I talk about each ballpark as it naturally comes in to the story during the streak chases. The 1st streak atttempt I did in 2008 had so much more drama I am choosing the stories more from that attempt but the record breaking 2009 will still have much weight in the novel. I wanted to discuss the traditions/ballpark experiences around one of them it was just easier to use that attempt. Besides Ken Lee did a great job updating my 2009 record chase and I am going to use his write-ups and add here or there to it. There is going to be chaser guides--mainly from here with some travel stuff added and before and after thoughts. I am also submitting some of my blogs/published articles and interviews as well. This is just the rough draft version of 1st chapters.

STREAK ATTEMPT 1
DAY 1
GAMES 1 AND 2
WED JULY.02/2008
MINNESOTA 12:00 PM/CHICAGO WHITE SOX 7:11 PM
METRODOME/US CELLULAR FIELD

The key to making the doubleheader was to have a quick game between Minnesota and Detroit. I flew in from Chicago after watching a White Sox game the night before. Why would I do that before I was going to see them on this night? It was something I learned in this game early by meeting the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ guidelines of not going to a stadium twice in the same streak attempt. Should I not make my Minnesota to Chicago flight on this day, or not arrive before the first pitch—I had US Cellular Field in my back pocket already. It was good practice for verification as well.
Since I landed had landed at the Minnesota airport at eight in the morning, (flying in from Chicago’s Midway Airport), I decided to check out the ‘MALL OF AMERICA.’ It was also a good chance to check out the subway transportation that was going to take me to and from the game later at the ‘METRODOME.’
I was happy to see the close proximity of the ‘LINDBERGH TERMINAL’ to the airport. It is one of only a few cities that have a light rail service directly from the airport to a stadium. To help matters even more I noticed they had a security clearance for travelers that only had carry-on luggage right out of the terminal. There was little wait for this line and the people were moving through at a fast pace. I of course had some of my luggage stored at a hostel in Chicago’s Downtown core, and the biggest amount of luggage was stored at my brother’s house in New Jersey—where I would be doubling back to collect several times throughout the journey. All I had that day was a coat, my cell phone, and a camera phone to document each ballpark visit. I had a sheet with all the subway times for the ’55 ‘HENNEPIN/MALL OF AMERICA HIWATHA LINE SCHEDULE.’
I made it to the MALL OF AMERICA at about nine o’ clock in the morning, but was way too early to have most of the shops open. So I had breakfast and walked around once to at least say I have seen the place. I was very tired from already watching baseball games from McAfee Coliseum, Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium and US Cellular Field in four straight days in a row. I decided to rest on one of the comfortable bean bag chairs in the foyer of the mall.
The next thing I knew I was being poked by a security guard of the mall telling me I could not sleep there. I almost jumped up parallel out of that bean bag chair because it was already ten minutes to eleven—had that security guard not woken me up I would have probably missed the first game. Still I ran to the subway station and met up with about a hundred other ‘Twins’ fans who were parking at the mall to take the subway in to the game. I was mad at myself for the decision to be so far away from the ballpark, and at that point decided no matter what I did from there on in any city, to be within earshot of each ballpark. I knew I was going to be in okay shape to make it. I still had to wait ten minutes at the station for two trains to pass before I could board a train. I made it to the game at eleven forty-five.
It was a muggy day outside so I was glad I was indoors. Since I wanted to have a comfortable seat, I bought a twenty dollar tickets to sit the home run porch area in left field.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the ‘Twins’ and the ‘METRODOME.’ The Twins I have always liked since the days of Kirby Puckett. He was one of my favorite players growing up, and I actually read his novel when I was a teenager, (it was one of three other books I had read in baseball at that age. I also read books by Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor and Pete Rose.) Throw in the players Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield and George Bell and were talking about all my favorite ballplayers at that time.
The METRODOME is a lot like my home stadium (BC PLACE) back in Vancouver B.C Canada. Both of them opened in the early eighties and were considered ‘state of the art’. The white ‘Teflon roof’ is easy to pick out from far distances in the city. The METRODOME looks far better from the outside then the inside. When you look at the roof from the inside you see silver coils and bright white, you also wonder how any ballplayer can see a white ball that is ever hit?
The tickets themselves are very well priced to see an entertaining product on the field. I was happy to see that they even have a Canadian Flag hanging from the rafters in the middle of the Field. I wondered if that was placed there to appease the Canadians: Justin Morneau and Jessie Crain.
I sat in my seat and listened to the opening line-ups being read out. The place has the worst sound system in the major leagues by far. They really should have turned down the audio.
I also bought lower level seats because you are not allowed in the lower levels if you have upper deck seats. I hate ballparks that do this, it would be one thing if all major league parks adopted this policy but they have not. The previous year, on my first visit, I had found out how high the general bleacher seats were for your seven dollar fee, and had no plans to ever sit that high again. Being lower was definitely the way to go in Minnesota.
I do give the Twins players for their generosity to kids in the way a lot of them donating private boxes—out of their own pocket—to the games. Whether it is “Morneau’s Mounties, The Crain Train, the players are at the fore front for the community. I also like the Wall of Fame with pictures of Kirby Puckett, Frank Viola, Harmon Killebrew, Carew, Kent Hrbek, and Rick Aguilera. I watched every inning of the playoffs on TV of both the 87’ and 91’ playoffs in which they won the World Series. Even though the ’91 series is considered a better series I remember the ’87 series with the Cardinals a lot more.
I bought a few hot dogs, a coke and watched as the mascot ‘T.C’ zoomed around the outfield on an ATV. He stopped right before our section and scaled the fence over to high-five some fans. The fence in left is not very high. T.C is probably the best all around mascot in the game, he hits batting practice, hugs kids, dances, drives the ATV around and comes into the stands a lot more then any mascot I have ever seen.
The game started on time and my quest had begun. It was a new way to watch a game. Even though I was cheering for the Twins over the Detroit Tigers, I was cheering for fast innings and outs more than anything. For certain I did not want to see extra innings at all either. I had to catch the subway back to the Airport and catch a 4:56 flight to Chicago that landed at 6:30 for a 7:11 start time at US CELLULAR FIELD. It was 12:10 pm.
Much to my delight, the Twins put up a five run bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead. I loved this because the home team winning also meant a half an inning less. The way I figured it, I hoped for fifteen to eighteen minute innings, this would mean a game that would last two hours and fifteen to forty-five minutes long. So I started watching for innings that lasted this long. I soon learned my new best friend was the double play ball.
I was constantly doing the math in my head, fifty minutes for three-innings was about a two hour and thirty minute contest. I looked at scoreboard of the Twins directly behind me to see the totals. For such a big facility, the screens showing replays at other ends of the Dome were pretty small. The fans in the ballpark are quite loud when the Twins are winning and it reaches high -decimals on the old wavelengths of sound. There is definitely a reason why the Twins always have one of the better home records. The Astroturf back then—turned into Field turf now—leads to seeing-eye singles more then any other ballpark in the majors. You also had to love the uniqueness of the seventeen foot baggie in right field-it was often compared to the ‘Green Monster’ in Boston but only for size, it is surely not as attractive. Another negative towards the ballpark were rats in the ‘press box’, the roof deflating a few times to accumulated snow and players suffering knee injuries as a result of the concrete underneath the playing surface.
I was standing for the final pitch with much jubilation as the Twins won 7-0 in front of 30,120 fans (including me) in a game that lasted two hours and thirty minutes. It was now 2:40 in the afternoon. I documented the end of the game with pictures, video, had a Minnesota Twins usher sign my log book and raced out to the subway train station. What I saw outside made me panic. There must have been a few thousand people lining up to take the train. I asked a guy the approximate wait time for a line this big from where I was? He said “about a forty minute wait.”
I figured this had me to the airport at around 4:00 at best. It was very risky to make the 4:56 flight but not unattainable. I thought back to a trick my dad always did at stadium visits. I ran up to the next station about a mile up the road. There, there was no line-up at all. All it took was running to beat the crowd. Chalk one up for dear old dad teaching me well as a kid. With no line-up I stood on the twenty-minute train to the ‘Lindbergh Terminal’, whipped out my boarding pass that I had printed several hours earlier—and went through the security gate without any bags. I made it to my gate at 3:45. I had a solid opportunity to complete this doubleheader. One game was done.

I had a tip from my brother Trent early on in the planning stages, that United States airline companies often sand-bag their flying times to destinations to take jet way delays into consideration. More often then not, the airlines are able to beat the scheduled arrival time by many minutes. I actually used a tool on the internet called ‘FLIGHT TRACKER’ to watch the very flight I was on to see if this was a correct statement. I watched the flight land four weeks in a row, all approximately fifteen minutes earlier then the 6:32 pm time it was supposed to arrive. This day I was not as lucky. It was after all a ‘Chicago Airport.’ Still at a 6:30 arrival, I had about forty minutes. I had called in a sedan service to pick me up from ‘MIDWAY’. True to their word, there was a young guy in his twenties waiting for me in the arrival gate and he escorted me through to the limo stand at a running pace. I saw it had started to rain and weather was something I would always keep my eye on during transportation throughout the trip.
Midway Airport is nine miles from the airport to the ballpark in heavy Chicago ‘traffic’. The trip was said to be around fifteen minutes on the map, but I knew that would be doubled with the traffic on the ‘55 HIGHWAY,’ and it being game day. The driver was fast and weaved his way through the rain. We arrived at the ballpark in thirty minutes. It was 7:03 pm. The limo driver turned on the radio a few minutes before arriving to listen to the pre-game show. I heard the broadcasters say there would be a rain delay to start the game.
Was this good or bad news? The forecast did not look good, it was supposed to rain all night. This led me to another rule set forth by the “GWR”. There was an inherent risk to any game I went to. Since the rule states I can not go the parks twice during the same streak, what if there was a rain delay midway through the game and they called it? I read the rules again. I had them stuffed in my coat. It says I could not go back to the ballpark again(during that given streak) in case of a rainout if I watched one pitch. Now if it were to be suspended for any reason, I could complete the game whenever it was resumed. But this posed problems because they would have to have resumed it after the last game of the streak for it to count for me. This meaning under the current attempt my last game was to be on the 27th of July. I would have needed this game, (should it be suspended) to be resumed on Monday July.28. I already had the previous nights game in the bag and could retroactive the streak to it if I wanted. This would mean the streak would become a 30-27 attempt instead of a 30-26 attempt—but I would not have to worry about the weather.
I did have a chance to re-schedule a Chicago White Sox game on the 18th of July. To give myself that option, that was why I was flying to Indianapolis on the 4th of July morning. I could drive to Cincinnati the original scheduled game, or drive to St. Louis instead—in case of switching Chicago White Sox to the 18th two weeks later. All I had to do was switch a flight to Cincinnati for the 27th and move Boston back a day to the 28th. My flight on the 18th was a 2-parter. I flew from Denver Colorado in the morning, and then had a flight from Chicago to St. Louis scheduled—with a layover in Cincinnati. This gave me all three cities with an available game for me to see. I knew this upon reaching US Cellular Field on that July.2nd game. I decided to walk into the rain delay in Chicago.
I only ever wanted to use the July.1st game in Chicago in case I missed my flight in Minnesota. If that had happened, I was positioned to drive a one-way car rental from Minnesota’s airport to Chicago. Remember I had some luggage at a hostel in Chicago, I also had an early morning flight from O’Hare International to Houston for a 1:00 pm start the next day.
From the moment I walked into US Cellular the rain let up. I was sitting in the 500 level, so there is a nice long elevator to take up to that level. Much like the ‘METRODOME,’ you are stuck to the level the ticket says you are at. This bugged me almost as much as the 21 dollars shelled out for what is the equivalent of a ‘nose-bleed’ seat. I also remember the year before when I brought my wife, when we paid 22 dollars for parking, yikes! Chicago is not a very value priced ticket. They have great hot-dogs though.
Outside the park, there are many street vendors that carry tones of paraphernalia. There are various bands playing outside the stadium before the games—which is a nice feature you don’t often see at ballparks. The White Sox also pay good homage to their heroes of yesteryear. There are many bricks, pillars and statues of greats like; Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines, Frank Thomas, Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Inside the park is very similar to the Indians ‘PROGRESSIVE FIELD.’ It was built around the same time as Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and the above stated Jacobs Field as it used to be called.
During the game, the scoreboard in centerfield will shoot fireworks through 7 candy cane style colored pillars—on top of the big scoreboard—and the pillars illuminate to their painted colors. It is a nice spectacle. In addition to that scoreboard, there is another scoreboard under the main one—near the grassy back drop. This scoreboard is used for player stats. In left centre field is the official score-line scoreboard. As it goes for the stadiums, it is probably the best to see what the score is from any angle.
The concourse in the outfield is designed so that you can walk around freely. I like the stadium as the top half in the league, but the value for the overall experience is suffered by anyone who wants to drive to the park.
The previous night I learned the ‘CTA’ (Chicago Transit Authority) schedule very well. After the game, I was going to take the ‘RED LINE’ sub headed towards HOWARD, to head back towards downtown Chicago, were I was going to go back to the hostel, have a quick snooze and hop on the ‘BLUE LINE TRAIN’ that would take me from Jackson and State Road all the way to O’HARE airport. Once I learned these subways I decided never to drive in Chicago again if possible.
The game started at 7:35 pm, and the clouds had subsided for the time being. It is never fun to sit in a seat after it has been rained on. I thought I was in the clear at this point from any future weather, boy was I wrong. Let’s get back to the game first.
The White Sox took a 5-4 lead into the top of the Ninth. That is when the rains started to come down feverishly. I could not take the constant pelting and went into the 500 level Concourse with a bunch of other Chicago Fans. Since it was wet I was worried about picture/video recorder being affected. On a TV, I watched in dismay as Grady Sizemore hit a solo homer of Scott Linebrink to tie the game at 5. The rain came down even harder. I was petrified the umpires were going to call a rain delay—or even worse to suspend it outright. All of a sudden my decision a few hours earlier could have come back to haunt me. All I heard about the last 48 hours had been the upcoming rain. Man I was sweating it out. After all the planning and leg work for the trip, it could all come to a halt in the first attempt. I would have to start again the next day at zero. Yes there was a contingency plan to it, but because of a limited home schedule in Minnesota in the coming weeks, it would be easier to re-schedule the attempt for a July.09 start. Houston was even worse for re-scheduling the next day. With the 4 doubleheaders in 5 days to start off with beginning the 9th, I would be able to shoot for a 30-26 chance again. It was finish this game right now or I would restart the next week. I was worried.
The Minnesota-Chicago doubleheader is not what most people would think of for doubleheader chances. I would be really disappointed if it was stalled because of a suspended game. The roundtrip plane ticket to and from Chicago was one of the higher plane fares at about three hundred dollars. The sedan service ran about 70 dollars. You add in the car rental in Chicago the previous day, and two days at the hostel—and it would mean about 500 dollars spent on the first day without any games to show for it.
The bottom of the ninth was scoreless. More rain came down.
The top of the ninth proved to be awful viewing in watching the hitters try and locate the ball even to swing. I umpired for ten years growing up. I was convinced they were going to call the game. There was no end to the rain in sight or forecast.
A.J Pierzynski then came up to bat. I was pacing around the walkway to the 521 section. I decided to stomach a few glances at the field from the outside again. I had been up since 3 am at that point. The Cleveland Indians pitcher Kobayashi leaned back and fired a fastball—A.J cranked a ‘thunderous’ shot headed into the night towards left field. I never even saw the ball land in the stands, but when the fireworks shot off from the scoreboard the place went ballistic. The White Sox fans I had been watching the game with, burst outside of the Concourse—and all of them were high-fiving each other and I joined them. I was just as happy as they were—albeit for an entirely different reason—I had completed 2 games in my first day. A.J Pierzynski will be favorably remembered because of that walk-off homer.
The hour and a half it took for me to catch a train back to the Hostel did not bother me in the pouring rain. I had my camera tucked into my pocket deep with my verification of proof I had been there.

GAME#3 DAY 2
HOUSTON TEXAS
MINUTE MAID PARK
JULY.3/2008

I couldn’t sleep after the previous night’s game at Us Cellular Field; so much of the streak scenarios had been running through my mind. I had nailed a doubleheader with a flight involved between cities. It was a remarkable accomplishment with planning. I took the ‘HOWARD RED LINE’ subway train to my hostel room on Congress Parkway. It was an only a twenty-minute trip. The hostel was sponsored by ‘HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL.’ So they had a student work center with internet and vending. I should have probably slept but I was too fired up—and thoughts of oversleeping could not be erased from my mind.
I made the decision after an hour that I would forego taking the hour long subway to ‘OHARE AIRPORT’; instead I opted to take a taxicab.
The plan was quite simple, I had a flight that left at around six in the morning and would arrive in Houston at Eight-Thirty. I had one of my free car rental days waiting at ‘THRIFTY CAR RENTAL’ at IAH airport. It should have been easy enough to drive to the ballpark—GOOGLEMAPS said it would take about thirty minutes or so to drive. It was my first new ballpark during the trip. It was the Twentieth ballpark overall to visit.
O’Hare Airport was one of the first airports to have internet services and I really enjoyed having the amenity as I was waiting for that morning flight. I was flying with ‘CONTINENTAL AIRLINES’ that day.
The skies were blue and everything appeared to be normal when I made it to the gate. I was travelling with only my briefcase that carried all of my travel information. I had one bag checked to be picked up upon arrival. It was sixty minutes until boarding.
A few minutes later there was a momentary pause before the sounds of the speaker came on. The flight had been delayed by three hours now by virtue of the flight crew having arrived in late the night before due to inclement weather. I did some quick mathematics in my head. We were now flying out at Nine-Thirty in the morning and arriving in Houston just after noon time. This was not good at all. I felt uneasy about the whole transportation. I had never been to Houston and could be delayed a long time in just waiting for the rental car. I called Thrifty to cancel the car reservation with enough notice to not have them charge a deposit against my visa.
Luckily for me I had my phone numbers list out of my briefcase and called my Houston limo driver for the next month’s game I was going to attend after the streak was over.
Much to my dismay my sedan driver would be unable to help drive me to this game. I was feverishly searching on the internet until I found a limo service and called them with ‘MY AIRMILES LONG DISTANCE NUMBER' It was nice to have discovered a free way to acquire long distance minutes just by cashing Air Miles in from shopping at Safeway. After three phone calls, I secured a driver to pick me up from the limo area just after noon. I needed the same service back to the airport to catch a Seven O Clock flight to ‘JFK.’ The next day’s travel day was even more intense so I needed to have a feast way to get back to the airport.
The cost for the two-way sedan service was only $110. This of course was definitely a good alternative to use in the city of Houston. Normal car rental rates, plus insurance and gas—and parking at the game would almost have equaled that amount anyways.
“DAMN!” I whispered while drinking a coke and intermittently biting a cold sandwich to fill my stomach up till game time. I had just digested cost of altered travel plans when I presented with a new problem, “what am I going to do with my checked luggage?” It was full of just ordinary clothes at least so I decided to just ditch the luggage parcel and try and retrieve it later in the day. Again every time problems arose throughout the trip I would re-evaluate the rest of the trip with the gained knowledge. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had considered this scenario and was happy to have disposable luggage in the event I was not able to recover it later. There would be no further delays in going to Houston.
My sedan driver was in his middle forties and was well dressed with black slacks and a sports collared shirt with a purple tie. He had gone the extra mile to meet me in the meeting area with a white sign that read my last name.
“Mr. Booth, right this way, you are in no danger of missing the first pitch, I will have you there within a half hour.”
This put my mind at ease. As part of my original planning I had a different schedule of dates which included extra sets of tickets to the Astros later in the month—I offered them up to the gentleman immediately. I was trying to sell them online with no success. It continued my good will acts during the streak.
I made it to MINUTE MAID PARK within the half an hour the sedan guy had said, paid him and walked up to the corner of the building. It was about Ninety-Five Degrees out. I was happy to not have fought with real parking and navigation at this point anyway. I was impressed with the cleanliness outside of the ballpark.
Upon entering I saw the homage to past players on the wall of Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell—the wall I liked the best was of Craig Biggio’s 3,000 hits wall. Past that was a ‘HOMERUN PUMP’-gas pump---which I actually prefer to watch the game along this area.
The Train in the left field bleachers was another cool feature, and it goes off every time there is a homerun hit.
I noticed that with most indoor stadiums that they are tougher to take clear pictures. I had only brought my silver digital camera and had left my briefcase in the sedan because I was not sure of the park’s policies when it came to what you could bring in. I walked around the concourse and was impressed at the sightlines. The hill in center-field just adds to the character of the park. The sunlight still shines through the windows past the field, which makes it somewhat bright.
I made it to the concession stand and purchased a soda and pizza—which was awesome. I sat in the four hundred-section while I ate. I met a nice usher who signed my book itinerary and explained my situation of having to be there for every single pitch. He was nice enough to radio a fellow usher near the exit later in the game to help sign my page that I was there for the last out. It would have cost me a few minutes rushing down the escalators from the fourth level this instead would help in a fast getaway.
There was a nice tribute to the soldiers from overseas (with it being a day before the ‘FOURTH OF JULY’ on the big scoreboard). This would be a theme of baseball games that made me proud to visit these stadiums. Respecting the fine men and women that were protecting the country through baseball was high on the list of MLB. With Thirty-Six Thousand other fans I saw Houston win 5-2 over LA Dodgers in three hours.
I liked that during the seventh inning stretch the Houston fans sang “DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS.” They also loved playing the “SESAME STREET’S” of get playing baseball—it promoted kids playing baseball and it was quite entertaining.
I actually prefer not having the sun beating in my face while watching games so I was happy to watch the game indoors.
Minute Maid Park has lots of little scoreboards in the lower and higher levels so you always know what the score is. There big scoreboards are easily seen in the right center field wall and are great for viewing replays. There is plenty of concourse room to walk around each level. The Staff at Minute Maid Park are always courteous and were there to help in anyway. I would not say there is an abundance of different food sbut what they have works. The pizza was sensational and the ballpark hotdogs are good and well priced. It is a good park to come and go from for accessibility. One other tidbit found out while there was they open up the ballpark roof after everyone leaves to air it out.
Since the ballgame was over in good time I was able to race to Congress Street and Crawford. It was a perfect sedan pick up.
Now came a little bit of worrying. I had ample to time to locate my luggage. I walked to the baggage area of security and explained that I was in pursuit of a world record and that I needed to make it to the park on time for the gam--and said I did not see my luggage ever come down the ramp. Of course that was a lie-but what was I going to tell them? They could not find the bag at the airport and I was re-routed to a more secure part of the airport for more screening and analysis. I was not seen as a security threat—they just needed to locate the bag by asking itinerary questions. A few more minutes and I would be okay with the idea I was not receiving the bag back—they were inherent risks to the streak chase. Just then they told me “Continental Airlines" had re-routed the bag to JFK already—this actually looked good in my favor because it looked like it was their fault all along. I would meet up with my bag in New York City.
My day was not over yet. I did a radio interview with “CBC RADIO” for five minutes live with reporters I still can’t remember the names of. I explained them the day and then told them the “JIM MCLAREN story”. The lady host began to cry on air, it was then I fully understood the magnitude of how the streak now gaining momentum, it was my third radio interview and back home the ‘ASSOCIATED PRESS’ had picked it up in all the newspapers. The very next day I had another radio interview some where between my drive from Indianapolis and Cincinnati when I could spare a few minutes from the road. I had also been communicating non-stop with the ‘DETROIT FREE PRESS’ who were going to follow me around the ballpark all day when I arrived there the following Thursday about nine days in.
During the radio interview my gate had changed to a different area for my flight and I only realized it at the last minute-scurrying about as fast as I could. I was going to keep tabs on every last detail in order to break this record. I noticed the Houston Airport has more carts transporting people then any other airport in the USA. I wanted to have that option available but it was not meant for healthy free-bodied people. I managed to sleep the whole flight to JFK. It then took me about thirty minutes to find my rental car in the parking lot. Again I needed to be sharper from that point forward when it came to details. I drove back to my brothers in Sicklerville New Jersey and would only be there to shower before heading to Philadelphia’s International airport for an early morning flight to Indianapolis en route to Cincinnati.