Ben Hill does it for money.

A comparative season preview.

Traveling to see minor league baseball, that is, then writing about it. WHAT?! Are you in junior freakin' high school? I would never dis' Ben Hill. For one, he is some kinda neighbor — I have chatted with him a couple of times at Brooklyn Cyclones games. (That's right; he goes to baseball games even when he's not on the clock.)

And Melvin can attest to the months or maybe years when I wondered, 'How can I get a job doing what Ben Hill does?' Arguable doppelgängers Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks disabused me of that insane idea on the Up and In Show but for a while there, jealousy was the highest form of flattery. Really, man, grow the ef up. You read this on Baseball Byways, not some bathroom wall.

 Ben's 15th season; our 25th

Anyway, Ben has posted a season preview (which you can read in full for yourself) and it made me think I might do the same. There is some overlap, as well as some very intentional divergence.

Ben will be at The Ballpark at America First Square (surely a placeholder pending a naming rights deal) in South Jordan, Utah, on July 26&27. We'll be there earlier in the month, the only new stadium that Melvin and I will visit this year. Whereas Mr. Hill plans to then travel northwest, to Avista Stadium in Spokane, we will head east.

I'm excited about the itinerary, which includes a wide range of baseball. Melvin and I will see the Chicago Cubs and their affiliate in Des Moines, plus a second Triple-A team, the alluded to Salt Lake Bees. Three American Association games are on the schedule, as well as a couple of collegiate Independence League contests. Also, lots of driving and poking around the nooks and crannies between The Great Basin and Chicagoland.

Our July itinerary, the only road trip planned for 2025, also includes a return visit to the Peoria Chiefs, who Melvin and I saw in 2011. (Melvin and old pal Red also went there in 2002, or so the records show, but it's unclear what itinerary that game was a part of.) Ben Hill will be there one week from today, so if you are going to be in the city named for the people who now live in Oklahoma, keep your eyes open for the bearded one.

In June, Ben has penciled in a tour of the other three ballparks opening this year, the Knoxville Smokies, Hub City (Spartanburg, South Carolina) Spartanburgers, and Columbus (Georgia) Clingstones — the three red pins below.

the black pin is Kannapolis with the 2025 and 2026 stadium openings in red and orange, respectively

Melvin and I decided to hold off for a year on a trip to the Southwest, when new stadiums are scheduled to also open in Richmond, Virginia; Wilson, North Carolina; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. This seven-stop, 2026 itinerary is going to be cherse, as some old-timers say in Brooklyn.

Beyond the local contests with friends or on my own — Mets, Yanquis, Cyclones — I currently have three trips planned. Seeing the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and Syracuse Mets on the road last year was mad fun (as some young people still say). I will tour the Mets organization again next month; the 'clones at home; Ponies, home and away, the Triple-A squad in Syracuse; and the Mets at Fenway.

MLB #43 prospect Brandon Sprout pitching for Binghamton last year. Will I see him again this year in Syracuse? Heck, will I see him in Flushing?

Through Melvin's generosity of spirit and time, I will be at Polar Park in Worcester for the third time in five years. I will pair the game with a visit to Mass MoCA and scavenging through the Atlas Obscura. Ben Hill has planned a "special night with the Somerset Patriots" and I intend a similar, if perhaps less "special" trip. Again, the third time in five years.

I haven't heard anything about Melvin's plan for the summer, but as a fan of the Chicago White Sox — 7-21, as of tonight's 10th inning loss to the West Sacramento Athletics — what are you going to say? That you're glad you don't live in Denver?