The Road: Plan of Attack and Trips to Date

I wish I could find a video of the old Mastercard "priceless" commercial series where the two guys go from stadium to stadium buying tickets, souvenirs, and food with their credit cards but there experience is priceless. I believe the Mastercard ultimately pulled the ads due to a dispute with a couple of baseball fans. Nonetheless, one continuous two-month road trip to visit each MLB ballpark would be iconic but just isn't feasible for me. First of all, finding a route across the country that aligns with the MLB schedule would be difficult. Not to mention I would be at the mercy of the weather - a rainout in Kansas City would throw a wrench in the entire trip. Furthermore, I just don't have the time to go to all the stadiums in one trip with my research and upcoming job. For these reasons, I am dividing the journey into several miniature trips throughout the summer. 

I have already attended one ballpark this year: Turner Field. I went down to Atlanta in early April to watch the Michigan basketball team in the Final Four. Originally I wasn't planning on going to the Final Four at all but the student tickets were surprising cheap, my professors allowed me to skip my classes, and I found a couple of friends who had room in their car. We had a free day on the Sunday between the national semi-final and the national championship game so we decided to go to the Braves vs. Cubs game at Turner Field. Technically I can take Turner Field off my list but I feel it comes with an asterisk. I have a bad habit of not taken any pictures and didn't think of writing a blog to document my thoughts on the stadium. I hope to write about my experience in Atlanta and at Turner Field in a future post but it will be limited. I will remain open to the possibility of returning to Turner Field later in the summer but it is clearly secondary behind visiting the other ballparks for the first time.

My next trip is to the west coast to see the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Giants, A's, Angels, and Padres. This trip is fast approaching as I leave for Arizona on this Thursday, May 9th and return from the west coast next Saturday, May 18th. I plan on blogging my thoughts and experiences throughout the trip. 

I have preliminary dates for an east coast trip and a Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minnesota trip but I am going to wait to finalize those date before I write them. I am considering taking a road trip down south to Texas and back to up to see the Astros, Rangers, Royals, and Cardinals after I get back from my conference. Some of the closer cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh will be done over weekends after I start working. I still have quite a bit of planning to do in order to hit some of farther away cities such as Miami and Tampa.