Another Stadium Fades Into Oblivion Drillers Stadium Loses the Drillers The cliché is true. If you build it, they will come. It being a ballpark and they being a baseball team. Of course, "they" have to leave somewhere to arrive and when that happens a current ballpark becomes a former one. That happened quite a bit in the decade that is just about to end; 63 times in fact. That's counting major and affiliated minor league teams, one of which is the Tulsa Drillers, who left their self-titled stadium in the county fairgrounds for new corporate sponsored downtown digs.  Read the full article  Abandoned ballparks list

Homecoming in Washington CONSOL Energy Park in Washington, PA - August 22, 2009 We didn't have a professional baseball team when I grew up in Washington, PA in the 1980s. That all changed when the since renamed Falconi Field opened in 2002 and the Washington Wild Things were born. Well after my former hometown joined the rarefied ranks of cities with pro ball I finally got to experience the thrill of seeing a game there.  Read the full article

Major League Ballpark Tours What You Need to Know to Become A Ballpark Tourist There are 30 major league ballparks and all but two of them offer tours guided by team employees. A ballpark tour takes fans from the dugout to the press box and many points in between. Besides exposing fans to places normally off-limits, a tour enlightens those in attendance about public areas usually overlooked and facts previously unknown. Whether or not catching the home team at home is possible, a tour of their ballpark is a fulfilling opportunity that all baseball fans are sure to enjoy and is a memorable experience provided by all teams except the Marlins and Mets.  Read the full article

Zachary's First Game McCormick Field in Asheville - July 5, 2009 My 8-month old son saw his first baseball game on the evening of July 5th. The venue was an old one: Asheville's McCormick Field, established in 1924. Zachary, at 244 days, enjoyed the Tourists' 7-6 victory over the visiting Charleston RiverDogs primarily from the comforts of his mother's lap in a bleacher seat behind the home team dugout, where our rookie in life enjoyed the old ball game on a night in which rain drizzled intermittently during his inaugural immersion in America’s national pastime.  Read the full article

The Rickwood Classic Baseball's Ultimate Throwback Game - Birmingham, AL It's one thing to "turn back the clock" and wear retro uniforms, quite another to play in a throwback ballpark. But every year that's what the Birmingham Barons do, much to the delight of ballpark fans everywhere. Rickwood Field, built in 1910, is an ageless wonder, a baseball playground of generations past. Lovingly restored, it is the oldest ballpark in the nation to host professional baseball thanks to the annual Southern League game that's played there. That game is known as the Rickwood Classic.  Read the full article  See the photo gallery

115,300 Los Angeles Coliseum - March 29, 2008 One hundred fifteen thousand three hundred. That was the announced attendance for an exhibition game played at the LA Coliseum. Meaning what happened didn’t count in the standings, just in the stands, where the crowd was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest ever to attend a baseball game. But were there really that many people there? Here's a fair and balanced account of the small game in the big stadium.  Read the full article

A Taste of International Baseball Estadio Calimax - Tijuana, Mexico Ever wonder what it's like to watch America's pastime somewhere where the English language is scarce? In the Mexican League, the game on the field looks familiar but the experience in the stands is anything but normal. Girls dressed like strippers on top of the dugout, a mascot on the field during the game, and lots of music are just a few things that will detract your attention from players you've never heard of. But it all adds up to a very lively, and intoxicating, atmosphere.  Read the full article

Opening Day PNC Park in Pittsburgh - April 4, 2005 A baseball season is a long six month journey, which makes it hard to imagine that a single game every April can inspire so much anticipation among fans in 28 Major League cities. Yet every spring the unofficial holiday known as Opening Day captures the imagination of fans in markets large and small, especially in places like Pittsburgh where the game is more than just one of 162....  Read the full article

Batting Practice Catch It If You Can The average life of a Major League baseball is only six pitches, but the likelihood of catching a foul ball is very remote due to the size of the ballpark and competition from thousands of fans. For most fans, batting practice is the only chance to get a ball as players successfully swing for the fences in front of small gatherings. With balls landing in relatively empty seats the likelihood of catching – or at least retrieving – one would seem simple. At least that's what I thought while trying to snag a souvenir during BP in Houston.  Read the full article

Featured Ballparks
	Nationals Park Washington Nationals Anything would be better than RFK Stadium and thankfully Nationals Park doesn't resemble the original home of the former Expos. Instead, its aesthetically pleasing and fan-friendly design borrows heavily from other ballparks that pioneered the concepts most prominently featured in the newest landmark in our nation's capitol.		Tropicana Field Tampa Bay Rays The unlikely host to the 2009 World Series will always remain one of the last mistakes ever built and while the Rays try to get support for a new ballpark their current one has been upgraded to the point that it's not the blight it once was. So a Rays game can be (and is) a lot of fun to attend.
	Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia Phillies One of the best ballparks in baseball, Citizens Bank Park was nearly built to perfection with a perfect mix of charm and openness. It's an absolute joy to watch a ballgame here and my only wish is that it had been built in downtown Philadelphia.		Fenway Park Boston Red Sox The smallest, oldest and most charming ballpark in the Majors has been baseball nirvana for over 95 years. From the Green Monster to the Pesky Pole, no ballpark has more unique features or loyal fans than Fenway Park, the proud home of the 2004 and 2007 world champion Red Sox.
	Camden Yards Baltimore Orioles Baltimore is the birthplace of two baseball icons that forever changed the sport: Babe Ruth and Camden Yards. The Eutaw Street walkway is fabulous and the Warehouse phenomenal at the ballpark that started a renaissance. If there were a Six Degrees of Separation ballpark game, Oriole Park at Camden Yards would be the link to any ballpark built since 1992.		PETCO Park San Diego Padres The home of the Padres is open and inviting with pockets of exclusivity, just like the city of San Diego itself. Petco Park, with one of the best downtown locations in the Majors, has turned San Diego into a baseball town.
Best of the Bushes
	Fifth Third Field Toledo Mud Hens Home to the world famous Mud Hens (thanks to M*A*S*H), the second pro ballpark to be named Fifth Third Field in the state of Ohio is in a class by itself. A beautiful place inside and out, Toledo's ballpark was built with brick to match the surrounding buildings in its prime downtown location, while the interior of the double decked stadium is about as fan-friendly as they come.		The Diamond Lake Elsinore Storm An impressive ballpark by minor league standards, and especially by Class A standards, Lake Elsinore's Diamond is perfectly manicured on the outside and has pleasing mountain vistas inside for all fans, who get to enjoy the antics of Jackpot the RBI Rabbit, a person dressed in a pink rabbit suit that dances on the warning track every time the Store score.

Book Excerpts

Ballparks of the Deadball Era Ron Selter writes about Burns Park in Detroit, the best hitter's park of the 34 used during the Deadball Era (1901-19). Watching Baseball Smarter Zack Hample writes about situations that umpires encounter during a baseball game. The Chattanooga Lookouts & 100 Seasons of Scenic City Baseball Stephen Martini writes about how Clark Griffith shaped the history of baseball in Chattanooga by bringing Joe Engel to town. 10 Myths of Spring Training Joe Connor dispels ten myths about attending baseball's spring training.

Welcome to BaseballPilgrimages.com On March 16, 2001, after saving up enough vacation time to take two weeks off, I arrived in Melbourne, Florida for Spring Training. Coinciding with my arrival was an unexpected phone call, informing me that I had been laid off, another casualty of the dot-com bust. And so the journey began when my personal misfortune afforded me the time to do what I had always wished: travel the country. Add to that my passion for baseball, and most of my trips have included numerous baseball pilgrimages, hence the name of the site. And when my original car died on the way to Vero Beach for a game on my Spring Training journey of 2002, I bought a new one and embarked on a cross-country trip to California. What started out as just a trip to Spring Training has morphed into visiting ballparks at all levels, from the lowest levels of the bush leagues to the legendary ballyards in the big leagues. Although I'd been to a number of ballparks prior to the 2001 season, I decided to use that year as my starting point. Through eight seasons, I’ve seen 207 games in 88 ballparks and traveled thousands of miles across our great country in pursuit of the national pastime. I've been to places I'd never thought I'd go, or probably would not have considered....all because of a baseball game. A tour of ballparks is a great way to see America, as professional baseball is dotted across its landscape. This site is dedicated to all of those who have taken the journey, or wish to.   Graham - Smyrna, GA info@baseballpilgrimages.com E-mail me your personal baseball pilgrimages if you'd like to be included on the site