Christmas has come and gone, and while we all take time and stock of the year that was, I think it's time to pen a Final Thoughts section on the 2015 season. This was a season of unbelievable firsts, experiences, travels, and games. Trying to sum up what has been a twelve-month endeavor into a few paragraphs is a tall order. However, as the calendar flips to 2016, I want to look back on what really was the best year of baseball I have ever been a part of.
Let me work through some final tallies for all of you: I went to a total of 79 games, 61 of which were professional, for a grand total of 723 innings played. I visited a total of 26 ballparks during those games, 9 of which were new ones I had never been to. A rough estimate would be that I traveled more than 10,000 miles to baseball games in 5 states over 3 time zones. I traveled in my own car, my bike, on foot, on the Metrolink and Amtrak, planes, Greyhound bus, public transportation, ferries, even an aerial tramway.
The 2015 slate started way back in January with the Preseason Phase of the California Winter League doubleheader out in Palm Springs and Dodgers Fan Fest at Chavez Ravine.
Then the College Phase started in February with a few UC Riverside games, trips to Long Beach, Fullerton, Westchester, and Irvine, with the Dodger Stadium Classic and a couple romps at the University of Redlands.
In the midst of the College Phase, I took a trip out to Phoenix and saw Spring Training with my first experience on the backfields.
Once March turned to April, I went full-board into the Professional Phase of the season. All in all, I went to 26 66ers, 14 Angels, 4 Dodgers, and 2 Padres games. This phase also included my yearly trip back to Phoenix for the Arizona Fall League in October and down to Mexicali in December. However, the highlight of the Professional Phase had to have been my jaunt through the Midwest and the Hiawatha Road Trip seeing games in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago.
In the middle of the Professional Phase, I sneaked in a trip back to Palm Springs to see the amateur Palm Springs Power play.
What was the most exciting game I went to? Well, after 79 games, they start to blend together, but I think I would have to go with the last 66ers game of the season. The 66ers were down in the bottom of the ninth to the High Desert Mavericks. Inland Empire had been eliminated from the playoffs all together, so there was nothing riding on the game for them. However, in the bottom of the ninth, with the 66ers down, they walked off on an RBI double and unearned run. Kody Eaves hit a double that scored the tying run, but, as he rounded second, the Mavs pitcher booted the ball into the dugout. Eaves came home to score the winning run, which may have been delayed, but it was fun to see the hometown win with bated breath.
While I certainly saw a lot of games, I think the one thing, looking back on this season, that I'll remember with fondness will be those activities that surround the games themselves. The many bike rides to and from the games or around the cities I was. Or, the hikes up San Jacinto and Baldy. Or, the neat breweries I visited. Or, the trips to the beach with my bodyboard. Whatever the activity was, it made the holistic overall experience of the Baseball Road Trip that much better. Even locally, whether it was messing with Bernie at the 66ers games or tailgating before the Ducks played in Riverside. I think that the days of simply just "going-to-a-game-and-coming-home" are over for me, and I'm perfectly ok with it.
What was my favorite experience? Gosh, that's a tough one. I would have to say the Bike Share rides I did in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. I think it was because I enjoy urban biking so much, but also because I really felt like I got a good sense of the cities I was in because I was on the bike. It opened up a whole new world of experiences on Baseball Road Trips knowing that even if I'm thousands of miles away, I can still indulge my hobby of urban biking.
All in all, what was my favorite Baseball Road Trip? Well, all of them I enjoyed very much, but far and away it was the Hiawatha trip. Four cities in four days in four states seeing four games just couldn't compare. Sure, I was exhausted at the end of it, but seeing those games at Target Field, Miller Park, and ending at Wrigley Field was just incomparable. That Road Trip had everything I wanted from the trip, and then some. I had high expectations going in to the trip, but in looking back, it far exceeded even those expectations. I don't think I'll be doing that type of trip again, but that's because I went out on such a high note.
Before getting into what I want for next year, it is so important for me to talk about how grateful I am to finally have some company when I go to games. Sure, the bulk of the games and trips I do are by myself, but I am so happy to have had gone to games this year with my girlfriend, parents, and brother. Just being at the ballpark with someone you care about and whose company you really enjoy just makes everything better. I hope that I can have that company for games next year.
Well, what's the schedule looking like for next year? I'll kick off January with a return to the California Winter League in Palm Springs. I want to hit some new college parks, so I have planned visits to Pepperdine in Malibu and San Diego State in San Diego. The Ducks are going to be playing SDSU in San Diego that day, and also making a trip down to Jackie Robinson Stadium in Westwood later on in the season. I'm making return trips to Long Beach, Irvine, and Fullerton where I'm hoping to add beach trips prior to those games.
I'm going to delay my annual Spring Training trip to April where I'm hoping to catch two backfield games, but also the final Cactus League game between Seattle and Colorado at Salt River Fields. In the middle of that trip, the DBacks are playing host to the Royals at Chase Field in an exhibition, so I'll be making my first visit to Chase Field.
The professional season will be dominated by the 66ers. I have taken a part-time job scorekeeping games for this company back east, so I'm probably going to up my 66ers attendance from 24 last year to, hopefully, 30 next year. I'm going to skip the season tickets for all the teams because I'm going to be getting tickets through my job at the 66ers, and the Angels tickets really aren't cost effective when you factor in Stubhub. Still, I'd like to go to at least a dozen Angels games, three or four Dodgers games, and one or two Padres games.
I'll be making a return trip in mid-summer to Palm Springs to hike San Jacinto and catch the Power game. I'm also hoping to be able to head out to Santa Barbara to see the amateur team out there play on the campus of UCSB. That'll definitely be a trip that includes some beaching a bike riding.
My professional road trips are still up in the air, but I want to make a visit to Las Vegas to see the 51s play at Cashman Field and up to Oakland to see the Angels play the A's at the Coliseum. I've been to both of those parks before, but not in a real long time, so returning will be fun considering how much I have grown as a Baseball Road Tripper. I can't forget, too, my December trip down to Mexicali again for what will by my fourth visit south of the border.
These itineraries will probably change as circumstances are always difficult to predict. Heck, who would've thought at this time last year that I'd be going to Wrigley Field!
I can't express enough thanks to all of you who read this blog during the year. Your views and comments really made updating fun and exciting. I can't tell you just how much fun it is to sit down after a day of Baseball Road Trip activities and tell all of you about it. From the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU!
So, until next season...
Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)
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