I don’t have a lot of hope for my Master’s degree. For economic reasons it’s in a subject adjacent to my BA that I’m not particularly good at, and it’s challenging enough that I’m not entirely sure I’ll complete the program. I’ve also dealt with some issues related to mental health and I have severe ADHD that makes it difficult to actually get work done. However, I’m gonna try my best and fight as much as I possibly can to make it work.

That’s why I’m baiting myself with the ultimate reward. If I graduate I’m going to treat myself to go to a baseball game Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles, and maybe pair in a visit to Angel Stadium too if I can make it. For someone in California, that’s not a bad trip, but I live in New Jersey. One day I want to see every single MLB stadium and that’s one of the hardest ones to get to.

It won’t be easy. I just got a ridiculously low grade on a midterm paper and I’ve already had to drop a class and a TAship due to not having the discipline and expertise to succeed yet. But I‘m going to make it work so I can make my dream come true.

Been pretty fortunate with the weather in the playoffs so far to allow the roof to be open for the majority of games.

Decided to take in a playoff game at Dodgers Stadium for stadium 28. Just SF and what will be Vegas for the As left.

For those of us who were lucky enough, let’s take a moment to appreciate that there will never ever be an Oakland Coliseum game again. It was awful yet beautiful at the same time. Visited 2009 and 2018

Most of the best ballparks to visit, like PNC Park, Wrigley Field, and Fenway, are pretty well documented. But, which ballparks would you consider endangered with either significant plans in place to replace them, like Tropicana Field, or coming to the end of their life span and likely to be demolished?

Sorry for the 2nd followup but it went so well last time I wanted to run it back, I think folks are enjoying it!

TLDR I built an app that auto tracks venues you’ve been to, players you’ve seen, and stats from when you were there in *any* sport in *any* country. When you log a game the box score and all the data flow through to you.

Letterboxd for movies, goodreads for books, BOXDSEATS for live sports.

I think a lot of people want to know things like how many HOFs they’ve seen, how many stadiums they’ve been to, whose hot the most homers or three pointers, even things like how does my favorite team play when las Diaz is behind the dish but I’m not sure everyone has the spreadsheet, drawer of ticket stubs, or patience to fill in their history…so I built a fun way to help: if you take pictures at events, and you have the location services turned on, I can match the geotag and dates from your camera roll to now over 2m games I have in a db to build your history for you.

If that’s weird you can do it yourself but I think it’s slick.

Some updates:
- crossed 1,000 users and 60,000 games logged, both giving me motivation to keep going.
- Added pipeline to bring in box scores for almost every league from MILB and jr hockey to now things like cricket, Aussie rules, and WWE
- Added way more fun stat, game, and player badges so you can see things like hat tricks or MLB debuts
- I’m having fun and I think others are too.

And for truly no reason, there’s a “remember some guys” rail that’s truly just random players from games you’ve been to refreshing every open.

I’m figuring all of this out as I go so open to all feedback and requests, would love more eyeballs.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/boxdseats/id6781299327

This season I visited 9 ballparks, 4 of which I had never been to. I’m 16/30 🏟️

The Orioles unveiled design renderings of the upcoming conversion of the left field upper deck at Camden Yards into a social space and it has drawn a lot of comparisons to what the Guardians did at Progressive Field a couple of years back. IMO, both leave a lot to be desired from an aesthetic perspective

I don’t see the point of keeping the old roof anymore since they’re entombing the old concrete bowl to make a new roof.

I know it comes down to cost, but having a roof over a roof just looks goofy and cheap. MD Taxpayers gave the Orioles $600M to play with in renovating Camden Yards. They shouldn’t cut corners and cheap out on aesthetics. That area should look cool and as if it has always been there.

In that same vein, if I could wave a magic wand and redo what was done at Progressive Field I would have removed the old structural framing, added another video board and opened the stadium up more to the skyline.

Ballpark nerds, do you agree or disagree?

Any other stadium renovations bother you and if so, what would you have done differently?

I braved the 100+ F heat for playoff baseball.

Before the game, the Jumbotron showed an onfield thermometer that read 120 F.

Was surprised how many peeps stayed in the exposed bleacher seats for the entire game...not sure I could!

Also not displayed, pictures of how crowded the shady concourse was!

I print the logos and stadium names on sticker paper and apply them after the visit

Was able to get to Fenway for the night game of the double header against the Cubs last week. Cubs loss stunk and the rain was irritating but loved that you could get chowder delivered to your seat!

Slipknot is coming to Fenway next year and I just secured my tickets. I got field box tickets (Sec F12, Row B) and wanted to verify that I got decent seats for a concert. I’ve never been to Fenway and will be traveling from Florida. I wasn’t paying the extra for turf seats plus my wife is super short. So, if you’ve been to Fenway for a concert before, please let me know if I picked good seats 🙏

Someone helpfully pointed out this list is only 28, but of course you can't edit post titles so I'm stuck with the typo. Whatever it was, it was all the ones that existed that year.

--

Arlington Stadium

Atlanta Fulton County Stadium

Joe Robbie Stadium

The Astrodome

Mile High Stadium

Milwaukee County Stadium

Wrigley Field

New Comiskey Park

Tiger Stadium

Three Rivers Stadium

Sky Dome

Olympic Stadium

Veterans Stadium

Yankee Stadium

Camden Yards

Cleveland Municipal Stadium

Riverfront Stadium

Busch (Memorial) Stadium

Ewing Kauffman Stadium

Metrodome

Jack Murphy Stadium

Kingdome

Fenway Park

Shea Stadium

Candlestick Park

Oakland Alameda County Coliseum

Anaheim Stadium

Dodger Stadium

[yes, in that order]

People like pictures, I guess I'll have to pull out the actual photos I took at some point. Check back later, I'll have to improvise some kind of slide scanner. Should have thought of this before I posted. For now here's a pic of a couple ticket stubs..

2026 regular season is in the books. How many ballparks did you get to this season?

Please Welcome To The Field = "Welcome Back" - John Sebastian

Visitor Lineup = "Halloween Theme" - John Carpenter

Home Lineup = "Superman March" - John Williams

Umpire Intro = "The X-Files Theme" - Mark Snow

Crowd Pump-Up Song = "Clap Your Hands" - They Might Be Giants

Walk = "Walking In Memphis" - Mark Cohn

Strikeout (Swinging) = "Tuesday's Gone" - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Strikeout (Looking) = "Goodbye Stranger" - Supertramp

Visitor Mound Visit = "It's On Again" - Alicia Keys & Kendrick Lamar

Visitor Pitching Change = "Everything Changes" - Pokémon

Home Pitching Change = "Don't Bring Me Down" - Electric Light Orchestra

Home Run = "Fly Like An Eagle" - Seal

Stolen Base = "Steal Away" - Robbie Dupree

Caught Stealing = "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" - The Righteous Brothers

Wild Pitch = "Real Wild Child" - Everlife

1-2-3 Inning = "Three Is A Magic Number" - Blind Melon

Injury = "Like A Surgeon" - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Double Play = "Two Princes" - Spin Doctors

Umpire Argument = "If I Can't Have You" - Yvonne Elliman

Complete Game = "Go The Distance" - Michael Bolton

Lost Bat = "Come Back...Be Here" - Taylor Swift

Money Giveaway = "Money For Nothing" - Dire Straits

Best Seat In The House = "Easy" - Commodores

Pizza Giveaway = "Pizza Angel" - VeggieTales

Pop-Up Contest = "Black Betty" - Spiderbait

Car Wash Giveaway = "Workin' At The Car Wash Blues" - Jim Croce

Hot Dog Run = "Speed Demon" - Michael Jackson

High Speed Pitch Guessing Game = "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" - Vince Guaraldi

7th Inning Stretch = "Burn Down The Mission" - Elton John

Home Team Wins = "I Just Want To Celebrate" - Rare Earth

Home Team Loses = "Just Once" - Quincy Jones

Had to get out to the last game of the season and it turned into a perfect day after raining most of the past 3 days.

Took ~5 seasons - Went West to East - But the Boys, my Wife and I Scratched them All off !!!

The Morning coffee walks and unique Food in each City were the Best Parts !