Background

        I've been attending major-league baseball games since 1977 -- when the Mariners first arrived on the scene in Seattle. I grew up not far away from where the Seattle Pilots played their one season (1969), but I never made it to a game and now their park (Sick's Stadium) is a business warehouse.  
        Sure, there's a sign there that explains what used to be there, but it's obviously not the same -- a piece of Seattle's history is gone forever.
        From April 1977 to August 1993, the Kingdome was the only place I had been able to watch major-league baseball games. Once I got a taste of outdoor baseball, my goal was to hit every major-league baseball park.
        Unfortunately, I'm not one of four guys from Princeton -- nor either geek from those MasterCard ads almost four years ago -- so I have to settle for getting there when I have the time and money to get there. BTW, those MasterCard slackers didn't see every park because they only saw Pac Bell Park in San Francisco from McCovey's Cove, which is located outside the park. I might sound a bit picky, but when it's about seeing them all, no one should get points for merely riding (or in this case, sailing) by.
        By August of 1993, Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was no longer in use for baseball and old Comiskey Park was already a Chicago memory. Denver's Mile High Stadium, Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, and the Mistake by the Lake (Municipal Stadium in Cleveland) were all football-only. Good thing cities are still lining up to tear down their 20-to-30-year old parks or I would've reached my goal years ago. Kidding, of course, but most of the newer parks are improvements over their older counterparts (new Comiskey -- now U.S. Cellular Field -- might be the exception from what I've heard). Sooner or later, though, teams have to stop building new parks...don't they?
        Fortunately, in September of 1995, I met someone who likes baseball (and traveling) as much as I do and her employment history is more stable than mine. In late May of 2003, she finally caught me (her 33rd park) when we took a trip to the Metrodome in Minneapolis for a couple of Mariners/Twins games.
        As of right now, my favorite parks are Chicago's Wrigley Field (of the old ones) and Pittsburgh's PNC Park (of the new ones). My current hometown park -- Safeco Field -- is also a very nice park, but because I also happen to work there during games, I think I might have to remove that one from objective consideration. However, even if I didn't work there, I still think it's light years better than the Kingdome (which still would have worked for NFL football, IMHO, but that's a story for another time and place).

        The roadtrips started in 1993 and were planned as follows: