It’s hard to say when this journey began.

I could say my journey began on September 15, 1988 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to watch my hometown Minnesota Twins for the first time. My friend and his family invited me to join them when I was in sixth grade. The Twins beat the White Sox in this game and capped it off with a grand slam by Jim Dwyer. This game made me a Twins fan for life. The Metrodome would become ballpark #1.

I could say my journey began on May 31, 2002 at Tropicana Field for Devil Rays vs. A’s. My brother, who I had just recently connected with after our dad’s passing lives, in Tampa and brought me to St. Petersburg for the first non-Twins home game. Tropicana would become ballpark #2 on my journey to 30. I would not hit ballpark #3 until three years later.

I could say my journey began on September 19, 2009 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards for Orioles vs. Red Sox. I had been part of an online baseball card trading group called The Team Collectors; we each own a team and trades cards to other team owners in exchange for more cards of our own team. We decided to create a “convention” and meet in person for the first time traveling from all different parts of the company. It looked like this could become an annual tradition in which we would meet up at a different ballpark each year. OPACY would become ballpark #4 on my journey to 30. We would meet annually during the next three seasons and five times over ten seasons before the tradition expired.

I could say my journey began on April 30, 2022 at Kauffman Stadium for Royals vs. Yankees. I brought my kids with me for the first day of an 8-day, 8-game trip that started in Kansas City. Kauffman would become ballpark #11. This trip was my first multi-day, multi-game ballpark road trip that kicked my journey into overdrive and the first time I would visit more than one non-Twins ballpark in the same season. I have done at least one multi-game trip every year since.

In any case, I am now at 28 Major League ballparks and 27 visited or revisited since 2021. My journey in 2026 will add LoanDepot Park for ballpark #29, my first revisit to Tropicana Field since 2002, and completing my journey at Truist Park for ballpark #30.

I hope you will join me along the way in 2026.

MLB Ballpark Pass-Port

The Ballpark Pass-Port has become one of my regular methods for documenting my ballpark journeys. I started using the Pass-Port in 2023. Every Major League and Minor League ballpark has a stamp you can collect for your book and now stamp for every game I attend.

In addition to the ballpark stamp, I also carry with me custom stamps. If you have one of the Pass-Ports and would like a custom stamp, find me at one of my upcoming games.

The Team Collectors

The Team Collectors are a trading card group I joined in 2005. Each member of the group has a team (mine are the Twins) and we trade our unwanted cards for cards from our favorite teams for our own personal baseball card collections.

Over time, the other collectors in the group have become some of my closest friends. We first met in person in 2009 in Baltimore for our “Team Collectors Convention” and find other ways to get together outside of our online message board.

The Team Collectors were featured recently by Topps.

Topps Ripped – Collector Stories

The Baseball Bucket List Podcast

In May 2025, Anna DiTommaso, host of the Baseball Bucket List Podcast, invited me to share about my love of baseball, my son announcing in front of 38,000+ fans at Target Field, and my then-upcoming Big Texas and the Road to Bristol Trips.

Visit The Baseball Bucket List Podcast for other fan stories.