Baseball Fever - Catch
It!
June 13 – June 17, 2001
The year was 2001. The season
was spring, a time when a young man's fancies turn not to thoughts of
love, but to thoughts of baseball. In fairness, Tennyson's poem
was published some 25 years prior to any formalization of Doubleday and
Cartwright's game, so it would almost certainly read differently
today. That said, we were finishing up our third year at the
University of Virginia as baseball's opening day once again captivated
the hearts and minds of the nation. Particularly vulnerable to
baseball's grip were college students who enjoyed playing online
fantasy sports and were less than engaged in the goings-on of the
academic world around them. We fell into both of these
categories, and so decided to plan a baseball road trip for June.
As both of us had summer jobs lined up that would severely limit
vacation time, we had to come up with a short trip that still
accomplished our objectives of seeing several games at different
ballparks. The key stadium we sought to visit was naturally
Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Given the close
proximity of the baseball-playing cities of the Midwest, this seemed
like an ideal part of the country for our trip. We began poring
over the MLB schedules and found several consecutive dates on which we
could see the Indians, Cubs, Brewers, Reds, and Pirates play at
home. What began as an idle daydream quickly blossomed into a
four-day, five-stadium whirlwind tour of the American Midwest.
Armed with a passion for the game and a 1992 Chrysler Grand Voyager, we
headed west on Interstate 64 on a clear Wednesday night. By the
time Sunday afternoon rolled around, we had visited five stadiums while
driving 2030 miles through ten states in less than four complete days.
Note: As this
trip occurred in
the pre-digital camera era of our lives, we only have a few photos of
the trip, all taken in Cleveland. So we have borrowed some
illustrations from Wikipedia
and Wikimedia
Commons to help tell our
story. Appropriate credit is given where due.
Day 1: Lexington, VA to Cambridge, OH
Day 2: Cambridge, OH to Battle Creek, MI
Day 3: Battle Creek, MI to Lafayette, IN
Day 4: Lafayette, IN to Cambridge, OH
Day 5: Cambridge, OH to Lexington, VA
Trip statistics
