Roadtrips

When you drive around the country with the main focus of trying to take in baseball, one unintended consequence is that the entire trip takes on its own memory. It’s more than just a ballpark, what the score was, or a cool new hat you bought. Being that there is baseball literally everywhere, that just means being able to enjoy countless unique cities, local traditions, favorite restaurants, and significant landmarks. These are the major bonuses of baseball road trips in America.

We are already halfway through the month of March and instead of being able to watch Spring Training, we’re left waiting for the smoke to clear after the recent labor strife with the MLB and its players. And yet, teams from various other leagues around the country have gone out of their way in recent months to let fans know that there is NO issue with their seasons starting on time. The players will be in uniform, gates will be open, hot dogs and beers will be ready for consumption, and most importantly baseball will be played on their fields. It warms a guy’s heart to know that the minor, independent, and collegiate summer leagues have our back when the hope for baseball seems lost.

I think that if I had ever been a ball player, I would have found myself in the independent leagues. Of course, I’ll never know, but it is fun to speculate. It has to be so hard to make it as a pro. In fact, everything I’ve ever read shows that it’s damn near impossible. The odds are really against you. Something like only 10% of NCAA ball players ever get drafted by Major League Baseball (and that number could dwindle as the league has already begun to shrink the draft from 40 rounds to 20 in the last two years). But that’s the beauty of it, right? You don’t have to be a highly-touted recruit, or even get drafted by an MLB team, to love and play the game. Even as a fan, I’m incredibly passionate about baseball. I never want it to end. I get borderline depressed when it’s over. And that’s why I think I would have been a great indy ball player. These are athletes playing baseball strictly out of love and not really for the money in the paycheck. That’s frankly because we’re not talking about a whole lot of coin at this level. According to Indy Ball Island, players would be most fortunate to make around $3,000 a month at this level. Some independent ball players don’t even get a salary at all. So in these players’ cases, it really is about not wanting baseball to end.

When we heard the Savannah Bananas were doing a One City World Tour, we knew we had to go. The Savannah Bananas chose Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile Alabama as the location to play two “Banana Ball” games. After securing the permission from family, clearing the calendar, we decided to make it a road trip. At just under 1,000 miles and 14.5 hours, it was a long one. Thanks to google location tracking, I had an up to the minute accounting of our trip.

When a true baseball visionary offers to give you time out of his day, what do you do? I mean, besides kiss your wife, tell her how fortunate you are, and play your favorite lotto numbers? Of course, you take him up on it! And especially when it’s Jesse Cole, the world renowned owner of the Savannah Bananas. Ever since 2016 when he took over an empty ballpark in Savannah, GA, all he has done is win. Surprisingly, that has very little to do with baseball titles. You ask him, he’ll state it rather plainly. “We never promote the baseball. If we lose, we never say we lose. We talk about the crowd, we talk about the experience. We post that. Our brand is we make the game fun. We make baseball fun.” Clearly to Cole, “winning” means something altogether different than what a traditional baseball team owner may connect to wins, pennants, and rings. But if you spend a little time with THIS owner, maybe that makes all the difference.

Taking one last look from the upper deck at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, I knew I was saying goodbye to an era of baseball in Alabama. We were never going to be able to make it back there for a game on the next beach vacation. It seemed like, perhaps, Mobile residents had already come to that conclusion over the last few years. It was hard not to notice a lack of turnout for the games we attended. Rows of empty seats made for easy work in regards to retrieving foul balls, but it wasn’t without its consequences on the team. That final time at The Hank, I had my camera ready and took pictures of the empty 755 Club, closed shops on the concourse, and an empty lawn out in the outfield.

Even as the calendar turns to November in Chicagoland, and the weather clearly isn’t designed for baseball, that doesn’t keep me from missing it. And granted, since this year meant a whole lot less baseball games to attend for all of us, any opportunity to go to a game is notable and worth considering. But going to a baseball game in November? Is that even possible?

A few months ago, I didn’t think that the opportunity to attend a baseball game in person would exist in 2020. COVID-19 had swept all sports away over a couple days in March. MLB spring training started and was then canceled. It was a brutal couple of months of lock-down, but starting in June, things started to change. Independent leagues and Collegiate summer leagues created pods, and in some cases, entire new teams to get some baseball played in 2020. Some of these teams are playing “home” games in different cities, but they are making it happen. Shameless plug… we put all these on a map, so you could find them easier here.

GAME DAY MEMORIES: Geneva, IL (Kane County Cougars/Class A Midwest League)

One of my favorite baseball stories of all time has nothing to do with the game being played on the field but more so tied to my experience in the stands.

As the calendar turns to June, each summer I begin to plan my family’s routes throughout the country for upcoming vacations. And by vacations I mean, unique opportunities for out-of-town baseball. But this June is unlike any other in memory, and we find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic and civil unrest. In some ways, it definitely makes us question what’s most important. On the other hand, isn’t it the perfect excuse to want to get away from it all?