Tag Archives: diamond baseball tours

Rating the Best Baseball Ballparks.

Here’s a great read courtesy of Dan Lindsey’s “Diamond Baseball Tours” Facebook page and reprinted from the New York Times “Five Thirty Eight” Column by Nate Silver.  My home park is AT&T in San Francisco and it’s without a doubt one of the very best.  

“Classic Primanti Bros Sandwich” includes salad and french fries piled inside”

However, I can understand the PNC Pittsburgh #1 ranking.  I was there in 2010 and the first clue was the accessible parking.  We were on a tour bus and the bus parked less than a 5 minute walk away from the main entrance.  Ordinary tour buses dropped us off and then we walked a marathon to get back to the bus, if we could even find it!   Second great thing about the park was the food.  “Primanti Bros.” may sound familiar.   They’re on a “100 Things To Do Before you die” list.  It’s a beautiful park with friendly staff. 

“Fenway’s Wooden Scoreboard”

The #2 Ranking to Boston’s Fenway Park is also understandable.  I’ve been there twice and both times it was an emotional experience.  Probably the park’s history, and I don’t know why, but the “Sweet Caroline” and “MTA” songs that were played both times brought the house down with everyone singing at the top of their lungs.  I can’t explain it ~ neither song has anything to do with baseball.  It’s just one of those things.   It’s an old and beautiful wooden park with a lot of class and truly devoted fans, where they still post the daily baseball scores on a wooden board by hand. 

So it was easy to acquiesce those two parks to my beloved AT&T.  Good read and a great job Nate Silver, bringing us right up to the 2012 playoffs.  

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Hmmm….World Series in Australia? ….. Tickets Please!

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Just imagine it’s January, 2020, and you’re sitting in your box seat at Sydney Harbor,

Australia

watching the Melbourne Aces and the Seattle Mariners in the playoffs.   It could happen.  It’s not really so far-fetched, especially since the ABL is 75% owned by the MLB (yup, our very own Major League Baseball,  who knew?) and 25% owned by the Australians.  The inaugural season for the Australian Baseball League is 2010-11.   It would sure solve the problem we diehard fans have about what to do with those postseason blues that hit after the playoffs every year.   Wouldn’t it be great to watch a World Series game in 80 degree weather in January?  Just saying….. something to think about.   I gotta call Dan over at Diamond Baseball Tours and put a bug in his ear.  It’s never too early to plan!   Tickets please! 

Attention Baseball Fans! Win an All Expense Paid Baseball Trip!

I just received an email from Dan Lindsey, owner of Diamond Baseball Tours, announcing their first (hopefully annual) contest just in time for the World Series!   As GFBB readers know,  I blogged daily on my 7 day baseball tour this summer, writing on every game and each ballpark we visited, and tours of Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant and Cooperstown Hall of Fame in New York.  You can read the daily blogs from my June and July Posts.  It was a great experience and I’d recommend it to anyone.  Click here http://diamondbaseballtours.com/ to find out Dan’s “World Series Prediction Contest”.   Good luck and hope you win!   GFBB

Whew! 7 Days of Baseball and 10 Different States…..

Who wouldn’t love this?   Never mind the early mornings, late nights, blisters, junk food and sunburns!   Looking back who’ll remember any of this stuff?   What I’ll remember is getting to sleep on the bus (our reward for getting up on time and actually making it to the bus) and those great movies (Corner Gas?  Who Knew?) and great food and the comraderie of great baseball fans gathered together for the experience of  baseball, ballparks, and ballpark food.    And that’s exactly what we did!   We could ask Dan anything and if he didn’t have the answer, our driver, Mark, did.  A pool of knowledge from these two!   And the best part was sharing their baseball experiences  with us.  The time flew by and now I’m safely home just in time to cheer my home team out of a 7 game losing streak ~ sure glad I could help!    There’s something very special about baseball fans.  When you’re sitting in a stadium with 40,000 fans cheering and clapping for whichever team, there’s a common bond that says it really doesn’t matter, just for today, what’s wrong with the economy.  And just for today I’ll let BP worry about that oil mess and I’ll let someone else solve the world problems because today I’m watching grown men throw baseballs around a field shaped like a diamond, hopefully hitting  more baseballs and scoring runs, just because they can.  Well, I can’t explain it, but there’s something very special about baseball fans!  

We’ve waited all winter, withstood snow and cold
Thru free agent signings for millions in gold.
“Play ball”, “Batter up”, the umpire will yell,
Peanuts and crackerjaks the vendors will sell.
Like Bogey has said with panache and glitz,
“A hot dog at the ballpark beats roast beef at the Ritz!”
Baseball: ‘Ode to Opening Day by Mark H. Young ©

Baseball Tour! * 7 Games in 7 days! * 7 Days to Go!

Woo Hoo!  Dragging out the luggage today getting ready for my baseball trip in exactly one week .   The plane actually leaves on Thursday night and we’ll arrive early, very early, in Boston Friday morning and take a transfer to Baltimore.   I’ve been fortunate to have  traveled to some really great places these past 10 years.   I’ve been on cruises to the Eastern & Western Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and the Mediterranean.   Toured England, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and Monaco.  But the God’s truth is my very favorite vacation was the baseball tour I took in 2004 with my grandson, Jake, who was 13 at the time.   I knew back then I wanted to take this trip again.   So here it is, 6 years later, and this is the same tour I took in 2004.    There’s  lots of  baseball tours out there but  I’d recommend Dan Lindsey’s Diamond Baseball Tours to anyone.  They’re great!   Also, they have different tours and my goal is to take them all!   But this time I’m taking the same tour so I can share the experience with my spouse, sister and brother-in-law who are joining me .    Here’s the schedule and I’ll share experiences daily as they happen.  At least thats the plan……

  • Saturday June 26  Washington @ Baltimore
  • Sunday June 27 Minnesota @ New York Mets
  • Monday June 28  Baseball Hall of Fame @ Cooperstown
  • Tuesday June 29 Seattle @ New York Yankees
  • Wednesday June 30 Tampa @ Boston
  • Thursday July 1 Philadelphia @ Pittsburg
  • Friday July 2 Cincinnati @ Chicago Cubs 

 So this week I’m cleaning the house so the babysitter won’t think I’m a slob (baby is a  Pomeranian),  buying last minute necessities like coffee filters, espresso,  miniature bottles of everything (minimize problems with TSA),  batteries for camera, laptop (whew. major investment!) suncreen and items to be determined.   We’ll talk again in a few days!   This is gonna be fun…….I wish you could all go with me!   No, really!!