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!

Final thanks to the Pilgrim crew for pitching in for the above message.

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

Yes, after two months spent confined in a compact car, we’re still happily married.

…

For a bonus, here’s our rankings of the 30 MLB parks, graded holistically.  Stadiums are loosely ranked within categories.

Note: We agreed on categories for all but one ballpark.  See below for details.

We both agree that the following two stadiums cannot be ranked with the other 28.  They are special places and therefore, special cases.  The history, good and (mostly) bad, in these parks is palpable.  They are truly (as MLB Network calls them)…

Cathedrals of the Game

• Fenway Park (Red Sox)
• Wrigley Field (Cubs)

Excellent - 5 Stars

• Petco Park (Padres)
• PNC Park (Pirates)
• AT&T Park (Giants)
• Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Orioles)
• Citi Field (Mets) *
• Yankee Stadium (Yankees)
• Kauffman Stadium (Royals)

Above Average - 4 Stars

• Chase Field (Diamondbacks)
• Miller Park (Brewers)
• Safeco Field (Mariners)
• Busch Stadium (Cardinals)
• Minute Maid Park (Astros)
• Dodger Stadium (Dodgers)
• Great American Ballpark (Reds)
• Turner Field (Braves)

Average - 3 Stars

• Comerica Park (Tigers)
• Nationals Park (Nationals)
• Coors Field (Rockies)
• Citizens Bank Park (Phillies)
• Rangers Ballpark at Arlington (Rangers)
• Progressive Field (Indians)
• Angels Stadium (Angels)
• U.S. Cellular Field (White Sox)

Below Average - 2 Stars

• Rogers Centre (Blue Jays)

Lousy - 1 Star

• Tropicana Field (Rays)
• Land Shark Stadium (Marlins)
• Oakland Alameda County Stadium (Athletics)

Should be blown up - 0 Stars

• Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Twins)

*  Karyn disagrees that Citi Field is an “Excellent” park.  She would award the facility 4 Stars instead.

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:

• Six caps
• Six (at least) promo magazines
• Three packs of breathmints
• Three t-shirts
• Two visors
• Two bobble head dolls
• Two magnets
• Two car sun shades
• Two posters
• Two packs of promo baseball cards
• One Sticker

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.

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.

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.

We took an interesting tour of Oriole Park at Camden Yards before the game.  Our guide was really informative, and we got to experience some of the less-seen parts of the ballpark, including the luxury suites, press box, and media room.  Camden Yards (as the locals call it) is a relatively new park (less than 20 years old), yet it captures much of the feeling of the classic ballparks, due to the planning and design of architecht Janet Marie Smith (who has also done work for the Red Sox).  This park was the first of the “retro” style stadiums, serving as a blueprint of sorts for almost all of the parks built since.  As such, it’s one of my favorite ballparks.

This game, in this park, was a perfect one for us to end our trip.

The play on the field wasn’t particularly good, at least not for the Orioles.  O’s batters couldn’t plate a run until the ninth inning off some below-average A’s pitching.  (Karyn dubbed this the “Battle of the Vowels,” by the way), while the A’s rolled on, scoring nine.  We were as excited to be on the jumbotron (30 parks… it’s about time!) as we were for the home team; and Tony’s the biggest O’s fan I know.

It was just another game until the bottom of the seventh.  That’s when the rains came.

This was the second official rain delay of our trip (the first coming at Citi Field in game 2).  This one was the more impressive of the two, with lightning and flash floods in low-lying areas (I’m exaggerating a bit).  We moved up to the covered seats when the light rain started, but it didn’t matter; the winds came and swirled the downpour around us, soaking everybody in the stands.  It was wild; I’d never been out in a rain storm like it before.

The best part?  When the game re-started, all the soggy, remaining fans were invited down to the lower bowl to sit close to the field.  We got two and a half innings of field-level views, including a great look at the questionable double play that ended the game.

It was a memorable night for us:  A game we’ll never forget as a fitting end to an adventure we’ll never forget.

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.

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.)

The rookie Nationals starter J.D. Martin was actually pretty good, going 5 innings and giving up only 1 run to earn the win.

His one run was on a bomb in the first inning by Arizona’s leadoff man Trent Oeltjen.  Martin’s counterpart from the Diamondbacks, Yusmeiro Petit, was not as good.  He was also not good when we saw him pitch in Arizona.  He only survived 4 innings, giving up 4 runs, only 3 of which were earned.  The Diamondbacks defense was less-than-stellar yesterday, goofing up thrice.  After Petit was pulled from the game, it was a parade of bullpen guys, including Scott Schoeneweis who gave up all 4 of the Nationals’ runs in the 8th inning.  So, it was the eighth consecutive “Curly W” for the Nationals.

Nationals Park was mostly nothing special.  It was new, and spiffy in that respect, but that’s about it.  There is no standout feature or characteristic that makes it memorable.  There is a view of the Capitol building, but only from certain angles in the park.  As I said, it was comfortable with all the new stuff that the other parks have, just non-descript.

The Nationals (sadly, like most other Major League teams) have a stupid mascot.  His name is “Screech” and I’m guessing he’s supposed to be a bald eagle.  Seeing as it was about 100 degrees on the field (though our cheap seats were blessedly shady), Screech appearances were few and far between.

Now, even though the park itself was rather blah, their “Stuff Race” was AWESOME.  In my opinion, the best Stuff Race of all the Stuff Races.  At Nationals Park, in Washington, D.C., the Stuff that Races are… Presidents.

That’s right, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt battle for Presidential Racing supremacy.  At the start of yesterday’s race, Teddy was the perennial loser, while Abe leads on the season with 28 wins.  Out of the gate, Thomas cheated, leaving early.  But, he soon wilted in the heat and Teddy took the lead.  Coming into the home stretch he had a significant gap between him and Abe, but Mr. Lincoln showed an impressive turbo boost and won the race.  Teddy loses again.  Like I said, the BEST Stuff Race ever.

As a bonus, here is the video from a Pirates game a few weeks ago in which the guest-racing Presidents compete with the Pittsburgh Pierogis, one of whom… well, just watch.

The Washington Monument

The Jefferson Memorial (which is off in the boonies in relation to all the other notable sights in the vicinity)

The Lincoln Memorial

The World War II Memorial

The Smithsonian Castle

The Apollo Lander at the Air and Space Museum

The penguin statues next to the airplane that was the first to fly over Antartica (note the skis as landing gear)

Too bad it was 100 degrees or we might have actually made it to the White House to say hello to the President.