If
you're looking for a family road trip to entertain your family's baseball
fantasies, I am sure sitting in the stands at Yankee Stadium, gazing at the Green Monster, and
partaking in America’s Favorite pastime, will do the trick.
Going
to see the Boston Red Sox’s was our first destination on our Baseball Road
Trip. Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts has been
around since the early 1900’s and has hosted eight decades of baseball legends.
The seating at Fenway park may have been as old as the Titanic, but it brought
us a lot closer to players than at most fields. Tickets sell fast so we planned
our family trip during a week where it would not be sold out.
Rare
sights to be found at Fenway include a working, hand-operated score board, and
the legendary left field green monster. Fenway Park remains in its
original condition, and I hope they never rebuild it. It is one of the last
places you can go to experience baseball like it was during the times of Babe
Ruth and Ty Cobb. In fact, the building opened in 1912 and is now America's
oldest baseball park. Although the structure has survived several fires
over the years, it still stands strong.
What
better stadium to visit next other than the Boston Red Sox’s rival? Yep, the
Yankee Stadium in New York City! If you want to see this piece a
baseball history like “The House Ruth Built” you'd better hurry, because the
”home of the champions” is set to be demolished in 2009, when the new
Yankee Stadium opens. To get the most out of our visit to Yankee Stadium, we
took a one-hour tour to walk on the field, sit in the
dugout, view the press box, clubhouse, and wander the historic Monument Park. One
of the best parts of the tour was walking into the clubhouse where the players
since Babe Ruth have suited up for the games.
When
doing your Family trip planning don’t forget to include a tour of America’s Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New
York. Cooperstown is off the beaten track, but we enjoyed the nice countryside
drive. When we arrived at Cooperstown, we took a nice relaxing trolley to the
Baseball Hall of Fame. Inside the Hall of Fame, my kids initially gravitated to
the most popular players of today, until they started taking a closer look in
the locker room, where they saw worn gloves and bats from long ago. This
made them stop and think about the players from the past.
My
family is crazy about baseball, but our love for baseball grew even fonder on
this family trip. Tickets sell fast at all these stadiums, but don’t worry,
each of the stadiums hold year round tours, so you’ll always get to explore the
stadiums even if you miss an actual game. Family trips to baseball games have
always been one of the best ways for our family to spend time together.
Here
are a few trips to check out. One is a weekend getaway, the other a week-long buddy trip, both with the emphasis on
baseball. Play ball!