Baseball road trips

[3GamesToLove]

Anyone have anything planned for this summer or soon? Done any recently that you'd like to share? I know a lot of people talk about doing a ton of stadiums all one one trip but that seems a bit crazy to me. I prefer to break it up into more bite-sized pieces.

 

Each summer I like to get to a new park or something of the like. Since I got back into going to Sox games I've done something most summers...

 

Back in '02 we had a full family trip to San Francisco, and my dad and I went to a game at then-Pac Bell. Bonds was day-to-day with an injury. Pinch-hit with two out in the bottom of the ninth and struck out. All I ever saw of him in person. The Giants have traditionally been my NL team of choice (my favorite historical player has always been Mays), though a recent ex from the Bay Area has kind of soured me on them...though that's another story.

 

'09--dad and brother and I stopped at PNC Park on our way back from a trip to Gettysburg. Great seats for dirt cheap, still my favorite park.

 

'11--On a family trip to the Black Hills, we stopped in Minneapolis on the way back. Dad and brother and I saw Target Field.

 

My friends and I also drove all the way to NYC that August. One of my best friends is a Yankees fan who wanted to see the new park, and it just so happened that the days we chose was the only week both teams were in town. It was a real whirlwind...drove there all day Monday, saw Manhattan a bit on Tuesday followed by a Mets game, then hung out in Queens on Wednesday followed by the Yankees that night. Drove straight home through the night from Yankee Stadium.

 

'13--Did down to St. Louis and back with a couple of friends for a Sunday Cardinals game, and also went to one of the Sox exhibition games at Miller Park that March.

 

'14--this was the big one, though only really part road-trip. Dad and I had been saying since '10 that we'd go to Cooperstown when Frank got in. We went as a family back in 2000. I've also wanted to go to Fenway since I was old enough to know what it was, so we made a big thing of it: flew to Boston, rented a car and drove to Cooperstown for induction weekend, then back to Boston with a game at Fenway on the Monday night. It was pretty great.

 

This summer my girlfriend and I are going to do a weekend in Wisconsin--a Saturday game at Miller Park, then stopping in Kenosha for a Northwoods League game on the way back on Sunday. My father and I might do a weekend in Cleveland or Detroit to knock those ones off our list. Friends and I also might go down to Indy for a AAA game.

 

Of all of these, the only time I've seen the Sox play away from the Cell or Wrigley has been the preseason game in Milwaukee. My father and I actually prefer to not go to games where the Sox are the visitors...it means we're less invested in what's happening on the field, making it easier to leave our seats and explore the park. Not getting razzed by home fans is a plus.

 

This site has some suggestions for trips you could do this summer...as many as two parks in three days, or even a half-dozen over a week. Pretty handy.

 

This site, which also includes AAA parks, will create a possible road trip for you. You can tell it how many days off you want and etc.

 

And if you're not on Hardball Passport yet, get on it ASAP. It allows you to easily log games, both MLB and minor league, dating back to 1975. You can build bucket lists, look at your all-time stats and best games, etc. It's wonderful.