Gettin’ Carried Away

“Say this much for big league baseball - it is beyond question the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America.” - Bruce Catton: journalist, historian and Pulitzer Prize winner.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a baseball fanatic. I like to play basketball. I like to go to Blackhawks games. I like to watch the Bears (when they are doing well). But I absolutely love everything that has to do with baseball. My hope is to see all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums before I’m 30 years old. Currently, I have visited Yankee Stadium (in New York), Angel Stadium (in California), Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs) and Comiskey Park (aka U.S. Cellular Field), where my beloved Chicago White Sox play hard, create miracles and win big. I could tell you all about my experiences at each stadium, but I am most excited about visiting the next two parks I get to check off my list!

Fenway Park

In less than one week, I will have attended a Major League Baseball game at one of America’s most cherished ballparks: Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Personally, I am in awe of this trip, and I am not even standing in front of the stadium yet!

Fenway Park is the home of baseball greats Cy Young, Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski, and it is where baseball legend, Babe Ruth, started his Major League career. The Great Bambino’s trade to the Yankees in 1919 is what many fans claim to be the reason for the Red Sox’s “World Series draught.” In October 2004, the Sox played two of four World Series games at Fenway and went on to sweep the Saint Louis Cardinals, winning the championship for the first time in 86 years. This memorable feat was captured in the major motion picture Fever Pitch, which stars Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. This famous ballpark is where I will be watching my favorite team, the Chicago White Sox, take on the Boston Red Sox as they attempt to come out on top in their respective divisions by the end of September.

Miller Park

I feel very fortunate to live in a centrally located section of the United States. My house happens to be within a manageable driving distance from 8 of the 30 Major League stadiums. At the end of September, I will be driving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with four of my friends to see the Brewers face the Chicago Cubs inside their home stadium, Miller Park.

I’ve been to Wisconsin many times, swimming around the Dells, boating in the lake behind my cousin’s cottage and scoring three-pointers in numerous basketball tournaments. However, I’ve never been to a baseball game while visiting our northern neighbor, so I am pretty stoked about that. And with one whole month left in the regular season, the game that I attend on September 26 could be a deciding factor as to which team will advance to the postseason. Currently, the second place Brewers and the first place Cubs are the only two teams in the National League Central Division fighting for that coveted slot in the playoffs.

While Miller Park is not as historical as Fenway, seeing that it only opened in 2001, it’s still a modern marvel to me. It is only 1 of 3 parks that has a retractable roof. This allows the Brewers to either play outside on a nice night under the stars or to play inside an enclosed stadium, keeping dry while the rain comes pouring down. Newer stadiums may lack the charm the historical parks portray, but it only means that you need to look for other features that make each park unique. For example, two brand-new LED scoreboards were placed inside Miller Park just two years ago! One of them is referred to as the “out of town” scoreboard, which is constantly updated with info about other Major League games being played that same day the Brewers are playing. You get to see the score and the number of hits, errors and outs, in addition to an image of the field displaying the runners on base! Where will you find that in a 100-something-year-old stadium?

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When is all is said and done, at the end of September, I will have seen 6 of the 30 Major League Baseball parks. And lucky for me, many of the parks I have yet to see are situated in states that I have yet to visit. So as I get closer to achieving my goal of seeing all 50 states by the age of 50, I will also have traveled to every Major League Baseball stadium. And with that mission accomplished, when it comes to my travel game, I’d say I hit one out of the park!