This is something I wrote in 2008.  Thought I would share and hope that it will mean something to Fathers and Sons who have a shared interest in baseball, especially visiting ballparks together.

Note:  My son was 39 at the time of this trip.

Baseball is a magical game! A game with history, drama, excitement, and passion. It's a game played by boys, girls, men and women! It's played on open fields, neighborhood parks, high school and college campuses, in cathedrals and shrines, some new and some old! Fenway Park! Yankee Stadium! Wrigley Field! AT&T Park!

My son, Scott, and I just recently had the chance to take a baseball trip. This was not our first, but it was our first in many years. It was prompted by my son's desire to see Yankee Stadium before they tear it down, which they will do at the end of this season.

On Saturday, May 31st, we flew to New York where on Sunday we saw the Mets beat the Dodgers in the Sunday Night game televised on ESPN. This is also the final year for Shea Stadium, the Met's home, as they will also have a new ball park in 2009. I came away from the game with mixed emotions. I hated to see the Dodgers lose because I've been a Dodger fan since they moved to LA in 1958, but I was pleased that Johan Santana, who is the ace of my fantasy team, was the winning pitcher. Such is the irony of Fantasy Baseball!

Immediately following the game we drove to Cooperstown, New York, the site of Baseball's Hall of Fame. I've been there a couple of times previously, but this was my son's first trip and he fell in love. We spent a good portion of the day wandering through the exhibits at the Hall. We also walked up and down the street stopping into almost all of the shops that lined Cooperstown's Main Street. We had an endless assortment of baseball related merchandise to browse. But what captivated my son was the shear beauty of upstate New York with its luscious green color, wide open spaces, farm land and the charm of a town with only 26-hundred residents.

From there, it was on to Fenway for a Tuesday night game in which the Red Sox beat the upstart Tampa Bay Devil Rays despite playing without Big Papi! Scott loved Fenway as I'm sure he could picture the ghosts of Ted Williams, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk and others who have played in the shadows of the Big Green Monster.

When we awoke Wednesday morning at our motel near Boston it was raining, so our immediate concern was would the game at Yankee Stadium be rained out! What would we do? Our main purpose for the trip was to go to Yankee Stadium. And we had tickets for Thursday at Philadelphia and Friday in Washington! Fortunately, we didn't have to make any decisions. It was not raining in New York, though there was a light mist throughout most of the game. The Yankees won and we got to see Derek Jeter become the third leading hitter in Yankee history.

Our next stop was Philadelphia for a day game in which two of my fantasy pitchers were on the mound - Cole Hamels for the Phillies and Homer Bailey, who was just brought up from the minors by the Cincinnati Reds. The lady that sat next to us told us to expect a quick game because she said Hamels doesn't waste any time. Both pitchers pitched very well, but Bailey's defense failed him as the Reds committed three errors to account for three unearned runs. That was all Hamels needed as true to prediction he needed just two hours, six minutes to shut out Cincinnati with a three-hitter.

It took us about as long to get out of Philadelphia as we sat in traffic for almost 45-minutes just to get away from the stadium. Once we got to the freeway we crawled along for another hour or more before we got out of the Philadelphia area and headed for my my wife's sister's home in Northern Virginia.

On Friday, we took the train into Washington, D. C. My son wanted to see the Law Enforcement Memorial to those officers killed in the line of duty. We also walked to the White House, then headed to the new Stadium where the Nationals play. My son had pointed out that the home team had won every game we had seen so far. He was hoping that trend would be broken Friday evening, and it was as his favorite team, the Giants, thumped the Nationals. The Giants scored seven runs in the third inning and got a great pitching effort from their young phenom Tim Lincecum, who looked every bit as good as scouting reports said he was!

Our journey ended with a drive Saturday back to New York for a flight home. What a trip! A great time for a father and his son to be together and share an experience that both will remember.

Dave Andrade

Posted on ReddingGrapevine.com June 8, 2008