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Baseball Pilgrimages
Where the pursuit of baseball never ends.


Vintage Photos
of baseball's legends
and great moments

1939 - Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig - farewell speech

1939 - First Hall of Fame Inductees
Baseball Hall of Fame - Class of 1939

1954 - Willie Mays
Willie Mays - The Catch

1956 - Don Larsen's World Series Perfect Game
Yogi Berra and Don Larsen celebrate perfect game

1972 - Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente - 3,000th hit

1977 - Ernie Banks
Ernie Banks - learns of his Hall of Fame nomination


Ballpark Art
giclées of the classics

Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field - Game day in the 1940s

1923 - Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium - 1923 Opening Day

1945 - Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field - 1945 World Series

1961 - Tiger Stadium
First year known as Tiger Stadium - 1961

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The Top 10 Baseball Pilgrimages for 2010
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Charlotte Sports Park

Wrigley Field

Security Service Field in Colorado Springs
10 For '10: The Top 10 Baseball Pilgrimages Fans Can Make in 2010
In anticipation of the upcoming baseball season, we've prepared an itinerary of sorts for fans of the sport. Specifically, the 10 best baseball pilgrimages a fan can make in 2010 are detailed. See which games, events and places make the list then start planning your ballpark road trip.
 Read the article

15th Annual Rickwood Classic to Be Played on June 2
Ballpark aficionados should "save the date" of Wednesday, June 2, as that's when the historic 15th annual Rickwood Classic will be played at Birmingham's Rickwood Field. The 2010 game is historic because the old, yet revitalized ballpark is celebrating its 100th birthday this year and the Birmingham Barons will wear uniforms from the 1910 season as a tribute. Their opponents, the Tennessee Smokies, will also wear throwback unis from Rickwood's inaugural decade. Just like in the old days, game time is in the afternoon, specifically at 12:30 p.m. At that time, Rickwood Field will become the first ever 100-year old ballpark to host a professional baseball game. Rickwood was the regular home of the Barons through the 1987 season, after which they relocated to the nearby suburb of Hoover. The team has returned to their longtime former home for a single game each year since 1996.

The Best Baseball Pilgrimages of 2009
I covered a lot of ground on and between the first day of spring training (February 25 in Goodyear) and the last day of the regular season (October 4 in New York). To recap 2009, I present a personalized countdown of the best baseball pilgrimages I undertook during a season that saw me see 47 games in 40 ballparks in a dozen states.

Grapefruit League Schedule Posted
Spring training games in Florida begin on March 2nd and end on April 3rd. Over the course of those 33 days, 239 exhibition games will be played in 14 ballparks. To see who plays where and when, check out the 2010 Grapefruit League schedule, which was posted on January 2.

Cactus League Schedule Posted
From March 3rd to April 3rd, 225 Major League Baseball games will be played in Arizona. None of them will count, but well over a million fans will attend. If you're one of them, then check out the 2010 Cactus League schedule, which was posted on December 28 for all to peruse.

Marlins Near Deal to Play Home Series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium
Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium might be back on the major league schedule soon. The 19,000-seat San Juan stadium hosted 22 "home" games for the Montreal Expos in both 2003 and 2004 and may briefly be considered the home ballpark for the Florida Marlins in 2010, as the New York Daily News reports that the Marlins and Major League Baseball are close to an agreement with a promoter to move a regular-season series there, one most likely involving the Mets as the visiting team.

Talkin' Ballparks With Tulsa Drillers GM Mike Melega
In 1981, Terry Cashman recorded his classic tune "Talkin' Baseball." That same year Drillers Stadium in Tulsa opened. Twenty-eight years later it closed and Drillers' GM Mike Melega talks about his team's longtime home and its replacement, ONEOK Field, in the first interview of our Talkin' Ballparks series.
 Read the interview

Bulls to Play Game at Durham Athletic Park in 2010
The legendary former home of the Durham Bulls will be their current home again. For one game at least. After the city spent $5 million to restore and renovate Durham Athletic Park, which opened in 1926, the team announced in a press release on September 13 that they will play the Toledo Mud Hens on Monday, May 10, 2010 at the historic ballpark, made famous in the 1988 film Bull Durham and last used by the Bulls in 1994. The game will start at 7:05 p.m. The DAP will also see a permanent return of baseball on its premises in 2010, as the North Carolina Central University baseball team will call the 83-year old stadium home.

Baseball Pilgrimages is on Facebook
We've joined the revolution on Facebook, which is where expanded photo galleries of ballparks will now be posted. First up: Mike Lansing Field in Casper, WY. Visit Baseball Pilgrimages' page on Facebook to view 33 pictures of the home of the Casper Ghosts and for quick quips and pictures from other ballpark visits.

Read More Stories in the Ballpark News Archives


Featured Articles

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
Drillers Stadium in Tulsa, upon which the sun figuratively set in 2009


The home of the Washington Wild Things

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
A ballpark tour of PNC Park in Pittsburgh


Little Zachary at Asheville's little McCormick Field

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
Rickwood Field in Birmingham


Six Figures at the LA Coliseum

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
Calimax Stadium in Mexico


Opening Day at PNC Park

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
Batting Practice at Houston's Minute Maid Park


Baseball and Ballpark Store


Featured Ballparks

Nationals Park

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

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

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

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.


Oriole Park at Camden Yards

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

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

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.
Lake Elsinore Diamond

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

Baseball 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
The founding baseball pilgrim 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 nine seasons, I’ve seen 254 games in 100 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

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