I heard jim Maclaren give his life testimonial on the Jim Rome Show. It has forever changed my life. I was lucky enough to be friends with this man. Even though he passed in 2010-his motto and message will be carried on “Choose Life”

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer): Follow @chuckbooth3024

Two years ago on this day, I had 2 jobs that paid very well and had been concussion symptom free for 15 years after suffering multiple head injuries in my last two years of sports .  I had just lost 2 really close friends.  One to a car accident and one of them was Jim Maclaren. For those of you who know the story, know that he was ‘my inspirational hero’ back in 2004, when I really started to strive towards achieving my life goal .  If you don’t know his story click here.  T0 make a long story short, I was in a serious car accident on Sept.17/2010.  A guy smashed into my car doing 70 KM (45 MPH)  and never even hit the brakes as I was waiting to turn left.  Adrenaline kicked into body with a massive degree, so it masked how much pain and what injuries were to come soon after.

The guy who hit me, realized he was in some serious trouble and fled the scene of the crime.  Thank goodness I had witnesses who stayed with me in the area until the police officer came and took down all information.  I am still in the process of this claim so I won’t go into certain specifics.  What I will tell you is that I suffered a Grade 2 Concussion.  It was the 9th concussion I have had in my life.  The next two months were a blur to me. Eventually, I quit one of my jobs because it involved lots of time with driving on the road.  I will not go crazy on anything of poor me…or anything here because I would never say anything like that.  You see, I had  a good teacher in Jim Maclaren.

While it was a struggle for about a year and a half with head and physical injuries, I suddenly began feeling a lot better in January of this year.  I am not sure whether or not it is directly related to baseball, however I have suspicion that I needed something to focus 100% on.  It all come together once I chased my dreams once again.  I broke my own Guinness World Record by visiting all 30 MLB Parks in only 23 Days!+-

I used to have a photographic memory.  All of my family know this to be true. If you hang around me long enough, you would realize that I still have the memories in my brain some where. I still have really good recall with numbers and math.  If you once had a photographic memory, you would think that is a bummer to lose it with head injuries.  I do not see it that way.  When you remember everything, it is painstakingly difficult to forget bad memories and feelings.  I would also remember good times a lot as well-just never as much as the bad ones.  The point being is-I wouldn’t change the way I am now for anything.  Why is that?  I am the happiest at this point of my life than I have ever been prior because I understand that things are not always in your control.

I love the ability to always look into the future instead of remembering the past constantly. That is not to say I can’t still activate memories on recall and by using 100% focus, it just means the memories do not predominantly run through my mind.  

I may not be the person I am today if I had not gone through all of my life lessons and some hardships.  I would not have been inspired to make changes to gear all that I do in striving towards my goals if I never heard Jim Maclaren’s life testimonial.  I often think of Jim still when I have a struggle and it always makes me feel better about life.  I think about the day he spent 3 hours laboring around just so he could send me a voice message because I had inspired him after a rough patch in his life.

There are incredible people in all of our lives that make a difference on a daily basis.  I quite often think of these kind acts that these people have bestowed to me and it makes want to do the same return.  ’Choosing Life’ no matter what obstacles you face is the lesson learned here.  I am almost back at 100% of where I was a few years ago.  I will always have the odd day in which I will struggle with the symptoms.  I am okay with this.  I am also okay with never being able to participate in full athletic sports because it will bring the symptoms out every time.  I have been blessed in so many avenues to contribute to the world of sports still.  It is my ultimate livelihood and I have met some incredible people through writing and traveling around to sporting events.  I do love other sports other than baseball, but that is truly my #1 passion.

Make a difference with someone you can help.  Like my brother Trent always says- ‘be epic!’  Don’t do it for fan fare or public awareness, do it because it is right and will brighten someone’s day!  Whether it is time, money or a mixture of the both, help out as much as you can.  Make personal sacrifices if it comes to that.  Pay it Forward!  I believe that the majority of the world is made of good or great people who live normal lives.  

A couple of more quotes here:  You are not the things you own, or the clothes you wear. You are not the car you drive or the house you live in.  You are not the job you work at and money won’t buy you all of the happiness in the world (although it may take you to some awesome baseball games.)  Just put forth as much of yourself as you can each day and then you can rest knowing that you have done everything in the realm of your being to make your life (and those around you better.)

Like my step-mom Nancy put so eloquently to me 20 years ago.  ”People are consumed in their own lives and their own surrounding immediate family- that they are not thinking about you constantly so you only ever have to prove anything to yourself and stop caring what other people may be thinking about you even if they are at all!’ What a great lesson to have been taught at age 14, yet not fully realize the meaning until many years later.  I love her everyday for that important life message.  It puts the onus on you to be in charge of your life and to do what makes you happy.  If your family and friends do not cotton to your new motto, then it is their problem!

We are all human here.  Some of us (like me) have major flaws and demons that are always a constant threat.  But I am honest about these to myself first and to everyone I come in contact with.  I know now that is okay to wear your heart on your sleeve-especially when you used to bottle all of your feelings up inside once upon a time.  I live a rollercoaster-type of lifestyle and I am okay with it because I know there will be a balance to it all in the end.  

At the end of the day, I go to bed thinking that tomorrow will be a good day.  If I had a bad day, I realize that there is an opportunity to correct it with a good day to balance it out.  If I had a good day, I count my lucky blessings and wish to have another good day in the near future like it.

So keep on keeping on.  Thanks for reading.  If you made it down this far it means you have liked what I have said here or just found it entertaining?  Pay if forward by telling someone special in your life why they impact your life so positively. 

Jim Maclaren was a great example of how one could overcome any obstacle in life to make a difference in the world!

Chuck Booth

I broke my old record of 24 days by being-Fastest to see all 30 MLB parks in 23 days  from April 6th to 28th/2012!

Final schedule with results is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

There are 3 Articles that are part of the streak but are impromptu articles:

Links: April 11th Article : http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/1426/

All other Articles http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/

All Media Links: http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/category/media-links/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

There will be three write-ups from each park for blog links.  There is a Park Preview, a Stadium Expert and a Post-Streak and Game Synopsis.

AL EAST

NYY- Yankee Stadium

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/yankee-stadium-preview-april-152012/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/ericokurowsk/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/11-15/

BOS- Fenway Park

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/fenway-park-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/brianmerzbach/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/11-15/

TB- Tropicana Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/tropicana-field-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/raysexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/the-record-streak-parks-22-24/

TOR- The Rogers Center

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/the-rogers-center-preview/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/an-interview-with-skydome-expert-jonathan-hacohen/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/11-15/

BAL- Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/camdenyards/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/camdenyardsexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

AL CENTRAL

DET- Comerica Park

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/comerica-park-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/paulswaney/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/the-record-streak-parks-22-24/

CWS- US Cellular Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/cellprev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/uscellularexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

CLE- Progressive Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/progressive-field-preview/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/cleexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

KC- Kauffman Stadium

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/kauffman-stadium-prev/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/kauffmanstadiumexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

MIN- Target Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/target-field-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/targetexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/11-15/

AL WEST

LAA- Angels Stadium

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/angels-stadium-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/chuckbooth/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/12345

TEX- The Ball Park in Arlington

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/the-ball-park-in-arlington-preview-april-08/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/clintbooth/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/parks6-10/

SEA- Safeco Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/safeco-field-pre/

Park Expert  http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/dougmiller/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

OAK- O.co Coliseum

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/o-co-coliseum-preview-april-232012/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/as-expert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/the-record-streak-parks-22-24/

NL EAST

PHI- Citizens Bank Ball Park

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/citzens-bank-ball-park-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/kurtsmit/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/12345

ATL- Turner Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/turner-field-prev/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/bravesexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

MIA- New Marlins Ball Park

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/marlinsprev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/marlinsprev/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

WSH- Nationals Park
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/11-15/

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/nationals-park-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/ben-fallon/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update

NYM- Citi Field

Park Preview-http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/citi-field-preview/

Park Expert-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/lorimartini/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/12345

NL CENTRAL

STL- Busch Stadium

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/busch-stadium-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/buschexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

MIL- Miller Park

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/millerparkprev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/miller-park-expert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

CIN- The Great American Ball Park

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/gabppreview/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/gabpexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

CHC- Wrigley Field

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/wrigley-field-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/bobdevries/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/chuck-booth-mlb-parks-16-21-recaps-and-streak-update/

PIT- PNC Park

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/pnc-park-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/pnc-park-book-excerpt-from-the-fastest-30-ballgames-novel/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/

HOU- Minute Maid

Park Preview- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/minute-maid-park-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/minutemaidexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/12345

NL WEST

SF- AT &T Park

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/at-t-park-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/sfgiantexper/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/parks6-10/

COL- Coors Field

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/coors-field-preview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/coors-field-expert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/parks6-10/

ARI- Chase Field

Park Preview- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/chase-field-prev/

Park Expert- http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/chasefieldexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/parks6-10/

LAD- Dodger Stadium

Park Preview-
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/dodgerstadiumpreview/

Park Expert http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/dodgerstadiumexpert/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/parks6-10/

SD- Petco Park

Park Preview -
http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/petco-park-prev/

Park Expert  http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/petco-park-expert-ken-lee/

Post Game Synopsis and Streak Update
fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/12345

Follow me- @ChuckBooth3024

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at his official website for all updates!

Douglas “Chuck” Booth (Baseball Writer and- @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- Yes we are calling the park ‘The Skydome!’ For once the shoe is on the other foot.  I asked the MLB Reports Founder and ‘Lead Columnist’ Jonathan Hacohen if I could interview him 5 months after he interviewed me.  Jonathan and I came into talking by both talking to the  MLB FanCave guys at the same time on twitter last June.  Jonathan was really interested in My baseball book “The Fastest Thirty Ballgames” and I sent him a copy of it if he agreed to do a review.  Jonathan finished the book and gave one of the most incredible reviews for my book that I have ever seen for any baseball book anywhere.  Somewhere I had given up all of my creative writing energy in the process while writing this said book.  Jonathan followed up with an interview later.  During the World Series, he offered up a chance to do a guest article since I knew a lot about the ballparks in Texas and St. Louis.  Now I am sure it was all part of his master plan: the one guest article turned into a once a week article, before I even realized it myself, I was writing 2 articles a week and craving more!  I messaged Jonathan about a potential run at the record to see all 30 MLB Parks before anyone on this planet.  The reason is the man loves baseball.  He was just as fired up as I was!  From there we have worked together as a team to provide a different kind of article series that has ever been seen by a baseball writer and website.  I am happy to finally meet Jonathan today live in person for the Jays game during this record chase.  Before we write about that, I had a chance to talk the man about baseball life, the MLB Reports and the Skydome.  Here is what we discussed…

DB: “Welcome to the MLB Reports Experts Interview Jonathan.  Please tell us about yourself and then give us a bit of background information on your life as a Baseball Columnist?  More importantly, how much you have covered the Toronto Blue Jays over the years?”

JH: “Thank you for having me Chuck. It certainly feels different being on this side of the interview!  As far as baseball goes, it is a huge part of my life. I have lived the game for as long as I can remember, over 20 years for sure. Growing up and living in Toronto, the Blue Jays have been by default the team that I most closely covered throughout my life. I have seen it all with Canada’s only team. From the move to the Skydome from Exhibition Stadium. To the team going from pretenders, to contenders to World Series champions. Then back to pretenders. The Pat Gillick era. The J.P. Ricciardi era (a dangerous word in these parts). The Alex Anthopoulos regime. The threat of the Giants to move to Toronto for a 2nd team before they got their new park (2nd time the team did that- funnier this time around). The purchase of the team and stadium by Rogers and renaming the Dome to the Rogers Centre. George Bell. Roberto Alomar. Tom Henke. Roy Halladay. There have been some very big baseball names that played ball in this city. The fans are luckier than they realize sometimes. I have had a love/hate relationship with the Jays for most of my life. I was never a “Jays’ fan” per say. I liked the Dome when they built it as a youngster, but I had a bad feeling about it. Too much turf and concrete, not enough love and warmth. I was happy for the city and fans when the team won back-to-back championships, but it wasn’t my team. I was more a fan of particular players than teams. I never understood how fans could love a certain player when they played on one team and then detest them, just because they wore a different uniform. The Giants were my team growing up (thus the reference to the potential move to Toronto). The team was so flabbergasted with Candlestick Park, that they threatened to move the team to Exhibition Stadium if they didn’t get a new stadium. Ironic, since this wasn’t the first time the Giants used Toronto to leverage a move/stadium. But looking at the attendance in Toronto now, a second baseball team in Toronto would have been financial suicide. One team is enough in my books.

My fave players growing up were Will Clark and Matt Williams. The 1989 Giants were my team. Once the players though moved on, I moved on. I still had my fave players, but never a particular association with a particular city or stadium. Until I went to Comerica Park for the first time. The stadium opened its doors in 2000 and I made my first game over there in 2004. I looked it up actually- Sunday June 14, 2004. A beautiful sunny day. Dontrelle Willis pitched a complete game for the Marlins. Juan Pierre had a HR. Brandon Inge was in left. I thought Hee-Seop Choi was the next big thing and that the Cubs were foolish to lose a budding star for an overrated Derrek Lee. Wonderful memories. I loved everything about Comerica. The open air, grass, beautiful concourse, the lively fans- atmosphere. It had it all. Detroit was the closest city to Toronto (4 hours aways) and became my adopted city. I make it to Comerica every year and fell in love with the team, its rich history, the city…everything. Yes, I bleed Tigers orange and blue. But that hasn’t stopped me from respecting where the Jays are heading. They have a bright young GM who has made masterful moves (with the exception of not hanging on to Mike Napoli…BIG mistake!) Great young players and vibe. A move back to the old logo. Finally!!!!  The team has the feel that it did back in the late 80′s and early 90′s. People are talking Jays. They are excited. The extra Wild Card is in place. I can see the direction the Jays are going and I am excited. This team will be a serious contender in the next year or two and a return to the World Series is coming. This is not the baseball fan inside of me talking. This is the analyst. For a person that has spent their life covering the Jays and seeing theirs ups and downs, the direction is clear. Good things will happen here.”

DB: “You are the Lead Baseball Columnist and Editor @www.mlbreports.com to one of the fastest growing baseball websites on the planet.  Explain how you came up with the Idea of this website?  How has the growth changed your life?”

JH: “I have been writing about baseball for most of my life, ever since I loved the game. It started from reading a baseball encyclopedia at about 10. Yes, I read it every night and got through it more times than I can remember. That puppy was in bad shape when I was finished with it! From there I always wrote about baseball. Every chance I had. From short stories to analysis pieces, I just wrote…and wrote…and wrote. When the Internet was still in its infancy, I found message boards very interesting. A way to talk with fans, learn information and debate different topics. But I wanted to do more with my talents. I wanted to spread the word, talk baseball and grow the game as best as I could.

I believe that everyone is born with a certain skill-set. Some people can paint. Some can fix cars. My talent is writing. It’s something that was within me from a very young age. The best way that I have described it is that when I am in the zone and writing, the words literally flow through my fingertips. I can write faster than I can think. I can’t explain why that is or how that is. I was born to write. With that in my mind, I wanted to use my talents in the best way that I could. I investigated many sites and talked with many industry people. I felt discouraged, as I didn’t feel that I could find the right fit for me to write in a productive setting. Unless you hit “the big time” in baseball writing, it is hard to score a top writing gig. Or opportunities could be there, but not ones that fit the person. I wasn’t comfortable just writing straight stats-based articles. Or games highlights. I wanted to write about everything and anything that is baseball. I had a million ideas. World Baseball Classic. Baseball around the globe. MLB Realignment. Expansion. Book Reviews. Baseball technology advancements. I wanted to give the world an outlet to learn about every aspect of the game and to keep the concepts flowing. I also realized that there were many talented young writers out there, that were not getting their shots. I told myself that if I found the right young people that were willing to work hard, learn and produce great articles- I would put the time in to edit and help these young writers along. To give back to the community that was so good to me. With those thoughts in mind- I decided to set out and build the greatest baseball website. To give baseball fans a home that they could be proud of. My baseball masterpiece. Thus MLB reports was born.

The site has grown a great deal from its infancy. From logo designs, website themes and formats, writers, guest bloggers, MLB interviews…I look back and can’t believe how much has been produced in its lifespan. I started off the site with the concepts of what I thought was missing in baseball websites. What baseball fans wanted to see and read. But then, from the time of its creation- MLB reports was going to be a product of the people. I wanted the fans, the readers to decide what went into the site. This was not a site to exist in a vacuum purely for my enjoyment. This was a site that I wanted to fans to love and enjoy, while feeling that they have a part in it. Social media was key- from e-mails to Twitter and Facebook, I demanded from day one that every fan’s voice would be heard and reach the site. The fans have played a huge part in the site and helping us decide in content, the pages that we created and the look/feel of the site. Plus discussions. Oh those baseball discussions. From late night tweeting sessions to Facebook debates. I wanted the fans to feel that they had a voice and that it mattered. Everyone has an opinion. Some are right. Some are wrong. But people deserve a chance to speak their mind and share their thoughts and feelings on the sport they love. MLB reports is the forum and home for the love of baseball.  People feel that and have shown that in their support of the website. It makes the experience and all the hard work worthwhile, for all the great writers that is the MLB reports team. It is worth it.

My life has never been the same since I started MLB reports. I have spoken and corresponded with industry people that I never imagined possible. Derrick Hall, President and CEO of the Diamondbacks Matt Williams. Adam Jones. Jon Heyman. Danny Knobler. Chad Cordero. The list goes on…and on. One of the greatest moments of my life was speaking with Matt Williams on the telephone for an interview. When we were finishing up, Matt said something that has stuck with since. He told me that “MLB reports is a fantastic site. You are doing great things for the sport. You are sending positive messages and growing the sport. There is a real shortage of quality sites that do what you do. You are making a difference. Keep doing what you are doing.  You are important for baseball.” I was left in awe and shock after hearing those words. It only made me work harder and increased my motivation. If MatT. Williams, a baseball-lifer and contributor to the game on so many levels can say that, I knew that MLB reports was something special. From there, it has been people that I have met at games and the emails that come through on a daily basis. Even having our Twitter site listed in the top-30 must read baseball accounts and named the #8 must follow Twitter site…just adding to the feeling of what is MLB reports. It still hasn’t sunk in. It is like a dream. A wonderful beautiful dream that I never want to wake up from.”

DB: “What is your vision/mission statement for the future of MLB Reports.com?”

JH: “MLB reports is about everything and anything that is baseball.  It is the website for every baseball fan. Young or old. Novice or professional. For a person that reads MLB reports, they will learn about baseball news and consider the analysis of the game, which in turn will lead to baseball discussions. As long as it involves baseball, it will be on MLB reports. We encourage growing young writers and turning them into veteran reporters. MLB reports ultimately is about the pure love of baseball.  Growing every aspect of the game and encourage positive fandom of the greatest sport in the world.  We want to see people reading baseball books, attending games, following prospects, buying baseball equipment, playing the game and living the game. I call it MLB 4 Life.  Baseball is Life. That is what it’s all about. Baseball.”

DB: “The Skydome does not rank high amongst baseball chasers when it comes to other ballparks. Having said this, what strengths or weaknesses does the park have for their fans?”

JH: “Wow, the Jays’ folks may not like what I have to say (big laugh). I admit that I haven’t been to every major league park…yet. But from what I have seen, the Skydome is by far the worst facility that I have ever visited to watching a baseball game. It is not horrible or a rundown stadium. Far from it. But when you visit PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Comerica in Detroit, it certainly shows how much other stadiums have evolved from the Dome. The truth is that the Rogers Center is a dinosaur. The last of its kind. Once billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World, now it is just a big piece of concrete with turf. It has a restaurant in the center of the stadium that sits dark and abandoned most games. The food concessions are nothing to write home about…although they have better grade sandwiches on level 100.

So lets start with strengths.  It is transit accessible. Taking the subway, it is a very short walk to the stadium. There is plenty of parking close by (if you don’t mind a 5 minute walk) that makes the Dome very easy to attend. (BTW: we still call it the Dome in Toronto, so I have to stay true to what it is).  Tickets are very easy to obtain (given the mild-interest fans still show in baseball).  We have a lot of diehard fans that are very loyal and attend games. But most people…and I mean majority of people I meet, are proud to say how they used to be big fans back in the day, but lost interest after 1993.  Those are the fans the Jays have to get back if they hope to thrive like in the old days. Discount tickets are not so easy to get, as fans don’t dump their unused seats on StubHub/Kijiji like they do in the States. Call it a Toronto thing.  I don’t know.

Once inside the Dome, the Jays try hard to put on a good show and make it fan friendly. But until they start selling out the Dome again, the Jays will have a difficult time creating a great baseball atmosphere like the old days. When the Dome is half empty, you really feel it. In Comerica, a half full stadium is still rocking. The Dome is just too big and too much concrete. It feels like a multi-purpose facility. But when it is full, the place is rocking and is a lot of fun.

The Jays try to have theme nights and all sorts of events. The team got smarter and tried to reach out to the fans and win them back. It is a work in progress, but it’s getting better. More autograph signings before games for example.  Going to the old school logo has really helped. I have a feeling seeing the old Jays uniforms on the field will bring back the excitement and feelings for the fans of when this team was popular and “good”.

As far as weaknesses go, I think that I have been pretty blunt on the assessment. Poor vibe and atmosphere for the most part. Not all seating is great, especially in the nose bleed 500s. Food is so-so at best. For those fans lucky to live in Toronto, it is great to have a major league stadium in town. A talented team with the potential to be contenders. But going to the Dome, you have to love baseball…because you go there for the games only. It is not a destination stadium or one that is just fun being there. It is a stadium that everyone should see once in their lives, but will make people run to watch games at newer parks. The best way that I can describe the Dome is a dinosaur.”

DB: “Last year, your son and you attended a sleep over at the Skydome after a baseball game.It looked like you guys had the time of your life.  Do the Blue Jays do a lot to bring kids to the park?”

JH: “This is one part when the Jays really shine. They have ACE, one of the coolest mascots in the game. While fans used to love BJ Birdy back in the day, Ace is really kid friendly and gets the little ones excited. On Saturday afternoon games, the Jays even feature another mascot- Junior Ace. My son is obsessed with Junior Ace, who is Ace’s son. He is the size of most little kids (3 feet? 4 feet?) Ace and his son (when around) go around the stadium all game long taking pictures and being lively. After the game on Saturday games also, kids can lineup from two exits and get to run the bases on the field. Kids can’t get enough of that! Plus the autograph signings and promo days like bobblehead days makes the Dome a very kid-friendly place. One of the problems though is the cost. Games are very expensive, as are the concessions and merchandise.  $30 for a kid’s tee? $8-12 slushees? Those are approximate prices, but they are very expensive. If I were the Jays, I would sell the merchandise and concessions at discounted rates and have more kid-friendly prices for more games. That would be the best way for parents to get their kids to the Dome without breaking the bank and getting the kids hooked onto the game. The Jays are doing a lot to attract new fans, but still have more ways to go.”

DB: “What is your favorite method of transportation to and from the Skydome?”

JH: “A big dilemma for me.  I like driving to and from the game, since I get to sit in the comfort of my own car. But I hate the traffic of getting out of the downtown and getting home. For comfort I like driving, but for simplicity and ease I like the transit (subway). I am getting more and more into taking the subway these days.”

DB: “What advice would you give for somebody experiencing the Skydome for the very first time?”

JH: “Simple. Go in with no expectations or expecting the worst stadium in the world. If you think nothing of the place, you will be pleasantly surprised! If you go in expecting a lot (especially if you visited other stadiums in the U.S.), you will likely be disappointed. Talk to a ticket agent when buying seats, not ordering seats on-line. The Jays’ ticket department will listen to what you want from your seats and help you pick the seats that will best work for you.  Bring your own food and drinks.  The Jays are very easy on this, as long as the drinks are in a bottle and below 700mL.  The food is sub par and I would recommend bringing a sub from Subway or anything else than eating there. Way overpriced for what it is. Sit in the bullpens. That is where the real fans sit and you will get the best baseball experience.  Come early before the game starts to walk around, watch BP and hopefully get an autograph or two. Also, go to two consecutive games your first time at the Dome.  At the first game you will learn the facility and you will feel like you are home for the second game.”

DB: “What is the food like at the Skydome? What is your favorite ballpark food there?”

JH: “To say that the Dome has the worst ballpark food that I have seen is an understatement. I love to eat and I love food. But there are slim pickings. The hot dogs are so-so. There are wings, pizza, chicken fingers and fries, popcorn etc. I have eaten at the Dome for many years, but was never really impressed. Once McDonald’s pulled out of the place back in the 90′s, the food quality went downhill.  In the last couple of years though, there have been some improvements. Mainly- the marketplace food area on level 100. There is a noodle station if you like asian food. Decent nachos with chicken. But I have a sandwich there that I am completely hooked on. It is a brisket sandwich on a kaiser, the brisket soaked in rootbeer bbq sauce, with fried onions and red cabbage. They are $10 each and well worth it. I usually buy 2 to start a game. I have spent hundreds on these brisket sandwiches and keep coming back for more. But unless you are eating in the marketplace….watch out!!!!”

DB: “With a new Wild Card team in both leagues, do you think this bodes well for the Toronto  Blue Jays in the short and long term?”

JH: “The Extra Wild Card will save the Jays in my opinion. Let’s take 2012 for example. Perfect scenario. There will be 5 playoff spots in the AL.  For those 5 spots, I see the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Jays, Tigers, Rangers and Angels battling it out.  7 teams for 5 spots.  You have to like those odds. The Jays play in the hardest division in baseball, with 3 top teams to contend against. It is what it is. If we assume though that the Tigers, Angels/Rangers and Red Sox/Yankees/Rays are all locks to get division crowns- then the Jays are really just competing for a wild card spot. This would be the case no matter what division they played in.  I find the Rangers/Angels much bigger threats than the 3-headed monster in the east (Rays/Yankees/Red Sox). But the east has 3 teams to contend with, while the west has 2 and the central only 1. For now.  In a couple of years, the central will be a tough place to play when the Royals will join the Tigers in contention. So it’s all in cycles when it comes to divisions and playoff races. But the extra wild is the likely difference between the Jays making the playoffs and not, both in the short and long-term. That is the reality. There is a chance that the Jays could become division contenders, but I just don’t see that happening. But once you get in through the wild card, anything can happen. Playoff contention will lead to higher attendances and more interest in the Jays, which means deadline acquisitions and possible October baseball. From the second the wild card was announced, the Jays were better off.”

DB: “What are your early thoughts on the 2012 version of the Toronto Blue Jays?”

JH: “I like what I am seeing. I really really do. I have seen the vision for a couple of years now and it is coming together. This team is so close that I can taste it. Colby Rasmus and Eric Thames joining Jose Bautista in the outfield. Kelly Johnson and Brett Lawrie for full seasons. Santos and Cordero in the bullpen. The Jays need 3 things to get to the playoffs: A top starting pitcher, a good starting pitcher and a big bat behind Bautista. That’s it. Everything else is in place. The team vastly improved its bullpen compared to 2011, which was a big source of stress. Adam Lind is not the answer behind Bautista and the team does not have enough depth behind Romero. Three more tweaks and this is a playoff team. I am excited about the team, plus all the prospects on their way. d’Arnaud.  Gose.  McGuire. In about 2-3 years, the Jays, Nationals and Royals will be powerhouses. The 2012 Jays will be good, but are not making the playoffs. Unless the team gets the last pieces that it needs. But the promise of good things is coming this year. I am especially excited about Thames and Rasmus. Very high on these kids. Cordero and Santos will be fun to watch at the end of games as well.”

DB: “What is your favorite all time game that you have been in attendance for  at The Skydome?”

JH: “WAY too many to list.  I was at John Olerud’s home debut against the Twins. I was at the playoff game in 1991 when the Twins beat the Jays to advance to the World Series. I remember watching a game in the 90′s when Dave Parker was with the Brewers (one of my fave players of all-time) and the Cobra swatted a pair of home runs to beat the Jays. Got his autograph after which made it that much sweeter.  Going to watch the Astros last year with my son and then having the sleepover was great.  But my fave game (although most painful), took place in September 1989.  The Jays were playing the Royals. George Brett had a single, double and triple in the game and as a home run away from the cycle. I was sitting over the bullpen, first row seats…right field I believe. I knew that Brett just needed the home run to get the cycle. The ball got hit to me. I froze. It went into my hands and dropped behind me. Someone stepped on my hand to get the ball.  They traded the ball with an usher for 2 clean baseballs. I was excited to have seen the cycle game…but devastated that I missed catching the ball.  A George Brett bat would have been mine if things had gone differently.

My dream though has been to see a no-hitter live. Last May, Justin Verlander threw a no-no against the Jays. I was all set to take my son to watch that game. It was a late starter, 4pm I believe. I gave him the choice of watching baseball or going to drive go-karts.  Being 5 at the time, he chose the go-karts. As we left the go-karts to go home, I heard the last 2 innings on the radio. I was so happy to have spent such a great day with my son, but wished we could have enjoyed it watching Verlander’s big day. It should have been one of the best games of my life, but will forever live in the “what if” category. As you can tell I love stories and talking baseball memories. These were some of the most private and fondest ones that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

DB: “Thank you very much Jonathan.  I really appreciate your faith in me as a writer.  I also applaud you giving up so much of your time to help shape the writing careers of all your writers.  It is a pleasure to work with you!”

JH: “Thank you for having me on Chuck and for this opportunity. I appreciate your hard work as one of our Baseball Writers at The Reports and for everything you have done for the game. I really enjoyed your book “The Fastest 30 Ballgames” and for following your chase to break your own Guinness World Record. You are a true star in this game and baseball is lucky to have you.  To the great baseball fans and readers of MLB reports, I personally want to thank each and every one of my readers for their support. My site is only possible because of you.  I hope that you enjoy it and that mlbreports.com increases your love of baseball to the highest levels. Thank you for being baseball fans. Keep watching, playing and talking baseball.  It is MLB 4 Life!!!”

*** A big thank you goes out to Jonathan Hacohen for participating in the expert article Series.***

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Monday, May.7/2012

For purchasing of this book click here

Original Print of the book was June 2011
Book Excerpt writeup By Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth

“This game was special to me for a lot of reasons.  Busch Stadium was the 29th park out of the 30th I had seen as I was joined on the field by my dad for an interview on Fox Sports Midwest.”

Game#25 Day#24
Busch Stadium
St. Louis, MO
Aug.01/2008

I never thought anything was going to equal the previous day. We had arrived back at my brother’s house to spend a quality morning with my nieces and nephew—and Trent’s wife Kristy before returning to the road. It was a quick trip from Philadelphia to St. Louis. It was going to cost us a fortune to all take the shuttle into the Hilton at $17 each-so I got us on the next transportation shuttle bus, and then negotiated a deal with Budget to give me an extra few hours head start on the 24 hour time line  airport rule—so I would not have to return after the St. Louis game to pick up the Mini-SUV, which had been the original plan.

Budget was awesome to let me have this deal early. I am a Fast Break member with them-and have/had spent a lot of money with them. We got a Mitsubishi SUV. My brothers thought it was a little small, but for a $65.00 rental that started out in St. Louis and ended up the next day in Minnesota-it was a great deal. Yes we had a five-hour drive from St. Louis to Chicago tomorrow, but we were all tough guys. I once again told them-“welcome to my world.”
That day in St. Louis was myopic. My brother Trent knew a guy at head office St. Louis, and that gentlemen made a few calls and arranged for my dad and I too receive ‘Field Passes’-and to be interviewed by Fox-Sports Midwest. I was almost in disbelief of that option, but it was now going to happen later that day. This experience was even better because none of us had been to new Busch Stadium-so all of us were there for the first time. Overall it was my 29th stadium so I only had “The Ballpark In Arlington” for stadiums left to complete my active 30. Much like Coors, Safeco and AT&T Park, the red-brick around the whole Stadium at Busch Stadium is top-notch.

The back-drop of the arch makes any picture immaculate. The scoreboard in center field with the red-birds, Budweiser sign-and all of the retired uniform numbers let you know this club is rich in team history. The five decks all feature red seating which make the stadium extremely bright. My dad and I were summoned by the Fox Sports News Sports Anchor, and it was show time. The announcer was a cool guy-and he asked me about the streak and where I was in the contest. Then he asked my dad a few questions. We were talking to an audience in the millions-as our pictures of the trip thus far-were being showed on TV to all of the viewing audience. My dad told the announcer that “We are very proud of Doug as he has done this trip and included us in his journey, and that Busch Stadium ranks right up there with all of the rest of the parks.”

I echoed those sentiments when it was my time to talk to the camera. I was surprised I was not nervous. I had kind of being interviewed a lot over the last 6 weeks-so this was almost to be expected for me now. To be on field at Busch Stadium with my dad was one of my top 5 memories all time with him. We have some great pictures to prove we were there that close on the field. At was at this point that all of the hard work, sacrifices, spent money, planning, studying had paid off because my brothers and my dad were going to have these memories forever. I told the Fox guy that on the camera. The guy from Fox wished me the best-and then I waved to Albert Pujols even though he did not see me that well, he waved back. Not because he knew me or anything, but because he was cool. Man that guy is big! I was about 20 feet from him-I wanted to thank him for saving my bacon that night in Atlanta, I told that story to Fox too. Busch Stadium is such an awesome park-and their staff was truly amazing to us Booth Boys.

What a game we saw, we saw as Ryan Ludwick crack 2 homers into Big Mac Land in Left Field, and Pat Burrell cracked a home run that almost hit us in the standing room area we were standing in. Had we known how awesome our seats really were-we would have sat there the whole game-we did sneak in the last few innings. None of us wanted to leave the ball park. We were only a few hundred feet from the Hilton where we were staying. We made the trip out of the park and we headed to Mike Shannon’s for steaks and drinks. My brothers and dad partied as I told them I would drive all the way to Chicago the next morning.

It was a noon start for those guys-and I was going to drop them off at 10 in the morning or so before I made another 6 hours drive to Minnesota. At least I knew the way to Minnesota-as I had done the drive in my cross-country trip with the Cavalier in 2007. We probably didn’t even need the hotel room that night. I felt bad about having to wake these guys up early and after a few hours sleep only. The whole St. Louis to Chicago trip in consecutive trips always carried that time of ballgame. It was really 4 games in 3 ½ days. Those guys all slept, I was in the business center re-arranging the rest of my journey. I had Minnesota the next night, and then a doubleheader match-up on Sunday that would put me at 28 games in 26 days. I then had Toronto on the 4th of August-before the Chicago White Sox was the trip finale on the 5th. My flights had been pre-bought for me to fly out of Texas on 5th because I knew I could always use my mom’s flight pass from Dallas Texas to Toronto on the 4th. She had already informed me that-should I make the double header-which I would have no problem flying into Toronto on her pass on the 4th-and then flying on her pass to Chicago on the 5th.

Again my ticket with American Airlines was flying from Dallas to Toronto on the 5th and from Toronto to Chicago on the 6th. This meant I could use my original flight.

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Monday, May.7/2012

Original Print of the book was June 2011
Book Excerpt writeup By Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth

“This was the first of two visits to PNC Park during streak chases of 2008.  This date was on July.7/2008.  The events that happened right after this games caused me to rest the Guinness Streak on July.08/2008.  A little diversion from a closure in the Lincoln Tunnel heading towards LGA cost me a flight to Dallas.  Hmmm..  I have not had a lot of luck in flying to Dallas have I?”

Game #7 Day #6

PNC Park

Pittsburgh PA

July.07/2008

It was not my first time to see the Pirates play at ‘PNC’, the previous year I watched a doubleheader featuring Barry Bonds last games to be played in Pittsburgh—for awhile I was thought he might pass Hank Aaron for the all time Homer list for the games I was attending. Barry had surpassed Aaron a week earlier but I was still glad to see him in the starting lineup.  Now I was back less than a year later. 

I was ready to rebound from the day before.  I drove 340 miles from my brother’s house in New Jersey—to arrive in Pittsburgh with lots of time to spare. 

I parked in a business building across the “Roberto Clemente Bridge.”  PNC Park is very convenient for parking, as they close off most of the bridges directly nearest to the ballpark.  The park looks immaculate from the bridges and especially in reverse from the park where you can see the bridges. 

Pittsburgh is a blue collar town but it a beautiful city downtown.  The crowd was not bustling that night.  There were 13,223 fans for the game and half that many were there when I arrived.

There may not be a better new ballpark when it comes to respecting the history of their team.  There are statutes for just about any significant member ever associated with Pirates.  There is a great amount of history of the World Series Runs of 1971 and 1979.  The area my ticket was in was the left field bleachers section for a $9 price.  Quite simply it is the best value in the majors considering it is general seating.  You are right on top of the left fielder. 

I made it over to “Greentree Pizza”—located just behind the huge scoreboard.  I was staving so I ordered the large fourteen inch Pepperoni Pizza.  It is made on a light thin crust and is one of the best singular foods in the majors.

Around the park, people were texting each other on their cell phones as the Pittsburgh Pirates display between every inning on their scoreboards.  This is a fun thing to do—and very fan interactive. 

They have two mascots that are running around the empty park.  ‘The Pirate,’ (who will steal your food if you are not looking and/or opposing team ball caps that fans wear) and ‘The Parrot,’ (who is a lot more kid friendly and usually can be found occupying seats in the empty lower bowl.).  I was pleasantly surprised that the ushers were so nice to me when I told them about my record streak.  The lady talked to me for thirty minutes about the ballpark and even asked if I had time for a tour while in the city, she said she could call her boss if I wished.  I politely declined as I had a long drive back to New York City.  It was then I realized I actually needed a quick game.

It was one of the plane fares bought before the trip started and impossible to change because it was too costly.  I would have about six hours to drive back to New York for a five and a half hour drive.  There was not much wiggle room.

One of the coolest things about the PNC Park-is the size of left field center scoreboard.  They play a four minute introduction at the start of the game that shows years of Pirate highlights and it always pumps me up.  Then there is a segment where a cartoon pirate is away at sea with his crew and they come across the opposite team boat. A 3 minute battle ensues with the Pirates crew eventually taking ownership of the other boat.  The pirate laughs and then it is game time. 

 The scenery is beautiful with the backdrop. The big green fence in right-center field has ‘Pirates’ perfectly hedged in shrubs.  The only thing that is kind of weird is you can’t walk in the general area entirely across the outfield sectors.  The seat’s in right field are in the 3rd level and is quite a shot from home plate to hit a  home run.  It is even a better sight at night with the bright lights of all the bridges illuminating the park.  If only the franchise was in better shape.

The food courts are impressive for the limited amount of people attending.  They are quick with the vendors—and have some of the longest serving staff of any in the majors. 

In the left field bleachers there is a sit in restaurant that features live performances out on the patio deck including ‘mariachi band’s’ and groups that sing ‘a cappella.’  There is not much going on downtown directly around the park inside of the bridges that does not pertain to the ball game. 

That night began sunny but soon clouds over giving me the worry of a rain out.  The Houston Astros ran out to a 3-0 lead on a towering homer by Carlos Lee.  The Pirates responded with a 4 run bottom of first. The inning took about forty-minutes and I was in time trouble again.

Fast forward to the 4th inning and it was 10-7 Pittsburgh—and we were already nearing 9:15 PM.  I was sweating the game big time.  If I left about 10:30 PM—I would be in massive trouble.  I had done the drive from Pittsburgh to New York a few times before so I had some confidence to make good time. 

It is a scheduling nightmare the certain Monday and Thursday baseball games on the condensed nights of the MLB when you are chasing this record. 

There were not too many other nights I could see the Pirates playing.  Again I was thinking about the July.9th restart option.

I was happy to see a quick 5th and 6th inning.  The only thing that made me happier then that—was the game went the last 5 innings—only with one hit, and no runs after 17 runs in the 1st four innings. The last 5 innings only elapsed 40 more minutes in time. 

 I thanked the ushers for signing my logbook and ran out of the southwest corner near the ‘Clemente Bridge.’  I was happy at this moment it was Pittsburgh—as the crowd was smaller to navigate back to the highway.  I had 7 hours in order to make it there for an hour before my flight.

I had prepaid the parking fare in the business garage, and was horrified to see the PT Cruiser I had rented the previous week in New York had now been keyed by someone.  I was relieved that I had added the extra insurance to the car rental-which I usually forego however, because of the New York City garage experience the last time I had been to New York—I took the insurance. 

This was still a concern.  The car rental place would certainly want to discuss this.  Just like some other rentals the scratches were not too visible and for a minute I thought they had been there the whole time.  The scratches were on the passenger side so I had not seen that area much in the week.  I pressed on.

I was revving on adrenaline as the time and miles wore away.  I stopped at the edge of NJ State to stop for gas.  All I had to do was go through the Lincoln Tunnel merge onto the ‘FDR’—in order to merge onto the 495-S Long Island Expressway.  It was just after 4:40 AM-when I was headed for the tunnel.

“You have got be friggin kiddin me!!!! I yelled as I approached the tunnel which was closed for construction.  I was at a loss for what was next.  I knew the FDR would take me to the bridge I needed to take over.  I then remembered the “Holland Tunnel” would work.  I starting making way in that direction as panic set in.  It was only starting to become daylight.  At 5:00 AM-I made it to ‘Times Sqaure.’ I then finally made it to the FDR before merging onto the 495—and was on the Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway within reason. 

Then the fun began.  LGA is an airport dropped into a rural neighborhood.  I made it to the airport okay—the problem was the car rental place was up the street.  I arrived into ‘Thrifty Car Rental’ at 5:25 AM-with the flight leaving at six sharp I had a chance at that point. 

I was on the shuttle bus awaiting the driver to leave for the airport which would have taken about 5 minutes—maybe another 10 minutes for early morning security and then I would have 10 minutes to run to the gate.  The shuttle was away.

 “Yes, I am going to make it,” I pronounced—it would be the closest miss yet.  The shuttle driver had informed me that there was not much of a lineup for people traveling without checked baggage.  The sun popped out and all of a sudden I loved New York City.  Despite a small detour, I had overcome it by feeling out my way through it like I did as a courier back home.

A knock on the loading window stopped the shuttle bus smooth–and a grey haired, tall lanky old man with glasses came on the bus and pointed in my direction.  “There is damage to your Cruiser. We need you to fill out an accident report.”

“Sir, I have full insurance and have a plane to catch, there is no time.  I will be back this way next week watching a baseball game at Shea Stadium can I fill it out then?”

“Son, I could get in serious trouble for that.  If you hurry there is another shuttle leaving in 5 minutes.”

I knew if I left the shuttle I would miss my flight.  The only saving grace was that ‘Air Tran Airways’ are nice enough to their travelers—by letting them fly stand by on remaining flights to their original destination should they miss their flight.  It was a stand-by option good for one day only.  I knew there were two more flights to Dallas that day—both had a lengthy stop over in Atlanta.  The first flight arrived in Dallas at 3:30 PM.  I had designated that flight the first time I was going to book the flight.  I then mistakenly thought the drive from Pittsburgh was only 5.5 hours-like it was from my brother’s house to PNC Park.  I had the two confused in my final booking of the flight! 

I opted for the earlier flight because I would arrive in Dallas at 11:00 AM-and could check into the Motel 6 right away to catch up sleep.

 I filled out the accident report and made the next shuttle to LGA. Like I was a possessed addict chasing an addiction I ran to the ticket window at ‘Air Tran’.  It was 5:45 AM.  The system had already shut me out of the flight.  I ran to the window were a mid-40’s gentleman was typing a keyboard and looking at me running at the same time.

“Flight to DFW right?” he questioned, he knew the answer.

“Yeah, I thought that you could print out the tickets up to 10 minutes before?” I answered, somehow gaining a glimmer of hope that he could radio ahead, stop the plane until I got there.  I heard stories growing up of this happening.

“Actually you need to be in the boarding area 10 minutes prior to gates closing-we cut off the boarding passes 20 minutes before sorry.”

“Ah, man.”  I was pissed, I half-wanted to race back to the car rental facility and drag the manager out into the street and beat him to a pulp.  “How does the next flight look to Dallas?”

 “Lemme check that for you.”  The man typed quickly as he could, a man who was late for the same flight I was—came in line to be helped next.  “The flight is oversold and there are 7 people on the waiting list ahead of you.”

If there is one thing I know is waiting for stand-by on flights.  My step-mom had worked in the airline industry for 25 years.  I was able to fly whenever I wanted, wherever I wanted provided there were available seats.  7 seats was a lot for a 9:00 AM Flight.  It would have been different if it was the flight I had just missed.  I had to try it.  New York traffic had swallowed me up that morning, maybe it would swallow up others.  “Print me the pass, I will try.”

“You never know sir you might also get a family that does not want to fly separately. You are a single traveler so you have a better chance than others.”

I grabbed my new boarding pass and headed trough security, and pressed onward to the gate.  There was not much open for breakfast so I was happy to have polished off that huge pizza in Pittsburgh the night before.  I needed to call the airlines to see if I could arrange other travel arrangements to Dallas. 

I searched for the internet at ‘LGA’ which was non-existent at that time.  I called every airline up.  It was going to be $600 or $700.  Day of flight’s prices sky rocket on same day sales.  My plan was simple now.  I would see if I made the next flight before another decision was to be made.  I called Visa in the meantime and I was appalled to see that I had little credit left with all of the pre-authorizations against the car and hotel rentals.  I was awaiting a payment to go through as well.  I had $450 left.   I was stuck.  Not only was I in danger of missing my game in Texas—but my streak reset needed to start over in San Diego the next day.

It was a lost cause at ‘LGA’ and I left the airport at 10:00 AM-by boarding what I thought was a charter bus in between ‘LGA’ and “JFK.” I wanted to be at JFK incase I was stranded-since there were more amenities and late night domestic flights.  At 10:30 AM-the charter bus let me off downtown in Manhattan.

 “Wait a second I purchased a bus-ride all the way to JFK.”  I said to a heavy set German fellow.

“You boarded the wrong bus.”  The man replied.

“No I didn’t.” I was right–the man had forgotten to switch the template on the bus signage based on what I had seen back at ‘LGA’- he had deceived me. 

“I paid for a ticket to JFK, and that is what your sign said.  I know you are going to try and stiff me,” I was being rude back to the rude New York people now, “so why don’t you tell me how I get to JFK, it has been a brutal morning.”

The man radioed a bus a block away, “hold the bus for a minute, I need to drop a passenger for you to take to JFK, I made a mistake, no charges either.”  The man actually smiled and nodded at me.  I was relieved but knew that New Yorkers were good at nearly breaking you and then surprising you with doing the right thing.

I made it to JFK at noon in the hot heat, it was approaching 90F.  I was still not ahead of the game.  Like LGA-JFK did not have internet accessible terminals anywhere.  I was running out of options.  I called my buddy Dan Dion.

Dan Dion and his brother Justin had given me the time off delivering newspapers for the trip.  I had known them both for eight years.  Justin was doing one of my routes for me while I was away.  I had to forfeit the second route because of the timing, but was promised a different route when I returned in August. 

 Dan was in Langley, British Colombia, and was in front of his computer.

“Dude, It’s me, missed my flight to Dallas because of an idiot car rental worker and a bridge closed for construction, I need your help, are you online?”

 “Ya, I am online right how. Where are you?”

 “I am on the Air-Tram at JFK circling the gates and don’t know where to go because I don’t have a plane ticket yet, I need you to go to the site www.kayak.com.”

 “10-4 man.”

 “Man, I am glad you are home.  Okay click on the flights icon and then enter JFK letter into the: ‘from part’-and ‘SAN’ letters in the: ‘to’ part, and don’t forget to make this a one-way flight.”

“How is it in the big crapple?” Dan was laughing and typing at the same time.

“Dude, this is a brutal city sometimes, good thing I always had the reset option, knew I was probably going to need it after that Philly/New York doubleheader miss anyway.”  Some girl left here tote-bag on the seat next to me and I was going to hand it in. 

Some old man freaked out on me saying I was stealing it.  All this was happening while awaiting results.

“Cheapest flight is $545.”

“Not good, okay try LAX from JFK, I need to return there tomorrow night anyway so it will work for a car rental.”  The man scoffed a look of disgust at me again.  If I was not on a good will ambassador tour I would have sworn at him for his ignorance.

A few seconds elapsed, “Dude, I got an American Airlines flight leaving at eight your time arriving at just after eleven in LA-price is $160.”

“That is awesome, book that dude, click on it for me and I will give my credit card number to buy it-and then you can give me the confirmation code, then I will need to hit Budget Car Rental’s site next.”

Dan helped me for the next fifteen minutes and I was now going somewhere again.  I had several hours before the flight to kill.  I was fortunate enough to have the reset option.  The new attempt was still 30-26 days.  I had a grueling stretch of 4 doubleheader attempts in 5 days: SD Padres-Los Angeles Dodgers, followed by a Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Indians attempt; followed by Chicago Cubs/Milwaukee Brewers; then Toronto isolated by itself before a Washington Nationals/New York Mets attempt to hit the all-star break. 

If all were hit all games I would be at 9 games in 5 days, even with the 3 day penalty for the all-star break I would have a chance on the other side of it.  I arrived in LAX without a hitch.

I had just enough credit on my visa to rent the car and I had $150 cash.  I knew there was lots of deposit money coming off by the next night at midnight eastern time.  I had to make it the next 24 hours with the money I had.  There was $30 for parking/probably $20 for gas and $100 left for food and shelter.  I drove to San Diego right away.  I tried the Motel 6-but no there was no vacancy.  I wish I would have known about the hostel downtown then.  I decided to keep all my money.  I had an idea to shower at a ‘YMCA’ in the morning.  Besides I had to spend money on batteries for the digital camera-plus I needed some health and beauty aids. 

 I ate 7-Eleven food for dinner and drove around San Diego for a few hours before resting at a ‘Rite-Aid.’  I slept for a few hours and finally it was open. A homeless man was outside and needed some money bad to eat.   I only had $60 left after the drugstore but decided to give him $5. He was so thankful.  I talked to him about my day in New York City. He informed me that my day was about to change for the better.  After I drove away somehow I finally believed it.

Follow me -@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

I broke my old record of 24 days by being-Fastest to see all 30 MLB parks in 23 days  from April 6th to 28th!

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Monday, May.7/2012

Douglas “Chuck” Booth (Baseball Writer)- I found Ben Wahrle’s website over a year ago.  All of his MLB Park write-ups are highly detailed as you can find on the web.  This young man has a strong future ahead of him in this business.  I recently had a chance to interview Ben about Milwaukee, tailgating and other traditions at Miller Park.”

DB: “Welcome to the MLB Reports Miller Park Expert Interview Ben. Please tell us about yourself and then give us some information on your life as a Brewer fan?” 

BW: “I am 19 years old and currently working as a professional pizza chef at a local pizzeria. I have been to 24/30 current MLB ballparks. My goal is to make to every MLB ballpark. On average I go to 28 games at several different ballparks a year. I am die-hard Brewers fan and have been to every home opener the last 6 years.  I always try to make it to at least 4 Brewer road games.” 

DB: “You have been to many of the MLB teams parks Ben, what is your favorite park outside of Miller Park?”

BW: “Fenway Park- The atmosphere and the surrounding area is like nothing else around in MLB.  The crowd seems like it is into every pitch. As soon as you walk into Fenway Park or Wrigley Field as a baseball fan you admire the history of the park.”

DB : “Talk about what inspired you to create www.benwahrlebaseballparks.com?”

BW: “As I was going to more baseball games I wanted a way to track all the games and ballparks I had been to.   It was also a great way to show my friends, family and the public about each park.  My site has a lot of great detail and stories. It also shows my upcoming trips, and every time I go to a game I keep track of each player’s statistics.”

DB: “Miller Park is on everybody’s short list for the best tailgate ballpark in the MLB,  what can you tell us about these pre-game rituals?”

BW: “It is a party like atmosphere whether it is opening day or the 40th home game of the season.  Everyone enjoys the time with their friends by  grilling out and playing beanie bag toss.”

DB: “What advice would you give for somebody experiencing Miller Park for the very first time?”

BW: “You have to tailgate at least once at Miller Park. Lastly if you go to a “hot” game make sure you buy parking in advance.”

DB: “What is your favorite method of transportation to Miller Park?”

BW: “Miller Park is very easy to get to unlike some parks where you have to take a train, cab or a bus.  Miller Park is right off the interstate, so everyone drives to the park.”

DB: “What is the food like at Miller Park? What is your favorite ballpark food there?”

BW: Over the last couple of years they have done a great job of adding different foods like garlic fries, pasta, and many different kinds of sandwiches.   My favorite ballpark food at Miller Park has to be the loaded nachos or the honey roasted nuts.”

DB: “What is your favorite all time game that you have been in attendance for at Miller Park?”

BW: “Hands down it is the Carlos Zambrano no-hitter vs Astros in 2008. In Houston a hurricane occurred, MLB decided to locate the game to Miller Park.  I remember going to the game and it was supposed to be a home game for the Astros but I would say about 90% were Cubs fans.   This was a home game basically for the Cubs.”  

DB: “Bob Uecker is one of the best radio personalities in the game.  In your own words, how does the city of Milwaukee like him?”

BW: “He is an inspiration to this city, the fans adore him for what he has done.  Over 50 years in the booth is a great accomplishment.”

DB: “With Prince Fielder leaving, the Brewers were lucky that Ryan Braun did not have to miss the 1st 50 games for the PED scandal.  Does this give the Brewers a chance to contend in the NL Central now?

BW: “I think all the facts need to come out first before we decide Ryan Braun guilty. Obviously no one can replace Prince and what he brings to the team day by day.  Aramis Ramirez can make up some of the production.  Ramirez had a terrific year last year hitting .306 with 26 home runs.   This central division is wide open.  The Brewers still have a good rotation in Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf. Also the bats of the NL MVP Ryan Braun, Aramis Ramirez, Corey Hart, and Rickie Weeks.  Even though the Cardinals lost the best player in the game- Albert Pujols , they are getting Adam Wainwright back.   They will have a David Freese for a whole season with Matt Holliday. The Reds are another good team with good pitching.  The starters did not do a good job last year for the Reds.  Acquiring Mat Latos was huge for the Reds this offseason.  The Reds lineup has a lot of depth with Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Scott Rolen, Brandon Phillips, Drew Stubbs.     Overall I still like the Brewers chances of getting back to the postseason.”

***Thank you to our Miller Park Expert- Ben Warhle for participating in today’s article.  If you would like to read more about Ben and his baseball travels click here ***

Filed under: 30 Baseball Park Experts, The Streak Tagged: Adam Wainright, Albert Pujols, aramis ramirez, Astros, Ben Wahrle, benwahrlebaseballparks.com, Bob Uecker, Brandon Phillips, Carlos Zambrano, Chuck Booth, corey hart, David Freese, Fenway Park, Jay Bruce, joey votto, Mat, Mat Latos, Matt Holliday, Milwaukee, prince fielder, Randy Wolf, Richie Weeks, ryan braun, Scott Rolen, Shaun Marcum, Wrigley Park, yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke ]]> http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/miller-park-expert/feed/ 0 5-7-16 chuckbooth3021 5-7-16 5-7-11 5-7-12 5-7-17 a miller park mlb 3-19-5 http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/gabpexpert/ http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/gabpexpert/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 03:35:18 +0000 chuckbooth3023 http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/?p=1370 Continue reading →]]> I broke my old record of 24 days by being-Fastest to see all 30 MLB parks in 23 days  from April 6th to 28th!

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Monday, May.7/2012

To Purchase this Book please click here

Original Print of the book was June 2011
Book Excerpt writeup By Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth

“The Book Excerpt for The Great American Ball Park.  As it turned out I would have been disqualified for a dangerous driving ticket had I kept up with this streak attempt anyway.  During this game it was crazy because a rain delay in my favor saved the day.  It was also when I realized doing interviews might actually impede a streak.”

Game#4 Day#3
Th e Great American Ball Park
Cincinnati, OH
July.04/2008

It felt wrong from the time I made it to the Philadelphia Airport. It was a tough shuttle ride from the parking lot to arrive at a full security checkpoint-even at an early time of a 5:45 AM flight. I had flown out of PHL before-just never the dreaded ‘F’ gate. Th e fact you have to wait in yet another line for a shuttle to the gate is brutal. Th is caused me even more panic. I had to catch that flight to Indianapolis on time to make it to Cincinnati on time. One of the things I learned when booking all of these flights was that Cincy’s Int’l Airport (CVG) completely rips you off for fares to and from its fine city. I was at an all time frustration when I became the last person on the shuttle—and virtually sprinted to the jet-way to make it 2 seconds before they closed the security door for my Us Airways Flight from Philly.

Landing at Indianapolis Airport I knew once again that it was going to be a long day. I first had booked this trip that did not include a record chase—rather I was going to see all 30 Major League Teams—and the 1st 48 States in 45 days. So this date included a matinée game in Cincinnati—then a massive drive to the Alabama border before driving back to Memphis Airport by way of Mississippi State—and by taking the bridge that takes you into West Memphis Arkansas—before taking a u-turn in order to head back to Memphis Airport. This would be a challenge.

I was surprised how fast I received my rental car in Indianapolis—I was to start driving on the highway 74-E. Wouldn’t you know there was a massive traffic accident grid-locking the highway for hours on the 4th of July near Greensburg, Indiana, so for that reason alone I decided to drive up the Hwy-70 —and then onto Hwy 75-South from there as I could make up some time driving the extra distance it would take with the detour. It was going to be challenging but I had done the trip down I-70 two times in the last eighteen months so I was confident in driving that way. I did my radio interview on the road and was making great time on the highway. I was on course to make this game after all. Despite it being a holiday, the roads were not that bad. I know there was probably a faster way to make it to the game-but I knew this way better. The interview lasted ten minutes and I hung up my phone before I started looking for my button on the camera that broke off in the Mall Of America-so much so that I begun swerving on the highway near Eaton, Ohio, then there were police sirens in the background. Good lord!

The officer was a behemoth at well over 6 ft. 5 and weighed over 250 pounds would be my guess. “License and registration please sir?”
I was mad at myself for not waiting till I arrived at the park. It was best to be as polite as I could be-I needed for this to be a quick ticket. I was wearing shorts and a brown rugby shirt with sandals and no socks. I watched the clouds roll in almost simultaneously as being pulled over and it rained hard. The officer came back to the car, “son you need to step into the back of the police vehicle?”
“Wow, officer is that necessary?” At this point I was so tired from the first few days I was oblivious to this being some sort of safety measure.

“No, you are from Canada and I need to take some more details from you and there is no room in the front passenger seat.” Rain was pelting off my hat as I made my way to the police car. I was relieved he knew that I swerved because I was looking for something as opposed to drunk driving or something. “Officer, I am actually driving to Cincinnati for the game as part of a record streak to see all the major league games in the least amount of days, I was stupidly looking for a piece to my camera, that is why I swerved. Is there any way to pay this thing immediately so it can be done faster, I mean I was at fault I know I was wrong?”
“Sir, this will only take a minute,” he replied nicely.
Yeah right, it took 20 minutes. I was behind schedule and hoarding a wreck-less driving ticket worth a couple hundred dollars. I was finished for making first pitch, I hit major traffic coming down the 75-S, and knew I would not make it to Cincinnati until at least after 1:30 PM-and the game was to start at 12:35 PM local time. Back a few hours ago I was singing the praises of driving a ‘Dodge Charger’ with a Satellite Radio. Now I still held hope of maybe the game would be delayed for rain or something. The announcers on the radio had said the weather was okay and they were starting on time. I was still 40 minutes outside the city!
“Were back with opening pitch,” the man said from the radio.
“Well, that just completely blows,” was my response.
I had not even contemplated missing this game. I was going to have to restart the streak on July.9th for my 2nd attempt. I always had that in my back pocket should I need it. I knew this might be the case, it was my belief that it would happen through a collection of double header misses—and not because of traffic and cops. It would serve as another reminder of things not to do in the future—Fourth of July travel. This was always tough when scheduling as Cincinnati had limited home games that month and I needed Atlanta the next day.
The announcer microphone was back on the radio, “well folks, it seems we are going to be delayed for a few hours as we are being ambushed by some rain now and they have put the tarp on the field. The weather reports say it will clear up so tentatively it looks to start about 2 PM.”
“Yeeeeesssss!!!!” I screamed. I still was going to be focused in on getting there. I drove the car nicely through the rest of the drive and parked at the closest spot to the entrance on Pete Rose Way—and ran into the park. I was saved by a rain delay—I never thought I would benefit from such an event. I was good to resume the streak.I met some really nice people in the stands once I walked up to my seats. I ate two hot dogs as fast as I could because I was starving.

I then announced my name and what I was doing—since the game was about to start (and there were no ushers present), I had fellow fans sign my log sheet that I was there for 1st and last pitch. I was happy when Ken Griffey Jr. came up and smashed a ball over the right field fence, causing a fireworks blast from the boat seats. The Great American Ballpark is one of the best parks in the majors for scenery outside the yard. You get a close personal view of the Ohio River. The park also features the ‘Cincinnati Reds Hall Of Fame” that is directly adjacent to the park—great place to check out the 1st Major League Baseball Club. Particularly if you are a Pete Rose fan, you have to visit this Museum. Pete Rose is nowhere to be found at Great American because of his lifetime ban—but his career is nicely chronicled inside the doors of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. The concourses at Great American are spacious, clean and the workers there off er the nicest hospitality. There is not a bad seat in the place. Cincinnati’s fans are amongst the smartest in baseball and have been faithful to the team’s struggles of late.

I was fortunate to sit in the right field bleachers during my first visit and watched Ken Griffey Jr. talk to all the fans throughout the game. They have 3 mascots still in use that walk the field in:‘Gapper,’ ‘Mr. Redlegs’ and of course ‘Rosie Red,’ a truly great experience for the kids. The fireworks display on Friday nights in the summer are incredible against the back drop of the Ohio River. I was happy to have the game end in 2 hours and 20 Minutes in real length— and nearly four hours with the rain delay to start the game. Th e Reds won 3-0 behind a brilliant pitching job of Bronson Arroyo. After the game I was treated to a drive of a lifetime, and while I never made it to the State of Mississippi because of rainy weather and time concerns——I highly endorse taking a long drive south through the State of Tennessee on the Fourth of July. I watched four straight hours of fireworks as I drove south past the city of Nashville, and all the way to the Alabama border.

It was an eleven hour drive I accomplished before driving the car rental back to Memphis Airport. It was so dark when I returned the car rental I left my camera in the car by accident. I actually phoned ‘National Car Rental’ from the airplane, and they made arrangements to send the camera FED-EX to my brother’s house that very day. It would be there when I returned the following day. I had escaped a major travel day of adjustments. It was only three days into the trip and I loved the constant adrenaline rush. I routinely called my family and friends back West-from the Eastern
Cities-in order to get revved up for the games. So I wouldn’t miss flights, or over sleep alarms, I had many friends text me or call me as a precaution. I was fortunate to have friends from newspapers that are up at all hours in the night—to have helped me with this. I boarded a Memphis plane onward to Atlanta for my first visit to Turner Field.

“This was the 1st doubleheader attempt I did for my 1st streak attempt.  A week later I would have to restart my streak attempt, but at the time of the game it was a great way to start my career as a Guinness Chaser” -Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth

  Game#2 Day#1

    US Cellular Field

                                                                                Chicago, IL

                                                                               July.02/2008

I had a tip from my brother Trent early on in the planning stages, that the United States airline companies often ‘sand-bag’ their flying times to destinations to take jet-way delays into consideration.  More often than not, the airlines are able to beat the scheduled arrival time by many minutes.  I actually used a tool on the internet called ‘Flight Tracker’ to watch the very flight I was on to see if this was a correct statement.  I watched this exact flight land 4 weeks in a row, all approximately 15 minutes earlier then the 6:32 PM time it was supposed to arrive on that day.  That day I was not as lucky.  It was after all a ‘Chicago Airport.’  Still at a 6:30 PM arrival-I had about 40 minutes to first pitch.  I had called in a sedan service to pick me up from ‘MIDWAY’.

True to their word, there was a young guy in his twenties waiting for me in the arrival gate and he escorted me through to the limo stand at a running pace.  I saw it had started to rain and weather was something I would always keep my eye on during transportation throughout the trip.

Midway Airport is 9 miles from the airport to the ballpark in heavy Chicago ‘traffic.’  The trip was said to be around 15 minutes on the map, but I knew that would be doubled with the traffic on the ‘55 Highway,’ and it being game day.  The driver was fast and weaved his way through the rain.  We arrived at the ballpark in thirty minutes.  It was 7:03 PM.  The limo driver turned on the radio a few minutes before arriving to listen to the pre-game show.  I heard the broadcasters say there would be a rain delay to start the game

 Was this good or bad news?  The forecast did not look good, it was supposed to rain all night.  This led me to another rule set forth by the “GWR”. 

 There was an inherent risk to any game I went to.  Since the rule states I can not go the parks twice during the same streak, what if there was a rain delay midway through the game and they called it?  I read the rules again.  I had them stuffed in my coat.  It says I could not go back to the ballpark again-(during that given streak) in case of a rain out if I watched one pitch.  Now if it were to be suspended for any reason, I could complete the game whenever it was resumed.  But this posed problems because they would have to have resumed it after the last game of the streak for it to count for me.  This meaning under the current attempt my last game was to be on the 27th of July.  I would have needed this game, (should it be suspended) to be resumed on exactly Monday July.28.  I already had the previous nights game in the bag and could retroactive the streak to it if I wanted.  This would mean the streak would become a 30-27 attempt instead of a 30-26 attempt—but I would not have to worry about the weather.

I did have a chance to re-schedule a Chicago White Sox game on the 18th of July. To give myself that option, that was why I was flying to ….Indianapolis…. on the 4th of July morning.  I could drive to Cincinnati—the original scheduled game, or drive to St. Louis instead—in case of switching Chicago White Sox to the 18th 2 weeks later.  All I had to do was switch a flight to Cincinnati for the 27th and move Boston back a day to the 28th.  My flight on the 18th was a 2-parter.  I flew from Denver, Colorado in the morning, and then had a flight from Chicago to St. Louis scheduled—with a layover in Cincinnati.  This gave me all three cities with an available game on that date for me to see. 

I knew this upon reaching US Cellular Field on that July.2nd game.  I decided to walk into the rain delay in Chicago.  By doing this I needed them to play an ‘official game once the 1st pitch was thrown or this streak was dead in the water!  I only ever wanted to use the July.1st game in Chicago in case I missed my flight in from Minnesota. 

 From the moment I walked into US Cellular the rain let up.  I was sitting in the 500 level, so there is a nice long elevator to take up to that level.  Much like the ‘Metrodome,’ you are stuck to the level the ticket says you are at.  This bugged me almost as much as the 21 dollars shelled out for what is the equivalent of a ‘nose-bleed’ seat. 

 I also remember the year before when I brought my wife, when we paid 22 dollars for parking, yikes!  Chicago is not a very value priced ticket.  They do have great hot-dogs though.

 Outside the park, there are many street vendors that carry tones of paraphernalia.  There are various bands playing outside the stadium usually before the games—which is a nice feature you don’t often see at ballparks. 

 The White Sox also pay good homage to their heroes of yesteryear.  There are many bricks, pillars and statues of greats like; Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines, Frank Thomas, Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Inside the park is very similar to the Indians ‘Progressive Field.’  It was also built around the same time as Orioles Park at Camden Yards, and the above stated Jacobs Field as it used to be called.

During the game, the scoreboard in Centerfield will shoot fireworks through 7 candy-cane style colored pillars—on top of the big scoreboard—and the pillars illuminate to their painted colors.  It is a nice spectacle. 

 In addition to that scoreboard, there is another scoreboard under the main one—near the grassy back drop in center field.  This scoreboard is used for player stats.  In left center field is the official score-line scoreboard. 

As it goes for the stadiums, The ‘Cel’ is probably the best to see what the score is from any angle in the crowd.

The concourse in the outfield is designed so that you can walk around freely.  I like the stadium as the top half in the league, but the value for the overall experience is suffered by anyone who wants to drive to the park.

The previous night I learned the ‘CTA’ (Chicago Transit Authority) schedule very well.  After the game that night I was going to take the ‘Red Line’ sub headed towards Howard, to head back towards downtown Chicago, were I was going to go back to the hostel, have a quick snooze and hop on the ‘Blue Line Train that would take me from Jackson and State Road all the way to O’Hare Airport.  Once I learned these subways I decided never to drive in Chicago again if possible.

The game started at 7:35 PM, and the clouds had subsided for the time being.  It is never fun to sit in a seat after it has been rained on.  The smart ushers—(I have seen Cincinnati and San Diego ushers do this) carry towels and dry off your seats as they escort you from the concourse.  Most of the parks ushers are not even adept in walking you to your seat as a sign of good service.

I thought I was in the clear at this point from any future weather that night, boy was I wrong.  Let’s get back to the game first.

The White Sox took a 5-4 lead into the top of the Ninth.  That is when the rains started to come down in a hailstorm.  I could not take the constant pelting and went into the 500 level Concourse with a bunch of other Chicago Fans.  Since it was wet, I was worried about picture/video recorder being affected.  On a TV, I watched in dismay as Grady Sizemore hit a solo homer of Scott Linebrink to tie the game at 5.  The rain came down even harder.  I was petrified the umpires were going to call a rain delay—or even worse to suspend it outright.  All of a sudden my decision a few hours earlier could have come back to haunt me.  All I heard about the last 48 hours had been the upcoming rain.  Man I was sweating it out.  After all the planning and leg work for the trip, it could all come to a halt in the first attempt on the very first day! 

I would have to start again the next day at zero.  Yes there was a contingency plan to it, but because of a limited home schedule in Minnesota for the coming weeks, it would be easier to re-schedule the attempt for a July.09 start.  Houston was even worse for re-scheduling the next day. With the 4 double-headers in 5 days to start off with beginning July 9th, I would be able to shoot for a 30-26 chance again. It was finish this game right now or I would restart the next week. I was worried.

The Minnesota-Chicago doubleheader is not what most people would think for doubleheader chances.  I would be really disappointed if it was stalled because of a suspended game.  The round trip plane ticket to and from Chicago was one of the higher plane fares at about three hundred dollars round-trip.  The sedan service ran about 70 dollars.  You add in the car rental in Chicago the previous day, and two days at the hostel—and it would mean about 500 dollars spent on the first day without any games to show for it should the game be called now.

The bottom of the ninth was scoreless.  More rain came down…..

The top of the tenth proved to be awful viewing in watching the hitters try to locate the ball even to swing. 

 I umpired for ten years growing up. I was convinced they were going to call the game.  There was no end to the rain in sight or forecast.

 A.J Pierzynski then came up to bat in the bottom of the 10th.  I was pacing around the walkway to the 521 section.  I decided to stomach a few glances at the field from the outside again.  I had been up since 3 AM at that point.  The Cleveland Indians pitcher Kobayashi leaned back and fired a fastball—A.J cranked a ‘thunderous’ shot headed into the night towards left field.  I never even saw the ball land in the stands, but when the fireworks shot off from the scoreboard the place went ballistic.  The White Sox fans I had been watching the game with, burst outside of the Concourse—and all of them were high-fiving each other and I joined them.  I was just as happy as they were—albeit for an entirely different reason—I had completed 2 games in my first day! A.J Pierzynski will be favorably remembered because of that walk-off homer.

The hour and a half it took for me to catch a train back to the Hostel did not bother me in the pouring rain.  I had my camera tucked into my pocket deep with my verification of proof I had been there.

Filed under: 30 Baseball Park Experts, The Streak Tagged: aj pierzynksi, Chicago, Chuck Booth, Cincinnati, CTA, Fastest 30 Ballgames, frank thomas, grady sizemore, harold baines, Houston, indianapolis, luis apracio, Metrodome, midway airport, Minnesota, nellie fox, O 'Hare airport, San diego, scott linebrink, St. Louis, US Cellular Field ]]> http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/uscellularexpert/feed/ 0 chuckbooth3021 11-33-1 http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/ http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/parks-25-30/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 13:11:56 +0000 chuckbooth3023 http://fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/?p=1320 Continue reading →]]> The Streak ended at 30 MLB Parks in 23 calendar days!!

I broke my old record of 24 days by being-Fastest to see all 30 MLB parks in 23 days  from April 6th to 28th!

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Friday May.4/2012

MLB Park # 25 Day # 20

COL 2 @ PIT 1

April.25/2012

PNC PARK

Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth (Baseball Writer)- My stay in Tampa Bay was a nice one the night before(despite having to commandeering a neighboring hotel just to do some laundry at midnight.)  I was too fired up to sleep and there was no chance at all I would risk sleeping in on this day.  I had known for a while that this was going to be an epic day.  Since the fallout of the missed doubleheader for Cleveland and Baltimore was first established on that San Diego flight, I looked forward to this day thoroughly.

The plan was put together the previous week.  Once the Cleveland Indians had invited myself and 3 others to their baseball suite, I made some magic fly.  Lori Martini flew into Pittsburgh with me via a connector flight in Baltimore on Southwest Airlines.  I had not seen Lori since the Boston Red Sox game on Patriots Day.  We boarded the flight to Pittsburgh and kept reviewing the plan of the impending doubleheader.

When we landed in Pittsburgh, Ken Lee was waiting for us and we made it PNC Park with plenty of time to park and buy tickets.  Lori and I walked the whole concourse and saw all this beautiful park had to offer.  Amongst the only few drawbacks n the park,  was that the really need to give the place a fresh coat of paint and repair the weather-beaten scoreboard.  On the menu for the morning were Buffalo Wings and pizza from Diamond(the pizzeria directly in the left field stands.)  The Pepperoni pizza was a pretty good deal in being an 18 inch pie for $21.  The Buffalo Wings from Steak and Lube were satisfactory.

The seats we had are one of the better valued price tickets in the Major Leagues.  Left Field bleacher tickets for $13 each.  It is General Admission seating so there were plenty of seats.  Even with the extra 30% added for this being considered a Premium game(don’t get Lori Martini started on this rant-lol) the value was still good.  The game was going at an incredible clip.  James McDonald was throwing a no-hitter through the first 5 innings. He was the same guy who broke up Matt Cain‘s potential perfect game the week before.  During the entire streak, I had a pitcher do this about 12 out of the 30 games I witnessed.  It was not to be.  Colorado tied the game up in the 8th inning to throw a quick wrench into our plans.

I can explain the adrenalin phenomenon to people as much as I like for these doubleheader scenarios, unless it actually comes to fruition during the game, then people just don’t have a clue.  Ken Lee was already waiting in the parking spot just across the street waiting for Lori and I to come sprinting out once the game was over.   Lori and I started pacing near the home plate exits.  It was all too familiar for me.  Without any doubt, an extra inning game with a lengthy time period would be devastating.  We were to be special guests of the Cleveland Indians and I didn’t want that to be compromised in any fashion.

While Ken and Lori could have gone into the game at Progressive after the 1st pitch was thrown, I might have had to listen to it in the car.  This also meant only tying the record.  Stressful situations were playing out in my mind.  Lori was just as stressed as me, that is why we never noticed that Colorado actually took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  We cheered for the visitors so vehemently that we drew the ire of some of the Pittsburgh fans.  We bolted out of there when the last pitch was thrown.  We were on easy street to make 1st pitch.

MLB Park # 26 Day # 20

KC 8 @ CLE 2

April.25/2012

Progressive Field

If ever there was a game on the field that secondary to what was going on in the park, it was this game.  Ken Lee, Lori Martini and I headed up to the Indians Social Suite to meet up with Anne Keegan. It was nice to put a face to a name that we had been communicating with.  Within 2 minutes of meeting her, we can see why everyone that has ever met her completely raves about her attitude.  She was so accommodating as a host.  Anne talked with each of us individually in order to have our stories down straight.  She had said that there would be a special guest coming into the suite soon after the game started.  After we all ate in the Press Room next door, (which was an incredible assortment of food) the game started.  There were about 7 other guests in the suite with us.  The Indians pride themselves on this new social media suite.  The place is reserved for special fans that are contributing to the game in a positive manner.  They encourage using Facebook and Twitter in the suite and to follow some of the Cleveland Indians players and front office.  In my opinion, all of the MLB teams should adopt the blue print set forth by this forward thinking organization.  About 20 minutes after the game started in walked the guest.  It took me about 2 seconds flat to realize that it was  Indians team president Mark Shapiro.

The man could not have been any cooler.  Mark knew my record streak, all about the games and the days and was genuine in wishing me the best to beat the record.  I was in awe of how down to earth he was.  I stood there engaged in conversation for a lengthy one on one chat with former General Manager.  Soon I introduced Mr. Shapiro to Lori Martini and watched as he further demonstrated all his insights on her resume as a ballpark chaser.  Right in the social media suite was now Miss Martini’s bobblehead doll from her short film ‘Caught’.  Lori had already sent a press kit to all Major League Baseball teams and their affiliates at the end of March of who her and I were.  That I was doing the streak this year and Lori is going for the women’s record in 2013.  The  Indians soon made the connection when we started emailing who was going to be with me for the trip.  Not only did we get our picture taken with Mark Shapiro, we all talked to him for an inning.  To this date the Team President has retweeted several of my posts and I am thankful each time. I am hoping to meet Mark Shapiro again one day and talk more baseball and about all of the parks.

After Mr. Shapiro left, Matthew Van Wormer interviewed Lori and I from “DidtheTribeWinLastNight.com.”  It was an interview that talked about the new term of ‘ballpark chasers’ and what our trips all mean in the grand scheme of things.  Lori was able to explain that this kind of trip should be made into a webseries on TV-and that we are just the people to do it next year.  You can read the article here. The night was still not over.  The Cleveland Indians also had Lori and I do a video interview that will be displayed on their website shortly.  By the time this all ended the game was becoming a runaway for the Kansas City Royals over the Cleveland Indians.  The Final score of 8-2 flattered the Indians.  Ken Lee, Lori Martini and I left this facility having a higher regard for the ball club and its PR Department.  This new-found information propels the Park into the top 15 of all MLB Parks now.  If this is the kind of staff that are running the whole park then the team just needs to be competitive again before all of the people come back.  The fans all need to know how much this staff cares about them,  I would work for these people in a heartbeat and I am a Yankees fan!  There was a minor scare at Cleveland airport that I will talk about in the book version of the trip.  I do not want to take any positivity away from this exceptional night at the park.

MLB Park # 27 Day # 21

SF 6 @ CIN 5

April.26/2012

Great American Ball Park

As the picture can show you I was tired.  The previous night in Cleveland had been such an upper.  By the time Ken Lee and I left the Cleveland area it was well after 5:30 AM in the morning.  We hauled down the highways of 71-75 and 70 to arrive at the Great American Ballpark for 10:30 AM.  We were both tired and had a tough time getting geared up for this game.  Technically, we were not seeing the game together as Ken drove onwards to Chicago right away.  I needed him to pick me up from the ORD Airport.  Initially I was supposed to head up to the CVG Airport for a rental car but it was not going to work out due to weird circumstances (yet another post-mortem deal that will be explained in a book somewhere.)

In a trip that has all happened for a reason, I was let out of the car right in front of the cab area after the game.  I asked a couple of vendors if the area where the cabs all sit and they replied ‘yes.’  I needed a fast getaway.  At the very least, I was without a bunch of luggage and traveling light.  The game featured Ryan Vogelsong vs Homer Bailey for the Reds.  I was watching the entire festivities from the 3rd base concourse.  I met up with a couple of locals.  They used me as a person to get a secondary beer since I don’t drink.  Apparently the new rule around baseball is that your are only allowed to get one drink per id in the parks.  This must have been mandated out of New York.

I really like the park at the Great American Ball Park.  The Ohio River is an incredible backdrop.  This is the 1st franchise ever in MLB.  Absent from the park is #14 Pete Rose, the lifetime ban also includes no mention of the player in the park and his number is not retired on the wall.  If you go to the Cincinnati Hall of Fame across the street you will see much homage to the ‘Big Red Machine.’ Highlighted by the museum are 4192 baseballs cascading throughout the 5 stories of the place.  These baseballs are not all of the baseballs he hit naturally, it is simply to show you how many hits that he punched out in a marvelous career.  The Cincinnati fans are ready for a winner and the park exemplifies this.  With Albert Pujols moving to the American League, this should even out the playing field for the Reds.

Fast forward to the top of the ninth, the Giants were trailing 5-3 on homers by Scott Rolen and Jay Bruce.  Homer Bailey had come up with a quality start for the Reds scattering 3 runs.  The Giants worked the 1st two batters on baseball and made me panic.  At worst though I have an advantage.  As long as the visitors take the lead outright or lose when trailing then I am okay.  The only result that cuts like a knife is an outright.  Angel Pagan had me cheering with a 3 run home run to take the lead 6-5.  How quickly the pendulum can swing, I was now cheering for the SF Giants to close the game out with their closer.  The game was nearing the 3 hour mark.  I am so happy that the Reds schedule their day matinée’s at 12:35 PM.  Realistically, I would be okay until the 4 PM area.  It should only have been around a 20 minute ride to the airport.  I never was in doubt the game would end quick.  I raced out to the cab 19 seconds after the game ended.  Ken Lee told me he was in gridlock traffic 100 miles out of Chicago.  This party was just started, I would have to worry about everything in Chicago.

MLB Park # 28 Day # 21

BOS 10 @ CWS 3

April.26/2012

US Cellular Field

The picture says it all.  I made 1st pitch of Game #28.  It would be the last doubleheader of the trip and I executed on 7 out of the 9 days.  In the four attempts all time, I closed out 25 doubleheader opportunities with 19 converted doubleheaders or 76%,  7 out of the 9 doubleheaders this year is 77.7% conversion rate, so it was within the average numbers.  Ken Lee gets full credit for waiting out a huge car-transportation truck fire in which 10 luxury cars blew up in a fire wreaking havoc on traffic.  Ken made it to ORD by 5:45.  We were still looking to be in some trouble.  At 26 miles out from the yard, we had log-jammed traffic.  Enter GPS Navigation System.  Ken bought a brand new GPS system in Minnesota the week before. It served us well traveling in and out of the rural areas.  When we were fully back onto highway 90/94 again Ken and I decided to gun for it.  GPS wanted to steer us out by the rural area gain.  We didn’t listen to her and made it to the park with 20 minutes to spare.

It was so cold in the game I had a tough time keeping warm.  US Cellular Field is going to plummet down the rankings of the parks.  Strike 1: Tickets at their facility are $25 at the cheapest, which is the same as the price of parking.  Strike 2: You are pigeon-holed into your designated ticket area, meaning if you want to see all of the park you must buy a field level ticket for the price of about $50.  Strike 3: for Us Cellular Field is that the warmest place during a cold night is the friggin mens washroom.  How about hot zones in the concourses fellas! Your park goes in to the bottom third of the league.  The game was a snoozefest and the yada, yada yada, the Red Sox won.  At least Ken Lee was happy because he is a big fan.

 MLB Park # 29 Day # 22

MIL 1 @ STL 13

April.27/2012

Busch Stadium

Nobody was watching the forecast more in the month of April than me. Ken Lee and I had stayed at a cheap motel in Monee IL after the successful doubleheader attempts two days in a row.  Halfway into the drive to Cincinnati the day before Lori Martini called me to tell me that she had my driver’s license because the Best Western we all stayed in Cleveland, had failed to return it to me when checking in or out.  I know I should have been more careful.  Thank goodness that Lori checked out 4 hours later than Ken and me.  I was able to organize a one-way rental for Lori from Cleveland to LGA at National Car Rental.  She got to drive a DODGE CHARGER all the way back to New York City for $10.  Ken and I were still in our rental car that we both chipped in for from ORD.  Now I am telling everyone this as to show what we were up against in the next 29-32 hours here.

The Game at  Busch looked like weather was going to play a factor. Ken Lee drove the 5 hours to St. Louis from Monee IL.  The next days drive was going to be 14 hours from St. Louis to Baltimore.  Ken would try to get 2 hours of sleep before the game.  Ken and I arrived at Caleco’s downtown at 4 PM.  Ken was more nervous about the weather than even me.  I honestly try not to worry about anything unless it is happening right in the timeline of the game.  At one point we were discussing all plausible scenario in the event of a rain out.  Ken and I ate our lunch and then found a great parking spot right next to the gate we were walking into.  Ken was battling fatigue. I too usually run into a few walls after about 8-10 on the road.  Ken was experiencing this.  He did not need to see every out like me so I told him to pick up his 4 1/2 innings before retreating to the car.  Ken texted me I may have to do some driving.  I agreed to do this before so I was cool with it.  Actually having 7 hours of straight sleep the previous night boded well for me.

The sun prevailed before I entered Busch and the threat of rain was non-existent.  I really like the St. Louis Cardinals this year even with out Albert Pujols.  Yadier Molina is one of the best hitting catchers, David Freeze is one of the better hitters in the NL if he can stay healthy at all, Matt Holiday is a solid hitter.  You add the usual cast of characters with solid pitching and you will see these guys compete for the NL Central crown this year.  The Milwaukee Brewers replaced Prince Fielder‘s contract with the signing Aramis Ramirez for third base.  The problem is that Ramirez only seems to hit in the second half.  A couple of players like Corey Hart and Nyjer Morgan had productive and timely hitting seasons last year.  I am not sure Nyjer Morgan will have an average near.300 and with less protection, Corey Hart may not duplicate his strong offensive out put.  Hart to his credit, has started out with decently.  The Brewers had no fight in this game as they lost 13-1.  I only had one game left to see.  I took the driver’s side door and we left the city of St. Louis.  All that stood in the way of the record was some weather and a 14 hour drive.

MLB Park # 30 Day # 23

OAK 1 @ BAL 10

April.28/2012

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

 Douglas “Chuck” Booth (Baseball Writer)- The game had wrapped up in Busch Stadium for what was game #29.  My wing-man Ken Lee, had done some great driving work to help me with 2 straight double-header even before heading to St. Louis.  As we left the city on I-70, I took on the duties of driving.  Ken had exhausted himself in the process of helping me.  I started the 1^st 8 hours of driving towards Baltimore.  This would be park number 30 in only 23 days.  For me I knew this would mean another world record.  In the back of my mind it was a long time between cities so I was gearing up to face the challenge.  I was rested up as much as I had been in several weeks.  The driving was actually a nice change from being a passenger.

I have driven the same stretch of highway several times in my life.  I was thinking about the entire trip thus far and how it had tested both of my mental and physical fortitude like no other trip in my life ever had.  I was earning this last game with an 840 mile car ride.  Ken and I switched seats after a hearty breakfast at a Waffle House right outside of Columbus Ohio.  We were monitoring the weather report for Camden Yards through Ken’s phone.  It looked more and more like rain was to play a factor at the park.  I had been so lucky up to this point of the trip, because only 4 games out of the 29 games had come under rain alert and 2 of those parks had dome’s(TOR and SEA).

Ken Lee and I made it to Camden Yards at 5:20 PM and we were immediately greeted with a monsoon of rain.  We were soon joined by Lori Martini and Roger Ratzenberger.  We all watched the pregame ceremony that honored the Baltimore Orioles greats of Earl Weaver, Eddie Murray and the guest of honor: ‘Frank Robinson.’  The clouds still persisted on and rain flooded down on us.  At times I was becoming a little unnerved by it all.  A rain out would be devastating.  It meant I could only tie my Guinness Book of World Record.  Or….  If the game had started and then was suspended, I would be disqualified if there was not a final.  The only way I could avoid this was if they resumed the exact game the next day and even that would mean I just would tie the record.

The game started under crazy rain.  Thank goodness that Ken Lee had received a free umbrella as a giveaway promotion at Target Field, otherwise we would have all been soaked.  Lori and I had purchased food from the restaurant closest to the Warehouse building.  I ate a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with bacon and fries,  while Lori ate a crab cake sandwich.   Roger and Ken both made purchases from Boog’s Barbecue pit in right center, with Ken eating a Turkey Sandwich and Roger buying a double meat BBQ pork sandwich.  Our seats were in the 1^st row of section 96. 

I love the national anthem at Camden Yards because the crowd yells ‘O’ when the song goes, ‘o say’.  It was really nice to see 26000 fans at this park.  If the Baltimore Orioles maintain their early start-then the fans should come back to this beautiful baseball cathedral.   The pitching matchup was not a good one with Tyson Ross of the A’s hurling against Wie-Yin Chen of the Orioles.  The 1^st few innings were just painful to watch because of the rain and slow pitching.  All I needed was the game to hit the bottom of the 5^th inning with the Baltimore Orioles winning and the record was mine.  Baltimore amassed a 6-0 lead heading into the 4^th inning for which I was very happy.  I keep telling for all to hear, that a home team win saves about 10-12 minutes because they don’t have to hit in the bottom portion of the inning when the game is over.

The rain finally let up in the middle innings and we all started to breathe a little easier.  Once the bottom of the 5^th hit people were texting me and tweeting me congratulations.  I was happy for this but Baltimore was leading 6-0 at the time.  As funny as it seems, the game was not entirely over. If the A’s scored 6 runs to tie the game before a postponement, the game would go down as a no-contest and thus I would be disqualified from my streak. I had a similar occurrence to this is 2008. Flashback: (I was watching a game at US Cellular in my second game of the trip when the Sox blew a 9^th inning lead and the game was tied at 5-5.  The rains came down with a feverish ferocity.  If I was an umpire, I would have called for a delay.  I couldn’t watch or listen as the Sox batted in the bottom of the 10^th.  Enter A.J Pierzynski to the game.  He swung at the 1^st pitch offered and crushed a thunderous blast into the mezzanine at US Cellular Field to end the game.  It was a scene out of a movie.  I never saw where the ball landed but the crowd went beserk while my streak was preserved,) but let’s get back to this game though.

There was not much else that would stop me and the game ended with an Orioles 10-1 win.  I beat my old record of 2009 by 1 day.  I saw a MLB game in each of the 30 MLB Parks(for every single pitch of each contest) in only 23 calendar days from April.6^th to April.28^th.   I have traveled 55000 miles in the air and about 10000 miles on the ground by car, train, bus, Subway, Taxi’s and walking.  I endured 3 mechanical plane delays that cost me a chance to attempt 3 more double-headers, but that it the way it goes.  I told most people, I thought I would bring in a 30-23 attempt anyway.  This is a record I think that will never be broken.  This schedule was unique this year in that more clubs scheduled matinee’s because the season ends on October 3^rd and the clubs all like to give themselves every chance to complete a game should there be a delay.  I have looked at the MLB schedule for 4 straight years and never even an attempt that bested 30-23.

While chasing down this record, it was my goal to prove to Major League Baseball that the best marketing tool they have is watching games live in person.  I wanted to show them that by going to all of the parks and using Social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, that I could create a buzz.  Yes, it also helps that I write for this website here.  That is why I can’t thank Jonathan Hacohen enough for his fandom of baseball.  Jonathan and I first met when I was interacting with last year’s MLB Fancave guys Mike O’ Hara and Ryan Wagner.  I sent him a copy of my novel chronicling the last streak I went on in 2009. From there, he wrote a great review for it and a follow-up interview.  I then wrote a guest article for the World Series and then by January, I was writing full articles on a weekly basis. At the end of January,  floated the notion to him that I was thinking about another record trip.  I explained to him that I wanted to do a 93 article series with previews, expert interviews and post-game write-ups for each park.  He was game for the coverage.  I finally met Jonathan in Toronto for a game.  His passion for the game is unlike any other I have seen.  I am happy to be writing for this website because Jonathan embraces fandom like his.  We are pleased to say that we will be chronicling baseball journeys with a dedicated page always at the Reports.

So from the time I bought my first tickets and plane fares on February.26 until now,  it has been an incredible ride.  A lot of people thought I was crazy in going for this record again, and for this I understand.  I was lucky enough to have some help from Southwest Airlines, National Car Rental, Best Western Hotels and Air Tran Airways.  These four companies are simply the best travel companies in the country and their dedication to customer service is a big reason why I was able to pull this off.  Southwest not having bag fees or change of flight fees saved my life when I had to change 5 game dates and flights during a hard travel night in San Diego.  It was a night where I had to think fast on my feet and my rescheduled plan worked out perfectly.

Now it is time to thank the people who helped me.  It is a countless amount of ballpark chasers around the country.  I will start with the chasers that attended games with me.  Ken Lee went to 9 games with me and was my driver for the last third of the trip.  Bob Devries was with me for 3 games. Roger Ratzenberger was with me for 2 games including the finale.  Ben Fallon, The Salter Family and the Narry Families were with me for games in San Francisco and Detroit.  I visited with Meg Minard in Colorado and Doug Miller joined Ken Lee and I in Seattle.  I also met RJ Breisacher in New York for the Yankees game and he was able to pass along the news of how awesome the Cleveland Indians franchise was in hosting him and celebrating his own baseball journey.  I also met Steve Fekete in Angel Stadium, who was not only there with me until last pitch in LA but called me to alert of a traffic jam at near midnight when I was driving back from San Diego for an over night flight from Los Angeles.  Had Steve not phoned me with this information I would have missed this flight to Dallas that night.

Then there is Lori Martini.  This incredible baseball fan really brought my level of enthusiasm up for this streak like no one ever has!  Lori has been to 41 MLB Parks in history (including all 30 current MLB Parks and 11 defunct parks).  I had asked her in 2009 to be part of my featured profiles for my baseball book that came out last year. Inever knew her last name or information so it wasn’t to be but ironically enough, she replied to that message I left her on the same day the novel went live in 2011.  Last June we sent a few messages back and forth and agreed that it would be awesome to meetup in Miami for a game when her Mets were to first visit New Marlins Ball Park.  We thought that a meeting amongst some of the most extreme ballpark chasers would be a good way to really nail down a review of the new park.  (Lori has since written a review of the New Marlins Ball Park that is amongst the highest viewed online and can be found here)

 Lori sent me a message this last February that she would be unable to attend the Mets game in Florida because her short film ‘CAUGHT’ was playing in the Women’s International Film Festival in late March.  She would be attending an exhibition game during that weekend.  I sent her back a message explaining I was probably going to have to cancel because of my streak pursuit.  Lori was so fired up about the prospect of my streak that she fully had me pumped to finally pull the trigger 100% on the trip and make it epic.  As I continued to relay messages back and forth with this lifetime Mets Fan (funny because I love the Yankees), I realized Lori was adamant about wanting to do this streak herself one day and set the record for Females.  I told her about the parameters of such a streak chase and what it entailed.  From that point forward it has been an incredible wave of sharing baseball knowledge and working as a team on my trip, with a look forward to Lori’s impending trip in 2013. 

Since March.15, Lori and I have been on a media blitz.  We first were interviewed as top ballpark chasers by the Miami Herald Newspaper.  Since then, we have done countless interviews for the streak in the form of Radio, TV, Newspaper, Podcast and blogging networks.  Lori has been on a roll with her music and film career as well in addition to finally receiving recognition as the top ‘Female Ball Park Chaser’ of all-time.  Lori attended 7 ballparks with me on this journey.  She was part of two successful doubleheader attempts.  I say that she had brought ‘lady luck’ to this attempt.  It was a good demo sample for her to see the entire scope of what one of these trips brings forth.  Lori has since joined this website as a writer and we are fortunate to have her.  She is pretty, smart, witty and is the most talented person I have ever met.

So to Lori Martini I write: “I simply can’t thank you enough for your dedication in helping me achieve my dreams once again.  Your exuberance, energy and loyalty through this entire process helped keep me level, focused and striving towards my goal.  You are the only one that I have ever met that has chased their-own dreams with as much determination (or more than me.)  With my trip being officially over now, I now pass the torch over to you for your baseball record attempt in the summer of 2013.  Just like you were there for me for this trip in 2012, I will be there for you in 2013, sharing my wisdom and expertise with this category so that you can finally see the recognition you deserve!

I broke my old record of 24 days by being-Fastest to see all 30 MLB parks in 23 days  from April 6th to 28th!

Sked is here: fastestthirtyballgames3021.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/30in20/

Follow me-@chuckbooth3024 on twitter

http://mlbreports.com/gwr-tracker/ or at my official website for all updates!

Wednesday May.2/2012

MLB Park # 22 Day # 17

TEX @ DET

April.22/2012

Comerica Park

Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth (Baseball Writer)-The passenger exchange was made at 4:30 AM near the Forrest Lawn Oasis.  I jumped from the car that Ken Lee was in to Bob Devries rental car.  We were on our way to Comerica Park via Highway 94.  Through the course of the drive, Bob and I realized we know everything there is to know about rental cars.  I rent cars for 365 days a year and Bob rents cars every weekend.  It is not often people can relate to all of my car rental stories.  I haven’t even owned a car since 2009.  If the market was ever to drastically change I would be out of a job and a car.  The day was going to be sunny from our drive in.  After arriving into town early we headed towards HockeyTown and Cheli’s.  We then moved onwards to a Bar Called ‘Bookies’ off of Elizabeth Street. This bar was ideal because it was where we parked for $5.

I had a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with curly fries inside the Sandwich.  It was tasty and hit the spot.  Bob had the local IPA Beer.  About an hour later we met up with the Salter Family (Joe, Dianne, Anthony, Jake and Robert).  These guys have been part of every one of my streaks.  I met them 1^st in 2008 at PNC Park when I almost broke the World Record the first time around.  In 2009, the Salter’s were there with me front and center when MLB Park #30 was completed at Comerica.  I call these guys my good luck ‘surrogate’ baseball family.  I was happy that Bob was there to meet them as well.  We all took pictures and headed up to our seats.

Comerica Park is listed as #5 in my baseball book for a reason.  The Park has an incredible aura of history, is great for taking picturesque shots in the daytime and especially at night.  The food is also good.  We sat in the 300 section and had plenty of space.  The seats all end in a degree angle where they meet other sections.  This kind of concept should be a no brainer for clubs to follow as it leads to a lot more room for the end of the row tickets. Bob and I were privy to these exact seats.  It is almost like extended seats.We also had a chance to meet Andrew DeBaeremaker and his friend Scott from Toronto.  Such a thing as social media these days that it makes it so easy to connect with anyone.  Andrew was responsible for setting me up with A Nationally aired Sports Interview on CTV Sports in Canada.  Bob and I met these guys in a cold and chilly concourse and we talked it up about: baseball, travel and Canadian issues while traveling in the USA.

I was happy to be in attendance for yet another Texas Rangers baseball game.  Josh Hamilton continued his mastery of hitting with a belted homer to the right field stands early. This would be a game in which he had 3 more hits and a sacrifice fly.  The guy is the Natural.  I saw a tweet that made perfect sense; “Josh Hamilton is the modern-day Mickey Mantle.”  I think truer words may never have been spoken.  The game was long and slowed by some cold weather.  Where we had seats the sun was helping out with the warmth. It was a good omen to have the only section where we did not freeze. Bob left just before the 7^th inning stretch. It will not be the last time I see Bob as there is a Social Media Suite in Cleveland that is hosting he, Lori Martini, Ken Lee and I for the game on Wednesday April.25.

The game went extra before mercifully ending in the 11^th inning with the Rangers taking the game 4-3.  I was beginning to doze off.  Something about being extra jet lagged and traveling another 1000 miles in 2 days tends to do that after already logging nearly 45000 Air Miles in the air.  The Salters and I then headed to Malarkey Sports Bar in grill on the south side of Detroit near where they live in Flat Rock.  It was an awesome pizza dinner and was a great chance to catch up with these guys.  Later that evening, Anthony Salter drove me the hour and a half north to the Flint Michigan Airport.  Since I had to cancel a flight with Air Tran, this was my only way to fly into San Francisco.  I would still have to drive to Oakland.

MLB Park # 23 Day # 18

4 CWS @ OAK 0

April.23/2012

o.co Coliseum

One of the things that I can’t control on these kind of trips is when the travel sector lets me down.  On the previous week to this trip I had my jacket stolen right out off of a flight to Minnesota.  I never had a chance to replace the jacket until I flew into San Francisco this morning.  My one way car rental had me starting the day in San Francisco and returning the car to Oakland International Airport in the morning.  It is a free airport to airport deal I discovered through National Car Rental in the States of California and Florida.  Now that I had several hours before the 1st pitch in Oakland, I was able to spend some time down on the Fisherman’s Wharf.

I parked on the street for a few dollars and proceeded to buy 2 San Francisco jackets and a named brand pair of shoes for under $50.  The Pier 39 area always has superb prices for high quality clothing.  This is exactly why I waited until SF for purchasing new items.  I had ripped up my dress shoes while sprinting for double-header attempts.  There are always Casualties of War on the road such as this.  I have a motto adapted from my old man, ‘replace it right away and just keep moving on.  You are on vacation so you may have to buy some new things.’  I also ate at one of the best restaurants in the world in the Boudin Sourdough Restaurant.  They have the best bread on the planet.

With a full stomach I made my way to Oakland.  This is the 30th ranked facility in the Majors.  There is no dressing this park up in any fashion.  To make matter worse, the club staff always seems to have attitude even though are only pockets of people at the game that care about the team.  The game itself was not a bad pitching matchup with Jake Peavey against Bartolo Colon (who has found the fountain of youth).  Halfway through the game Adam Dunn launched a gargantuan blast into the right field stand for the lead.  Adam Dunn is showing everyone that he can put last years utter catastrophe behind him and be a contributing factor to the White Sox.

I also was able to see Yoenis Cespedes in the flesh for the first time.  This kid can swing it like “Helen Keller” at a pinata party.  He will strike out 200 times this year and probably club 30 HRs for the team.  I am also thinking he will end with a Jack Cust like .240 average.  Still this was a good signing for the Athletics.  Everyone will always watch this kids at bats with sheer excitement.  I think the A’s are made the right decision to scale the roster back even more until they have a new stadium to support a bigger payroll.  Give the Rangers and Angels 3 or 4 more years to age and then take a run at the AL West.  There was no real danger of missing anything this night.  I parked for free at the game and had a short drive to the Concord Best Western to stay.  The next day was yet another single game to attend.

MLB Park #24 Day # 19

5 LAA @ TB 0

April.24/2012

Tropicana Field

I like Tropicana Field.  It may be the 29th ranked baseball park amongst experts, but it is a family atmosphere inside and quite cozy.  The team has been one of the better on field performers in the last 5 years.  Solid ownership and crafty scouting has this team competing with the big boys.  I flew all the way from Oakland to arrive at Tampa International Airport at 4:00 PM sharp.  The drive in was aided by an awesome car rental from National.  I was fully upgraded to a Nissan Altima that only had 5000 miles on it and drove smooth.  After another hearty meal at Wendy’s that featured a family sized chili(both healthy and put out the vibe for stadium purchases) I secured a great parking spot for $5 just up the street.

The game was not going to be threatened by rain and for this I was happy.  There are certain two-day stretches in every streak where I give myself a reprieve from bad weather chances.  When you put Oakland and Tampa Bay back to back this late in the game it helps to be in warm climates.   I was seeing David Price pitch on this night, so this was another reason to be excited.  It is my belief that he may be the best young Left Handed Pitcher in the game today.  Price continues to gain confidence every year.

It is weird to see Albert Pujols struggle so much in this early season.  In fact, heading into the month of May, I have the exact amount of home runs of as the big slugger.  I will tell you who was hitting the hell out of the ball that night.  Carlos Pena, Luke Scott, Desmond Jennings and B.J Upton all hit solo home runs.  Seeing this game almost reminded me of the game I watched on TV in 1987 in which the Toronto Blue Jays pounded out a Major League Record 10 home runs at Exhibition Stadium.  It is still kind of rare to see a game in which a team hits 4 home runs.  I kind of liked it.  I was happy the game ended on time and I made it back to a free upgrade from Best Western.  It was a smooth game and end of three consecutive days where I only had to watch single games in three straight days.