Baseball DIY

I think I’ve said it here before, but it bears repeating: My wife is the effing coolest girl on the planet. Further proof: Jill and I will hit a trifecta of baseball shrines beginning May 9.

Dubbed the East Coast Family Vacation because we’re old enough to remember “Motownphilly,” our trip starts with two days in Cooperstown, New York, home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. From there, we will travel to a little town called New York City, where we will take in the sights before attending a game betwixt the Yankees (some of you may know them better as the Highlanders, but you’d have to be really, really old) and Cornelius McGillicuddy’s Philadelphia-Kansas City-Oakland Athletics. But it takes three to trifecta, so we move from New York to Boston, and not just because it gave birth to such bands as the Pixies, the Lemonheads, and, well, Boston. While in Beantown, we will walk the Freedom Trail and take in a game between the Red Sox and the Texas Rangers (though they’ll always be the Washington Senators II to me) at Fenway Park.

Every time I think I know which part of the trip I’m most excited about, I change my mind. Right now, it’s Fenway, but I’m sure it’ll be Cooperstown before the night’s over. And as I learn more and more about Babe Ruth (he was a pretty good ballplayer), the more I want to go to the stadium where he did most of his damage.

Not everyone gets a chance to do something like this, so I really want to make the most of it and experience as much as I can. I want to take as many notes, pictures, and “souvenirs” as I can. I might even buy a Yankees cap.

The only thing that keeps this trip from absolute perfection is that I won’t be taking my dad or yet-to-be-conceived kid with me, but that just gives me an excuse to do it again.