Sunday, July 9, 2023

Wehler Walks Off

Byways Boys Grounded

"Walk-off wins hit different"

Our circuitous spring trip through the southeast ended with Jeff Wehler hitting a walk-off home run. If you know what to look for, you can spot Melvin, Haldeman and me in the stands as the third baseman rounds the bases. Wehler's heroics came 16 days after the Blue Jays purchased his contract from the independent Staten Island FerryHawks.

Post-game, Melvin, Haldeman and I headed to TPA where we learned that air traffic up and down the East Coast was a mess. My flight, scheduled to depart at 4:45, was delayed by over four hours. Haldeman didn't get home until 2:00 am on Monday morning. Oof! Let's go back to the beginning...

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here


We've been told a few things over the years: "You were speeding" (Texas; I was); "There may be nudity" (Oregon; there was); "Hey! No photographs!" (Massachusetts; OK, fine). But this was the first time, I think, that we've been pressured to leave a public place. That place was Fuller Field, in Clinton, Massachusetts, on the back end of our recent Patriots Day Weekend trip.

I felt a little bad for the young and doughy camp counselor who asked us to leave. He seemed genuinely pained, confused, and maybe even a little scared. He was wrangling a cluster of, I don't know, maybe twenty little kids, and I get that the sight of a couple retirement-age dudes emerging from a dirty old sports car to wander around nearby wouldn't necessarily fill him with joy.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Patriotic (so to speak)

Melvin, Watson, Bragdon and I attended the Patriots Day game at Fenway, the middle game of the three that comprised the first tour of 2023.


Our day-trip to Boston was bracketed by minor league games in Worcester MA and Bridgewater NJ, the latter being the home of the Somerset –– wait for it! –– Patriots.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here

Or many of them, anyway, when Melvin and I toured the Upper Midwest in late-August, early-September.

Haldeman, behind the wheel, and Melvin

Watson was along on the first and last days, and Red joined us for a Twins game. Haldeman, who made cameo appearances in 2017 and 2019, went the distance this year.

Sunday, July 3, 2022

We went.

If you read the previous post and were wondering if we went to Nevada and California, we did.


And we went to Manzanar National Historic Site, as mentioned.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Season Preview 2022

Okay, yeah, it's been a long time and a lot has changed. Let's leave it at that.

Like the Mets, Rob started the season on the road, watching the team outlast the Phillies yesterday, 9-6, in an ugly, four-hour, 12-pitcher, matinee. On Sunday, Melvin will see the White Sox host the Rays, the first of many games he will attend at Guar'rate Field. Let's hope that goes better. (It didn't.)

Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

After a couple of aborted attempts, it looks like we will at last get to Northern California and Nevada this June. Trip planning has prompted questions like, Manzanar National Historic Site or the Clown Motel? How stark a choice is that?

Friday, December 11, 2020

New Roads to the Show

On Wednesday, the 30 Major League Baseball teams "invited" four teams each to form their respective minor league systems beginning in 2021. (Whether or not there will be a minor league baseball season next year has yet to be determined.)

The next day, as it so happened, I wore my Kansas City Royals "The Road to the Show" t-shirt. This wasn't a statement. It simply reflected a need to do laundry and the casual dress code that goes along my staff working remotely due to COVID-19, leaving me the only one in the office.


When I undressed that night, I noticed that my shirt has become a record from another time.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Out at Home



Well, today is the day when, theoretically, we would have been able to say, with all the usual fine print, that we had seen every affiliated baseball team, in both the major and minor leagues. We’d be in Las Vegas, watching the 51s and the Salt Lake Bees. We’d also be melting, as it is currently 427 degrees Fahrenheit in Nevada. Just imagine what it would be like if climate change was real! (Note: it is real.)

We had four trips planned: a short one that I was calling the Piedmont trip; yet another Appalachian trip; a Great Plains route; and then the oft-plotted northern California–Nevada finale. I had visions of inviting everyone we’d ever seen a game with to the big closing day, today. Of course, that’s not how things turned out. More reflections over the jump.

 

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Baseball In the Time of Coronavirus

At the end of July, into early-August, I took a trip that included a couple of baseball games and destinations in-between. It was a weak substitute for the four or five trips Melvin and I once planned for the 2020 season.

dinosaurs everywhere, not just in Florida

For one, Melvin wasn't there. And this wasn't professional baseball but a collegiate summer league. Finally, almost every stop I made that weekend was by necessity outdoors and isolated from other people.

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Its like a season-long rain delay.

When MiLB President and CEO Pat O'Connor announced on Tuesday that the 2020 season is canceled, he was only making official what has been long anticipated.


What is especially disappointing for Melvin and me is we hoped this would be the year when we could say, however briefly, "We have seen every stadium and team in affiliated baseball."