Well everyone, that’s all for now. The trip is done, we’re home and settled, and life goes on.
While this summer’s trip is officially done, we hope to continue our baseball adventures in the future. After all, Minnesota gets a new park in 2010 and Miami gets one in 2012…
If you’d like to re-live our adventures with us, you may as well start at the beginning. Here’s a link to our first post.
Take care all!
We could not have attempted, let alone completed, an odyssey like this without the help of many people. We’d like to acknowledge a few of them here. Please forgive any forgetfulness.
We would like to thank…
Mom & Dad- for watching the house and the books
Mom & Kevin- for plant-sitting and for a free day at King’s Dominion
Dad & Madeline- for the camping gear and know-how
Pete; Bethany & Jason; Uncle Claude; Aunt Donna & Uncle Don; Jen & Tony- for opening their homes to us for a little while and for being tour guides and chauffeurs for us
Susan (our Magellan GPS)- for getting us to where we needed to be (Thanks to Mom & Dad for Susan as a Christmas gift)
The Kansas City Scoreboard Folks (you know who you are)- for thinking of us, even though we were far away
Katie & Brad- for several tanks of gas
Those friendly folks sitting next to us at games and listening to our trip stories- for humoring us
Uncle Claude- for telling us about ballpark orientation; we knew to sit on the third base side from then on
Last year’s English I Honors Students- for making us those great mix cd’s for the trip
Thelma- for keeping an eye on the house
Pete; Mom & Kevin; Bethany & Jason; Uncle Claude & Rowena; Aunt Donna & Uncle Don; Jen, Tony, Josie & Andy; Aimee; Sean & Drew; Frank from D.C.- for joining us at a game out on the road
The Good Lord above- for 7+ weeks of amazing weather
All of you who followed us on our blog (family, friends, co-workers, students, and strangers), whether leaving comments or just reading along- for joining us on our adventure; also, thanks for reminding us just how great home can be
So now, we’ll answer the most common question we’ve been asked over the past two months:
We decided a long time ago (long before the trip) not to get souvenirs for ourselves along the way. Since the trip was so long and the trunk of the Civic so crammed, we couldn’t do it.
The best souvenir for us, we decided, would be a single ball cap to serve as a display for pins from all of the parks. We bought an MLB Umpire cap before we left and threw it in the car. After each park, we put our purchased pin on the cap. Here’s the final product:
We also received promotional giveaways at many parks along the way. Here’s the swag:
Items include:
Length of trip: 54 days
States seen: 36 (+1 province, +1 district)
What states?
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada*, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware.
+ Ontario, Canada (province)
+ District of Columbia
* While at Lake Tahoe, CA, we drove over the Nevada state line, turned around, and came back. It still counts.
Total miles traveled: 14,524
Gallons of gas used: 387.415
Number of fillups: 65
Average fillup: 5.960 gallons
Innings of baseball watched: 262
Interleague games: 7
American League games: 8
National League games: 15
Repeat Teams:
Two-Timers
Boston Red Sox
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Indians
Texas Rangers
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Oakland Athletics
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Pittsburgh Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Three-Timers
Detroit Tigers
Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs
San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks
Four-Timer
Cincinnati Reds
Games in…
Eastern Daylight Time: 12
Central Daylight Time: 10
Mountain Daylight Time: 1
Mountain Standard Time: 1 (silly Arizona)
Pacific Daylight Time: 6
Win/Loss Ratio: 20-10 (66.7% wins)
Total runs scored: 286
Average per game: 9.53
Total pitches thrown: 8930
Average per game: 297.67
I can say for myself that it was not until crunching the numbers that the enormity of this trip really hit me. I am proud of us for this tremendous (and trouble-free!) accomplishment. The trip of a lifetime.
We’re home!
687 miles since Friday.
14,524 miles total, in just over seven weeks.
*Note: Stay tuned for several more posts, as we wrap up our trip.
Final: Oakland Athletics 9, Baltimore Orioles 1
Hot Dog: 3/5
As to all good things, the end must inevitably come. Our thirtieth, and final, game of the trip took us to the Charm City on a humid Monday night. We were joined by Tony, Jen, and Pete M. for our Baltimore experience and we made the most of our time.
Before our final game (in Baltimore), we took a stadium tour of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It was a great tour and we got lots of photos (check in the game post later on).
During our tour, we met another group of Baseball Road-trippers: Scot, Jonah, and Brandon. They’re more than 20 games into their trip. We swapped war stories and blog web addresses. Check out their blog at www.bobobaseball.com.
Final: Washington Nationals 9, Arizona Diamondbacks 2
Hot Dog: 4/5
Looking at our schedule a week ago, we thought, “Oh yahoo. A Nationals vs. D’Backs game.” The reason for this disappointment, of course, is that both teams stink. (Of course, our disappointment pales in comparison to Amanda’s when she finds out we didn’t get souvenirs for anyone.) As it turns out, the Nats had won 7 in a row going into yesterday’s game, which they also won. Who’d have thunk it? It was a pretty good game through the 8th, when the Arizona bullpen blew up and allowed 4 runs. Adam Dunn hit a homer in the bottom of the first, and it was all more or less downhill for the D’Backs from there. (NOTE: This is actually a photo of Dunn hitting the home run. The ball is in the upper left of the photo, on its way out of the park.)
We saw a few of the sights here in our nation’s capital, including our nation’s Capitol.
