Baseball, Beer and Budget Travel

ShysterBall reader James Van Hooser just graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in English. This means he can (a) go to law school; (b) go to grad school; (c) learn guitar and take up busking; or (d) get in a Mustang full of beer, beef jerky, applesauce and a couple of his friends and take in as many baseball games as he possibly can this summer. James chose wisely:

Baseball: My two best friends and I just graduated from college and we are going on a three week road trip to delay our inevitable entrance into the “real world”. We are all avid baseball fans, so we framed our trip around seeing as many MLB games in as many different ballparks as our schedule would allow. This blog is an attempt to detail our experiences and hopefully inspire others to take similar baseball themed road trips.

Budget: We are all broke college students, so we have put this trip together for as little cash as possible (while still maintaining some semblance of fun and safety). If you prefer to have things spelled out for you, you could say we are trying to do this trip “on a shoestring”.

Beer: I am a fan of good beer. One of my goals on this trip is to drink only craft beer that I cannot get at home in Texas. I have a preliminary list of beers I want to try, but hopefully the locals in each city will point me in the right direction.

I’m not lying about the beef jerky and applesauce: here’s the evidence. The beer is a legitimately big part of the trip too. I can fault neither his ambition nor his priorities. The only thing I can fault is the fact that he has named his car “Arwen.” I find nothing wrong with naming one’s car at the outset of a road trip, but “Arwen” is nerdy by even my supremely nerdy standards. Could have been worse I guess. He could have named it after a silver dragon from the Dragonlance books or something.

According to the schedule, James should be en route to Atlanta as we speak. I plan on following his progress with a jealous, jealous eye.


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Daniel
14 years ago

Very exciting.  I did this exact same thing with my best friend (and two other good buddies) after graduating college.  We hit 8 major league parks, 3 minor league parks, plus the Negro League Museum (where we got to take pictures with Buck O’Neil!) and the Louisville Slugger Museum in two weeks.  We started from the West Coast, so it was a little tougher, but it was a blast.  Two quirky things we did:

1. We were poor and didn’t have much money for souvenirs.  But every game we saw, we played our own game.  We started with one of us and each took a subsequent batter.  You got positive points if your hitter got a hit (you’d get points for the total bases) and one point for an RBI, and then negative points if your hitter made an out.  The three losers would have to chip in $5 each to buy the winner a souvenir from the stadium gift shop.  I wound up with a Texas Rangers glass and a Louisville River Bats cap.

2. I made up a rating system for the hot dogs at each park.  Dog taste, preparation, price, condiment availability, bun freshness, etc. all went into it.  Best overall dog?  Houston.  Best dog without the frills?  St. Louis.

Anyway, good luck to you guys.  Watch the cops if you drive through Arkansas.  They’ll nail ya for speeding.  Trust me.

JK
14 years ago

Speaking of baseball roadtrips…

Earlier this season there was the guys doing the 30 ballparks in 30 days… does anyone know if they finished that? Or what happened with that?

Jim C
14 years ago

I’m sure they will have a good time. In Atlanta they should look for Sweetwater Beers, they are the best local brewer.

Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

As someone who just graduated from law school, I can say definitively that he chose correctly.

Bill
14 years ago

The Common Man and I took a similar (but shorter) post-college tour. That sort of trip is exactly as awesome as one would expect…except probably more. I’ll also be following along very, very jealously.

I think Welsh-influenced names are cool, anyway. Bilbo would probably have been considerably worse.

http://the-daily-something.blogspot.com

Bill
14 years ago

The Common Man and I took a similar (but shorter) post-college tour. That sort of trip is exactly as awesome as one would expect…except probably more. I’ll also be following along very, very jealously.

I think Welsh-influenced names are cool, anyway. Bilbo would probably have been considerably worse.

the-daily-something.blogspot.com

C Dub
14 years ago

Dragonlance rules!  grin

Scarf
14 years ago

And…damn, he isn’t coming to St Louis. Shame, because there’s some excellent beer I would be able to recommend that I don’t think is available in Iowa City.

Wade
14 years ago

The wife and I, for years now, have had this plan in the top-5 things we would do should the gods grant us a winning lottery ticket.  I gotta cool wife…

Good luck fellas, and jealousy is an understatement.

Cheers.

Killeverything
14 years ago

What an awesome trip.

I say that with complete envy.

blaze
14 years ago

Ah, an English degree. Teaching or politics, dude. Good luck with that! If you’re anywhere near the Ohio River, let me know.