Where have you watched Baseball?

With the World Series beginning this weekend, I found this rundown of ballparks visited over time. I wrote this in April 2017 and got around to posting in May that year. Still current, with no new parKs in the lineup!

FLASHBACK:

I wrote this post at the beginning of April (2017)  but just got around to getting it on the site now. Sorry for the delay.

Baseball season is officially gotten underway. I started thinking about the many ballparks I’ve seen around the nation. Watching the Texas rangers tonight, I thought I had been to the park and then realized I’ve been there several times. However only one time for a game. And I can’t tell you whom Texas played, but I do remember they did not win. The boss then paid for the tickets, so I didn’t feel I was out too much.

While working at Datacount, Danny Tankersley and I decided we would create a plan that scheduled training seminars around the baseball schedule. The seminars were always Tuesday through Thursday, so we would look for a Wednesday night baseball game in the town where we scheduled the seminar. We promoted that when selling the seminars and always had anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the class go along with us to the game. That got me to a game in Atlanta, Cleveland, and Denver.

While attending a Navy “A” school on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969, I caught a game at Candlestick Park. I also caught an Atlanta Braves versus Montreal Expos game in Montreal while installing software for a company in the city. I didn’t have a Braves hat but found one; I should mention that it was the only one in the stadium, so I bought it and wore it proudly at the game. The Braves won that game, and I wore the hat home on the subway amongst all of those expo fans. I lived.

Although I work for a company based in Toronto now, my first Blue Jays game was working with another company. I found myself in Toronto during the SARS scare a few years ago. There probably weren’t 300 people at the stadium, and I’m not sure whom the Blue Jays played, but I think they won. I was already working a job in Canada when they warned Americans not to travel there, but it was too late, and I did not get SARS. I have gone to a Toronto game since then with much better seats.

Then there was the game in St. Louis. I was in the Air National Guard then and attended some training seminars at McDonnell Douglas. So we ended up catching a game in their suite at the ballpark. I think maybe we had Bud Light at that game. It was kind of nice to see how rich people live.

Then, who could forget the Atlanta Braves game I went to that was played in Caracas Venezuela? Although I fell out of the subway near the hotel, it was an enjoyable evening. It was a money-raising event for local charities. At this point, I don’t remember whom we played, possibly Cleveland. But it was a great time, and those Venezuelan fans were enthusiastic and crazy. I might add that they were kind, as they helped me back to my feet after falling out of the subway.

Speaking of the Braves, I caught a Honeymoon Double Header at the Old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, probably a dozen other games over the years at Turner Field, but nothing yet in the new SunTrust Field.

FLASHFOWARD: It’s Truist Field in Atlanta now, no longer Sun Trust.