The Great Atlanta Braves Ballpark Traversal Road Trip of 2016
Dec 6, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Portland Timbers fan holds a sign while tailgating at MAPFRE Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Want to Visit All 30 Major League Parks for Your Bucket List? Here’s How!
Greetings! When I was younger… a lot younger… the idea of taking a weekend road trip for the lamest excuse was not a foreign concept. Getting into the car and cranking 1000 miles or so was never a daunting challenge by any means. There was one time I managed to drive 20 hours in a 24 hour period up nearly the entire Eastern Seaboard.
But I never was able to muster the time or resolve to do the “huge” road trip. Say, a lap around the country (yes: that’s actually a thing). Nothing of that kind of “endurance” level.
This is one of those endurance-level tests: a trip to see all 30 of the major league baseball parks.
Others have done this. There’s even a calculator that purports to give you a (ridiculous) plan for doing so based on the 2014 MLB schedule.
The Holy Grail of such a trip would be to do this in 30 days. I will tell you right now that while that technically could be done, it can’t happen via driving alone in 2016. It’s just physically impossible given the distances and the schedule’s complexity unless you’re doing something tricky, technologically impossible, or illegal. There are definitely some years in which such an endeavor is doable, but in my review of the 2016 MLB schedule, it’s just not going to happen next season. But some will always go for the ultimate coup with such feats, and in fact, somebody actually pulled it off in twenty-three days, which is amazing.
I’m not going to give you an uber-schedule like that – this is one that might actually be … dare I say “practical“? Maximum of 1 game per day; no double-headers. To the greatest extent possible, I’m obeying the “rules” of decency. But I did have to add a couple of compromises, as you’ll see later.
But if you think you’d like to try such a stunt, this is a plan for doing so. So gather a few close friends (they’d better be really close, for you’ll be spending a LOT of time together), get your passport, your checkbook, and get your car serviced. Add a bit of social media publicity and you might even get a few perks from the teams along the way. But for sure: planning everything ahead of time will be key… so if you think this is an idea for you, now is the time to get started!
Next: Day Zero - Notes About Putting This Together