The Pre-Game Show

"People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

Terence Mann, "Field of Dreams" 

Hello to all my friends and family who have been asking when I am going to post again. I have always been someone who loves to write, but only if it's something I can do my way. I know it's been a while since I last posted, not because I had nothing to say, rather because I had nothing I could truly pour myself into. That has changed, in a big way, in the last few months.

In truth, I had thought about undertaking a journey like this for years, but only in passing. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see myself actually doing it. However, that all changed on April 14, 2012.

I took my son Ryan to Yankee Stadium for opening weekend and we heard the person behind us talking about visiting as many ballparks as he could this summer, in hopes of one day getting to all of them. Ryan turned to me and said,
 "Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that?"
"Yeah", I replied, between bites of a hot dog and sips of a beer.
Now, if you know anything about Ryan, you know that once he gets it in his head to do something, he doesn't let it go...Ever. 

Around the seventh inning of a game I would love to forget being at, (the Yanks were getting pummeled, 7-1, by the Angels) Ryan turned to me and asked when we were going to start.
 "Start what?", I asked.
 "You said we could take a trip to visit every major league ballpark" was his reply.
 "Didn't you mean it?"
"Um...well...uh...Of course I meant it. Why else would I have agreed? You know we have been to about  seven already, right?"
 At that point, he asked for a bucket of popcorn, so I thought I was off the hook. Apparently, I forgot his propensity to mull things over, wait for the perfect moment and, only then, grab the discussion by the throat and use logic that couldn't be refuted to get what he wants. 

We waited in-line for the popcorn and a soda and, while walking back to our seats, he made his move.
"You love baseball, right?", he asked.
"You know I do, why?" I responded. I couldn't figure out where this was going and my mind was racing. "Well, you said you loved it when you went to games with Grandpa and you always said you couldn't wait to take me to a game after I was born."
 Now, he had me curious, "Uh, hunh."
"Well, wouldn't it be great if you and I could visit every major league stadium? It would be the best trip ever and I promise I'd be good and I'd even help pay for it. We could even ask Brendan (his younger brother) and Mommy to come to some games and make it a family vacation, see places we'd never see and even learn something."

 I figured that he had to come up for air sometime, so I just nodded and said "Go on".
 "We could start this year and take our time. We should do them all before I graduate college. That gives us eleven years and we could visit friends and family and ask them to go with us and maybe we could stay with a few of them and save money on hotels and it would be like a family and friends' reunion."

After listening to all of this, I knew I had seriously misjudged my little lawyer. He wasn't just watching the game up til now, he was plotting a baseball coup d' etat.
"Give me some time to think about this", I said as we made our way back to the seats.
"Ok, I have all sorts of ideas."

By the time the game had ended, I had put our discussion to the back of my mind. He, on the other hand, was just getting warmed up.
"Ok, let's talk", he said. " I think we have to start this year, we have to start at Yankee Stadium and we have to hit all the ballparks we've seen already again, because we just thought of this, so the ones before don't count."
I knew I was in serious trouble, he had obviously thought this through and would not take no for an answer. I said, I'd sleep on it and we'd talk the next day.
Well, the next day started, in his mind, at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m., on a Sunday morning. 

I opened my eyes to see Ryan standing in my bedroom, with the sports section, his Yankees' hat firmly on his head and a look of determination in his eyes. Well, I think it was determination, I could barely open my own. After listening to his oral arguments for another two hours, the best I could do was
"...But, but, but... I DONT FLY. How are you going to take care of that?"
 "Oh", he says, "that's the easy part. I'll order you a beer, hold your hand and you'll tell me about all the great times you had with Grandpa, Great Grandpa and all our family and friends at all the ballgames you went to and then you'll forget about being scared. If that doesn't work, I'll hold your hand and rub your back. You always did that for me when I was scared and it works. So, it'll be my turn to take care of you."

 Apparently, my son is not only an fantastic ball player, he's a world class fisherman as well, cause he just set a hook that I'd never be able to shake out. Seriously, how do you say no to THAT?!?!?!?!?! So, I though for about all of .04 seconds and said emphatically "LET'S DO IT." Little did I know what lay ahead for me in terms of planning this adventure- but what the hell, you only live once. Right?

I contacted everyone I could think of, collected names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails and all other necessary information and started a contact book with family and friends from across the country. We wanted them to join us, either for a game, a meal, or quick visit while we were in their neck of the woods. I was blown away by the responses I got. Not only did people want to join us, they offered up their homes to us as we come around so we won't have to pay the additional costs of lodging. I secretly wondered if Ryan had called all these folks before hitting me up with this idea. Then we set down what our first summer was going to look like and decided we would hit the close-to-home games: Yankee Stadium, Citi Field (NY Mets), Fenway Park Boston Red Sox), Nationals Park (Washington Nationals), Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Philles) and Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles). This was a way to kick-off things easily, but, most importantly, it gave me the ability to plan for next summer when we go farther from home. 

After all this was decided, we sat down and discussed how we wanted to do these ballpark-adventures. Here is what we, with the help of friends, came up with:

1. Visit all the parks and see everything about each. Visit every nook and cranny, see all there is, but not miss a minute of any game.
2. Try signature ballpark food from each place - hot dogs do not count all the time, unless the ballpark is known for their dogs.
3. Visit some non baseball places in every city to get the true flavor of each different region.
4. Take as many pictures as possible.
5. Visit as many baseball-related things as possible in each city, such as: the spots of long gone ballparks, like Old Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, The Polo Grounds, Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, Shibe Park and Griffith Stadium. Also, we'd like to see things such as the Negro League Museum in KC and Babe Ruth's birthplace in Baltimore, as a start.
6. See as FEW Yankees' games as possible. This way I can sit and enjoy the game, as opposed to be concerned with winning, As I type this, they have a 3-2 lead, so you can see what I am doing every few moments.
7. Last, and certainly not least ( I always hated that phrase, but it is necessary here) HAVE FUN with my family and make memories that they will have forever.

My wife, Nicole, was the one who came up with the idea to write a blog of  where we go, what we do and how things turn out. Ironically, another friend thought if I kept decent notes I could hope to maybe write a book as well. That too has always been a dream and, once again, my son is the inspiration for it all. Without his grand idea this would never have become a possibility. 

As I write this opening chapter of our odyssey, we have already been to our first game, which I will write about soon. But before I can put that to paper, I have to explain that our "Home Field", Yankee Stadium,  was not the first stop on our grand adventure. I am not a deeply religious person, but it has always been my thought that when you begin something big, you say a prayer. To do this we had to travel to a little area in New York, about 30 minutes from our home for a special visit.

TO BE CONTINUED......