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Ultimate Baseball Experiences[Editor's Note: Jim Caple
couldn't boil his lifetime of baseball experiences down to just 10, so the
first installment of the "Travel Top Ten" goes into extra innings.]
The ultimate baseball experience is sitting behind home plate while your
favorite team scores the winning run in Game 7 of the World Series. But you
can't count on that happening very often -- especially if you live in
Cleveland. Still, here are 10 "Don't Miss" baseball experiences that are
always available for the perfect road swing.
1. Afternoon at Wrigley Field, Chicago
There are two quintessential American experiences -- visiting Disneyland and
sitting in Wrigley Field's bleachers with a summer sun shining down. This is
America's own Wayback Machine, transporting fans back to the way the game
was when their grandparents were young enough to collect baseball cards (the
price of tickets aside). Despite what our parent company claims, if the Cubs
are winning and the wind is blowing out, this is the happiest place on
earth. After all, Wrigley Field serves beer.
• Cap'n
Jimmy's Wild Ride: Caple visits Wrigley Field (2002)
2. Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y.
Look, there are shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes. And there -- that's the
promissory note selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. And over there -- it's the
green-light letter from FDR granting baseball the right to continue during
WWII. And Hank Aaron's bat. And Roy Hobbs' bat. And Ernie Harwell's
scorecard from the Shot Heard Round the World (notice how he was too excited
to fill in Bobby Thomson's home run?). And on and on and on. The Hall of
Fame ought to replace its doorway with pearly gates because this is heaven.
(Note: The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City is worth a visit, as
well.)
3. Spring training, various cities, Florida and Arizona
Football has vomit-inducing two-a-days in the August heat; baseball has
batting practice amid the palm trees just when you need it most after months
of shoveling snow and scraping ice. Whether you're watching the Dodgers in
Vero Beach or the Rockies at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, winter will seem a
world away. Just buy a ticket for a spot on the grassy outfield berm,
generously spread the sunscreen over your body, buy a cold beer and sit back
and ... relax. You'll never want to go home. Or back to work.
4. College World Series, Omaha, Neb.
The NCAA moves the basketball tournament from major city to major city each
spring, but the baseball championships have a permanent home in the heart of
Omaha and Omaha residents (tickets have been in some families for decades).
Take the drama of a World Series, add the passion of college sports,
multiply by the warmth of Midwest hospitality and you have just an idea of
what the CWS is like. The rest you'll have to experience on your own.
5. Minnesota townball, various towns, Minnesota
Why go to Dyersville, Iowa, when you can see a real-life Field of Dreams?
There are no ghost players walking in from the cornfields, just real people
proudly representing the local towns. There are dozens of fields throughout
the state -- many with a cornfield rising beyond the outfield fence -- but
our favorites are in little Stark Township, just off I-90 in southern
Minnesota, and in Jordan, 30 miles and a world away from Minneapolis. Such a
sublime bit of Americana, the only thing missing is Garrison Keillor doing
the play-by-play.
• Cap'n
Jimmy's Wild Ride: Caple at Stark Ballpark in Minn. (2002)
6. Caribbean World Series, various sites
Can't clear customs in Havana (although you can always sneak into Cuba
through Canada) to experience the passion of Latin baseball? Then check out
the next best thing, the Caribbean World Series. It's like our World Series,
only instead of stadiums filled with suits using their corporate tickets and
sitting on their hands, the seats are filled with real fans as passionate
about baseball as those on Tobacco Road are about college hoops. And how can
you beat a Caribbean vacation in the depth of winter?
7. Prague Baseball Week, Prague, Czech Republic
Yes, they play baseball in Europe. Not as well as here, but our national
pastime is a growing cult sport in, of all places, Prague, which hosts a
weeklong European summer tournament. You get baseball with a European flavor
in one of the world's most beautiful cities -- and did we mention that Czech
beer is some of the best you'll ever taste?
8. Midnight Sun Game, Fairbanks, Alaska
Ever wish you could watch baseball all night long? Well, you can in Alaska,
where every year on the summer solstice, Fairbanks hosts the Midnight Sun
Game. Some of the game's best players -- Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Bret
Boone, Jason Giambi -- know the feeling of taking the field at midnight and
playing until the wee hours. And because the sun never really sets (it just
sort of glances off the horizon) the stadium operators not only don't use
artificial lights, they're not even sure whether they work.
• Caple
at the Midnight Sun game (2005)
9. Minor league baseball, Charleston, S.C.
Minor league baseball can be experienced all across the country, but there
is no better place to watch it than with a team run by the impresario of the
minors, promotional wizard Mike Veeck. Whether it's Mother-in-Law Night (you
get in free; your mother-in-law pays double) or Tonya Harding Mini-Bat
Night, you'll always be in for a treat (well, maybe not if it's Vasectomy
Night).
10. Hiroshima Carp game, Hiroshima, Japan
The stadium isn't anything special -- it's reminiscent of the old park in
Arlington -- but what makes this site unique is that it allows you to
experience the joys of the best thing America has ever exported to the world
and a painfully sobering reminder of the worst. The Carps stadium is
directly across the street from where the atomic bomb detonated.
11. Evening at Fenway Park, Boston
Why go to a retro park when you can visit the original? Any time is a good
time to visit Fenway, but the charms of the majors' oldest stadium are best
seen under the lights, when all that green is more vibrant than ever. There
might be no prettier sight than the white of a baseball as it hangs briefly
silhouetted against the night sky just before disappearing beyond the Green
Monster.
• Cap'n
Jimmy's Wild Ride: Caple goes inside the Green Monster (2002)
Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com who has covered baseball in
every major league city, on four continents and in Cuba.
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