How to Plan Your Own Trip to Baseball’s Classic Parks

Warning: Planning an itinerary of America’s old ballparks can be as tricky as hitting a Nolan Ryan fastball.

I learned that lesson the hard way after spending several late nights wrestling with a map of the United States and a 1990 Major League Baseball schedule. It is virtually impossible to attend a game at each of the old ballparks in two week’s time without crisscrossing the country in a chartered jet.

For example, we wanted to see a game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore since the Orioles are moving to a new ballpark after next season. However, the team was on the road during most of the time we were back East.

Based on our experience, here are some tips for planning your own Tour de Ballparks next summer:

--First, contact the Office of the Commissioner in New York City (212/371-7800) and get on the mailing list to receive the 1991 schedule as soon as it is available, sometime in mid-January. Then plunk down $7.95 for “Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), a fan’s guide to all 26 major league parks.

--Determine the length of your vacation and make a list of the ballparks you’d like to visit. You could spend the entire summer touring all 26 parks or plan a long weekend to visit Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago. We settled on seven parks in two weeks.

Every baseball fan must see the three surviving stadiums built before World War I--Wrigley, Fenway Park in Boston and Tiger Stadium in Detroit--along with Yankee Stadium in New York. Add Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium before it is vacated next year and try to squeeze in Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, a cavernous facility that the Indians plan to abandon soon.

--Now comes the fun part. Create a spreadsheet listing your preferred ballparks in one column and the home playing dates for each stadium in another column. This can be done by hand, though I found a home computer works best.

This exercise is guaranteed to grind your teeth. The best advice is to settle for the most convenient schedule that allows for occasional days off between cities.

--Obtain tickets far in advance, particularly if you want box seats. Don’t take any chances with Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, where capacity at both is under 35,000 and sellouts are common. Shea Stadium is also a tough ticket when the Mets are winning.

Purchase the “Green Book” and “Red Book”--the respective directories for the National and American leagues--to get the phone numbers of front-office personnel for each team. Then contact these officials early in the season and tell them about your vacation plans. They might direct you to send in a check, and set you up with nice seats.

When we tried this system, the Milwaukee Brewers and Detroit Tigers treated us like royalty with great seats in the lower deck. The White Sox, on the other hand, stuck us in the upper deck and charged us twice the face value of the tickets.

--Keep in mind that it will take plenty of time to get from city to city by automobile. If cost is not a consideration, you could arrange to fly to every destination. Or you could drive across the country. We decided that the best compromise is to book a round-trip ticket from Los Angeles to the Midwest or East Coast and drive from there to the parks. We were fortunate to have use of my father’s van, which allowed Philip to sleep comfortably while we drove 3,500 miles.

We flew in and out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport on two round-trip tickets for about $700. Our lodging costs were cut considerably because we stayed with friends and relatives in several Eastern cities.

An unexpected cost was the price of souvenirs. You name it, Philip had to have it: caps, jerseys, scorebooks, pennants, cups, T-shirts, balls, posters, etc. The total cost, including $200 for gas and tolls, $100 a day for game tickets and food, came to approximately $2,000.

--If possible, take the five-hour drive from Boston to Cooperstown, N.Y., to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. Philip enjoyed the Grandstand Theater there so much that he watched the presentation three times. The exhibits of early baseball history are fascinating. Set aside two days to visit the museum and be sure to stroll up and down Main Street. Cooperstown is cradled in one of the cleanest, most beautiful rural settings anywhere.

--Don’t forget to set aside time to visit other attractions, particularly if your companions are not baseball freaks. We toured Sears Tower, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Plymouth Rock, Harvard University and Niagara Falls, and even found time to sneak in some fishing and water skiing in Michigan.