When do you "count" your ballpark visit?

Real baseball-park fanatics keep track of the number of parks they've visited -- and the real nuts (like me) apply a certain set of criteria before they can officially "count" that visit -- although the criteria vary from fan to fan.

To me, the important thing is to count how many different parks in which I see a game in a given season, not the total number of baseball games I see in a year.  Therefore, I am able to "count" a game in a park if I'm there when it becomes an official game (with kids, I sometimes can't stay until the end).  If I go to a park and the game is rained out (as happened to me during disappointing trips to Pittsburgh in '95 and Nashville in '01, and many times in my old "home" park in Baltimore), I don't "count" that visit at all.

I also only count Major League or Minor League parks (the latter having to be a member of an NAPBL league).  In other words, no matter how scenic, historic or architecturally interesting they are, I never include college or "indy" league ballparks.  And I include the parks where Major League teams play their spring-training exhibitions, too.

Because I also love to visit ballparks and take pictures even during the winter, I keep a separate list of baseball stadiums that I have "visited" but where I haven't seen a game . . . yet!  For my complete list of "seen games" and "only visited," see the Parks I've Seen page.

Does your visit have to meet particular criteria before you allow yourself to "count" it?  Let me know and I'll add your thoughts on this page!  Also, how many parks have you visited?

Ah, this is an interesting topic!  My own set of rules goes like this:  I'll count any ballpark in which I've seen an official, professional game.  In other words, any Major League park, any NA park, and
any indy league park (because, of course, they *are* pro ball, even if they don't have the NAPBL stamp of approval).  I also only count regular season, scheduled games (though this could conceivably include all-star and playoff games).  The issue of exhibition games isn't an issue for me yet, since I've never been to one!  However, I think spring training games in Florida would surely count, because they're between pro teams, in a home ballpark, and on a schedule.  I don't count college stadiums (though I've been to a couple), or semi-pro or amateur games, even if they're played in former or current minor league parks.  For instance, Waterloo, Iowa used to have a Midwest League team, but now Municipal Stadium is used for the Northwoods League, which is a collegiate amateur circuit.  If I was to see a game there, I would not put it in my official "count," although I would of course take pictures and add them to my collection.  So, by these rules, I've been to 97 stadiums.  I've also been to four ballparks in which the game was rained out (All-Sport Stadium in Oklahoma City, Golden Park in Columbus GA, Munson Stadium in Canton, and Osceola County Stadium in Florida), and one park that was in use years ago but has long since been converted to a high school football field (Memorial Stadium in Waycross, GA, which I stumbled across inadvertently driving from the Okeefenokee Swamp to my folks' house in Augusta GA).  Naturally, I don't count any of these parks, though I took pictures of all of them except for Golden Park since there were tornados in the area at game time and I was frightened for my life!

You're right, though -- there're probably as many different  definitions of having "seen" a ballpark as there are people who visit them.  And that's fine by me -- everyone should probably determine what's best for them.  What I find fascinating, though, is that among the handful of ballpark fans like us, everyone has *some* method of determining if a place "counts" -- that everyone seems to have to come to terms with this somehow, even as they devise their own definitions.

The crowd of baseball fans I hang out with has all different sets of "rules" for what gets counted.  Some of them count the ballpark if they're in it, regardless of whether a game is played.  Many of them refuse to recognize games played by teams and leagues that aren't part of MLB or the National Association.  About the only universal standard is that they'll only count the game if it's official -- but even that varies.  One guy will see the first 5 or 6 innings of a game in New York, then race down to Philly for a doubleheader, arriving before the 5th inning, and count 3 games.  As long as he's there when the game becomes official, he counts it.  I don't.  I make a conscious effort to be there for the start, and I *never* leave before the end.  Generally, if it's past the middle of the third inning when I arrive, I don't bother going in, unless it's a doubleheader I didn't know about and it's the first game (like Tampa, or Canton, Ohio, in 1995, or Hamilton, Ont., in 1992 -- in each case, I arrived during the first game and stayed for the second).  Last year, I fouled up the start time at Bowie, and got there at 1:50 for what I thought was a 2:05 game.  It was at 1:05.  I had to beg and plead for a refund when I discovered it was the bottom of the third, but I got it and went to Atlantic City (6:05) instead.

Usually, I try to arrive at parks now an hour before game time.  That way, if a 7:00 single game becomes a 6:00 doubleheader, I see two.  Then again, I did that in Omaha last year, showed up at 5:30 and it was already the bottom of the second.  I counted both games.  Why do they have to start these twinbills at 5:00?

I've been to my fair share of ballparks.  I count NCAA Division I and collegiate summer league (e.g., Cape Cod League) games in addition to MLB, NA and independent league games, so my total is somewhat inflated, but my total to date is 118, and I have plans to see in the neighborhood of 25 new ballparks this summer.  My long vacation this year is to NY State, Canada and New England, and I've planned weekend trips to Reading/Philly, Columbus, Georgia/Myrtle Beach and Orlando/Tampa/St.Pete.  By the end of the summer I hope to have my total over 140 in 42 states and 3 provinces.

The main reasons for including college and collegiate summer leagues are Oklahoma, Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska.  When I started doing this out of college, my stated objective was to see a game in every state, every league, and one day -- though completely unreasonable and unreachable -- every ballpark.  The only game I've seen so far in Oklahoma (despite a rain-out in Tulsa last spring) was in 1993 at the home park of the Oklahoma City 89ers, but it was a Big 8 Conference Tournament game between Oklahoma and Nebraska, so if I want to count Oklahoma for now, I have to count college games!  Also, there aren't any professional teams in Wyoming, Hawaii or Alaska (at least I'm pretty sure there aren't), so if I ever want to max out at 50 states, I have to catch some college (U of Wyoming) or collegiate summer (Alaskan Summer League) games there.

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