How to Plan a MLB Road Trip: 30 Parks, One Summer | The Art of Manliness

This kind of an adventure has always had a place on my Bucket List. Now with some excellent pointers provided by these two blog entries from The Art of Manliness blog and azsportstalk.com, I may have to move this more towards the top of the list.

I wonder if the wife would want to go? We'll see. If she reads my blog, I may have to duck.

How to Plan a MLB Road Trip: 30 Parks, One Summer | The Art of Manliness:

"Logistically speaking, arranging a trip to consecutively watch a game at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums in one summer is pretty tough.  But, adding 22 National Parks, raising over $6,000 for charity, securing free tickets from over half of the teams, arranging interviews with television shows, radio talk shows, and newspapers–and still allowing time for trying out various “Man vs. Food” eateries, harder still.  Taking over 9,000 photographs and writing over 50 blog entries–pretty damn time consuming."


And so, with extensive and meticulous planning, my friend and I drove 20,500 miles over 81 days, and took score during 30 Major League Baseball games–missing not ONE pitch, at every MLB stadium in North America.

How to Contact Teams

Go to the official team website, and under the “roster” section, go to “Front Office.” Usually, there will be a phone number here. All teams have a Community Relations or Public Relations department. For example, looking at the Pittsburgh Pirates website, you can find the team telephone number on the top of the website (Tel: (412) 321-BUCS), and then find names of the people you want to call (Vice President, Community & Public Affairs, Patty Paytas …OR… Director, Community Relations, Michelle Mejia). You get the point. Sometimes, you can google their names and find their e-mail addresses. The more forms of communication you use to contact them, the less chance of them ignoring you or “forgetting to call you back.”

So, be bold, pick up the phone, and ask the secretary to connect you to that specific person. Half of the time, you will get a voicemail message, but sometimes, they will pick up. Then, just introduce yourself, explain what you are doing, and directly ask if there is anything the team can offer you to 1) offset your costs or 2) give you a special experience when you are at their ballpark. You would be surprised, as I was, to find that most of these people are very accommodating.

Make It All About Sports

The Field of Dreams

The road trip, as I alluded to before, was surely about seeing baseball games. But as avid sports fans, there were some stops that Neal and I couldn’t pass up. First of all, we went to many other baseball related venues: The Baseball Hall of Fame (we called in advance, explained what we were doing, and were treated to a spectacularly fascinating behind-the-scenes tour; i.e., we got to see the counter check that sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees); the Field of Dreams (I can say without hesitation that this was my favorite day of the trip. The weather was perfect, the surrounding atmosphere was so beautiful, and you could tell that you were at a special place. Neal and I had a catch on the field and ran the bases. It was well worth the 4 hour trip, one way, from Chicago); the Louisville Slugger Factory (This is a cool place–you get to see the process from raw material to bat. Neal and I both bought our dads a customized bat with an engraving for Father’s Day).

We also hit up other famous sports venues: Lambeau Field (Luckily, I had a friend who lived close by, and she was nice enough to make us lunch that day, so the drive from Milwaukee was well worth it. Getting a tour of the ultimate football stadium was really fun); Churchill Downs (I love horse racing; in fact, I often go to the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, but I never had a chance to get to Churchill Downs. This place is a mecca of horseracing lore, and it was just a perfect way to spend an afternoon); Pauley Pavilion (The venue of the UCLA Bruins basketball team); The Los Angeles Lakers practice facility (We had met a guy who went on a road trip a few years before us, and he happened to be an employee for the Lakers. He was nice enough to show us around the Lakers practice facility, and also show us their championship trophies, it was great!).

You get the point. Seek out places that interest you–this will likely be one of the only opportunities to visit places like this in your life, so plan ahead.

See America

Since we took it slow, we had a lot of time to explore America. Actually, we made sure that any downtime we had in-between games was well planned. For example, we went to Disney World, Universal Studios in Los Angeles, toured Bourbon Street in New Orleans, toured San Francisco, spent a few days with friends in Texas, and more.
Most importantly, we were able to visit 22 National Parks across the USA and Canada. Besides baseball, our experiences in these pristine and beautiful gems scattered throughout North America were absolutely the most meaningful and interesting. In my opinion, most National Parks are must-see parts of any trip across our country. I cannot begin to describe in words, or pictorially, just how spectacular these places are.
Below are two of my favorite scenes.

Where to Stay

We had a pretty tight budget for the trip–in all, we spent about $5,500 each. One way that we were able to save money was by staying with many friends, camping, and finding cheap motels. Of the 81 nights, we spent about 40 in friends’ houses (we were lucky, as we both had friends from college scattered all over the country). But, we also were not bashful about inviting ourselves over either. When embarking on such a trip, you have to be willing to be outgoing–and this certainly includes asking people for a bed or couch to crash on, even if you don’t know them too well. We also bought this cool tent, the brand was Quechua, that literally built itself when you threw it in the air. So, we’d stop at these KOA campgrounds (which, by the way, are all over the country, and about $15 a night, and have showers, electricity, etc.), threw our tent in the air, and we were good to go. In the morning, we would literally fold the tent up in a few minutes, toss it in the car, and be on the road. Otherwise, we wouldn’t spend more than $60 on a motel, and this happened only a few times. You probably don’t need to pre-book any hotel rooms or campgrounds. Furthermore, you never will know exactly where you will be during any given night. For example, when driving from San Diego to Bryce National Park, we had no idea when we would get tired and would want to crash for the night. So, we would program our GPS when we got tired, to see where the nearest highway motel or KOA campground was, and then just go to that one. So, in short, be forceful with friends, be flexible and be frugal!

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Roc’s Dream Road Trip! – Guide To All 30 MLB Ballparks

http://azsportstalk.com/2011/04/rocs-road-trip-guide-to-all-30-mlb-ballparks/

Total mileage: 12,434.5 x 20 mpg=622 gallons x $3.75 avg per gallon=$2,331.47



Costs:

Tickets: 30 stadiums, average is $25 a ticket x 2 tickets= $1,500.
Passport: $100 each. $200
Total mileage: 12,434.5 x 20 mpg=622 gallons
Gas: Average gas price $3.75 per gallon=$2,331.47
Lodging: Motels and Hotels $50 a night X 60 nights= $3,000. – Motel6.com has over 1000 motels in the US…Coupons online have tons of deals. Found rooms ranging from $35 to $75 bucks, went with $50
Food: $35 per day x 60 days: $2100 – think is high. Grocery store
Miscellaneous – Game program from every ballpark or some type of item $10 x each game $300

Grand Total: $8,993.75 $4496.87 minimum.



However, I would make some adjustments if I had a healthy budget (include some flights):
1. I wouldn’t drive from San Francisco to Seattle –over 800 miles. I would try flying there from Phoenix. Average cost of a flight in advance $350. It’s $300 in just gas to get there.
2. Denver – fly from Phoenix. It’s over 850 miles so it’s similar to Seattle. Flights to Denver are less than $300.
3. KC and St. Louis parks are tough, however, there’s some inexpensive flights on Southwest Airlines. Right now in June you can go Phoenix to KC and return to Phoenix from St. Louis -$219. Rent a car is about $100.
4. Minnesota is a tough one and expensive - $300 flight. It’s a new ballpark so you need to get in the mix some how.
5. Best scenario for Chicago – SWA flight one way to Chicago $129. Rent a car go Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Tigers, Indians, Reds, Pirates, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Orioles, Nationals. One way back from Baltimore or DC -$175. Renting car will be expensive.
6. Fly to Atlanta one way $134 from Phoenix. Rent a car and drive to Tampa and Florida. One way back to Phoenix from Miami non-stop $169.
7. Fly to Houston on SWA $139 one way. Rent a car and drive to Arlington, fly back from Dallas $155.

How cool with this all be!!!

“The five basic reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire:

1) The undermining of the sanctity and dignity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2) Rising taxes, the spending of public money for bread and circuses for the masses.
3) The mad craze for pleasure becoming each year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4) The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within, the decay of individual responsibility.
5) The decline of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to
guide the people.” -- Edward Gibbon (The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire).