Ballpark quest - 60 ballparks

      Will Nashville have a major league baseball team within five years? At the moment, that seems a real possibility. There are currently 30 MLB teams, divided into two leagues, each of which has three divisions with five teams in it. The distinction between leagues and divisions, once significant, is now arbitrary. The current commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred, has been quoted as saying that he would like to have plans in place by 2029 to expand to 32 teams, so that there would eight divisions of four teams each. I found good articles by FOX Sports and ESPN that discuss the rationale and the leading candidate cities. The most recent article I could find was from this spring from the Deseret News in Salt Lake City , giving the local take on a survey by The Athletic (it’s behind a paywall, so I won’t link that story). There are several cities that have official efforts to bring in major league baseball, complete with websites, baseball celebrity endorsements...

(Note: This is a blog about our quest to see all 60 MLB and AAA parks, so I don't normally post about games in my home stadium, unless there's something really exceptional about the game, like the night with the bees . But this was an exceptional game) I always make a note in my scorebook when a player is making his major league debut or his first major league start. Usually, it's not that eventful, but there are exceptions. One was the time Tyler Gilbert of the Diamondbacks threw a no-hitter in his first start, the only time I've been in the stands for an MLB no-hitter. Another came when Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies hit two home runs against the Diamondbacks on Opening Day in his first MLB game. Tonight's game rivals those. Jose Fernandez started at third base for the Diamondbacks tonight. He's expected to be the backup infielder this season, and in the fifth game of the season, he got his first action when the manager gave the regular third baseman a g...

  Kerry and I are beginning season 4 of our five-year quest to see all 30 of the MLB stadiums plus all 30 of the AAA stadiums. So far, we’re on track, having been to a total of 37 of the 60 stadiums (61.7%) after three of the five years (60%). At this point, we’re pretty sure we’re going to complete it, in large part because we are thoroughly enjoying it, the occasional rain delay, long drive, or (less frequently) completely uninteresting game aside. Also, we know we’ll find something fascinating, often in unexpected places. It may be the food (the Green Chile Philly at Albuquerque, Béisbowl in Miami), a beautiful stadium (too many to list, particularly in the majors), or catching up with old friends or making new ones (we’ve attended games with more than 20 different people so far, some of whom we hadn’t seen in 50 years). It may be a creative promo ( Bruce the Bat Dog  in Rochester), a truly bizarre story (the saga of the illicit pieces of a shredded stadium roof and th...

  And now for something completely different. The Savannah Bananas are definitely not MLB or top-level minor league. They’re also definitely fun. With goofy rules (“Banana rules”), dancing umpires, and wacky between-inning stunts, the Bananas are unique. The Bananas bill themselves as “The Greatest Show in Sports,” and I think they almost deserve the title. I say “almost” because I’m addicted to the competition of the game, and the quest to be the best, and the major leaguers are the best baseball players in the world. Our nephew Danny, whom we attend an Astros game with early 2024, knew that we were interested in the Bananas, so when he heard that they were going to be in Houston, he asked if we’d be interested if he could get tickets. We jumped at the chance. He won the ticket lottery for the chance to get tickets, so we went last night with him and his father (my brother). We’d been hearing about Banana Ball for a couple of years, and it sounded great, but we hadn’t w...