30 Stadia with only 6 days off work....

As I've discussed a bunch here, I'm a fan of baseball.  I love the statistics, I love the math, I love the game.

I am on a quest to see a game played in every Major League Stadium in my lifetime.  So far I've gotten to 11.  4 of them don't exist anymore, but I've been to both Old Comiskey and what is now US Cellular.  I have 22 more to get to.  That's a daunting task.  On the plus side, there are some geographical advantages to the layout of major cities in this country.  They tend to be bunched, and Chicago is right in the center of a bunch of them.  I'm at a clear advantage to seeing lots of places without taking long breaks from work.

There are lots of websites that can tell you how to get around in a month.   I can't afford a month away from work or family.  I'm sure most people can't. 

So, you ask, how does this work?  I'm doing this as a service to you and to myself.

1.  The following cities are within 8 hours drive time from Chicago.  You can go to these on a weekend, and you might not feel like you're wasting your life (provided you leave EARLY on Saturday morning). 
      A.  Minneapolis (Target Field)
      B.  Milwaukee  (Miller Park)
      C.  St. Louis  (Busch Stadium)
      D.  Kansas City  (Kauffman Stadium)
      E.  Detroit  (Comerica Park)
      F.  Cincinnati  (Great American Ballpark)
      G. Cleveland  (Progressive Field - formerly Jacobs Field)
      H.  Pittsburgh  (PNC Park)
       I.  Toronto (bring your passport)  (Rogers Centre - formerly SkyDome)
Throw in your 2 Chicago stadia, and you've got 11 within a relatively short distance.  That's more than a third of them. 

2.  Taking off a few from the above there is a trip that you can do that does 4 stadia in 4 days that is within driving distance of Chicago.  The following 4 cities are relatively close to each other, so the longest drives are out from Chicago and back.  I would suggest the best way is to start in Pittsburgh and end in Detroit. 
        A.  Detroit
        B.  Toronto
        C.  Cleveland
        D.  Pittsburgh

From here on out, these trips are assuming air travel.  This is where this gets pricey.  I'm fortunate in that my company has free air travel almost anywhere I want to go.  Your situation may differ.  If you're prudent, and deal with it correctly, you should be able to fly relatively cheap with a little planning. 

3.  The following cities are kind of "islands."  There's no other stadium within 5 hours drive time.  That prevents it from feeling like a good way to spend an efficient baseball weekend if you're from Chicago. 
        A.  Denver  (Coors Field)
        B.  Seattle  (Safeco Field)
        C.  Atlanta  (Turner Field)
Unfortunately, these trips will have to be solo trips if you want to avoid missing work. 

4.  "The West Coast Swing"  Did you know that there are 4 teams within a relative close distance in the southern portion of the west coast?  The following can be done in 4 days. 
        A.  LA Dodgers  (Dodger Stadium)
        B.  LA Angels  (Angel Stadium - "The Big A")
        C.  San Diego  (Petco Park)
        D.  Phoenix  (Chase Field)
I would recommend flying into or out of LA, then flying into or out of Phoenix. 

So, now we're up to 18 stadia in 7 "day trips," two 4 day trips and 3 weekends. 

5.  Now we get to the 2 stadia in the same city, or real close together.  These are:
         A.  San Francisco  (AT&T Park)/Oakland  (Oakland - Alameda Coliseum)
         B.  New York Yankees  (New Yankee Stadium)/New York Mets  (Citi Field)
I would also tack Boston  (Fenway Park) onto the New York trip.  It's 3 hours away.  You can do 3 stadia in 3 days that way.  I'm not doing it that way, because I've already been to New York once (Shea and Old Yankee) and my wife wants to go to Boston.  It's a solo trip for me.  The repeat of the New York swing will have to be another weekend for me.

Recapping - 23 stadia now, with 2 more weekends.  We've made it real efficient to do this.  You've seen 23 stadia, and if done over 2 day weekends, the MOST you've missed is 5 days of work.  Do it on 3 day weekends, and you could potentially have only missed 2 days of work.  Provided you can afford air travel, you've done pretty well for yourself and you've seen a whole lot of the U.S. 

6.  Now we come to the trip I just did.  This is a 3 day trip. 
       A.  Philadelphia  (Citizens Bank Park)
       B.  Baltimore  (Oriole Park at Camden Yards)
       C.  Washington D.C.  (Nationals Park)
I'm going to write a whole bunch about this trip soon.  Here's a quick tip.  Fly into/out of Baltimore.  Make Baltimore your home base.  There are nice hotels within walking distance of Camden Yards, and the inner harbor is cool.  Plus it's only 2 hours from Philly, and an hour from D.C. 

26 now.  You've missed 6 days of work on normal weekends.  Still at 2 if you can make 3 day weekends work. 

7.  Last 4.  These are in the same state.  They're a hike from each other, but they're driveable in a weekend. 
         A.  Tampa  (Tropicana Field)/Miami  (Sun Life Stadium)
         B.  Houston  (Minute Maid Park)/Arlington  (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

CAUTION.  The Marlins get a new stadium in 2012.  (Provided the Mayans were full of shit, that is)  If you want to see the Marlins in their old home, you've got next year.  There should be tickets available.  Thousands of them. 

There it is.  Now, all of this is dependent on scheduling.  You must take your time, look through each team's schedules, figure out how to squeeze driving time in, etc.  But, if you can.....

You've seen baseball in every Major League Stadium.  You've done it this way:
7 "day trips" from Chicago
2 Four day trips with 4 stadia
2 Three day trips with 3 stadia
3 Weekends with one stadium
3 Weekends with two stadia.

You've missed 6 days of work, or if you do it over 3 day weekends exclusively - TWO DAYS.  You've seen 8 of the top 10 cities in terms of population (if you consider Arlington close enough to Dallas).  You've been to our nation's capital, been where the nation was born, been to the city that never sleeps, been to the city by the bay (my personal favorite) and you've seen where the Revolution started. 

All because you love baseball. 

I'd love questions or commentary on this.