30 in 32
Visit to final MLB park represents special milestone
Not long after the recent passing of the media mogul Ted Turner, The New York Times ran a comprehensive retrospective on his life and times.
I sent a link of the piece to my son Daniel with a text message saying, “In some ways he is responsible for your affection for the (Atlanta) Braves.”
Turner bought the team in the 70s and eventually aired their games nationally on his TBS superstation, hoping, with the national exposure, to turn them into somewhat of an “America’s Team.”
My anecdotal evidence suggests his experiment worked. Daniel, the oldest of my three children, started watching the Braves on TBS as a wee lad, claiming them as his team. His early heroes were David Justice, Chipper Jones and longtime Braves manager Bobby Cox, among others.
For Father’s Day 1994, when Daniel was eight years old, my wife Susan presented me with two plane tickets to Atlanta (from Little Rock, where we lived at the time) so I could take Daniel to see the Braves play on their then-home turf, Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.
It was not as if we were rolling in dough at the time, so it was a generous gift from Daniel’s mom, who knew, in giving that gift, she was likely postponing any kind of trip for herself.
But she knew how much fun it would be for the two of us, and it was. Witnessing Daniel’s eight-year-old excitement seeing in person what he had only seen on a screen was a treat beyond description for this dad.
And of course, there were souvenirs like a Braves baseball cap and miniature bat. Overpriced hot dogs and pizza slices were also part of the experience.
I was able to hit up a lawyer buddy in Atlanta who obtained his firm’s tickets for our use, so for the first game we were right behind home plate. The second game’s seats, in the outfield, were on me. But still a great time.
It’s strange I have no memory of this, but the story goes that sometime over that weekend, Daniel decided he would like to visit every Major League Baseball home venue and challenged me to do so. (There were, and still are, a total of 30.)
As it turned out, about a month after he and I took the trip to Atlanta, I ended up having a work trip to Chicago. It was during one of Southwest Airlines’ “Friends Fly Free” two-for-one promotions (oh for those days again), so Susan could go with me on the ticket being picked up for me by my employer. (She got to take a trip after all.)
Using “friends fly free,” I could buy one ticket to cover Daniel and my daughter Maggie, five years old. Son David, all of nine months, did not have to have a purchased ticket since he was under two years of age. I took the entire family to Chicago, with only one plane ticket at my expense.
During that trip, we went to baseball games at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, and what was then known as Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox.
So, within a month of setting his lofty goal, Daniel was 10 percent there. And the family was getting in on it, too.
Joy in the journey
The ensuing years have taken us across the country visiting the various MLB parks.
Eventually, although there have been some family trips, the jaunts became guys’ trips, first for Daniel, David and me. When Ben joined the family by dating and eventually marrying Maggie, he joined the fun.
He went on some of the trips before they were married. But I had a pretty good idea of the relationship’s permanence when I invited him on his first one.
That one was a family trip to Kansas City to see the Royals. We enjoyed Kansas City barbecue and toured the Hallmark headquarters in addition to enjoying two games.
Over time I have gone with the guys, or some combination of them, to games in Arlington (Dallas/Fort Worth), St. Louis, Tampa Bay, San Diego, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Miami and Phoenix. There was a two-park trip in which we traveled to Chicago for a White Sox evening game, then took a day trip the following day to Milwaukee to see the Brewers.
One of our most memorable times was a July 4th weekend when we went to three games in three days — in Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
I have filled in the other parks with trips with Susan or the family, inching toward making it to all 30.
Needless to say, the fun has been immense. The excursions with the guys over the past decade or so, in which they have planned the itineraries, have been especially enjoyable. In addition to baseball, we have usually managed to take in a nearby attraction (think Philadelphia’s Independence Hall or the Chicago River Architecture Tour), and almost always, at least one local craft brewery.
David summed it up well some years ago when he was the assistant sports editor for his college newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, and had the opportunity to write about our quest.
After explaining our desire to visit all MLB parks, he wrote, “But it’s not really a race. We aren’t in a rush. We’re savoring every hot dog, smelling every blade of grass and screaming off baseball cliches one park at a time.”
Could not have said it better myself.
Marking off the last one
It was always a given that Daniel and I would be a little bit ahead of the pack, having started earlier. But as David so wisely put it, it was never a race.
The guys decided, although we would love to take in games together, if one of us happened to be in a city with an MLB team and could go to a game, by all means, we should do so.
Daniel made it to number 29 a couple of years before I did. But by 2024, he and I had visited all MLB homes except T-Mobile Park in Seattle, home of the Mariners.
With his now living in Atlanta (and as fate would have it, having an office that is walking distance from Truist Park, current home of the Braves), and me in Nashville, it is a long haul for both of us, and we have struggled finding the right time to go. We very much wanted to finish together.
A few months ago, he called and suggested we make it work. He proposed having Susan and me meet him and his family (himself, his wife Krista, son Hank who is eight years old, and daughter Ruthie who is five) in Seattle in early May and mark it off the list.
Just over two weeks ago, on May 3rd, some 32 years after we attended the Braves game together in Atlanta, Daniel and I, accompanied by Susan, and Daniel’s family, walked through the gate at T-Mobile in Seattle to see the Mariners play the Kansas City Royals.
Krista, who has some work connections with the Braves’ front office, had made a call to someone there, who made a call to someone in the Mariners’ organization. That resulted in a visit, about halfway through the game, from representatives of the Mariners who presented Daniel and me with individual gift bags containing baseball memorabilia and a personal note congratulating us on achieving our goal.
Pretty cool, that.
The next day, we saw the Mariners play the Braves, which was, of course, quite appropriate. (Unfortunately, the Mariners won, but that could hardly spoil the mood.)
FAQs
Along the way, folks have asked if I have a favorite park. My response is a qualified one. The classics like Fenway, Wrigley and Camden Yards are in a category all their own, each special in its own way. Excuse my possible exaggeration, but those are almost spiritual experiences.
But for its sheer beauty and an over-the-top baseball experience, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, home of the Pirates, would have to be my favorite, with Oracle Park in San Francisco, home park for the Giants, a close second.
PNC, located on Pittsburgh’s North Shore along the Allegheny River, overlooks the city when looking from behind home plate, framing the beautiful Roberto Clemente Bridge.
The outfield at Oracle Park backs up to the San Francisco Bay. The waterfront location, with “splash hits” landing in the bay, provides an unparalleled experience.
Another question I have often gotten is whether a visit to a park that was eventually replaced with an updated one “counts.”
The answer is yes. It’s our game and we make the rules, so the fact that I visited the old Yankee Stadium and the Mets’ previous home, Shea Stadium, in New York in 2008 before each team moved to updated parks, and have not visited the current ones, does not negate my visit to those fields. Same with seeing the Texas Rangers in Arlington, who moved to their current home, Globe Life Field, in 2020, which I have not yet visited.
(David would want you to know, however, that he has now been to a game at Citi Field, home of the Mets, without the rest of us.)
After our second game in Seattle, Daniel jokingly said it was all over, but he knows that is not true. We still need to get David and Ben through that last turnstile. They all have children who are just getting started on their baseball park visits, so visiting all 30 seems a worthy goal for them, too.
So, far from being over, the incredibly fun journey continues.
Time to plan the next trip, don’t you think?
What a fun read this was, Bob. Congratulations on achieving your goal, and how cool that the Mariners recognized you and Daniel that way! Carry on! Enjoy the journey and bringing others along too.
This brought tears for me. So happy you guys achieved your goal.