Item #43 - Go to a Mets Game, and finish the 30 stadium tour (Part 2)

For Part 1 go HERE. If you haven't read it, this will be pretty random, and you need context dammit.

For Part 2, continue reading after the jump

Item #43 - Go to a Mets Game, and finish the 30 stadium tour (Part 1)

"I never realized how boring this game is"
-Homer Simpson, while at a baseball game sober
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I graduated from Michigan in 2001 and moved out to Boston with my buddy Walter shortly after. Near the end of that summer, the 2 of us decided to meet up with 4 of our Detroit friends (Matt, Joe, Dave and Chris) in Pittsburgh so we could take in a Pirates game at their new ballpark. It was kind of in the middle of our 2 cities, so we all could drive there . . .  and then we all got stupid drunk. Just like that, a tradition now known as The Baseball Trip was born. And for the last 11 years, we've been meeting up once a year at various ballparks, so we can enjoy America's Pastime in a new venue. At least that's what we tell people.  The reality is that it gives us an excuse to get back together once a year, get loaded, and act like we're still in college - girlfriends, wives, babies, travel distances, maturity be damned.  Of the 6 of us, MAYBE 3 of us care about baseball (me being one of those. Anyone else excited to see Brad Pitt in a movie about baseball statistics? I AM!).

Different people have joined and ditched the trip at various points through it's 11 years, but the Original 6 still remain, and we'll keep going as long as humanly possible. Granted it may now be just a 3 day weekend like it was this year in Minneapolis, as opposed to the 9 day, 4 city excursion we took back in 2002, but The Trip lives.

The Trip itself has now been to 27 different venues, but I had been to Toronto and Cleveland on my own. So for me, I only had the Mets left on my list. And this Saturday, I took a bus down to NYC to meet my friend Aaron, and we crossed off the final franchise on my list. 

I use the word "franchise" because I can't technically say I've been to every team's current home ballpark. Over the last 11 years, multiple team's have built new stadiums, and 1 has even moved to a new country. These new stadiums give us a great excuse to keep the trip going, as the number of possibly immature adventures continues to grow. But the spirit of the every-ballpark mission has been accomplished. And frankly, I would have rather of been to the ones I've been to than the current 30 because while a lot of the new ones are nice, they lack the character of the older ones (and even the semi-older shitty domed ones). 

So 30 franchises, 30+ ballparks. ESPN has it documentary series called 30 for 30? Well, here's 30 pictures and 30 very short stories about my own 30 adventures, capped off by the weekend trip to Citi Field in Queens. Some stories are about the parks, but most are about the journeys in and around the parks. Hopefully all are at least slightly amusing.

Continued after the jump

Fun Facts

I haven't disappeared. Just busy. I'm woefully behind in posting (4 items done that haven't been posted).  But the self-imposed deadline is less than 2 weeks away, so getting stuff done > writing. 6 still to go. Will I finish? Oh the drama! Feel the excitement!. . . of a blog read by like 60 people.

And speaking of the people that read this blog, let's have some fun with, ummm, fun facts. Google Blogger keeps a bunch of stats, including where your web traffic comes from, and if they got there through a search, what words were used. So here's some of the search keywords that have gotten people to my site. 

"do52new" (searched for 54 times) - OK, that makes sense. You know the blog name or idea, but forgot the site. Pretty basic.

"52 new things detroit cockfighting" (1 time) - one of you knows me well! Same idea as the one above, but a little more specific, in case there was someone from NYC doing 52 new things that included cockfighting.

"segathon.com" (2) - From the post on the video game tournament.  Link by association, since the guys we played have a website setup at segathon.com.

"university of michigan naked mile" (4), "ann arbor naked mile" (2) "campus naked" (2) - I reference the Naked Mile in the post about chest waxing, still by far the most popular post.  As per usual, sex sells.

"colleg naked" (2) - for the spelling-challenged pornography connoisseur, which got me linked to not once, but twice.

"zubaz" (1), "zubaz shorts" (2) - From the post on Second City in Chicago.  I'm glad to see someone out there isn't just trying to bring them back, but trying to bring them back in shorts form.

"i think i have too much chest" (2) - again with the chest waxing, you masochistic bastards.

"rick porcello shirtless" (7!), "rick porcello shirtless pic" (2) - Wait, what? . . . .I had to search the blog, and indeed, the words "Rick Porcello" (the Tigers pitcher) and "shirtless" appear in the post about being on the Jumbotron, though I didn't put the words together, not do I have a shirtless pic of Rick Porcello posted (though apparently maybe I should to drive up traffic). 

"the flintstones gays" (1) - No idea. No post has these words in it. (though coincidentally, one year when we went out on yearly guys baseball trip, Walter had shirts made up with Fred Flintstone and the saying "We'll have a gay ole time" on the front. Complete coincidence though)

"  "dildo comes to life" -mindy  " (1) - Apparently Mindy has a famous quote about a dildo coming to life. Again, nowhere on this site . . . until now! Bring on the traffic!

And now if someone wants to really help me drive up traffic, they can create a Photoshopped picure of Rock Porcello getting his chest waxed while wearing Zubaz and holding a magical dildo at a cockfight in Ann Arbor.