MLB Road Trip 2001

After no new MLB stadiums in 2007, the Washington Nationals will open Nationals Park in 2008, which means I must return to Washington for a few games. Later in the season, the Blue Jays visit PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and I can't miss the combo of my favourite team and favourite stadium.

Other sports events include a California/New York hockey trip in January, the MLB Season opening series featuring Boston and Oakland in Tokyo, a trip to see the soon-to-be-gone Seattle Sonics, and a visit to Allentown to see my Ottawa Lynx in their new guise as the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

It's going to be a busy year of sports travel, check the schedule and let me know if you want to join me for a game!

May 11th: Happy Mothers' Day! The pink bats of Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church lead the Mets to an 8-3 victory over Cincinnati. The last game of the trip is made more memorable for a very rare event as the Reds' Corey Patterson misses his turn at bat in the 9th inning, causing a 10-minute delay while the umpires try to figure out what should happen.

May 10th: A rainout on Friday allows me to catch the Reds and Mets in the second game of a day-night DH. Cincinnati starter Bronson Arroyo is superb for 8 innings and the Reds win easily 7-1.

May 1st: The surprising Tampa Bay Rays get 6 strong innings from Matt Garza and a resurgent Troy Percival pitches a perfect 9th to earn his 6th save as the Rays defeat the Baltimore Orioles 4-2 in an afternoon affair.

April 30th: The Nationals continue their strong play, scoring two in the bottom of the 12th to defeat the Braves 3-2 in a great game. Felipe Lopez makes up for a double play groundout in the 10th with the winning hit in the 12th and the Nats go 3-3 while I am in Washington.

April 29th: Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson hit back-to-back jacks off Tom Glavine and the Nationals score 4 in the 7th on their way to a 6-3 victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves.

April 27th: I visit Nationals Park for the first time and enjoy the suddenly streaking Nats shutout the Cubs 2-0 in a Sunday matinee. Nats starter John Lannan throws 7 shutout innings and 2 early runs hold up for the Nationals. The new stadium offers some of the best bargains and a friendly staff make it a great experience. The full review will be posted shortly.

April 26th: I visit Allentown to confirm the Ottawa Lynx have moved and become the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Sadly it is true. Fortuntely, the Iron Pigs get shutout by Rochester 10-0 in a great game from my point of view. The Iron Pigs are 3-21 now, clearly the baseball gods are angry at them for taking AAA baseball out of Canada and for having the longest lineup for parking in minor league baseball.

April 25th: It's Cap Day in Wilmington and the Blue Rocks celebrate with a 6-2 over the Winston-Salem Warthogs. Starter Blake Wood throws over 6 strong innings and Chris McConnell smacks 3 doubles to lead Wilmington.

March 25-26th: The MLB season opens in Tokyo and I am there to watch both games between the World Champion Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's.

Boston wins the first game 6-5 in 10 innings after Huston Street gives up a game-tying homer to Sox rookie Brandon Moss in the 9th. A great comeback to start the season.

Game 2 sees Canadian Rich Harden strike out 9 and get some support from Emil Brown in the form of a 3-run dinger as Oakland gains a split with a 5-1 victory.

Thanks to my generous friends Eda and Hiroshi and Ty Van Burkleo for the tickets!

March 22nd:The Kelowna Rockets score 3 times on the power play to defeat the hometown Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1 in game 2 of their first round WHL playoff series.

March 21st: The Portland Trailblazers hold off the LA Clippers 107-102 in a battle of also-rans in the NBA Western Conference. The game is entertaining, but even better is that I got a free Taco Bell chalupa since the Blazers scored 100 points!

March 20th: My first National Lacrosse League game is superb. The Portland Lumberjax come from behind to defeat the Colorado Mammoth 16-15 in an exciting battle. Mammoth forward Brian Langtry scored a season-record 9 goals but it wasn't enough to stop the Lumberjax, who won with a last-minute tally from Pete Jacobs. Lacrosse should get more respect in the world of sports - NLL Roadtrip planning is underway!

March 19th: A four-day trip to the Pacific Northwest starts with the Phoenix Suns knocking off the Seattle Sonics 110-98. It's still not clear if the Sonics will be back for another year, but here's hoping that this wasn't my last NBA game in Seattle.

February 22nd: A trip to Singapore and I catch an S-League game between the defending champion Singapore Armed Forces and Albirex Niigata, a team composed entirely of players from Japan. SAF wins easily 3-1 in drizzly conditions.

January 19th- 20th:3 NHL games in 24 hours! We start with a Saturday evening drive to Long Island for my first visit of Nassau Coliseum, a great old barn with no bad seats. The Flyers and Islanders have a spirited affair, won by Philadelphia 5-3 thanks to Scott Hartnell's hat trick.

Sunday morning is a return to Manhattan to watch the Bruins and Rangers in a matinee. The B's win 3-1, with New York spoiling Tim Thomas' shutout in the last minute.

Then it's the train to Newark where we visit the sparkling new Prudential Center. The Maple Leafs are visiting and although they play well, a fluke goal gives the Devils a 3-2 win, completing my 0-4 record for the Leafs on this trip.

January12th:After a nice coastal drive, I watch the Sharks score 3 goals in the 3rd period to complete the California sweep, 3-2 over the hapless Leafs.

January 10th:Things get worse in Los Angeles. The last place Kings humiliate Andrew Raycroft with 4 1st period tallies and hold on to win 5-2.

January 9th:The NHL portion of the trip begins with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team of my childhood, visiting the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks. A good first period is ruined by a last second goal for the Ducks, and the Leafs can't solve J.S. Giguere, losing 5-0.

January 4th:After flying into the biggest California storm in over a decade, I get to drive through it as well. A wet and slippery 5 hour drive to Bakersfield starts the 2008 trip. The Idaho Steelheads defeat the host Condors 2-1 in an ECHL shootout before a surprisingly large and raucous crowd. Yutaka Fukufuji, the first Japanese to play in an NHL game back in 2007, is the Bakersfield goalie, but he is outplayed by the Steelheads' keeper, Kellen Briggs.

How did this all begin? I spent the entire 2001 baseball season going to every major league stadium and lots of minor league ballparks too. I saw 108 games over 216 days in 47 states and 2 provinces. It was a great trip, and if you like baseball and traveling as much as I do, then you will enjoy reading the various information that is posted here. Since that year, a few new ballparks have opened up, so I still make the trips every year, although I am living in Tokyo, Japan, which limits my opportunities.

I have posted lots of city information from each and every town that was visited and there are over 300 pages on this site now. Please take the time to check out what is available. You may even find some useful tips on planning your own trip. I should note that this info is now over 5 years old and much of it is out of date as ballparks change every year. So don't take it too seriously!

Day #	Next stop	# of games (major/minor)	MLB Parks	Minor League Parks	E-mail Update
216 (11/16)	Trip is done!	108 (72/36)	30!!!	36	Volume 38 (11/15)

In April 2003, I spent 5 weeks on the road watching 40 games in that time. I saw 15 major league games, 15 minor league games, and 10 hockey and basketball games.

It was a truly international sports road trip. I began in Toronto on March 31st to check out Hideki Matsui in his first games in the major leagues. After a few days in New York City to see the Yankees home opener, I flew to Puerto Rico to watch the Expos defeat the Mets on April 11th and 12th. I also visited the new Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and several minor league parks as well. Check the schedule for details of the games I saw, or read the updates that I sent.

Day #	Location	Next stop	# of games seen (major/minor/other)	MLB Parks*	Minor League Parks	E-mail Update
35 (5/4)	Ottawa	Trip is done!	40 (15/15/10)	5	14	Volume 9 (5/5)

Throughout 2004 I traveled to a variety of sporting events. The highlights were Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia and Petco Park in San Diego; the lowlight was Toronto's 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the Flyers in the NHL playoffs. I also saw a World Cup qualifying game in Hong Kong, and a Rugby League game in Sydney. Click the link below for the details.

Only one trip to North America this year, but I was still able to see several games, including RFK Stadium, home of the ex-Expos, the Washington Nationals. I also saw an A-1 race in Sydney and Roger Federer win the Thailand Open Tennis Championship in Bangkok. Click the link below for the details.

The 2006 baseball season witnessed yet another new major league stadium: Busch Stadium, home of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. To keep this website up to date, I visited St. Louis and the 3^rd version of Busch Stadium in June 2006. I also took a quick trip through New England in September, visiting 5 parks, finishing off with a NY Penn League playoff game on Staten Island.

The end of my hometown Ottawa Lynx force me to return home to watch their last few games. Ottawa is moving to Allentown in 2008, which marks the end of AAA baseball in Canada. A quick trip to New York afterwards allows me to catch the Yankees and Mets in their playoff run.

I also took two trips earlier in the year to watch some NHL and then a California road trip. All-in-all a good 2007, but I'm looking forward to seeing a new stadium in Washington in 2008.

Next stop	# of games (major/minor/other)	MLB Parks	Minor League Parks	Other Parks
Trips are done!	26 (9/11/6)	6	5	5