It's been unseasonably mild and dry in our first winter as Minnesotans (hold on let me knock on my desk), which has only gotten me that much more excited for baseball this year as it feels right around the corner. This is usually the time of year I am getting into full season prep mode - scouring local collegiate ball schedules, purchasing Opening Day tickets, and as an added bonus now as a Minnesota resident, I get to layer in Town Ball schedules, which affords me a nearly boundless opportunity to take in more baseball and new ballparks along with that. Just the county I live in has 30 teams alone. However, as much as I love all my local options, it's my ball travel slate for the year that is still and will always be the most exciting. It is with great anticipation that I announce Tour 2024 will be a return to Seattle, Washington the weekend before the 4th of July.
With no imminent or realistic new major league parks on the horizon (I'm still not convinced the A's will be moving until I see a shovel in the ground), Erik and I had a lot of different ideas for 2024 and free reign to go just about anywhere we wanted. Baseball outside of our continent is still always in the back of my mind and at the top of my bucket list, but we're still a few years out from being able to take a longer trip that far away due to the young age of our kids. So, we decided on a formula we have employed a few times in the past when we're in this situation - revisit a major league ballpark that has had extensive remodeling since The Tour and see some minor league ballparks around that. We've been back to Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh since the OG Tour, and all of those trips were a blast and cool to spend a little bit more time (and money) in the parks than we could afford in 2007. Even though we were in Seattle for multiple days on The Tour, it still felt rushed and felt like we didn't get a lot of quality time there, mostly because we were so exhausted by the time we got to Seattle. That was at the end of Week 6 following a sprint from Texas to Washington in less than a week, and we honestly spent a lot of our time in Seattle catching up on boring things like sleep and laundry. So we're both excited to explore more of the city and the ballpark, which has since changed names to T-Mobile Park and undergone $30+ million in renovations, including the Trident Deck pictured above. It looks kind of like The Rooftop at Coors Field that Megan and I hung out at a couple years ago, and much like in Denver, the higher you're up in Seattle the better the view of the skyline, so I'm pumped to check out that area and see if T-Mobile Park is still a top 3 ballpark in my rankings. We have a framework of an itinerary beyond a Mariners game that I'm confident will include some nearby minor league ball and national parks, and hopefully a ferry ride to Victoria for Canada Day!
My other major ball trip this year will be Year 4 of Tour Molly, which as of now I plan to be a weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is about a 3-hour drive from Cold Spring. Now that we live 7 hours further west, I have an opportunity to see so many states and teams to the west that previously would have been at worst unattainable, and at best ridiculous to visit from where we were in Milwaukee. I've never been to either of the Dakotas and there are several independent and summer collegiate teams in those states, and not to mention Thunder Bay and Winnipeg are a shorter drive than going back home to Milwaukee, so I have many years of ideas with Molly and the family as well. Beyond my two main trips, I look forward to a full summer of Town Ball and my first year as a partial season ticket holder of the St. Cloud Rox of the Northwoods League.
Pitchers & Catchers report in two days!!! Play ball!
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.