Day 5: Leisure

Our last day in Minnesota has come to an end after a day of leisure with the Phippen Family. Ben, Brennan, and I played tennis for a couple of hours, and threw the baseball around for a while after that. Then, a family ping-pong tournament took place, and Brennan avenged his previous loss to his Mom in the semi-finals, and went on to defeat Ben in the finals.

Afterwards, we went out to an excellent dinner at Pier 500 in nearby Hudson, Wisconsin. We finished off the evening by going out for ice cream at Selma's just down the road.

Some of you who have been reading this blog may think we are off to a bit of a slow start on the travel side of things for this road trip, having only 3 games in the 1st 5 days, but things will really start to pick up now as we have 7 games in the next 8 days starting tomorrow in Chicago.

As many of you know, the men's French Open final is tomorrow between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I am officially going to pick Federer, despite his 1-4 head to head record against Nadal, including 2 clay court losses in the past month and a half. I just don't see Roger losing in the finals of a Grand Slam, especially as he looks to become only the 3rd player in history to win 4 Grand Slam tournaments in a row (Don Budge and Rod Laver). Ben is also going with Federer, so we will see how things play out in the morning. Since we will be in route to the "Windy City," feel free to call our cell phones throughout the match to provide updates.

Special thanks goes out to the Phippen Family for letting us stay at their house here in Lakeland, MN for the last 3 nights. We've had a great time playing all sorts of sports and games, and have really appreciated the delicious meals.

Also, Happy 55th Birthday Dad!!!

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 18,172
2-miles traveled today: 15
3-miles traveled total: 1,529
4-states traveled in today: Minnesota, Wisconsin

Day 4: Minnesota

After another extra inning, walk-off home run affair, Ben has his 1st win of the trip as the Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles courtesy of Justin Morneau's 2-run bomb in the bottom of the 12th inning. The game was another classic, with the Twins tying it by scoring 2 runs in the 8th after trailing for most of the game. The Orioles threatened in the top of the 12th when Javy Lopez was thrown out at home by 3rd baseman Brandon Fahey, then Morneau put a swift end to things with 2 outs in the bottom of the 12th.

Special thanks go to Mike Harris of Faribault Mills for the front row tickets and joining us at the game for an awesome evening of baseball and conversation. Also, thanks go to Paul, the bat boy for the Minnesota Twins who gave us 2 game balls and 2 game bats at the end of his 16 hr. work day at the stadium.




The atmosphere in the Metrodome was great, especially with the players being so close which resulted in some good photographs of Javy Lopez that I'm sure Katey will enjoy. We got to the stadium about an hour before the game in order to watch batting practice down on the field.



We started the day out by watching the men's semifinals of the French Open, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing games with the Phippen family. This included Brennan losing to his Mom in ping-pong 22-20. Ben and I split our 2 meetings of table tennis today. For breakfast we had waffles and sausage links, and for dinner we had some delicious sloppy joe's before leaving for the ball park.

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 18,157
2-miles traveled today: 57
3-miles traveled total: 1,514
4-states traveled in today: Minnesota
bonus stat: teams who score the 1st run of the game are 0-3 on our trip

Day 3: Milwaukee

As the old baseball adage goes, "you see it all the time, a player makes a great play in the field and it carries over to his at bat the next inning." We saw this exactly, as Bill Hall hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning after turning a sparkling double play to end the top half of the 10th. The Brewers trailed the entire game, before tying it in the bottom of the 9th when Padres shortstop Khalil Green committed an error. As a result, I move to 2-0 on the season in picking games against Ben.

The atmosphere in Miller Park was excellent. We sat in the bleachers by the left field foul pole, and 3 things were abundant: beer, tattoos, and mullets. Apparently, Thursday afternoons are "Skip Work and Get Drunk Day" in Milwaukee. Also, the security guards were on their toes, kicking people out of sections that they did not have tickets for, including us, and continuing to do this until the very end of the game. Also, during the famous sausage race, Ben's pick of the hot dog was victorious over my pick of the Italian sausage.

The weather conditions for the game could not have been better, close to 80 and sunny. However, day games in open stadiums and lots of sunshine are really hot. We got cooked siting in the bleachers, but hopefully there won't be too much sun burn in the morning.

On a lighter note, the video selection for the JumboTron going into the bottom of the 9th inning was a clip from the "Cow Bell" skit on Saturday Night Live. Will Ferrell demanding his cow bell get more recognition, Jimmy Fallon not being able to keep a straight face in the background, and Christopher Watkin playing legendary music producer Bruce Dickinson is priceless, and it worked as Trevor Hoffman had a rare blown save and the Brewers were able to rally for victory.

This morning, we left St. Louis at 5:51am, and arrived at Miller Park right around noon. The drive was uneventful, and without any stops. We packed sandwiches for lunch, and after the game we stopped at Quiznos for dinner. The drive from Milwaukee to Minnesota was also quite nice. The scenery throughout Wisconsin was beautiful, with lots of thick, healthy forrests along much of the drive. We arrived at the Phippen's house, and after some good conversation and even better card games with the family, we are finally headed for bed.

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 18,100
2-miles traveled today: 721
3-miles traveled total: 1,457
4-states traveled in today: Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Hank, to answer your question: As far as rainouts go, we just hope it doesn't happen, and will make adjustments if necessary.

Day 2: Travel

First off, some corrections/additions to the Day 1: Atlanta blog. The odometer at the end of Day 1 was 16,795. Also, we forgot to mention that the game in Atlanta was Disco Night, so that created some interesting costumes in the crowd. We would also like to again thank the Stazaks for the complimentary tickets and the Gillis for providing housing in Atlanta.



We left Atlanta at 6:08am, in hopes of getting to St. Louis in time to hit some tennis balls and relax for the afternoon. Ben won the set 7-5, so starts off with a 1-0 lead in that department of the trip. We also managed to throw the baseball around some, and Ben's curve ball is coming into form, I'm still working on mine, but my "heater" is feeling pretty good.

Then we had dinner at the Pauluhn's, and we were graced with the presence of my former doubles partner, and successful St. Louis businessman, Kevin Lackey. Dinner was excellent, with pork steaks, salad, potatoes, and brownies for dessert.

The 8 hour drive to St. Louis was relatively uneventful, despite getting off to a somewhat rocky start. I woke up with some stomach problems, so we picked up some Pepto Bismol at the gas station. Hopefully some Pepto corporate executives get a chance to read the blog, because they need to make some serious design changes to their travel sized packets. I honestly could not open the packet for a solid 5 minutes, despite the help of nail clippers. Also, the amount of casino advertisements throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois were impressive, but one took 1st prize without question. Casino Aztar advertised on a regular basis for over 100 miles, letting everyone know they were the place for gaming in Evanston, IL.

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 17,379
2-miles traveled today: 614
3-miles traveled total: 736
4-states traveled in today: Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri

Day 1: Atlanta

Day 1 has come to an end as we are back at the Gilli house following a 5-3 win for the Braves over the Washington Nationals. Throughout the trip, Ben and I will each be picking a team during each game. Tonight, I had the Braves, so I start the 30 game stretch up 1-0. It was a well played game overall, with Braves pitcher Horacio Ramirez going 8 strong innings to pick up the win. Home runs by Andruw Jones and Adam LaRoche helped seal the deal for the Braves offensively.

As for the travels of the day, we departed Greenville just before 12:30, and arrived in Atlanta shortly after 2:30. We spent the afternoon in the Gilli's pool, before Mr. Gilli cooked us an excellent chicken dinner. At 5:30 we were off for the stadium, picking up former Furman tennis player John Beckett along the way.

Unknown to Ben, Chris, or myself, Beckett has recently started going by, "The Authority," so make sure to address him properly if you see him in the near future. After fighting some pretty bad traffic, we made it to the stadium at about 7:15.



While walking in from the parking lot, Ben got some attention from one of the parking lot attendants. The following is a direct quote. "Yo man where'd you get that jersey!?!?! I'm from the "D"! That thing is tight! What is that? A 1907? That is straight!" This, of course, in reference to Ben's authentic Ty Cobb Detroit Tigers jersey from 1907. Unfortunately, my authentic Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh Pirates jersey from 1971 didn't get any love.

When we left Greenville, the odometer on Ben's car read 16,643. Currently, it is 16,765. Tomorrow we will be waking up early to drive to St. Louis. We have no game tomorrow, but will be dropping off the rest of Ben's college belongings at his house before heading out for Milwaukee on Thursday for an afternoon game.

Final Preparations

Hey Everyone,

Tomorrow, 6-6-06, Ben and I will be embarking on the road trip of a lifetime. We will be traveling to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums over the course of 44 days. Day 1 begins as the Atlanta Braves host the Washington Nationals at 7:35.

I am not sure how often I will have internet access during this adventure, but I will be updating this as often as possible.