What is a Traditional Baseball Roadtrip?

A traditional baseball roadtrip is simply a vacation trip for which the main focus is to see a planned series of baseball games. For this type of trip, our intent has been to try to see a game each day, but also fill in free time during the day or evening by visiting local attractions or seeing sights. Our traditional roadtrips have tended to be longer that the Twittered ones and have lasted from a minimum of 2 days to a maximum of 10 days.

The shorter duration trips were to see teams easily accessible from the metropolitan NYC area by car. The MLB teams located in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic States are the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, and Washington Nationals. Games for these teams may be attended by car, but some destinations require an overnight stay.

Longer trips, such as our 10-day Midwest roadtrip, were planned to visit a larger number of regionally located baseball teams. Typically they involve a flight to an origination city in the region, such as Cleveland or Minneapolis in the Midwest, or San Francisco on the West Coast, and return from that city or another location by plane. Travel between cities in the region typically has been by rental car, but in some cases by plane. In cities like Chicago and San Francisco, inner city travel and/or airport transfers were done using public transportation, such as a subway or train

On some of the longer trips, we added to our itinerary stops for sightseeing and to visit local tourist attractions. There has been more focus on filling out our days with other activities in areas, such as the mid-West, where we had not already traveled extensively. This has added a little vacation element to these baseball roadtrips. On the other hand, we have traveled quite extensively in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic States and also on the West Coast. For this reason, trips to these parts of the country have been more aligned with baseball activities.

Until now, there has been no Twitter of information about the roadtrip, games attended, or in-game activity.

The general format of our Blog posting for a Traditional Baseball Roadtrip is given below.

General Roadtrip Planning Tips:

1. To reduce the number of nights of lodging, fly into the city of the first game early the day of the game and attend an evening game. Be sure that there is sufficient time between your arrival at the airport and the start of the game to allow for a delay in the arrival of the flight and plan in enough additional time for transfer from the airport to the hotel and then on to the stadium.
2. To save another night of lodging, try to attend a day game on the date of departure. Again, assure that there is sufficient time to return to the hotel after the game, travel to the airport, and arrive at the airport on time for the departing flight.
3. Do not select the last flight of the day for you return transportation.
4. Always have tickets to the game in advance of departure even if it requires purchase of tickets through a third party, such as StubHub.
5. If a game is rained out and there is a high probability that you may not be able to return during the same season, before departing the stadium exchange the rain check for a weekend game vs. a popular team that has a large fan base or regional rivalry with the home team. Upon returning home attempt to sell the unused ticket(s) through a third party website, such as StubHub.
6. Don’t plan your trip during the weeks of inter-league play unless you specifically want to attend a game between a certain AL team and NL team. Games are often sold out in cities that don’t traditionally have sell outs making tickets hard to obtain and/or costly.
7. Attend two games in cities that you would like to explore, played by teams you are more interested in, or where it may not be easy to return. For example, attending a game in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and New York might warrant a multi-night/game stay. Also some smaller cities, such as St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and San Diego, are very interesting baseball destinations and may be worth staying to see a second game.
8. If possible, do not have a car while staying in cities with either downtown stadiums or public transportation (subways or trains) with connections directly to the stadium(s) and to/from the airport (if necessary). Some examples of cities that offer this are Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and even Minneapolis. There may be little use for a car in these cities and additional charges for parking at a downtown hotel.
9. In cities with downtown stadiums, our recommendation is to stay in the downtown area at a hotel that is located near the stadium or public transportation connections. For instance, in both St. Louis and Pittsburgh we walked to the games and in cities, such as Chicago, Boston, New York, and San Francisco, you can take a train or subway to the game.
10. When planning the sequence of cities to be visited during a roadtrip, check the team schedules for Monday and Thursday games. Monday is the most frequent day that teams do not have a game scheduled and the same for Thursday, but not as often. Therefore, games available on Monday or Thursday may dictate which city you need to be in on those days.
11. Check schedules for day/night game opportunities to see two games in the same day. This may reduce the duration of the roadtrip by a day or two. For instance, it may be possible to see a game in Chicago and Milwaukee on the same day.
12. If there is a long driving distance between the cities for two consecutive game, check for minor league teams that are located along the route between the cities and add a stop with overnight stay to see a game there. For example, the Indianapolis Indians are located approximately midway between Cincinnati and Chicago or the Toledo Mud Hens can be a stop either between Chicago and Detroit or Chicago and Cleveland.
    

Layout of a Typical Blog Posting for a Traditional Baseball Roadtrip:

Traditional Baseball Roadtrip (Number): (Name)
Date: (Departure date) (Return Date)
Primary Destinations: (List of MLB City & State)


Games Attended:

Game 1: (Visiting team) vs (Home team) (Date) (Time) (Stadium) (Location) (Web-link)
Game 2: (Visiting team) vs (Home team) (Date) (Time) (Stadium) (Location) (Web-link)
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
Game x: (Visiting team) vs (Home team) (Date) (Time) (Stadium) (Location) (Web-link)


Roadtrip Summary:
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MLB Final Scores and Box Scores:

Game 1: Final Score: (Winning team Runs) (Losing team Runs) Box Score/News Article: (web-link)
Game 2: Final Score: (Winning team Runs) (Losing team Runs) Box Score/News Article: (web-link)
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
Game x: Final Score: (Winning team Runs) (Losing team Runs) Box Score/News Article: (web-link)

Travel Method, Route, and Distances:

(Date #1)

• (Type of Travel) (# Miles or Departure Airport) (Destination City/Airport)

(Date #2)

• (Type of Travel) (# Miles or Departure Airport) (Destination City/Airport)

(Date #3)

• (Type of Travel) (# Miles or Departure Airport) (Destination City/Airport)
  

. . .
....

(Date #x)

• (Type of Travel) (# Miles or Departure Airport) (Destination City/Airport)

Approx. Total Drive Miles: xxxx mi

En-route Attractions Visited:

Listing of attractions visited during the trip:

1. (Name of attraction #1) (City, State) (Link to website)
2. (Name of attraction #2) (City, State) (Link to website)
3. (Name of attraction #3) (City, State) (Link to website)
4. (Name of attraction #x) (City, State) (Link to website) .... ....
   

Suggestions for Additional Roadtrip Attractions:

Listing of additional attractions that may be visited along the route:

1. (Name of attraction #1) (City, State) (Link to website)
2. (Name of attraction #2) (City, State) (Link to website)
3. (Name of attraction #3) (City, State) (Link to website)
4. (Name of attraction #x) (City, State) (Link to website) .... ....
   

Roadtrip Planning Tips:

This section provides a listing of tips that may be helpful during the planning of an efficient baseball roadtrip. They are similar to those listed earlier under “General Roadtrip Planning Tips,” but with details relevant to the route/cities of the specific trip.

Recommendations about making traveling plans:

1. Choosing travel times.
2. Choosing the origination and return cities.
3. Available public transportation options.
4. Where not to have a car.
5. Recommendations about choosing games.
6. How to minimize days with no games.
7. Reduce travel distances by adding stops for minor league games.
8. Opportunities to attend two games in the same day.
9. Recommendations for cities/teams where stays might be extended for more than one game.
10. Selection of lodging options.
    

Some Changes since (Date of Road Trip):

A list of changes that have taken place since the date of the original roadtrip, for instance:

• Stadium or team has been renamed.
• Stadium visited has been replaced by a new stadium.
• Minor league city no longer has a team.
• Major league affiliation of the team has changed.
  

Some Suggested Alternatives:

A list of changes that could be made to enhance or make the original itinerary more versatile, for example:

1. Fly into an alternate roadtrip origination city.
2. Add another game/city to reduce daily travel mileage.
3. City/Team/Stadium that might warrant seeing more than one game.
   

Roadtrip Planning Resources:

A listing of the web resources to use for planning a similar baseball roadtrip:

Official Website of Major League Baseball: (Website-link)

• Listing of information needed.

Link to View Addresses of the Stadiums for each MLB Team: (Website-link)

Official Website of Other Leagues with Teams Visited: (Website-link)

• Listing of information needed.