ORIGINAL POST 9/24/12: The 2012 baseball season is almost over—the playoffs will start in a few weeks—so I thought I’d mark that with the stadiums that Em and I have been to since we decided to visit them all. So far, it’s only been 9 of 30…but progress is progress, as any Padre fan knows. Anyway:
#1. I’ve been to Chavez Ravine about 3 billion times, so I chose one where both Em and I went that was unique: a Dodger-Cardinal playoff game in Oct. 2004. Jose Lima owned St. Louis and Shawn Green hit 2 home runs.
#2. I’ve been to the Big A about 5 billion times (including my first game in the mid-80s), but Em and I first visited this one together for a late-season meaningless game against Detroit.
#3. Petco Park is our favorite stadium. We went to all 3 games in this series vs. Atlanta & stayed in the Gaslamp. We’d done it the previous year as well. Super fun.
#4. Giants vs. Arizona with our NorCal fam. Fantastic (and fantastically expensive) place to see a game. Another highlight of this day was seeing MOMA’s Frida Kahlo exhibit.
#5. The very next day we went to see the A’s play Texas. We were all wearing hats from other teams: Braves (Nick), BoSox (Lis), Padres (Em and I).
#6. We caught two Mariners games in a series against the White Sox. Em wore her old-school trident M’s hat. Also saw the Avett Bros. & Inception.
#7. Saw the DBacks win the west against SF with Em, Stacie and Jules. The next day we saw Oregon stomp Arizona in football down in Tucson.
#8. The Nats are actually good this year. Steven Strasburg destroyed Miami. I was in town for the AEA web design conference.
#9. Orioles lost to KC in Manny Machado’s debut game, which was nearly rained out. Em and I loved Camden Yards but also had a debilitating adventure on the Maryland public transit system.
We’ve also been to Fenway, in 2005, but it was October and the Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs that year. So naturally, we gotta go back…
UPDATE 7/5/14: Major updates to the DuBois Baseball Tour: we hit 4 stadiums recently: 1 in 2013 and 3 this year:
#10. Phillies beat Boston on back to back homers from Ryan Howard and rookie Domonic Brown. We were in town for the AIGA Leadership retreat.
#11. Finally made it down the yellow brick road to Wrigley Field for Cubs vs. Nats, at the perfect time to do it: the stadium’s centennial! Everything was as it should be. Naturally, the Cubs lost.
#12. Drove up to Miller Park in a goofy red rented Kia. Got an adult dose of Wisconsin hospitality. Ate lots of unhealthy food. Watched the Brewers lose to Colorado. Loved it anyway.
#13. Superstition played hardball at “The Cell” – first attempt to see White Sox vs Angels (6/30) was rained out, and the second try was hobbled by crazy long ticket exchange lines. And yet we endured.
UPDATE 7/16/15: For stadium #14 on the tour I returned to Denver with Em in tow and it was a blast, especially the part sandwiched between two Red Rocks concerts (Avett Brothers and Wilco): a stop at Coors Field to see the last-place Rockies sweep Atlanta, 11-3.
UPDATE 7/31/16: For stadium #15, Em and I played tourist in Minneapolis for a few days, including two games of Twins vs Braves on 7/26 and 7/27 (with a thunderstorm in between). Our curse on the home team apparently continues, since Minnesota lost both games, but the tour itself is now halfway done! Ain’t been unless you got a pin!
UPDATE 4/6/23: And we’re back, with stadium #16! Stalled since 2016, cancelled in 2020, confined to SoCal in 21-22, the DuBois Baseball Tour finally returned in 2023, this time for a very windy Royals-Jays game in Kansas City (after visiting the Negro League Museum earlier that day). The tour’s second half is under way!
