Make it 20 MLB stadiums

The pursuit continues to go to every Major League Baseball stadium, as my wife Lisa and I have reached a milestone of 20 after making it to National?s Park in Washington D.C. and P.N.C. Park in Pittsburgh. It is the first time in nearly 20 years my ballpark sidekick and I have kicked off more than one in a season. The last time was in 1992 when we went to Camden Yards in Baltimore and the old Yankee Stadium. The stadium trips slowed when we moved up north and started raising our three boys. We have been to four the last three years, all losses to the home team, by the way. The first on our two-week vacation was National?s Park, July 28, a year to the day after we went to the Great American Ballpark (GAB) in Cincinnati.

The question I get asked the most is what stadium do I like the most? Since my first stadium trip was so many hot dogs ago, it is hard to really nail it down. Of the recent five, old Bush Stadium (St. Louis), Rogers Centre (Toronto), Cincinnati, D.C. and Pitt, for value and experience, GAB gets my vote. Both the parks in D.C. and Pittsburgh are not all that different. I will give the Nat?s a slight edge, but only because there was a lot of extra time to explore and the people were really nice. We got to P.N.C. just in time for the game. In D.C., I bought tickets outside of a park from a scalper.

The scalper offered me five tickets at $15 apiece for seats he said were out of the sun and in the middle level of three. I initially said ?no?, because the face value was $10. The scalper said he bought the tickets in bulk. So, we got a little hosed. The seats were in direct line with the setting sun and in the third deck. For some reason, even though the tickets say they were in the 200s, they were actually in the third deck. No matter, it was a great time, and a really nice usher let us move into the second row of the second level after the third inning. Before the game, I got in line to get Nat?s manager Jim Riggleman?s autograph. I?m not a big autograph person, but the line was extremely short. While the game was an absolute snoozer, the president?s race was a lot of fun. Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, who have these funny looking exaggerated heads make a dash from a centerfield door along the warning track to the first-base dug out. The running story on the race is Roosevelt never wins. George won when we were there.

It was better than the pierogi race in Pittsburgh. A pierogi that looked like Groucho Marx won it last Friday when we were there. I reall

y like the presidents a whole lot more. Nobody wants to have his or her picture taken with a pierogi. P.N.C. is not that big, with great seats everywhere, and one of the best views of a downtown area I?ve ever seen. One of the best deals in the house was the all-you-can-eat (AYCE) tickets. They were only $35 apiece. Comerica Park?s AYCE seats are closer to $60. Mark and Luke did some extra jobs around the house before we left for vacation to earn their tickets. They pounded down the hamburgers, ice cream bars and sodas. Mark soaked it up and sent his little brother down to the concession stand to get the grub.

It also was Andrew McCutchen bobble head night; so we got to take some free souvenirs home, even though my family had no idea who he was. Luke slept with his. It was one of the better games I?ve seen at a foreign stadium. The score was 3-0 until the Pirates tied the game on a three run homer. Colorado would get three more runs in and win it. For the next stadium(s) there are not immediate plans, but the goal is to reach park No. 25 by the summer of 2014, to coincide with Lisa and my 25th wedding anniversary.