When a friend from California asked me if I would be interested in visiting a bunch of ballparks with him, I hesitated for only a moment.
“Heck yeah, let’s do it!”
We researched possibilities and agreed that a seven-day trip this month to six Major League Baseball parks and the Hall of Fame organized by Jay Buckley Baseball Tours was the best way to go. Even better, our wives agreed to join us on this adventure.
The trip began with my first official guided tour of my hometown, New York City, before our bus headed to The Bronx for a Sunday night game between the Yankees and arch rival Boston Red Sox at a very loud and packed Yankee Stadium. We followed the game winners to Boston and, after a tour of the historic Massachusetts city, went to ancient but charming Fenway Park to see the home team lose to the Tampa Bay Rays on a foggy night.
We spent the following afternoon in Cooperstown, the upstate New York village that is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It was my fifth visit to the site, each one of which has been more interesting than the previous. (I look forward to returning for a sixth visit one day.)
During the next three days we visited Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for a Phillies-Chicago Cubs afternoon game — the only time all week we saw the home team win — Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore for an Orioles-Detroit Tigers night game, and Nationals Park in Washington DC for a Nationals-Miami Marlins night game that was interrupted by rain.
We had time in Baltimore to see Babe Ruth’s birthplace, Edgar Allan Poe’s house and one of his gravesites. A non-baseball highlight of the trip for me was visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. We also got to eat at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.
The tour came full circle in New York with a game between the Mets and Tampa Bay Rays in Flushing, Queens. Rain delayed the start of the afternoon game but did not dampen the enthusiasm of fans at Citi Field, which some people on the tour considered the best ballpark we visited during the week. I agree, but admit I may be biased!
Six times during the week, I stretched during the seventh inning and sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” a song composed in 1908 by a couple of New York songwriters who supposedly weren’t baseball fans and didn’t attend their first game until many, many years later. I’ve been happy to attend over a hundred Major League Baseball games during my lifetime already, and look forward to visiting more ballparks in the future.
To see my pictures from Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Citizens Bank Park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citi Field, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, check out my Instagram posts.
