The Trip Begins

We are four guys, all in our late-20s-early-30s, headed out on a tour of five Major League ballparks. We start today, June 11, and will be done by Sunday, June 15.

We are: A, C, E & L.

We start in Sterling, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C. Our first game will be tonight in Pittsburgh. Ironically, the Bucs play the Nats. Nothing like starting out the tour with two last-place teams. Hey, they did play a great game last night, with Lastings Milledge hitting a two-run bomb to dead center in the top of the ninth for a 7-6 win.


After Pittsburgh, we head to Cleveland. The Tribe takes on the Twinkies. Then on to Detroit. I can't wait to see Detroit - not the city, mind you, but the ballpark. I love the old-school script D on the Tigers hats ... I might pick one of them up. Plus my boy DM is a big Tigers fan, so I might just pick him something up from the park.



From Detroit, it's down to Cincinnati (yes, I can spell Cincinnati!). The Reds (great name) play ... aw, who cares?



I (A) have never been to any of these parks. Not sure about C, E or L. We got pretty good tickets for all the games. It was surprising to see the difference in pricing at all the parks. Pittsburgh's ticket prices were pretty low, in comparison. We got good seats for just over 30 bucks on StubHub.



I have NO idea where we're staying. Apparently, the first night we're just going to find some random hotel on the side of the road. Maybe we'll just sleep in the car. Apparently, L & C have some friends we're going to stay with along the way. Never met them (the friends, that is ... I've met C & L).



Speaking of the car, we'll have four grown men in a Jetta (I'll let you make the comment about four men driving a Jetta). E is the smallest of us, and he's about 5-10, 175 lbs. I'm probably the next smallest at 6-2, 200 lbs. This might be a long trip.

L put together the weather and pitching matchups:

• Wednesday - Pittsburgh - 87 and sunny - Lannan (4-6, 3.47 ERA) vs. Snell (2-6, 5.65 ERA)
  
  
• Thursday - Cleveland - 87 and partly sunny - Hernandez (6-3, 5.32 ERA) vs. Laffey (3-3, 2.98 ERA)
  
  
• Friday - Detroit - 84 and isolated t-storms - Lowe (4-5, 4.15 ERA) vs. Galarraga (5-2, 3.70 ERA)
  
  
• Saturday - Cincy - 80 and isolated t-storms - Masterson (3-0, 2.59 ERA) vs. Volquez (9-2, 1.56 ERA)
  

It's 7:21 a.m. on the first day of the trip. I've been up since 6 a.m. because I'm so excited (oh, and I'm normally up at 5 a.m. on weekdays, but whatever). We're leaving at about 11 a.m.

I'll try to update this blog as often as possible on the trip, especially with pictures. I'm not sure what our internet connection will be like, but I'll do my best. I might update via Jott, too. Gotta figure out how to set that up ...