Today’s first stop was in Kansas City to see the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Originally built in 1973, it was actually the sole baseball-only facility built in the majors between 1962 and 1991—most of the stadiums built were those horrible multi-sport concrete bowl structures during that same time. Although Kauffman Stadium does resemble those same multi-sport facilities from the 1970s, it has a lot of its own charm and character. The fountain and waterfall display in the outfield stands at 322 feet, making it the largest publicly-funded fountain in the world. The stadium originally had AstroTurf installed for the playing field, but after 20 years grass replaced the turf and remains there today. It really is a great place to see a game, but unfortunately the Royals only draw around 20,000 fans on any given day. Next time you find yourself in Kansas City, go see a Royals game—it’s affordable (most expensive ticket: $27) and a great park to watch a game.

After the Royals game we headed down to Springfield to see the Cardinals play at Hammonds Field. Unfortunately we did not connect with the organization, so this post will be lacking in details about the ballpark. I will say that if you plan on driving to the stadium, try to carpool—as the parking is probably one of the more expensive in all of Minor League baseball, and could cost more than the price of your actual ticket into the game. Why is the place called Hammonds Field? Probably because it was bankrolled entirely by local businessman John Q. Hammonds, who is known for developing over 200 hotels during his time. The cost of the ballpark—a cool $32 million. It has been ranked as one of the top Minor League parks in the past few years.

It was a super long drive from Toledo to Des Moines overnight, and the Tour for the Cure team made it just in time for the noon Cubs game. The Cubs play their games at Principal Park, which in its current state has been around for about 15 years. It was previously known as Pioneer Memorial Stadium, built in 1947. In the late 1980s the stadium was on its last legs, with wooden seats and bleachers splintering and the paint wearing off. Most of the ballpark was demolished after the 1991 season, and was then rebuilt for the 1992 season—which is its current configuration. The game the previous night had been rained out, so there was actually two games today, both 7 innings long. Thanks to Kenny for getting us a nice Cubs jersey to raffle off today!

Tonight in Toledo, thunderstorms threatened to postpone the MudHens game, but after over an hour-long rain delay, the tarp was removed off the field and the game got going. The Mud Hens play their games at Fifth Third Field, located in downtown Toledo. While most of Toledo’s downtown seemed somewhat abandoned, the area around the ballpark appeared to have some new life to it. The stadium is only five years old, and was actually built in the same location as first professional baseball stadium in the city, built in 1883. For all you M*A*S*H fans out there, you might remember that the Mud Hens were the favorite team of Max Klinger. The actor who played Klinger—Jamie Farr—does video intros before the game about the ground rules of the stadium. Thanks to Cheri for getting us set up and letting us throw out the first pitch!

State College is known more for its football, the Nittany Lions, and the legendary coach of Penn State—Joe Paterno. Medlar Field at Lubrano Park is located right next to Beaver Stadium, and today’s game had a beach theme for the afternoon. Today was the first time we had a silent auction instead of a raffle, and it was surprisingly a big success. During the game I had a chance to talk to a guy who is doing his own Tour of all the ballparks in the country, including all the independent league teams as well. Thanks to all the fans who put in a bid to win a team signed bat from all the Spikes!

A few hours south is Hagerstown, MD—home to the Hagerstown Suns, minor league affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Municipal Stadium was built in 1931‚ and was the first ballpark Willie Mays played in during his first year in the minors. Tonight was one of the best promotions yet—”Feed Your Face Monday”. For $10, you got a GA ticket for the game and all you can eat food (hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, etc.) There was actually a doubleheader scheduled for today, so fans who were lucky enough to catch the first game that started at 5pm were able to take full advantage of the all you-can-eat food. I also got a chance to hang out with the Scoreboard Cowboy, who as you could probably guess, dress very much like a cowboy and was in charge of the manual scoreboard. Formerly a resident of Philadelphia, the Scoreboard Cowboy had a vast knowledge of the Phillies. Thanks to the Scoreboard Cowboy for letting me help out with the scoreboard tonight!

First stop was the Trenton Thunder game at Mercer County Waterfront Park. The Thunder used to be an affiliate of the Red Sox, but are now affiliated of the New York Yankees. Tons of Riley family members came out to say hello and support the Tour for the Cure. I was also joined today by Mike Vitez, a writer from the Philadelphia Inquirer who was writing a story about the Tour and wanted to see what a day in the life was actually like. Since the Thunder have come to Trenton in the mid-1990s, they have become the first team in Minor League Baseball history to draw over 400,000 fans for twelve consecutive seasons at the Double-A level or below. Did you know… beyond the right field wall is the Delaware River, which separates PA and NJ. If a player hits a ball far enough and it makes it halfway across the river, he could theoretically hit a homerun into another state. Whoa!

Today we developed a super raffle team made up of my cousin Dan and my girlfriend Edyta. The crowd was not packed to capacity due to the excessive heat, but we still did pretty well for our raffle. Thanks to Patience for helping us out today!

Later on in the week my article came out in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and hey, we even made the front page. You can read the article here. In case you have never seen the Tour for the Cure raffle in action, the Inquirer also shot some video which can be viewed by clicking here. The video accurately portrays what I do every day during the raffle. It’s exciting.

The Thunder game finished a little later than expected, so we needed to jet in order to get to the Reading Phillies that night. The Phillies play at First Energy field, an older park built in 1951 that seats 9,000 fans. It’s a really great place to see a game, with the entire concourse level decked out in red and white paint, giving it a nice older feel. Ever wonder how many fans have seen a game at a stadium that is 56 years old? Well, on July 3rd, 2007, the stadium celebrated their ten-millionth fan to attend a game. Here is the crazy thing—the population of the town is just over 80,000.

The park has gone under quite a bit of renovation since it opened, and now offers a huge videoboard in left field along with a pool and picnic area beyond the right field wall. I highly recommend checking out both of the ballparks we went to today. Thanks to Scott for helping us out tonight!

Also, one last note about Mike Vitez, the guy who wrote the article in the Inquirer. He recently just published a book late last year called Rocky Stories, about people who come from all over to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum steps and run up them just like Rocky. I haven’t had a chance to read it, but it’s on my list of books to read when the trip is over.

Today we were joined for the first game by Chris and Karen, and we set off hoping to see history being made by A-Rod hitting his 500th homerun. Special thanks to StubHub for getting us tickets to the game! for Upon arriving in the Bronx, you can see the foundation of the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium which is currently being constructed across the street and will open for the start of the 2009 season. For all those who have yet to see a game at Yankee Stadium, you have one more season to get there. We had seats in the bleachers, the first time I’ve sat there. It has its own entrance to the stadium, and you can’t walk around the rest of the park—you are confined only to the bleachers section. Populating the bleachers are what are called “bleacher creatures”, who chant each Yankee players name on the field after the first pitch is thrown. The crowd will keep chanting the Yankee players name until the player acknowledges the crowd with a tip of the hat or a wave. One interesting story from the “roll call” involved Hideki Matsui’s first game at Yankee stadium. Apparently, the chants of “Matsui” went on for approximately two minutes, because Matsui didn’t know what was going on and was unsure of what to do.

As for the game, it didn’t take long for A-Rod to finally get his 500th homerun. I had gotten out my camera to take video of each at-bat, but by the time I started recording the first pitch was just about to land in the left field seats. Needless to say the crowd was going wild, as the video below will show:

The next stop was Staten Island, which is not exactly right around the corner from Yankee Stadium. It was “Robinson Cano” night at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Just like me, Robinson Cano had to make a mad dash from the Bronx to Staten Island in order to get there on time. He was having his number retired, being only the third player from the Staten Island Yankees to make it to the NY Yankees, and the first player to be selected as an All-Star. the ballpark has a great view of the Manhattan skyline, including a direct view of the Statue of Liberty.

Back in the NJ-PA-NY area for a few days, and the first stop is in Lakewood to see the BlueClaws at First Energy Park. Tons of fans pour into the ballpark each night—the BlueClaws average about 6,500 fans per game, and lead the South Atlantic league in attendance becoming the fastest team in league history to top two million in attendance. Tonight I was joined by my mom and dad, who helped me staff the Tour for the Cure table. It’s kinda hard to see from the picture above, but the outfield grass has a large “P” cut into the design, to signify the team’s affiliation with the Phillies. One former BlueClaw to take note of is Ryan Howard, who played here during the 2002 season and did some rehab earlier this year before coming of the DL. One interesting seating note about the BlueClaws and their ocean/beach type theme—in the outfield, you have the option to sit in one of several lifeguard stands, each giving you a slightly elevated seat from the outfield. Special thanks to Jim for getting us set up tonight!

In small world baseball news, I ran into Tony (pictured here) who was actually at the same Fenway game earlier this week as the Tour for the Cure. Tony is one of the many people I have run into at various parks doing mini baseball tours. Perhaps we’ll run into him again at the Brooklyn Cyclones game in early September.

Today’s first game was probably the biggest Camp Day of the summer. By the time the game started, there was a sea of yellow buses in all of the surrounding parking lots. The PawSox play their games at McCoy Stadium, which has been in operation for over 60 years. What McCoy Stadium is best known for is hosting the longest game ever played in baseball history. On April 18, 1981, a game between the PawSox and Rochester Redwings went until 4:07AM at the end of the 32nd inning on the morning of April 19th, when play was finally suspended. Only nineteen fans remained in the stands when the game was called for the night, and they received lifetime passes to McCoy Stadium (via Wikipedia). On June 23rd, play resumed when the Red Wings came back into town and the game was ended quickly in the bottom of the 33rd inning. Two future baseball legends played in that game—Cal Ripken, Jr. for the Red Wings and Wade Boggs for the PawSox.

If you ever follow MLB games on the internet, there is a “GameDay” feature you can use that updates the game pitch by pitch, showing you where the balls and strikes land during an at-bat. Ever wonder how they do such a thing? The video below shows a brief example of the guy sitting in the press box updating it during an at-bat.

Tonight’s game was just an hour drive down the road to Norwich, CT to see the Defenders play at Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium. The ballpark recently hosted the Eastern League All-Star game in July, but it was canceled in the 3rd inning due to excessive fog. The stadium was used as the setting for the miniseries The Bronx Is Burning, which is currently airing this summer on ESPN. Tonight’s raffle was for an autographed team ball—thanks to Meaghan for helping us out tonight!

In the past two days the Tour for the Cure drove 20 hours, saw four baseball games, and visited seven states and one Canadian province. I would not recommend it, as it is probably one of the most exhausting 48 hours experienced on this trip.

After a particularly relaxing day yesterday with just one MLB game, the Tour for the Cure was in for a long day of baseball and driving. First up was a four-hour drive to see the Vermont Lake Monsters in Burlington. Located on the University of Vermont campus, Centennial Field plays host to the Lake Monsters. The field is pretty old—it was built in 1904, with original wooden bleachers. The idea to use wooden bleachers was probably not the best one, because in 1913 the bleachers caught fire and burned. By 1922, a concrete and steel main grandstand were installed and are still in use today. It was another big Camp Day, so the Tour for the Cure will be using the donated team signed bat as part of the end of the year online auction.

Interesting note about Vermont which I noticed on my drive through the state—there are no billboards anywhere on the side of the road—it is prohibited by state law. I was told that it was an exception to allow the ballpark to have advertising on the outfield walls, a staple of all Minor League baseball and a major source of revenue. Do you want to know something else about the great state of Vermont? It is one of only two states in the Union to allow any adult to carry a concealed firearm without any sort of permit.

After the Lake Monsters game, the next stop was Ottawa—our final trek into America Jr. to see the Ottawa Lynx, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies used to play in Scranton, and have moved up to Ottawa for a year before heading back down to PA to play in Allentown as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The Lynx play at Lynx Stadium and is quite big, seating over 10,000 people. The scoreboards have both English and French words of “ball” “strike” and “out” posted due to the fact there are many French speaking people living in the province. Thanks to Riley for helping us out tonight and getting us a great item to raffle!

Boston—the home of Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox, the Jimmy Fund, and the founder of the Tour for the Cure—Cass Sapir. Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark still in use today. Originally built in 1912, Fenway is currently celebrating it’s 95th birthday this year. For a very long time, Fenway was known as the smallest park in all of baseball—until this year. After the 2006 season, Fenway increased its seating capacity from 36,298 to 38,805. I’m not sure exactly where they squeezed in these new seats, as they seem to be inventing new places every few years to add some new seating areas (ex.—Green Monster, 2003.) This additional seating has now made PNC Park in Pittburgh the smallest park in all of the Majors, with a capacity of 38,496. It has been reported that by 2012, the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, there will be just under 40,000 seats in Fenway.


Pictured above: Tim, Elana, Cass

Tonight Cass and I were invited onto the field for a small pre-game ceremony/recognition for the Tour for the Cure, and we spent some time with Wally the Mascot posing for pictures. Wally was introduced as the Red Sox mascot ten years ago, and he currently lives in the Green Monster. The Tour for the Cure was also joined by my Uncle Matt, who was able to sit with us during the game. Thanks to Dan for helping us get set up today at the game!