Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
Read Ultimate Baseball Road Trip Online
Authors: Josh Pahigian,Kevin O’Connell
Also by Josh Pahigian and Kevin O’Connell
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip, 1st edition
Why I Hate the Yankees
Also by Josh Pahigian
101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out
The Seventh Inning Stretch
The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip
The Red Sox in the Playoffs
Spring Training Handbook
Copyright © 2012 by Joshua Pahigian and Kevin O’Connell
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Text design: Sheryl Kober
Layout artist: Kirsten Livingston
Project editor: Kristen Mellitt
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN 978-0-7627-7340-4
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
3 New York Yankees
, Yankee Stadium
4 Toronto Blue Jays
, Rogers Centre
5 Philadelphia Phillies
, Citizens Bank Park
6 Washington Nationals
, Nationals Ballpark
7 Baltimore Orioles
, Oriole Park at Camden Yards
8 Atlanta Braves
, Turner Field
9 Tampa Bay Rays
, Tropicana Field
10 Miami Marlins
, Marlins Ballpark
11 St. Louis Cardinals
, Busch Stadium III
12 Kansas City Royals
, Kauffman Stadium
13 Cincinnati Reds
, Great American Ball Park
14 Pittsburgh Pirates
, PNC Park at North Shore
15 Cleveland Indians
, Progressive Field
16 Detroit Tigers
, Comerica Park
17 Chicago Cubs
, Wrigley Field
18 Chicago White Sox
, U.S. Cellular Field
19 Milwaukee Brewers
, Miller Park
20 Minnesota Twins
, Target Field
21 Houston Astros
, Minute Maid Park
22 Texas Rangers
, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
23 Colorado Rockies
, Coors Field
24 Arizona Diamondbacks
, Chase Field
25 San Diego Padres
, PETCO Park
26 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
, Angel Stadium of Anaheim
27 Los Angeles Dodgers
, Dodger Stadium
28 Seattle Mariners
, Safeco Field
29 Oakland Athletics
, O.co Coliseum
30 San Francisco Giants
, AT&T Park
W
ell, they did it again. For a second time the good folks Lyons Press decided it a reasonable investment to send us on the greatest sports road trip ever known to man, woman, or child. And believe us, we’re the last ones you’ll hear complaining. Truth is, we thought they were a bit crazy the first time around. You know, back in the summer of 2003 when they sent us—two eager but undiscovered writers—into the American Summer to find baseball Nirvana. We got to live out our dream of traveling the entire country to see a game in every big league park. And get this—
they paid for it!
Is America a great country, or what?
Before you start reading about our
second
journey through the emerald cathedrals of the Major Leagues and before you begin to plan your own epic baseball adventure, we thought we’d tell you a bit more about ourselves and what we were trying to accomplish in writing
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
2.0. We also thought we’d pause to reflect on some of the ways the game and the fans who enjoy it have changed in the years since the book’s original publication.
Firstly, though, while it’s nice to think that the second edition of the book will attract a bevy of new readers, we feel as though we owe a special debt of gratitude to our
returning
readers. A decade ago when we managed to convince Lyons to fund our fantasy tour of the bigs, we were just two guys fresh out of grad school with a shared passion for the game and a mutual sense of wanderlust. We had never embarked upon anything close to the magnitude of the trip or subsequent book we’d proposed to write. Like many of our readers, we’d always dreamed of a summer spent pursuing a singular kind of bliss—one that seemed as close to the heart of the American Spirit as apple pie, blue jeans, and Fourth of July fireworks. We imagined scurrying after batting practice homers, raising cups of suds with newfound friends, and waking up the next morning and doing it all again. And more than just that, we imagined a future in which we would help others plot their own hardball odysseys. But we never imagined the sort of overflowing reader response our first book would garner.
The letters and e-mails started filling our mailboxes about a month after
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
hit the bookstore shelves in 2004. They came from college kids, fathers, grandfathers, wives, and mothers. They included pictures of glowing faces set against ballpark backdrops far and wide. They reflected the same joy we’d come to know during our own trip. Just as we’d been eager to share the story of our trip with readers, now they were sharing their magical moments with us. The veritable deluge gave us goosebumps. Some of the e-mails described multi-generational family pilgrimages. Others recalled the lengths to which fans had gone to carry out their excursions on shoestring budgets. One was from a young
bride who told us about how she and her new husband had used the book to make their honeymoon all it could be. Another was from an elderly gentleman in England, who had always been fascinated by American culture but had never been to a big league park; now, he said, he
felt
as though he had, thanks to the vicarious trip he’d taken by reading our book. Another was from an American soldier deployed in Iraq, who was planning a trip with one of his buddies for the summer after their deployment ended. As soon as they got home, he said, they planned to rent a van and see all thirty yards. Talking about the trip and charting its course was helping them pass the time.
We were amazed and humbled. Our book was playing a meaningful role in real people’s lives.
And so, a tad older and hopefully a bit wiser, we set out again into the great expanse of Americana, in search of that perfect night where the air is warm and dry, the ballpark seats are close and cheap, the hot dogs snap with spice, the beer is cold, and the game plays out before us with all the drama and passion of a Shakespearian tragedy.
Kevin:
This time around, I knew better than to let you drive.
Josh:
And I knew better than to let you buy a tray full of beers at the end of the seventh inning.
Now then, let us offer an important disclaimer. First and foremost, we are baseball fans. The book is written from our perspective as two fans, eager to share our observations, experiences, and suggestions with fellow devotees. Yes, we are
baseball writers
, whatever that means, but we are not beholden to any official or approved points of view. Why does this matter to you? Well, let’s just say that while the American ballpark trail presents a path full of magic, majesty, and amazing memories just waiting to be discovered, it isn’t perfect. Some of the stadium seats are too pricey or too far from the infield. Some of the foods they shovel at you aren’t worth slopping at pigs. Some of the neighborhoods in which the parks reside do little to enhance the game-day experience (we’re thinking of
you
, Anaheim!). And we feel you need to know all of this. We’re not striving to write a puff piece for the MLB Chamber of Commerce. They’re doing just fine without our help. We’re offering a frank review of the game’s parks. We’ll call the statue of Stan the Man outside Busch Stadium what it is: a grotesque distortion of one of the greatest players of all time and a man who in real life, actually looks quite humanoid. We’ll spare no punches in calling the much-ballyhooed Dodger Dog a bland disappointment, especially when corners are cut in its preparation. We’ll pan the upper level at Miller Park for housing—however ironically—a sea of Uecker Seats. Our goal is to give an honest review of the MLB parks so that you can be as savvy a consumer as possible.
Josh:
So, we’re kind of like that Rick Steves guy, only for ballparks?
Kevin:
And without the Pete Rose bowl-cut.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We’re not trying to suggest that the ballpark trail is riddled with pitfalls. It’s not. But there are some traps along the way and they’re easily enough avoided as long as someone gives you a heads-up. And don’t forget, there’s much to potentially miss about a city’s baseball past and present if no one bothers to tell you where to look. That’s what we aim to do—to give you all the knowledge you need to enhance your own experiences.
By reading our book you can ensure that you won’t miss out on much of anything related to a city’s baseball wonders before moving on to your next destination. We know this is a concern for traveling fans because, well, we’re a lot like you. We share your obsession with stats, your hunger for baseball lore, and the way the hair always stands up on the back of your neck when you walk up the ramp and lay eyes on the field. We still get chills as batting practice winds down and first pitch approaches. We feel the same craving you do all summer long—that need for your daily fix. We know what it’s like to cry yourself to sleep after your fantasy team goes three-for-thirty-two or after your home team blows the lead in the ninth.
Kevin grew up in Seattle listening to radio broadcasts of the Dodgers, because before the Mariners debuted in 1977, Vin Scully’s baseball voice was one of the few that could be heard up and down the West Coast. When the Mariners finally arrived, he’d long been rooting for the Giants in the NL and the Red Sox in the AL—though his second favorite team on any night was
whoever was playing the Yankees
. When Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. reigned in Seattle and the Mariners became committed to being more than a farm team for the rest of the league, Kevin began to root for the difficult-to-love and much-maligned Mariners. Now that the M’s have finally dug themselves out from under the grotesque weight of the baseball tomb that was the Kingdome and while they still search for their first World Series berth, Kevin uses all forms of available technology to happily follow the ups and downs of baseball in the Pacific Northwest from his home in Pittsburgh. While the current Pirates remind him plenty of the hapless Mariners before Junior came to town, his second favorite team remains whoever is playing the Yankees.
Josh grew up in the heart of Red Sox Nation, long before it was fashionable to root for Boston’s once-perennial also-rans. Back then, it was inconceivable that the Old Towne Team would one day play in front of what are practically home crowds in far-away cities like Pittsburgh and Anaheim. During Josh’s formative baseball years, to be a Red Sox fan meant to embrace a life spent suffering the throes of one baseball catastrophe after another. Back then, even Fenway Park was considered a local disappointment. Many Bostonians viewed it as a run-down relic in desperate need of replacement. Being a Sox fan in those days had its benefits too, though. Josh’s father could walk him up to a ticket window on Yawkey Way an hour before first pitch and buy seats in the infield grandstand at face value. And once old Richard Pahigian did even better than that for his wide-eyed baseball-loving son at the Fenway ticket booths, when a ticket attendant handed him two front-row seats, right behind the plate. Oh, how times have changed…. These days, Josh follows the Sox from his home in Southern Maine. When he isn’t home watching the big league Red Sox on NESN, he’s sitting at Hadlock Field in Portland, watching the team’s Double-A prospects play. It’s a pretty tough life, but he figures someone has to do it.
Kevin:
Do you ever get tired of watching baseball?
Josh:
Well … no, I guess I don’t.
Kevin:
Me neither.
Since the first edition of our book was published in March 2004, eight new big league parks have opened. And the technical whiz kids from Silicon Valley invented social media, smartphones, tablets, and an amorphous world unto its own known as the blogosphere. We’ll get back to the topic of how these latter innovations have changed the ways we fans follow the game in a moment, and tell you how this new and improved version of the book capitalizes on the opportunities they present. But first, we ought to acknowledge how the game itself has changed—and thankfully so—since the first edition of the book. When
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
1.0 came out, the world was just opening its eyes to the full extent of baseball’s steroid problem. Home runs were still en vogue and “small-ball” still referred to a style of play that seemed as relevant to modern times as those puffy exterior chest protectors home plate umps used to wield like medieval shields.