After a 9-hour drive from Mobile, we arrived in Little Rock to see the Arkansas Travelers at their brand new ballpark, Dickey-Stephens Park. The team used to play at Ray Winder field from 1932 to 2006, and it’s safe to say the ballpark was past its prime. The new stadium—on the other ahnd—opened just over a month ago, and is stocked will all the bells and whistles you could think of—even wireless access points throughout the ballpark. The organ is located right behind home plate in the concourse, and fans can stand right next to the organ player when he or she plays during the game. This ballpark was one of the more expensive ones to build, costing over $40 million to construct. The fans have been packing in since Opening Day, and tonight was no different with over 5,500 people in attendance.

With all those people, it was no wonder that this was our best fundraising night yet! Thanks to Pete for getting us a great item and letting us set up camp in the concourse. If you are ever in the Little Rock area, this ballpark is a nice place to take in a game and offers nice views of the downtown area. Highly recommended.

Continuing on down through Alabama we arrived in Mobile, which is at the southern tip of the state. The BayBears play their games at Hank Aaron Stadium, and the ballpark is conveniently located at 755 Hank Aaron Drive. In addition to the regular seating at Hank Aaron Stadium, the park has BayBear beach with sand and an inflatable water slide. This is the first water slide inside a park we have come across during our travels so far, but unfortunately we couldn’t try it out due to the fact that we had to fundraise. I can’t think of a better combination than baseball and water slides, so it’s obvious that the BayBears are onto something.

Thanks to Cindy and everyone on the BayBears staff for all the help tonight at the stadium! I was able to go out on the field and address the crowd before throwing out the first pitch, and they responded to kindly by buying tons of raffle tickets from us. We had great raffle prizes and were treated so well at the park tonight, so we are very grateful to the BayBears staff and fans. See previous post for a video of Chris setting up our signage for the evening. Tomorrow: Little Rock and Roll.

Ben Fry has been creating a MLB salary vs. performance graph for the past few years… and he has updated it again this year to see how your favorite MLB team. It’s obviously too early on in the season to see what team will be the winners and losers, but it looks as if the Brewers are getting the most bang for their buck while the Yankees are the biggest losers (no surprise there.) My Phillies are somewhat stuck in the middle with a bunch of other teams. Use the guide at the top of the graph to see how the teams have changed since the beginning of the season.

The biggest discrepancy in team payroll across the MLB: the Yankees ($189.6 million) to the Devil Rays ($24.1 million). Theoretically, the Yankees could fund the Devil Rays payroll for the next 7-8 years (barring inflation, of course) using their payroll from the 2007 season alone. Interestingly enough, each team has the same number of wins this season: 18. (via Kottke, UmpBump, etc.)

We post pictures pretty regularly, and unless you check the site daily (see Flickr sidebar of pictures), there is a pretty good chance that you have missed out on some pictures throughout the tour. You can access my Flickr collection here, but if you want an even easier way to view all my photos on one page, check out my page at Flickr Leech. This site groups all of your photos together (200 per page) and creates tiny thumbnails. Below is a screen shot, click to see all:

When we arrive at each ballpark, one of the things most crucial to our setup is our whiteboard sign. Since Day One, Chris has contributed his arts and crafts style to helping design each sign. This post is an behind the scenes look/tribute to his hard work.

Usually 20 to 30 minutes later, this is what the final product usually looks like:

Today we came back down to Alabama, where we will be for the next two days. First stop was the Birmingham Barons, who are probably one of the better known teams around due to the fact that a certain basketball player named Michael Jordan played for them for a season. I even noticed that they still sold his jersey in the gift shop. Tonight was an information night, so Chris and I handed out flyers and I did some radio booth stuff later on in the night. Thanks a lot to Brad for getting us all situated and set up for our promotion.

One nice thing about going to see a game in Birmingham on a Monday—it’s Little Caesars $5 pizza night, meaning you can get a large Hot ‘N Ready pizza pie for just $5. Little Caesars used to be everywhere, including the east coast, but has since scaled back its operations by a significant amount. They are also known for their “Crazy Bread” which is absolutely delicious. If you don’t live near a Little Caesars and you happen to stumble upon one, give it a whirl.

During most of the recent games we’ve attended, I’ve had the opportunity to go on the local radio for an inning or so to talk about the Tour for the Cure. Trying to talk about what we are doing while not interrupting the broadcaster’s play-by-play duties is a bit tough, and the conversation doesn’t always flow. Below is a video we shot the other day while I was at the Tennessee Smokies game. I’m going to be honest with you—it’s the longest and most boring video we posted to date. It looks as if we are just sitting there most of the time not saying much, but keep in mind there was a game going on in front of us (which you obviously can’t see.)

We continued our travels across the state of Tennessee, which is actually quite a nice state to drive through. The West Tenn Diamond Jaxx is located in between Nashville and Memphis, and the stadium is literally located in the middle of nowhere off a highway. The West Tenn Diamond Jaxx got their name from their affiliate, the Arizona Diamondbacks. The team’s logo is a miner with an ax made out of baseball bats. Interesting enough, the miner has a strong resemble to the Pringles potota chip guy. And wouldn’t you know it, the Diamond Jaxx play their games at Pringle Park!

It was also Mother’s Day today, and I think most people stayed away from Pringle Park and spent time with their moms rather than watch the Diamond Jaxx. The attendance was paltry at best. Fortunately, the Diamond Jaxx were playing the Montgomery Biscuits and I was able to meet up with Jim from the Montgomery Biscuits radio station and do an inning in the booth.

After the game, we headed to the theatre to see the newest summer blockbuster, Spiderman 3. Although not as strong as its predecessors, it was worthy of seeing it on the big screen. Chris and I give it two thumbs up. Tomorrow: Birmingham Barons.

After the game last night we made a straight trip to Knoxville, which is in the general vicinity of where the Tennessee Smokies play their games. We spent a very nice relaxing afternoon at a Borders, where we caught up on email, website stuff, and general Tour for the Cure duties (including an interview with a small Philadelphia newspaper). Yes it’s true—we get excited when we are going someplace else besides a hotel or a baseball stadium.

We were able to set up an info table at the Smokies game tonight, who play their games at none other than Smokies Park. The team’s name refers to the Great Smoky Mountains (no “e” in Smoky). The mountains are often clouded in a hazy mist that often appears as smoke rising from the forest. Enough with the geography lesson and back to baseball—the Smokies did in fact SMOKE the Chattanooga Lookouts 10-3 after posting a 9-run second inning.

During the game, I did a radio interview and Chris tracked down two of the girls who threw out the first pitch and managed to ask them some tough questions about baseball. Well, not really. But a snippet of video is included below:

Our third straight day of doubleheader baseball, and of course there was no better way to do it by attending one of our last education days. It feels as if each Education Day is busier and packed with more kids than the previous one, and I really think this was the most kids we’ve seen in one place on this trip. The good news is that we were able to give away a lot of mini bats and sell a bunch of raffle tickets for 25 cents (special kids price), and managed to come out of the stadium unscathed and with some funds raised. Thanks to Bryan for helping us out!

The Stars play their games at Joe W. Davis stadium, also known as “The Joe”—yet another stadium that has named itself after a first name. The Huntsville Stars are the longest running and most successful sports franchise in the Tennessee Valley. One hundred and thirty nine former Stars have gone on to play in the Major Leagues in the team’s short history (via Wikipedia).

Later that night we went back to Tennessee to see the Chattanooga Lookouts—our 50th game on the trip! The Lookouts stadium is located on top of a hill. You have to park at the bottom of the hill and then take the stairs or an escalator to the top of the hill in order to enter the ballpark. Once you get inside the ballpark, you will be inundated with the sound of a woman selling programs. She has quite a catchy slogan she repeats over and over for a good hour or so. Tonight she had some extra help, as you can see in the video below.

Catchy, right? And yes, I did buy a program for 25 cents. Tonight when we walked through the stands I had an opportunity to catch my first legit foul ball since this trip started. Chris and I were standing behind home plate when a foul ball was hit in our direction—it bounced off a chair straight up in the air, and then two guys with butterfingers tried to grab it (think Chris trying to catch my first pitch) and then it bounced right into my hands. (I ended up giving it away to a kid who was in search of her first foul ball.) By the time we made it through the stadium, we had finished with our 2nd highest night of fundraising to date. Special thanks to Pete for getting us set up and taken care of during the game!