and left me his tickets. That’s passion… it’s a very, very big part of my life and it’s been a problem with me and women.

It’s so true and no 2 trips to the ball park are the same, something is always different!!

Ben: Yeah, like, uh “Why you getting so worked up for, you’re not even doing it, you’re watching it.” It’s like “Hey, sometimes I like to be 11 years old”, I like being a part of something that’s bigger than me, than I, it’s good for your soul to invest in something you can’t control.

I don’t know about it being good for my soul, cause it’s tore me up more than a few times, but I truly feel that until you put your heart out on your sleeve for something bigger than yourself, something out of your control, for the love of a sports team, you will never know heartache and you will never know the feeling of joy that comes with watching your team win!!

On August 19th of this year, it will mark 23 years for me that I have been a Red Sox fan. August 19, 1986 was the day that 2 big things happened in my life. It was the day that my hometown Mariners traded my favorite player to the Boston Red Sox and I followed him. It was also the day that my heart was broken and my father let me know that “Baseball is a business, first and foremost.”

Here is one of my favorite clips from “Fever Pitch”, as I watched this last night and realized that I will be there at Fenway in a week, I started to cry… I was so excited!! WOOHOO!!

June 11th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

With 5 days left until we leave for Baltimore, I have started to look ahead at the schedules to see who we might be seeing pitch. If the rotations hold (most teams have a day off on Monday), then we will get to see the following match-ups:

June 16th – Mets vs Orioles : Pelfrey vs Gutherie
June 17th – Blue Jays vs Phillies: Richmond vs Moyer
June 18th – Nationals vs Yankees: Zimmerman vs Chamberlain
June 18th – Marlins vs Red Sox: Nolasco vs Lester
June 19th – Rays vs Mets: Garza vs Hernandez
June 20th – Blue Jays vs Nationals: Tallet vs TBA

Of those match-ups I think I am most excited to see Jamie Moyer pitch again, as well as seeing Joba Chamberlain for my first time. Will be cool to see Lester again, but was hoping for Brad Penny or Dice K. No real exciting match-ups, but I think the best one will be Ryan Zimmerman vs Joba Chamberlain and naturally, that’s the game we have to leave early

5 days to go….

June 10th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

9 States, 8 Hot Dogs, 7 Days, 6 Games in 5 Days, 4 Wheels, 3 New Parks, 2 Guys, 1 Great Trip...

June 5th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip, Wrigley Field |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

I just found out that my newphew Sean and his girlfriend will be meeting Bob and I in Boston for the Red Sox game on June 18th!!  The first time I went to a game at Fenway was with Sean, July 20, 2003, so it will be cool to meet up with him at another game at Fenway, almost 6 years later!!

Sean, Myself & Wally on the Green Monstah - July 20, 2003.

May 29th, 2009 | Category: 2009 Road Trip |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

Heaven, hell and the ultimate baseball road trip
See 30 ballparks in one season, gather memories to last a lifetime
By Bob Harkins
NBCSports.com
updated 9:43 a.m. PT, Thurs., May 28, 2009

Mike Hartman and Aman Dhaddey sat beside the road in the blistering summer heat, feasting on grocery store chicken and trying not to melt into the asphalt.

Their car’s tires had shredded in the desolate southeastern corner of California, about 40 miles from the Arizona border. After a tow into Blythe, Calif., (centrally located on I-10 at the Arizona-California border!), they found themselves curbside as they waited for new tires, devouring their elegant meal and trying not to sweat in the 115-degree heat. As they sat there, they noted the misery of their surroundings.

“Blythe is probably the most depressing place on Earth,” recalled Hartman in a recent e-mail interview. “As Aman put it, ‘everyone there looked like they wanted to die.’”

In that moment, on the surface anyway, so did they.

But deep down, it was another story altogether. Deep down, they were having the time of their lives, their car troubles just a little setback on an epic journey.

Hartman and Dhaddey were attempting the most ambitious of baseball odysseys: attending a game in each of the 30 Major League ballparks, all in one season.

And while the pair of college kids would come up short in their quest, hitting 24 parks before being sidelined by a lack of funds, the adventure itself was worth the effort.

“It would have been amazing to keep going, but it had almost been 10 weeks worth of traveling and we had seen so much of the country, met great people and had dozens of interesting experiences.”

Others who have attempted such a trip agree.

“This journey was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Troy Foster, who accomplished the feat with a friend in the summer of 2008.

“Anyone who is a baseball fan should do it,” said Cary Freels, a hardy fellow who actually did his trip on a motorcycle — in a mere 40 days — in 2008. “I think it’s our Mecca. It’s something you have to do before you die.”

So fear not the heat of Blythe, Calif., baseball fans. Just get out your maps, gas up the car, and prepare for the ultimate road trip.

Just don’t forget to check those tires.

CHARTING THE COURSE

Perhaps the most difficult part of pulling off such a trip is the logistics of scheduling. It seems so simple. Open up a calendar, pull out some team schedules and make them match. But a number of factors make this more difficult that it seems.

Teams can go on extended road trips just as you arrive in town, leaving you stranded. Cities with two teams don’t always have them both in town at the same time. And long distances between cities, particularly in the West, can make for brutal travel as you scramble to get to the next game.

“Our route was probably one of the most difficult things to figure out as far as logistics went,” wrote Hartman. “It was very much a trial and error sort of thing. I posted a screen capture of the route on Facebook and several people pointed out potential time-savers. I don’t know how we would have managed to plot it all out without the Internet.”

For Freels, the scheduling was especially important, as he was attempting what he thought would end up a Guinness World Record — 30 ballparks in 40 days.

A 33-year-old native of Houston, Freels designed his trip to raise money for Livestrong, Lance Armstrong’s foundation fighting cancer. He was accompanied by his mother Lynn Funk, a cancer survivor, who rode alongside in an RV. Also in the RV was a small camera crew to document the trip, plus another crew member to man his Web site.

Freel’s hope was that his record chase would stir up publicity for the charity. While aware that others had done it in fewer than 40 days, he hoped for a special classification as he was doing it while riding a motorcycle.

Unfortunately, halfway through his trip, he was notified that would not be the case.

“If not for the record I would’ve really slowed it down,” Freels said. “I took some chances that could’ve cost me my life. … I would do it again, but not in 40 days.”

He’ll have a hard time convincing his mother, who is seven years in remission, to go along next time. “We’ll always have this trip no matter what happens,” Freels says, before adding. “But she swears she’ll never do it again.”

DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT

Once you’ve got your course charted, a huge obstacle looms — how to pay for your trip. Gas, lodging, food. And, don’t forget, you’ll need tickets, too. It’s daunting to even think about it, especially in the current economic climate.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price of gas nationally as of May 25 was $2.43 a gallon. At that price, and assuming your car gets 25 miles per gallon — and you took our suggested course — you’re looking at more than $1100 for gas alone.

Fluctuating gas prices were frustrating for Foster when he planned his 2008 trip. The former newspaper editor — who has since started his own media company (Foster Group Media LLC) and aims to become a documentary filmmaker — sold his house to help finance his trip.

He convinced two of his closest friends — Daren Many and Nolan Rice — to attempt the ultimate baseball road trip. The idea was to meld business with pleasure, shooting video along the way to eventually produce an in-depth multimedia project.

While selling his house helped set aside financial worries, it was nonetheless jolting watching gas prices soar in the summer of 2008, from $3.06 during the planning stage, to $4.25 by the time they started their trip.

Even more painful, Rice bailed on the trip after seven games, homesick for his girlfriend. Foster and Many forged ahead in a gas-guzzling SUV, while Foster’s hybrid car — too small for three passengers but just fine for two — sat unused at home.

“It would be maddening at times to spend $80 to fill up my tank when I had a hybrid sitting at home,” Foster said.

But while the cost of your trip will remain at the whim of gas prices, there are ways to save money, namely on lodging.

Foster suggests sitting down and writing down all the people you know: Old friends, relatives, former classmates and co-workers. “You’ll find you know people everywhere,” he said.

Furthermore, once word gets out of your trip, unexpected assistance just might surface. Foster and Many said they were contacted by friends of friends, people they didn’t know, who offered them a place to crash for a night or two.

“We slept on a lot of couches,” Many said. “These people fed us dinner and put us up for multiple nights.

“It was amazing how interested people were in the trip. We couldn’t have done it without them. We didn’t have that kind of money for hotels.”

Hartman and Dhaddey also recommended avoiding hotels. Camping is cheaper, as is sleeping, as they did at times, at rest stops.

“Ear plugs and a Benadryl and I was out like a light,” wrote Hartman, “Some of the rest stops in Iowa, if I recall, even had free wireless Internet.”

Hartman stressed what he said was another good source for lodging, a Web site called couchsurfing, a community where people host passing travelers.

“Aman and I met some fantastic people who went out of their way to make us feel at home,” Hartman wrote. “We made some lifelong friends through the process.”

Another way to save money is to contact the teams for tickets. Explain your trip and what you’re trying to accomplish, and you might score some free seats.

Allan Stejskal, who visited all 30 ballparks in 2003 along with his wife Pattie and sons Sam and Max, used this method with some nice success. In addition to receiving free tickets from about a third of the teams, Sam (12 at the time) and Max (11), ended up with some nice perks. The boys were allowed to take the field at Dodger Stadium, to interview Marcus Giles on the jumbo-tron in Atlanta, to catch pop-flies in Minneapolis, and meet the man in Baltimore who rubs down the baseballs before every game.

Freels also received special treatment, helped by the fact his trip was raising money for charity. The Phillies let him drive his motorcycle on the field and he met players Shane Victorino and Brad Lidge. In Arizona, he presented Orlando Hudson with a Livestrong bracelet, and his mother spoke with pitcher Doug Davis, a fellow cancer survivor.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Like that nasty pitcher on the mound, life will throw you a curveball once in awhile, and being on a lengthy baseball odyssey will only enhance your chances of encountering the unexpected. Be prepared to embrace the challenges ahead, and roll with the punches.

We already mentioned the possibility of out-of-control gas prices wreaking havoc on a budget. But that is just one of many problems that can crop up when driving thousands of miles on single trip.

Foster and Many made an expensive mistake in Washington, D.C., when their car was towed, forcing them to get a $250 hotel room in the city and destroying their $500 lodging budget in one fell swoop.

Later in Chicago, Many was caught in a scalping sting while trying to sell a ticket on the street. After being threatened with jail, he was issued a citation, which he accepted coolly without letting on that Foster was filming the encounter from across the street. The end result was $240 out of Many’s pocket.

And don’t forget the havoc that weather can play.

Stejskal said he had two games rained out in the first week of his trip. The ensuing chaos meant games in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati — in that order, with Cincinnati a noon start — on successive days, a rough stretch of travel. “That was probably the toughest part of the trip,” he said.

Not all of the surprises from your trip need be bad. Hartman, then a student at Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, liked the Milwaukee area so much that he ended up moving there, which he said “confounded friends back in California.”

And Stejskal said his flexible approach led to some entertaining adventures, like a 250-mile detour to New Orleans just to have dinner.

“It was a great experience to spend the summer with no stuff. You just go where you go and don’t have to worry about much of anything.”

BONDS STRENGTHENED, OR TORN ASUNDER

Stejskal stressed his trip only brought his family closer together. Books on tape helped keep the boys occupied during the long drives, and their leisurely pace, including early arrival to many games, allowed them chances to talk and explore the ballparks together.

“We were really lucky,” he said. “Hardly anyone has the chance to spend two and a half solid months with their kids. For me, anyway, and I think it goes for the rest of my family as well, it was a really special time for us.

“Whether doing it with your family or friends, it really is about doing it with people you care about.”

Foster, however, offers words of warning for those who don’t have a family to take with them, yet may be leaving important people behind.

“Be single,” he advised. “I had a girlfriend when I left, and when I got home I was single. It fell apart, man.”

May 28th, 2009 | Category: Misc |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)