Travel doodling, MLB edition

While the summer of 2019 was intense in terms of medical drama, it was light on time-consuming activities. No softball, not a lot of golf or disc golf. Few outings to restaurants, theaters or even family events. I had spare time on my hands and the travel bug ate away at me. So I devoted a few hours to “travel doodling” – imagining a long RV trip. But it had to be travel with a goal. I decided that a worthy goal would be visiting all 30 major league baseball stadiums in a single season.

The rules were:

1. Start and end in Fort Myers FL.
2. Travel no more than 300 miles per day when traveling.
3. Stay in an RV park within 20 miles of the ballpark (exception: an American RV park was needed for a Toronto game).  Due to the proximity of two stadiums each in San Francisco/Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, the tour would require just 26 hops to visit all 30 ballparks.
4. Arrive for a game early in a homestand and stay at least one additional game, to allow for rainouts.

The question was: how difficult would it be to complete the tour in a single season?

I started with the 2019 season and found that it was relatively easy to achieve the goal.  Specifically, I concocted a tour that would finish on 9 Sep 2019, nearly a month before the end of the season.

Just about the time I reached this conclusion the 2020 MLB schedules were released, so of course I had to repeat the tour using the 2020 schedules.  This was easier as could pretty much replicate the sequence of cities that worked in 2019.  That sequence, with some minor changes, still worked in 2020: I would finish this imaginary tour on 23 Sep 2020 – closer to the end of the season than in 2019, but still eminently feasible.  The reason that the 2020 schedule was more difficult was that I had to wait long periods for teams to return from travel.  For example, there are 11 days between the game in Detroit and the game in Cleveland, despite needing just a single travel day to get to Cleveland.  Guess I would have to find something fun to do in either Detroit or Cleveland to kill the time.  Easier said than done.

This is the 2020 sequence of cities, dates, games and approximate travel miles on the hop:

1. 3/28, Tropicana Field, St Petersburg FL, Pirates vs Rays, 113
2. 4/3, Georgia State Stadium, Atlanta GA, Marlins vs Braves, 477
3. 4/7, Minute Maid Park, Houston TX, Mets vs Astros, 791
4. 4/9, Globe Life Park, Arlington TX, Astros vs Rangers, 256
5. 4/13, Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City MO, White Sox vs Royals, 559
6. 4/18, Coors Field, Denver CO, Cardinals vs Rockies, 608
7. 4/28, Chase Field, Phoenix AZ, Astros vs Diamondbacks, 866
8. 5/1, Petco Park, San Diego CA, Dodgers vs Padres, 356
9. 5/4, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles CA, Cubs vs Dodgers, 157
10. 5/7, Angel Stadium, Anaheim CA, Nationals vs Angels, 0 (same RV park as for #9)
11. 5/16, Oracle Park, San Francisco CA, Braves vs Giants, 426
12. 5/19, The Coliseum, Oakland CA, Rangers vs Athletics, 0 (same RV park as for #11)
13. 5/29, T-Mobile Park, Seattle WA, Braves vs Mariners, 808
14. 6/16, Target Field, Minneapolis MN, Brewers vs Twins, 1655
15. 6/22, Miller Park, Milwaukee WI, Blue Jays vs Brewers, 366
16. 6/26, Guaranteed Rate Park, Chicago IL, Athletics vs White Sox, 108
17. 6/29, Wrigley Field, Chicago IL, Brewers vs Cubs, 0 (same RV park as for #16)
18. 7/3, Busch Stadium, St Louis MO, Brewers vs Cardinals, 302
19. 7/10, Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati OH, Pirates vs Reds, 358
20. 7/17, Comerica Park, Detroit MI, White Sox vs Tigers, 263
21. 7/28, Progressive Field, Cleveland OH, Royals vs Indians, 169
22. 7/31, Rogers Centre, Toronto ON, Orioles vs Blue Jays, 291
23. 8/10, Fenway Park, Boston MA, Twins vs Red Sox, 547
24. 8/14, Citi Field, Queens NY, Phillies vs Mets, 213
25. 8/17, Yankee Stadium, Bronx NY, Rays vs Yankees, 0 (same RV park as for #24)
26. 8/21, Camden Yards, Baltimore MD, Red Sox vs Orioles, 201
27. 8/25, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia PA, Pirates vs Phillies, 199
28. 8/28, Nationals Park, Washington DC, Phillies vs Nationals, 134
29. 9/1, PNC Park, Pittsburgh PA, Brewers vs Pirates, 248
30. 9/21, Marlins Stadium, Miami FL, Reds vs Marlins, 1173

I didn’t actually identify the RV park that would be used, so I used the distance between the ballparks as a proxy for the travel required for each hop. The total travel mileage for the 2020 tour: about 11,670 miles (including the 155 miles from Miami to Ft Myers to complete the circuit).  Whew!  The longest hop is Seattle-to-Minneapolis, a distance of 1,655 miles – about 15% of the total mileage.

MLB parks 2020 tour

I doubt if I will ever actually embark on such a tour.  But I could.  And it is fun to think about.

I wonder how much tickets to 30 MLB games will cost?