Baseball Travel

{short description of image} Baseball Travel

I grew up in central Minnesota, and my first recollections of baseball came through the Minnesota Twins of that era -- when Rod Carew was wowing the world with his hitting achievements, when Bobby Darwin blazed through his rookie season, launching home runs and looking like the Real Deal (as it ends up, he wasn't), when Lyman Bostock effortlessly floated through center field to snare a well-hit ball, and when Disco Danny Ford trotted backwards across home plate. To me, the old Metropolitan Stadium was a world away, and I could only imagine the plush grass surface and the smell of the hot dogs as they were described in such vivid detail by Halsey Hall and Herb Carneal. I didn't actually attend a game until my senior year of high school, when I saw Roger Erickson shut down the Yankees from the distant left-field bleachers. I was in heaven.

Maybe that's why I take such a delight in baseball travel -- when you delay gratification throughout your entire adolescence, you appreciate it more when you reach adulthood.

Here are my guides to baseball travel, focusing mainly on the Upper Midwest. In the last three years I've been lucky enough to combine baseball with my writing career (or, rather, subsidize my baseball travel with writing gigs), covering the Northern League on business and travel levels for Corporate Report, Minnesota Monthly and Isthmus, the Madison (Wis.) alternative weekly. The focus will be on the actual travel experience: your best bets when you get to the game, where to sit and obtain tickets, where to stay, and what else to see while making a baseball pilgrimage. I make no promises about presenting a complete guide to any of the cities covered within, and in many ways this is a personal and somewhat idiosyncratic guide to the ballparks I've visited. To the best of my knowledge, the information is current.

Most of these reviews date from the 1999 season. While ticket and concession prices may be a little out of date, the general information about each ballpark should be the same in 2000.

Despite many rumors of franchise movement--especially in the surprisingly volatile Pioneer League--only one previously reviewed franchise moved: The Rockford Reds moved to Dayton (Ohio) and were reborn as the Dayton Dragons. However, don't be surprised if 2000 is the last season for Pioneer League franchises in Helena and Butte, as the league scouts out new locations in Utah and Colorado.

If you want to respond with corrections or comments, drop me a line here. If enough people respond, I'll add reader comments to the listings.

And always remember: it's just a game.

{short description of image} Stadiums

Current listings

Northern League

CanWest Global Park, Winnipeg Goldeyes logo