2011 3rd Annual Boys Baseball Vacation

We are calling this year the Lake Erie loop year.   Despite living in Mexico all year, we felt the need to try to fit in the 3rd annual Boys Baseball Vacation.  We had a limited time window to fit it into so we had to look hard at the schedules.  After going through several possibilities we ended up with the Lake Erie loop.  Game 1 will be the Detroit Tigers, game 2 the Toronto Bluejays, game 3 will be the Buffalo Bisons, game 4 the Erie SeaWolves, and game 5 the Lake County Captains outside of Cleveland.  This trip also allows us to hit some great landmarks including Niagara Falls.   Again, we can't wait!

Game 5 June 6, 2010 Lansing Lugnuts

The last game of our 5 day trip and regretfully we brought the rain with us from Grand Rapids.  Unlike the game in Grand Rapids though, the rain wasn't enough to end the game in Lansing.  We did sit through a rather lengthy rain delay in Lansing, but as it was our last game we decided we were going to wait it out to the end.  As I mentioned, our patience paid off, and we got to watch the game conclude.  This game had the poorest attendence (with the possible exception of the much smaller South Bend stadium) of any of the games we atteneded on the trip.  By the time the rain delay was over, the crowd was even smaller and we picked where we wanted to sit.   We kept the kids happy during the delay, by filling them with as much food as their heart desired.  Due to the delay, I would have to say this was the calorie heaviest day in our two years of trips!  We also had to stick around until the end as it was run the bases day for kids.

In the tradition of our trips, we got the park very early and in credit to the players they did a great job signing the baseball.  Other then the Fort Wayne ball we got with our birthday package, this ball had more signatures then any we had acquired in our two years of games.   This alone is reason enough to go to a Lugnuts game.  If this wasn't enough, despite the low attendence (probably forecast based), this is a stadium that I would recommend to anyone.  It had a great right field kids area (which we enjoyed several times during the long game) and a nice clean minor league feel.

Our last purchase of the trip was a black Lugnuts mini-bat.

Game 4 June 5, 2010 West Michigan Whitecaps

The next morning we worked our way up along the Lake Michigan shore to Grand Rapids.  If you have never been to Grand Rapids before it is a surprisingly large city with a very impressive sky line.  We stayed in a hotel in downtown, but the ball park is well north of the city. 

We got to Grand Rapids early and actually went to an outdoor fun park.  Due to the nature of the game that evening, I think this was probably the highlight of the day for us as we enjoyed the arcade, putt-putt and go carts.

This is one of the first cities I have seen that did not use the ballpark to enhance their downtown.  Instead they put it in a suburb next to a waterpark.  For this reason, their was no real outfield view of which to speak. This is one of the more unique (not sure if good) parks we have seen.  It obviously had some age, but had a different type of architecture.  Actually kind of reminded me of an old horse racetrack.   The vendors were also set up as carts all along the concourse.  This seemed to provide a lot of options, but also made walking difficult. 

As a testament to community support the game seemed to be almost sold out.  We had bought our tickets very early and actually got front row, next to the dugout.  We didn't realize how next to the dugout we would be.  The height of the dugout so badly blocked our view of the diamond that we actually moved well up and ended up sitting in the high left field seats.  This is the last time we decided to buy front row tickets as they seem to always lacked perspective.

This game was a first for us, our first rain out.  The game started under a light rain (which we did come prepared).  Like most of the crowd we were soaked by the 3rd inning and left shortly after before they officially called the game.  The kids didn't mind, the bad seats, coupled with poor kids facilities didn't heighten their interest in the park.   Grandpa and I were also more then happy to skip the rain for the warm hotel room.   We headed back to the hotel and I think we enjoyed the boys favorite trip activity, swimming in the hotel pools! 

We still got our mini-bat, even though it was an untraditionally sized navy blue.

Game 3 June 4, 2010 Gary Railcats

 The reason we chose Gary is that we decided to include a day at the Indiana Dunes State Park in our trip.  The girls, who had gone to Chicago the previous day, met back up with us and we enjoyed a day at the beach.   The kids enjoyed hiking the dunes, especially the largest natural dune in North America which was a special challenge for all of us!  Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

This was our first independent league game.   This park is easily seen off of 80/90 into Chicago so I had seen the park on many occassions during my travels.  For this reason, I knew it was a relatively new quality park.  While no one really wants to go to Gary, ever, the park was really the nicest independent league stadium I had ever seen.  It definitely eclipsed South Bend from the night before and was as nice as most Single-A stadiums.   Overlooking centerfield you get  the 80/90 bridge.  I remember actually enjoying seeing the bridge beyond the wall during a night game as the oncoming traffic with their lights strange enough included a nice backdrop.   Fittingly, due to Gary history, the park is called the Steelyard.

The concourse is pretty traditional with the normal vendors, but I actually remember having some really good nachos in Gary.

We bought a Sky Blue Railcats Mini-Bat.

Game 2 June 3, 2010 South Bend Silver Hawks

We stayed the previous night in Fort Wayne and headed out to South Bend the next afternoon.   To add some fun to the trip we got their early and headed to the South Bend Chocolate Factory and took the factory tour.  I would recommend this to anyone in the area.  The kids loved the movie and the free hand dipped chocolate spoons, though I thought the chocolate was pretty average.

After the tour, we headed over to Notre Dame's campus. I had never personally been to this football shrine (though I am not a fan) so I wanted to get a closeup.   I really enjoyed the statues outside the Stadium and the up close look at Touchdown Jesus!


We headed from campus to the search for the stadium.  I have never seen a park that has so unobvious as this one.  We actually circled around the park once before we even realized that was the park.   It has no presence within the city unlike every other stadium we have seen.  It actually seems to be sunken down below ground level.  Once in the stadium, you are really no more impressed then you are from the outisde.  Other then Bosse field in Evansville, I have not been to a park so obviously aged (and Bosse's age lends charm).  This park is just old and simple.




With that being said, we were very excited about Super Hero night.  The kids dressed up as their favorite super heros.  Edan was Spiderman and David was Batman.  Regretfully, no one else who came to the game got the memo.   When they came around to collect superheros our two were the only ones in the park.  They took them both down to the dugout and Edan won on a second round cheer off by the crowd (David stills swears he won the first round, but the announcer called it a tie).   This continued Edan's good luck from the previous night as he was given a free Silverhawks t-shirt that was two sizes to large.  On the positive side, we saved it and a year later he now wears it.

Like the park, the food seemed to have little character.  I have nothing of interest to share here.   This is not a park I would recommend unless you were in the vicinity and desperate for some baseball.  We drove over to Michigan City and got a hotel for the next couple nights following the game.

In keeping with tradition, we bought a silver Silver Hawks mini bat.

Game 1 June 2, 2010 Fort Wayne Tincaps

"THE STAR"

The first and most anticipated game of our 2010 baseball vacation was the new stadium of the Fort Wayne Tincaps.  Not only were we excited about the new stadium, which we had heard great deal about (all good things true), we were going to use the game to celebrate our youngest son, Edan's, birthday.  With that being the plan, and Fort Wayne being Grandpa's home base, they set up the event. 


Like many minor league parks, they had a great birthday package.    We got tickets right behind the dugout, the kids got free passes to all the games, (Fort Wayne has a great area with a rock climbing wall), a cookie cake shaped like a baseball, free food, as well as a ball autographed by all the players in a nice plastic case.  If this wasn't enough, Edan got to run out and throw one of the ceremonial first pitches (Almost 2 years later, he still talks about this.)  I think this was dad's favorite part as well.   I have always dreamed about doing this, maybe one day! 

This game had additional significance as this was the first game we took my daughter Joelle.   Because this was near Grandma and Grandpa's we made a full family event to start the trip.   To add to the excitement for my daughter, I promised her that I would let her get a pink mini bat to go along with the bats she had seen her brothers bring home.  She was excited, the only problem was when we got to the park and couldn't find one anywhere.  We finally found a vendor walking who had 1 left.  It was horribly beat up, but she didn't care, it was her pink bat.   Outside of the bat, she found little interest in the game, but she loved the food and the games area.

A note, Fort Wayne has a beautiful new stadium.  I would rate it right up next to Dayton as the best minor league setting I have seen.  It has a great center field view of the city, convention center, and new Marriott attached to the convention center.   A must see park for any minor league fan.  I don't remember a great deal of the food as Grandma forced us to eat up all the free hot dog vouchers we were given with the birthday package!  Maybe next time!

Due to Edan's birthday, Joelle's first game, and the family setting of the game, with Grandma and Aunt Christy there, this might go down as one of the more memorable games we attend.

2010 2nd Annual Boys Baseball Vacation

After the success of year one, I began planning for the 2nd trip as soon as I could get my hands on the schedules of the teams in late winter. Because the kids were not old enough to appreciate Major League games, (and if they aren't going to appreciate it I don't want to pay for it!), we decided to make this an all minor league trip. Also, because of the fun of year one, we decided to make this a 5 day trip taking us through Northern Indiana and Michigan. We started with the new Stadium in Fort Wayne, then on to South Bend, Gary, Grand Rapids, and finally Lansing. In total, 4 Single A ballparks and a Non-Affiliate park. Not near the variety of the year before where we saw a Single A, 2 Triple A, and a Major League stadium, but well anticipated none the less!

Game 4 2009 Louisville Sluggers

The final stop on our innaugural trip. I do have to say that I think grandpa and I were worn out by the time we got to Louisville. Swimming every day and wrestling every night had put a strain on the two of us! Again, we traveled into the city early. This time to tour the wonderful Louisville bat museum and factory. I think we appreciated it a bit more then the kids, but they enjoyed their time in the batting cage and their fourth mini bat of the trip for attending the factory tour.









After the tour, we walked over to Slugger Stadium. We got their a bit early so we decided to have a bite to eat in the restaurant attached to the stadium. The kids weren't the bigget fan of this idea as they thought this would cut down on the food we would let them buy in the stadium! It didn't.


Louisville has a nice park, clean with a nice view over looking the Ohio River. The park has been around for a while as I had been their 12 years earlier as a teen to watch a game. One that included Deion Sanders hitting a home run at that! We enjoyed the park, but it seemed the least descript of all of the parks. This was also our first extra innings game. I don't remember much else about the game. Regretfully, because it was a Sunday at about 5 and Grandpa had to make it back to Fort Wayne for work the next day, we left in the 11th inning before the game was over. We later found out they won, making the home team 4-0 on our trip. Of course, we concluded that we had to be good luck!

We bought a black Sluggers bat to finish off our 5 mini-bat haul for the trip and our first baseball vacation!

Game 3 2009 Cincinnatti Reds

Our first Major League game! This was the kid's first major league game. As grandpa and I are both die hard Cubs fans, it broke our heart a little bit that we allowed the Reds to take this honor for the kids. With that being said, Wrigley is really not a kid friendly place anymore.




This was also the innaugural year for the new Reds stadium (or second), I forget. Anyway, the stadium was charming, but also a bit hokey with its riverboat over the left field wall. This was a great game, but I remember it starting with a bit of dissapointment. I was dissapointed because I had purchased early Row 1 tickets on the left field line. I actually thought this meant Row 1, we all did. Little did I know that they went to about K before they got to Row 1 so we were about 20 rows up. The kids were dissapointed because the park had no playground equipment in the preliminary walk around (this became about a 5th inning tradition for us) and the pros weren't really up for autographs. With that being said, the park was beautiful and we got to watch and exciting game between the Reds and the Brewers. After the game, we were treated to an incredible fireworks show synchronized to Michael Jackson tunes. It was the first of many great fireworks displays we have now seen.




On a sidenote, we got into Cincinatti early to go to the Creation Museum. If you haven't been this is an incredible facility and well worth 4-5 hours of your time.

We bought a Fire Engine Red Mini Bat that had autographs of all the players as our souvenir. I also bought a Commemoritive Riverfront Stadium bat to remember my childhood excursion to that fine park. (While the kids were now on bat 5, I had accumulated over 20 parks at this time.)

Game 2 2009 Columbus Clippers

After a big morning breakfast at Bob Evans in Dayton, we took off for Columbus. The trip was only about an hour and a half. We got into the hotel early, and as the kids made us aware, in plenty of time for a swim in the hotel pool (up to this point, still their favorite part of the trips I think, that and eating at the games). After the pool and a nap, we headed to downtown Columbus for the Triple A Clippers game. It was the innaugural year for the park in Columbus. It definitely had some unique qualities including its single level seating, right field restaurant type seating (like Fenway over the monster) and its unique brick look. Despite some of the interesting design features of the ballpark, we didn't feel it had quite the same mystic as the Dayton field. One other notable thing from that game is the poor food selection. One of the kids greatest joys at games is the unlimited amount of park food we allow. Largely because of grandpa's inability to say know, the kids eat every two to three innings. The food in Columbus is dominated by a large open pit grill. I just remember both the burgers, dogs, and chicken being very dry and rubbery. Also, because of the dominance of this feature, the park seemed to lack other interesting, outside the box food. The other thing I remember is that the home team wasn't big on signing baseball, but the visiting dugout filled up a whole ball. This became another one of our traiditions, buying logo balls and having the home team (most of the time) fill it well before the game with signatures. We sat halfway into the outfield on the rightfield line, halfway up the seats.

We purchased a navy blue Columbus Clippers mini-bat as our souvenir.

Game 1 2009 Dayton Dragons

Our trip started us out from Indianapolis in late June 2009 at the beginning of our first official baseball vacation. While the boys had previously been to an Indianapolis Indians and Peoria Chiefs game, this was really going to be one of their first real baseball experiences. Our first game was at the Dayton Dragons stadium. At this point, we had assumed you could walk up to any minor league park and buy tickets. We did not know how popular baseball was in Dayton! We walked up to the ticket window over an hour before the game and were lucky to get some of their last sets of 4 seats available in the left field edge of upper deck. Besides the upper deck seats, boy were we in for a treat. I have found out sense, as I now read up quite a bit on it, but at the time we did not know how great was the Dayton ballpark. Being our first trip, even though my dad and eye have been to dozens of games, mostly Cubs, we had no minor league frame of reference. Despite the lack of frame of reference, we fell in love with the ballpark. It was incredible from the interactive scoreboard that ran the whole outfield to the old foundry overlooking right field. It was American minor league baseball at its best. As I now know, Dayton is normally ranked one of the top five minor league parks in America. We were blessed with such a start to our first trip. I don't remember the game score two years later, but I do remember we forgot to take our camera to our first game. We were forced to take pictures of the kids with a cardboard cut out of the mascot at Bob Evan's the next morning!

In our newly started tradition, we bought a Kelly Green Dayton Dragons Mini-Bat.

2009 1st Annual Boys Baseball Vacation

While I didn't star this blog until 2011, I am going to try to retrace our first couple years of baseball vacations so as to try to chronicle every year of our annual baseball vacation. The first trip we took was in 2009. My son David was 6, and Edan was 5. We visited baseball games in the cities of Dayton, Columbus, Cincinatti, and Louisville on our first annual baseball vacation. Because the kids were so young, we decided four days would be a good length of time for our first trip. As it was our first experience, we did not know what to expect or what lay ahead. By the time we were done, we knew we started a tradition that would last for quite a while!