FAQ
Q: Who is part of this trip?
A: We are Mike, Dauber, and Lumpy. We went to college at Florida Tech and met as members of Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity. We are the core of the trip and sometimes meet up with others along the way. You can check out our personal pages to learn more about us.
Q: What about all the other people on the site?
A: They are the orphans we've adopted along the way as a tax write off to finance our trips.
Q: What exactly is it that you guys are trying to do?
A: Simple, see every major league team play a game in their respective home ballpark.
Q: Why baseball parks?
A: First off, we're all big sports fans, baseball in particular. We all compete in Fantasy Leagues so we highly value knowledge of all teams/players, not just our hometown favorites. Road tripping allows us to see many parts of the country and meet many people Most people relate well to baseball so it also makes for a great conversation piece and hopefully, a great website.
Q: What if you see a team in their home ballpark, and then they either build a new stadium or move to a new town?
A: That game counts and that team is off the list. For example, we saw the Brewers play in County Stadium and now they play in Miller Park, even though we haven't been to Miller Park, the Brewers are off the list. We're always talking about what we'll do when the trip is over, I'm sure that we'll first pick up the newer parks that we've missed. Then maybe we'll have to tour the nation's roller coaster's or something like that. If you have any good ideas, let us know!
Q: What if a game is rained out?
A: We don't know, it hasn't happened yet (thanks to one domed stadium so far). We do talk about what makes a game official but haven't had to come up with a ruling yet. Like can we just see 1 inning and cross it off the list. We say 'no', we must plan on seeing an entire game. We're as superstitious as ball players so once the weather forecast is within range of our trip, we don't mention the "R" word until we're sitting in our seats at the last game of the trip and the skies are clear! Last year, we lambasted Horshack for bringing up the "R" word a couple days before the trip.
Q: Do you always see the entire game?
A: No way. But we see the vast majority of the game. Why do miss some of the game? The reasons are many including: running late, busy haggling with scalpers outside the stadium, game time was changed (see the Brewers fiasco), tailgating in the parking lot, riding the roller coaster at the Mall of America, stuck in traffic, missed a Subway stop, etc. It's somewhat rare that we're seated for the national anthem(s), but we've only left one game before the end.
Q: Who do you root for?
A: This is a tough one! We certainly don't arbitrarily root for the home team, that's a given. We haven't yet seen a game late enough in the season that pennant race criteria is the ultimate influence. We tend to root for players more so than a particular team and root for "good baseball". If there is a star pitcher starting the game, we will generally root for him to have a good game. If a star hitter is at the plate we're on the edge of our seats hoping for a bomb! But we don't like seeing a hurler throwing meatballs just for the sake of a long ball. An ideal situation is Sammy Sosa at the plate, gets to a full count while taking a couple big whiffs. The pitcher makes a few good pitches on 3-2 but Sammy hangs in there fouling them off with defensive cuts. Then the picther comes in just a little too much and BYE BYE! Sammy leaves the building. Multiple home run games by the same player are also prized, even if it makes for a blowout score. We saw Thome just tear it up against the Cards. He hit 3 homers but the most dramatic was the half swing push down the left field line that barely cleared the fence. That just showed that Thome was totally in the zone and that's what we like to see. Sometimes we'll root for a team after being triggered by certain in game circumstances like a dramatic comeback, a beanball, or bad fielding. We don't all root for the same team either. Also, we frequently root against closers, this may be a root for the underdog philosophy but there's something special about a blown save, especially if it takes place in the top of the 9th. Also, blown saves may mean extra-inning games which is always a plus.
Q: How do you get tickets?
A: In each section on this site for the specific games, we discuss how we got those tickets. When we plan the trip, the first thing we do is figure which parks will be difficult to get tickets, places like Wrigley and the Jake are always difficult, and others depending on the day and who they're playing. So far we've been able to find cheap tickets to the previously mentioned parks on either Ebay or Yahoo auctions. If the game is not going to be a good sell, we'll plan on buying from scalpers at the stadium. At some parks, they almost pay us to take their tickets. On rare occasion we'll get seats at the stadium box office.
Q: Which park is the best?
A: You can check out our personal pages to see which our individual favorites are.
Q: Why do you always seem to misspell Cincinnati?
A: It started as a typo but it's become a running joke because of our dislike of Cincinatti, and the backlash we've gotten from the fine folks of Cincinnatti.
Q: Besides, the whole Cincinati thing, why are there so many spelling mistakes on your site? Can't you learn to use a spell checker?!?!
A: We are luddites and it's difficult enough bring ourselves to use computers and HTML tools, don't even mention something that recognizes my mistakes and then even predicts what I meant to say.
Q: What's a luddite?
A: Can't your "spellchecker" tell you?