Baseball Stadiums

One of my life goals is to see all 30 Major League Baseball teams play at least one game in their own home ballpark.  With 17 of 30 teams complete, I’m just over halfway there — but I haven’t checked off a new ballpark since 2007!  Time to start planning some jaunts to places like Kansas City, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh…

At some point, I decided to start buying a pin for each ballpark.  (I prefer pins that actually include the name of the ballpark — but sometimes that’s not possible.)  I never came up with a good way to display my little collection until a few months ago when I came across a picture frame with a cork border, which gave me a brilliant idea!  I snatched up the frame, printed a collage of photos of me at a couple of the ballparks, and surrounded it with the pins.

I knew I had to post some photos of how the frame turned out, especially for Carter, who was my partner in crime for 11 (?) of these stadium visits.  The photos show, clockwise from top left:  Chris and me at Fenway Park in 2003; Leila, Iffy, Alex and me at an A’s game in 2002; Jose and me at Jacobs Field in 2007; and Carter and me at Wrigley Field in 2004.

I’ve seen 8 American League teams in their ballpark, and 9 National League teams.  I didn’t realize until I made this post that I am missing a pin!  I don’t have one for the Philadelphia Phillies, who I saw play in Veterans Stadium when I was in high school.  (This brings up a good point — the goal is only to see each team play in their home stadium at least once.  Once I see them, it’s on the list.  I don’t have to go back and see them again if they get a new stadium!  This currently applies to the Phillies, Cardinals, and Yankees, each of whom I saw play in a stadium that has now been replaced.  On the flip side, I don’t get to count it twice if I’ve seen them play in multiple stadiums, like the Braves and Astros.)

I also realized just this morning that I put them out of order!  I attempted to put them in order of when I saw them first.  (The Phillies would slot in between the Braves and Astros.)  I’ve been to Fenway twice, and while the second time was indeed after I went to Wrigley Field, the first time was right after (old) Yankee Stadium.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly berate my friend Matt and my brother Brian, since both of them got married during baseball season in cities with teams I need to see (Kansas City and Miami, respectively), yet had the gall to plan their weddings on weekends that the Royals and Marlins were out of town.  The nerve of those guys!

For those interested, here are the teams I still need to see play at home:  in the National League, I’m missing Florida, New York Mets, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Arizona.  In the American League?  Tampa Bay, Toronto, Minnesota, Detroit, Kansas City, and the Los Angeles Angels.  (I’ve actually seen the stadium in Toronto years ago on a high school band trip, but we only took the stadium tour — we didn’t actually see a game!)

I hung the frame up on the wall above my desk and I love it!  I’m so excited about my little baseball stadium frame.  The best part is that there’s totally room for more pins!

(I haven’t really posted any photos of the office because it’s not done yet…and the “clean up the office” task may continue for a while. But as a glimpse:  Jose and I switched desks, which worked out beautifully — he likes the large size of my old desk, and I like the long but thin layout of the desk we got him last year.  Both are Ikea desks.  The color doesn’t match, which drives me a little crazy but I don’t know how to fix it without buying a bunch of new furniture.  I also hate our office chairs, but prettier options are surprisingly expensive.)