A ballpark a day ...:
A fan tries to see a daily live big-league game; what are his highlights?
For $22,500, you can go to 216 major league baseball games in all 30 parks in 183 days.
But you will have to really, really love baseball.
“I am rejuvenated because I’m not working,” says Chuck Booth, who is in the middle of the journey. “I love this stuff. I am used to being in my car every day because I’m a courier for a living.”
For Booth, though, the odyssey is less about loving baseball than revitalizing himself after persistent issues from the nine concussions he suffered from sports and more recently a hit-and-run accident in 2010.
That car accident and a concussion months later from slipping on ice have left him sensitive to light and prone to dizzy spells.
Booth, who was required to take six months off from work to heal, had a choice.
The 38-year-old native of Canada could have stayed home, but he chose to surpass his past adventures when he traveled to games at all 30 parks in 23 days to set a Guinness World Record in 2012.
“It’s about traveling. Traveling in itself is a tough nugget to crack. So to be able to go and travel somewhere is a pretty amazing thing in its own right,” Booth says. “You face chaos every day. You miss one thing, and it just dominoes on you.”
So when the city bus in Baltimore ran over a lamppost and he had to get to the stadium in half an hour, he just rolled his backpack over his shoulders and walked — plus asked for a lot of directions.
“What I always do is ask three or four people, even if I look stupid as a tourist,” Booth says.
Along the way, Booth has taken advantage of megabus.com, buying roughly 100 of his bus tickets to travel up and down the East Coast for $1.
In addition, Booth estimates he spends about $20 a ticket at each stadium but has found bargains as low as $7 to $10 at Washington’s Nationals Park and Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
He also learned tips that can be useful to other fans, such as clubs’ policies on food.
At Nationals Park, you can bring in food in single-serving bags in a soft-sided container or cooler that doesn’t exceed 16x16x8 inches. That could be the difference between spending $100 in the park or eating at home on the cheap.
“I’ve called myself more of a travel expert than even a baseball park expert,” Booth says. “(My family) thought I was crazy back in the day when I was doing those 30-park maneuvers in under a month.”
Now his family understands the purpose of his journey, which Booth says has been like Lumi- nosity — an online brain-training company — for his mind.
At the end of his trip, Booth will finish with a three-game set between the Washington Nationals and New York Mets at Citi Field. Would he do this trip again? “If MLB would pay for it and have me as sort of a host,” he said. “I found it incredibly resourceful. It’s healed me.”
Trip highlights:
Cheapest ticket:
“I’m going to get a dollar skyline ticket (at Turner Field in Atlanta). They have them available before every game. About an hour before the game, you request a skyline ticket. It’s on the top deck and far away from everything, (but) it’s a dollar.”
Best concession item:
“Boog’s Barbecue. It has a prime rib sandwich at Camden Yards. The prime rib sandwich is just too good of a deal. And they have stuff like coleslaw and baked beans to add to it. The Philly cheese steak is second in Philadelphia. Third, I got pork chop on a stick at (the Minnesota Twins’) Target Field.”
Best atmosphere:
“Oakland. That might surprise you. They actually allow me to sit in the right-field bleacher section. They (the fans) all have flags (in the section). They all have musical instruments. They are into every single pitch. It’s unbelievable.”
Best park:
“AT&T Park (in San Francisco). I like the red brick stadiums. It never seems to age. They have just got every single inch of the place surrounded with stuff towards yesteryear players (and) homage to the greats.”
Best city:
“San Fran No. 1. I will throw Boston behind there, too. I would have loved to gone to more games in Boston. It’s too expensive.”
Biggest ripoff:
“I’m going to say Tampa Bay. I can’t really constitute it as a ripoff. I paid $60 for a really nice ticket. I paid $60 for a ticket that was like 10 rows behind home plate, and I still felt like I got ripped off.”
Cheapest place:
“Baltimore is the cheapest city to do it every day because the transit system is so cheap. Its $4 for a transportation day pass. And the tickets are $8 or $9.”