Shortly after Jeremy and I started dating, we decided that visiting all 30 MLB parks was on our bucket list of things to do together. Luckily, we got married and have plans to stay together, so finishing that task is doable. Last year, Jeremy introduced me to the Savannah Bananas and how hilariously awesome their games are (find them on YouTube if you don’t know). In fall 2022, they announced that they would be doing a tour and playing on the road at stadiums all over the country. They happened to be coming to Arizona and California. The date of the Arizona game was right next to Mariners' spring training so I could make a vacation out of that! But there were two in California and both in the summer and you know what else is in California? 5 MLB ballparks. I put my name in the hat for the tickets, as they were done from by a lottery system, and planned an entire trip around that one date.
I found a way to hit up the Giants, Dodgers, Angels, Padres and Athletics in that order while still carving out time to visit Alcatraz, Disneyland, Universal Studios and the Jelly Belly factory. Of course, the Bananas’ game would be the first game on our trip. After hours upon hours working on spreadsheets for this trip, I started buying tickets to the various events and booking hotels, all the while, waiting to see if my name was picked in the lottery to see the Bananas. Out of curiosity, I checked the Mariners’ schedule and they happened to be at home the day after I planned on returning AND it was my 11th wedding anniversary. Perfect! We’ll let the kid spend the night at a friend’s house, as I’m sure he’ll be sick of having mom & dad 24/7 at that point, so Jeremy and I can go to the game to not only finish off the trip with a 6th game, but also go on a date for our anniversary. The kid isn’t into baseball like Jeremy and I are, so I knew going to 5 games would be tough (6 if you count the Bananas), but I didn’t see another way for Jeremy and I to escape for 2.5 weeks to do it ourselves. I figured he could tolerate a few hours of baseball as long as I tempted him with Disneyland, souvenirs and a phone with WiFi.
The next 6 posts will be about my experiences at the various games. Before going to any game, I had decided that I wanted to eat a hotdog at every park (to judge), buy the same item from each park to put in some sort of display and buy a kid’s t-shirt with the logo on it to eventually make into a quilt. We took various forms of transportation to the parks and that’ll all be included in my trip synopsis. One last note before I move on, since Seattle is our home stadium and we’ve been there many times over the years (every opening day, except 2, in the past 16 years with Jeremy and the All Star Game in 2023), I’m going to be judging each stadium against T-Mobile Park. “But Jenny, shouldn’t you be objective?” No, it’s my blog and as Cartman said, “I do what I want”.
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