BIG LEAGUE MILESTONE
Beland hits all 30 ballparks
It took 12 years, 28 cities, too many hotdogs and an untallied amount of money but Jim Beland realized his dream of visiting all 30 of Major League Baseball’s parks.
The Windsorite recently completed his journey, taking in a midweek Padres game at San Diego’s Petco Park.
Being that this concluded an adventure that began in another decade, Beland’s siblings — two brothers and a sister — joined him in San Diego where the stadium scoreboard announced his achievement.
“Congratulations Jim (Lugnut) Beland on reaching 30 out of 30 Major League ballparks,” read the sign that referred to a childhood nickname.
“It’s kind of neat and it’s been a lot of fun,” the 47-year-old math teacher at Massey high school said. “It’s really struck a chord with some people.”
Baseball and hockey are two of Beland’s favourite sports.
While one hockey arena can look a lot like another, there’s something about the eye-catching signature appeal of a city’s ballpark.
“Ballparks are uniquely charming,” he said.
“The parks are beautiful and the skylines are incorporated into them. It’s a neat way to see the cities and I really enjoyed interacting with the fan base of each one.”
The idea to catch a game at all 30 Major League venues was hatched after a summer road trip to Cleveland.
“I asked a buddy if he’d go to Cleveland to see a ball game and we did,” Beland recalled. “It might have been that same summer or the next that a bunch of us went to Wrigley Field. The Cleveland trip kind of sparked the whole idea.”
Beland spent the first few summers doing road trips to New York, Boston and elsewhere.
“Then I realized, if this is serious I need to start flying.”
So Beland started poring over MLB schedules in the off-season, figuring out the logistics of catching a home game in two or three cities in close proximity.
Some, such as Atlanta and New York, he wound up doing twice because those cities opened new stadiums over the past dozen years.
Often travelling with friends, he also did solo trips over the Easter long weekend to take in games at Colorado and Atlanta.
His only real battle with inclement weather came at a rainy White Sox game in Chicago.
“Once we got past the fifth inning I knew I could check it off,” Beland said of the standard threshold for making a game official.
His favourite venue is PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
“It’s small with a great skyline,” he said. “There’s the yellow painted bridges (crossing the Allegheny River) you can walk over and the statue of Willie Stargell. It’s really well done.”
While he’s a Blue Jays fan, Detroit’s Comerica Park is one of his favourites in the American League.
He’s picked up the odd hat and T-shirt along the way but hasn’t made a point of collecting anything in particular.
It’s more about the experience of each visit, drinking in the sights and sounds and people.
He makes a point of trying to walk around the outside of the stadium, if it’s possible and he does the same on the inside concourse.
Beland hasn’t added up all the bills from these excursions.
“I’d be frightened to do that,” he said. “I’m a teacher so I have the summer off and I like to think of these as my vacation.”