World Baseball Tour

A few months ago, a group of my college friends decided to start a group that would tour the major league baseball parks. The idea behind the World Baseball Tour, as it is now being called, (by the way - it can be called a world tour since there is one MLB park in Canada) is simple - witness one game in every major league baseball park. The four founding members will be deciding on the trip for the year, then anyone else that would like to attend will be welcomed. Mostly, it's just a reason for the group of friends to get together once a year to stay in contact, but since we're all baseball fans, getting to see a game is an added bonus.

I think that we will be trying to group some of the stadiums together to make the total tour take less than the thirty years it would take to complete at a one-per-year pace. Based on a rough schedule that I just made up, it will end up taking 19 years to complete the tour. I think then, for a 20th year, the group will have to visit Cooperstown in New York to see the Hall of Fame - that's the appropriate completion of the tour. Of course, we'll have to decide on what to do when teams decide to build new stadiums or move to a new city, or if there is another expansion and new teams are created. This could go on forever... if we so choose.

This summer we had our first outing, traveling all the way to Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City to watch the local Royals take on the Toronto Blue Jays. I'm not exactly sure yet if this actually counted as WBT: Year 1, or not though, since one of the founding members decided that he was too important to drive down to KC for the game. He's been to games in KC before and he grew up here, blah, blah... Maybe we'll just call 2007, WBT: Year 0 and it will be the unofficial start to the tour. KC is the easiest of the stadiums to arrange though, since it's pretty much in the center of where everyone is right now. Twenty years from now, though, who knows where everyone will be?

For the KC trip we had seven people and I expect it to be the smallest gathering. Next year, the unofficial concept is to hit two stadiums - Wrigley Field in Chicago and Miller Park in Milwaukee. However, there will be a bonus trip for those that can make it - the final year of historic Yankee Stadium. Since the Yankees are building a brand new $1 billion (yes billion) stadium that opens in 2009, this will be the last chance for everyone to see the "House the Ruth Built" before it becomes a parking lot.

I'm sure that I'll be talking more about the World Baseball Tour in the future. It's going to be a blast!