Rituals

Do you follow a certain ritual when you visit a baseball park?  Are there certain souvenirs you always buy there?  How do you chronicle your visit?

Following a lot of e-mails from baseball-park fans, I decided it was time to provide space for these fans to provide details on exactly what they do when they attend a game, and their approaches as to which parks to visit.

Me?  Well, I always do the following at a game:

• I always buy a lapel pin at the park.  I then attach it to a baseball cap, and I keep adding pins to that cap until the end of the season.  I then retire that cap and start over with a new (pinless) cap the next year;
• Photographs!  I always take pictures . . . because, after all, I have a Web site to keep stocked (not to mention the photo albums I have devoted to stadiums);
• I always keep score, preferably in a scorecard/program I've purchased at that park.  I then catalog them all chronologically on a certain shelf in my office (and I keep the boxscore and article about the game from the next day's paper with each scorecard).  And, of course, I separate the Major League collection from the Minor League collection!

• My special pin-holding cap for that season;
• A camera, of course (and extra film);
• A scorebook, in case I don't like the scoring pages in the program;
• A notebook so that I can record all of my thoughts on that ballpark;
• The Official Baseball Rules (hey, you never know when a scrum might break out over a rules interpretation!);
• Items (balls, pads of paper) to be autographed;
• Articles on the teams -- in the case of Minor League games, I like to know who the "hot prospects" are;
• Binoculars -- but only if my wife is with me (she often prefers to look at the people around the stadium instead of watching the game).

Well, some of you guys say that you walk around the outside of the stadium. I mainly go to Yankee and Shea Stadiums, so I know that at Shea it is basically the same all the way around:  big and blue. I do this at most stadiums, but not on purpose. I am usually going in circles trying to find parking or getting lost finding the gate. Anyway, here are my rituals:

- Always buy a hot dog and the stadium’s specialty food (Clam Chowder in Boston, by far my favorite)

- I always try to get at least one autograph from the home team, since I might rarely see them play

- Get a scorecard, program, and (sometimes) a yearbook

- This one is a favorite, though I don't always try to do it: ARGUE WITH THE USHER. At Shea Stadium, they are rude and will argue back. At Yankee Stadium, I got into my biggest kick down in the Club Seats. The ushers and security are not rude at Yankee stadium. I got an NYPD officer to give my son his hat and took a picture of him and my son. (Of course he had to give the hat back)

- Move my seats in the 8th inning

- Buy a pin, a hat and sometimes a uniform of the team.

Advice by:  dklindsey@yesconnect.net 

When you arrive at a new ballpark for the first time, walk all the way around the outside before you go in to your seat.  Many people head into the first gate they see and never get the feel of the park. Once inside, do the same thing, walk that fat butt all the way around the inside and then sit as far away from the action as possible -- then, if you are really brave, move in close in the late innings.  Soak it up!  If it is the only time you may be at that park, take a final mental picture before you leave.

Written by:  dimike@bestweb.net 

My ballpark rituals include:

- Buying a lapel pin, which is placed on the map hanging in my basement only when a game has been seen.  The northeast is so full of teams that I actually use three maps; a map of the US, a map of Massachussets/Connecticut, and a 75-mile radius from Manhattan map.  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to fit the pins.

- I buy the cap of the home team, fitted, size 7 3/8.  These are on display on my basement rafters.

- I buy a postcard of the ballpark, if one is available.  These are rotated weekly into a frame on the sideboard.

- I shoot about 1-2 rolls of film at each park, putting the five best photos into a photo album.  Each park gets one page of the album.  The page holds six photos, but I use the 6th for an information card where I list my pros and cons of each park as well as an overall rating.  The best photo of
a minor league park is blown up to 5x7 and rotated weekly in another frame.  The best photo of a major league park is blown up to 8x12 and hung on the wall in the den.

Most people think this is all a bit loopy, but they always have fun checking the stuff out and, after all, baseball is about fun, isn't it?

Regarding the interesting aspect of "ballpark collecting" ...  You mention on your site that you collect a lapel pin from every place you visit, and that you keep score.  I personally always buy a program and shoot at least two rolls of film.  I also save a box score from the next day's paper for every new place I go.  At the end of the summer, I work on my scrapbook -- for each ballpark I have a page, with the three best photographs, the ticket stub, and the box score.  I'll also usually buy a postcard of the ballpark if they have one.  Anyways, what I'm getting at is that besides the determination of whether a ballpark "counts," most of us also have elaborate systems of souvenir collecting or other documentation of the visit.  I have one friend who tries to get a little vial of infield dirt from each place he visits (it sounds like it would be hard to do, but batboys are usually obliging if asked nicely following the game).  In any case, I'm just fascinated that there are other people out there like us.  For the first few years, I thought I was a freak or something, but with the whole Internet thing comes at least the comfort of knowing there are others like us!

Written by:  CharlieZeb@aol.com

As far as my approach to visiting parks goes, I try to do things league by league, if I can.

The last few years, I've worked on wrapping up a league at a time, or a state, or something of that order.  For instance:  I've had all the parks in
MLB since 1997, along with the International, Eastern, and NY-Penn leagues. Whenever a new park opens in one of those, I get to a game (last year, that meant trips to Seattle, Altoona, Niles, and Staten Island -- if a park changes leagues, like Erie did, I don't have to make another trip).  Last year, I had as a mission to complete the Carolina League, which I did.  So this summer, I've set as a goal the completion of the Texas League, with the Midwest League as a secondary goal.  I might be able to do them both, as the parks I need in the Midwest are Appleton (the 1993 park), Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Dayton (new in 2000), and Peoria.  I also have a wacky goal of finishing the Appy League; I could do that in my separate one-week trip.

When I'm into my travels, I always look for affiliated parks over independent parks.  But the Atlantic and Northeast leagues are so close to me that it's worth going there, too.  I'm one shy of completing the Northeast.  (Given Québec tourism, I've learned that one has to stay in Trois Rivières or even Montréal if one isn't staying both weekend nights.)  I wouldn't go out of my way to see the Madison Black Wolf, unless they were the only game within striking distance one night.

By the way, I'm referring to the Northern League East by its legacy name, "Northeast League", just for convenience.

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