[boblight24]

My dad and I always had baseball in common and when I was in high school it was the only thing we had in common. We didn't talk a whole lot - teen angst probably, but we ran into each others arms after Sid Bream crossed the plate in '92. I finally got my head out of my you know where and we became close friends, he ended up being my best man at my wedding, because a better man I've yet to meet. After graduation in 1994 we decided to do a baseball trip. We left NC, drove to Baltimore to see the O's play the A's (the vowel series), then onto NYC where we sat in the left field bleachers at Old New Yankee Stadium and watched the Yankees play the Angels, Tim Salmon hit a HR that landed about 5 rows behind us. From NYC onto Boston where we stayed within walking distance of Fenway and caught a game on Saturday and Sunday, Mariners v Boston. FYI - A-Roid got his first hit during that series. We had excellent seats, this was 1994 so the Red Sox were still not good, not unlike the Yankees at that time. We were about 10 rows up between home and 3rd base for both games, sweet. If you've never been to Fenway, stop what you're doing and go now. Red Sox fan or not, and I'm not, you will never look at baseball the same way after seeing a game in Boston.

Then it was onto to Cooperstown and my dad's favorite part of the trip. I am a lover of baseball history and we spent the majority of the trip debating the pros and cons of Nap Lajoie or Rogers Hornsby as our starting 2B. Anyway, my dad got to go to Mickey Mantle's place in Cooperstown, he was a kid again. Like Boston, if you have been to Cooperstown, go. But take my advice spend a few days there, get lost in the history of the game, don't rush through it. From there we went to Philadelphia (looking back at this I was a lousy travel agent, but I was trying to do it where we could see opposing teams as well as home stadiums that we wanted to) for a Dodgers/Phillies game at the Vet, but it was rained out. We left Philly and drove across Pennsylvania for a Pirates/Astros game at Three Rivers. I love Pittsburgh, everything about it. The blue collarness, the toughness, the this is our town because we built it and if you don't like it you can leave or we'll just throw you out. We got to see Bagwell crush a ball to left in this one, again great seats. From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to see the Reds/Cubs. From there we were supposed to head to Cleveland, Chicago, and Detroit, but I had a girlfriend at the time that I missed and we'd been on the road for about 2 weeks so we decided that we'd leave from Cincy and go home. To this day I apologize for cutting the trip short, but dad always tells me he had the time of his life. I hope he knows that I did too.

My dad is still with us, thankfully, and he's now a grandpa and as good of one as he was a dad, which is to say terrific. in 2010, I won Opening Day tickets from MLB.com to any team's home opener. What did I choose.....Yankees vs. Angels in the Bronx. It was a great day (except I had pneumonia), the Yankees got their rings, it was Matsui's first game as an Angel and he got his ring as well, and Jeter hit a home run. We had nose-bleed seats, I mean 4 rows from the top of the stadium, but there's my dad with a $9 Nathan's hot dog and a grin from ear to ear. Maybe it was that or the 8 gallons of cold medicine I took, but that was a great day.

Oops forgot the topic:
Top 5 ballparks (no particular order):
Fenway Park
Old Yankee Stadium
Camden Yards
Wrigley Field
Forbes Field