I usually send this out via e-mail to all of the people that I think might be interested in such things, but I figured this might be a more efficient way of getting the word out to those folks.

Due to a number of scheduling problems, we were finally able to get a crew of five people lined up for a trip to the East Coast. We were scheduled to see a game every single day for eight days. It made for something of a tight schedule, but we left early for Cleveland, Ohio on June 18.

Caleb, Paul, Alan and myself departed for Progressive Field, Jimmy would be joining us later on in Boston.

We made good time to Cleveland and arrived in plenty of time. Unfortunately the rain followed us.

One of the more impressive features of Progressive Field is the Indians Hall of Fame area. This was obviously the tribute to legendary pitcher Bob Feller, who recently passed away.

The game was between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cleveland Indians and the dark skies looked ominous. We were hoping to beat the seemingly inevitable rains. Then we witnessed something I haven't seen at a major league game, the tarp crew came out and covered the field BEFORE it started raining. They obviously knew what they were doing, because five minutes later the downpour began. The game was tied at 2-2 in the eighth when the delay began. This was remarkable because I had just acquired Cleveland starting pitcher Justin Masterson in my fantasy league, and when that happens that guy usually gets torched for a month or two.

After weighing the options, we decided to leave the game as an extended delay would likely play some serious havoc on a really tight schedule. We waited for 20 minutes. The fans that remained waited for nearly two hours before witnessing a home run by the mighty Cord Phelps that sent the fans home happy.

Final score: Cleveland 5, Pittsburgh 2, 11 innings

Winning pitcher: Tony Sipp

Losing pitcher: The sensational Tim Wood

Home runs witnessed: Carlos Santana.

Home runs not witnessed: Cord Phelps

I still had one more stop I wanted to make before leaving the glorious town of Cleveland (sarcasm heavily inserted here) as I'm not sure how this fact escaped me, but League Park the home to the Cleveland Indians from 1910 until 1946 still has portions of its playing arena standing in a decaying area of the city. Babe Ruth's 500th home run was hit here and the final hit of Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak was collected here as well. A day later I would find a wooden book end of the facade of League Park autographed by Bob Feller with the inscription "Home Sweet Home". It may have once been a fine place to play, but that's not the case anymore. A group of citizens have started a society in an attempt to revive League Park. I learned of this group from a Roadside Baseball book that was published in 2003 that claimed that a restoration sign has been placed on the site by a group of interested people. Apparently that group hasn't gotten very far.

This is what was formerly the right field corner of league park. The former ticket office, which is totally falling apart is at the left part of the photo.

When we got to League Park, or the remnants of it, it was hard to imagine exactly how the field was laid out. The right field line was short, very short, in fact. And a few days later Caleb told me that he had imagined the layout completely wrong. I only knew because of the photos. The same roadside baseball book indicated that you could still see the outline of the infield, but that isn't the case now.

The most interesting part about League Park to me was the still standing area of the grandstand (there are no seats) and the ticket office which know appears as if its only purpose is for kids throwing rocks at the broken windows.

This is the front of the former League Park Ticket office. Time has been cruel to it.

Wandering around the grounds for a bit I discovered where I believed home plate to be as well as a disconnected lock on the door of the ticket office. To me, that passed for an invitation. As I gently nudged, or violently threw my shoulder into (I can't remember which) the door to open it. This is what we found:

Ground floor of the League Park ticket office. It got no better on the upper floor. In fact, I thought the odds of me falling through the floor were 50/50. Caleb attempted to get through a door that apparently led to nowhere but failed. The next photo will show you why.....

There's the door....

These little side trips are always among my favorites and this one certainly had a number of them built into the plans this time. I loved the visit to League Park, although it's only about my third or fourth favorite former ball park site visited. Trailing Forbes Field and West Field in Pittsburgh (where we actually got out and played) and a yet to be discussed diversion to the site of the Polo Grounds.

But leaving League Park was a little easier knowing that the following day bore the impressive double shot of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Fenway Park in Boston. We drove for about six hours on Sunday night, stopping in a classy Super 8 Motel (more sarcasm inserted here) in Binghamton. Leaving us about an hour from the Hall of Fame.

I've now been to the Hall of Fame three times, each time I enjoy it a bit more. The Hall of Inductees always provides an enjoyable time, but due to time limitations, I had to spend a little bit less time there. It did not deter me from checking out my favorite military service acknowledgement.

Yep. That's the Civil War. The only hall of famer to serve in that war....early 1900's executive Morgan Bulkeley

Also checked out some of my other favorites in the hall like....

The Ted Williams hitter's eye graphic. In case you didn't know, Ted Williams is a pimp.

Walter Johnson. Sportsman. Duh.

Then I went to what for me is the happiest place on earth, the Baseball Hall of Fame Library. While I was there, I met the family of former major league catcher and manager Johnny Oates and I picked up a couple of historical baseball photos for my baseball shrine in my house.

Sadly, I had to speed through the souvenir shops before we left Cooperstown. My wallet appreciated the sacrifice. For the 856th time I talked myself out of buying a Carl Hubbell ball. One day, Carl. One day.

I hate to leave Cooperstown at any point, but leaving Cooperstown for Boston makes it a lot easier. Fenway Park is my favorite stadium on earth and second place isn't close.

Baseball Mecca as far as I'm concerned.

We scheduled three games at Fenway partly due to the fact that I wanted to. I wish it would have been 30 games.

All three games featured the San Diego Padres and the Boston Red Sox. Fenway is insanely fun, everyone is into the game and when the Red Sox are rolling as they were on the first night we were there its like a carnival.

Boston poured on 10 runs in the seventh inning and rolled to victory

Final score: Boston 14, San Diego 5

Winning pitcher: Matt Albers

Losing pitcher: Cory Luebke

Homers witnessed: Orlando Hudson. O-Dog!

We went back to the Buckminster relatively early, anticipating the arrival of Jimmy and his liquor cabinet on Tuesday. As I tend to on these trips, I got up early to explore.

First stop was about a 10-minute walk away from Fenway Park. The relative closeness of the park to another major league baseball park was astonishing when both the Red Sox and Braves played in Boston as the two were seperated by less than five minutes by car.

The remnants of Braves Field are on the campus of Boston University and the playing surface has been converted to the school's soccer field.

The curved area was where home plate was stationed.

A section of seats that remains from Braves Field that are in the grandstand that still remains from old Braves field.

Underneath the grandstands, reportedly exactly the same way it looked when used for baseball

The grandstand which hugged the first base line and the team's ticket office are the only thing that remains perfectly in tact from Braves Field. The ticket office has provided one of my all-time favorite baseball trip moments. Now the office has been divided in two between a day-care center and the campus police station. So I'm snapping a few pictures of the ticket office and shortly thereafter a campus police officer approaches me, apparently concerned about the fact that I'm taking pictures of a day care center. But before I can even explain myself another dude walks by completely unprovoked and says....."Dude, don't hassle him. Babe Ruth played here. Get some knowledge." I wanted to run him down and high five him but I was so dumbfounded by the exchange.

The ticket office that nearly got me questioned by campus police.

The 1950's style turnstiles I would have stolen if I would have had an able-bodied accomplice.

I then wandered back to the hotel and met Caleb before heading over to see the John Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Not realizing that there was a shuttle bus from the T to the JFK we wasted about an hour walking to it, but that's OK it was only about 90 degrees out.

Once we got back we found Jimmy, already boozing it up at our hotel. We went to get some lunch and when we came back Jimbo was lights out sleeping. So Caleb and I ventured off alone on my attempt to find yet another forgotten ballpark - Huntington Street Grounds.

The site of the first ever World Series - the site of huntington street grounds has now been engulfed by the campus of Northeastern University.

We found this......rather easily

Historical plaque on the athletic building of Northeastern University

But I still had several things that I wanted to find. One was the Cy Young statue and the other was the historical baseball display that was supposedly inside of the building. We asked the people guarding the door where it was and they didn't seem to know. (This was even more shocking when we actually found it). So we wandered all over these rather large building not finding what we were looking for. We even asked the assistant field hockey coach if she knew where it was. (She was also clueless, but she was easily to look at so we forgave her.) We went back towards where we were came in, about to give up when we stumbled across it no more than 50 feet from the first two clowns that claimed they didn't know where it was......

Trophy case devoted to historic Boston baseball in Northeastern University athletic complex

Then we went outside and discovered a very nicely designed Cy Young statue and monument to the site of the Huntington Street Grounds.

Cy Young statue

Home plate location for Huntington

Tuesday night's game in Boston was an enjoyable event and a much more competitive game. Here's some random Fenway awesomeness.

The Green Monster. I was unable to scam my way up to the top for batting practice this time.

Pesky's Pole. There's no way this is more than 275 feet from home plate......

You can't beat the view if you're a baseball fan.

Ahead of the Yankees.....now if only those other three teams could do it too.

Tuesday's game

Final score: Padres 5, Red Sox 4

Winning Pitcher: Chad Qualls

Losing Pitcher: Dan Wheeler

Homers witnessed: None, however we did see a David Ortiz stolen base. Which is much more rare.

Random side notes about this game: Ah the wonders of facebook. Jimmy, while posting some photos of Fenway on his account, discovered people he knew from school were at the game. One of which, was a dude from my hometown. What are the odds?

I also made sure to call my good friend Rob Laird so he could share in the fun of Sweet Caroline. Rob's a big fan, and by big fan I mean it enrages him to the point that he sent me one of the most vile text messages I've ever received.

We also encountered a bunch of traveling students from Canada. Many spoke French as their first language and had to have it explained to them that Red Sox fans were not booing Kevin Youkilis, they were saying "Youk!". Caleb, who had just returned from a stint teaching English to French Students used the time to show of his linguistic skills. The one that spoke fairly good English as well as French delighted me by telling Caleb that Olympic Stadium, which is by far the worst stadium I've ever seen is thought of by natives as being "Montreal's cancer." Good stuff.

After the game we joined our newly acquired friends at an establishment across the street from Fenway. I even drank a little bit. Jimmy had numerous and proclaimed that he saw Mat Latos, the San Diego Padre starter across the bar. He also questioned whether or not Cameron Maybin was also in attendance. I don't think either one of them were there, but fair enough.

Caleb also delighted the crowd with some verbal discertation. And then had him a good old time, busting Jimmy's balls on the way back to the hotel. Jimmy decided he couldn't do without some more dip so he ventured away from us only to text me 10 minutes later to tell me he's lost. Keep in mind you can see Fenway from our hotel, its no more than 50 paces away, this was serious comedy for me.

We had a Wednesday afternoon matinee between the Red Sox and the Padres. This was yet another day when the rains came. This was going to put a serious cramp in our style, as we needed to leave for New York City at the conclusion of the game and hoped to get in at a decent time.

That clearly wasn't going to happen. The game started 35 minutes late. Then encountered another rain delay in the fifth. Not really believing that the game would continue, we had another decision to make. We decided to take off. Hoping we were right.

We weren't.

The game carried on.

Final score: San Diego 5, Boston 1

Winning pitcher: Clayton Richard

Losing pitcher: John Lackey (he's quite terrible)

Home runs witnessed: Wil Venable!

We fought the rain much of the way to New York, fortunately it stopped around the time we arrived. But we were far from done with it. We got into our microscopically small New York hotel room that might have been a stretch fitting one person comfortably (we had five people) and we went out to see some things in town.

A required stop at Famous Ray's was followed by a couple of tourist haunts.

Times Square

Thursday morning didn't leave a lot of time for wandering around.....as we had a 1:30 New York Mets/Oakland Athletics contest on tap. In reality, we need not have bothered worrying about start times, because the game would start over two hours late. Fortunately one of the great things about Citi Field is the really plush Club areas the team has on almost every level of the stadium. It made for a great place to wait out the rain.

Citi Field. Waiting out the rain storms....they were lengthy and unnecessary.

The game finally got in. And I stole some of Jimmy's money by declaring that less than two home runs would be hit in a game featuring two of the worst offensive major league lineups I'd ever seen.

Final score: Mets 5, Athletics 1

Winning Pitcher: Chris Capuano

Losing Pitcher: Grant Godfrey

Home runs witnessed: Not surprisingly....none.

Friday was shaping up to be an interesting day as we had all day in New York City prior to the Yankees/Rockies night game at the new Yankee Stadium.

I got up early and wandered around Central Park and ended up at the Good Morning America free concert series to see Florence and the Machine. I also saw Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis and Charlie Day pimping Horrible Bosses.

The cast of Horrible Bosses on Good Morning America

We broke into groups because of a need to move the car out of the parking garage. Our GPS was doing a nice job of misleading us so we ended up stumbling into a free parking spot one subway stop from Yankee Stadium. Probably saved us about 40 bucks. No joke.

Paul, Alan and myself were going to try to get in on a Yankee Stadium tour, but they were sold out. So Paul and Alan departed and went their own way while I went on a Polo Grounds hunting tour. It is astonishingly close to where Yankee Stadium is, which makes me wonder why all old-time baseball teams that were in the same city seemed to put themselves so close together? I did not know where I was going for sure and nothing remains from the original Polo Grounds. But I figured I was close when I found this.....

The Polo Grounds Apartments. Located on the site of the former Polo Grounds, without this sign you'd have no idea where you were going....

That still didn't provide a whole lot of guidance and I wandered aimlessly for the better part of a half hour looking for some sign of the Polo Grounds.

Finally, I was wandering through an area for the second time and a gravelly voice beckoned me from behind...."Son, I think I know what you're looking for......."

I turned and he tells me....."You're looking for Willie's house aren't you?"

"Yes, sir. I am."

"Well, my name's Willie too and my sight isn't what it used to be and neither are my legs or I'd take you there myself. But I can get you there."

So Willie tells me EXACTLY how many paces I need to make and where I need to turn to find the monument.

I must have a short gait because I was a pace and a half off, looked up and there it was.....

Approximate location of the home plate of the former Polo Grounds. Never would have found this without the help of my man Willie

I'm sure you can't read this sign from this photo. But it basically says that this was the spot where Hall of Famer Willie Mays once roamed. Please respect it.

I just found this sign to be ironic. It was located right where left field was.

I originally planned to try to get to Ebbets Field's former location as well, but decided right then and there I'd rather have a chat with Willie. He was a Giant fan and had saw numerous games at the Polo Grounds and his father would regale him with stories about how great Christy Mathewson and Mel Ott were. I needed a digital recorder so badly I could cry. Still listens to games on the radio (his eye sight was too poor to watch them on TV), told me that usually 20 or 25 people a year show up looking for the same things I am. Willie helps them out if he's feeling good enough to sit outside that day.....

I reluctantly left Willie and did a little more wandering around the Central Park area and stopped into the Metropolitan Museum of Art before catching the train out to Yankee Stadium.

You will see no photos of Yankee Stadium for several reasons. Reason No. 1 is that it sucks. It's built for rich people even where rich people don't sit. Bleacher sits are largely obstructed by an obtrusive eating establishment, blocking the view of about 5000 seated patrons. I won't rant about this anymore, but I would think for a billion dollars every seat should be able to see the entire playing field that's just me.

Reason No. 2 was that my phone died. While I was trying to take photos in Monument Park (I finally got in!)

One of the few photos I could get of monument park before my camera died. Only worthwhile area of Yankee Stadium.

I'm not kidding. I doubt I'll go back.

Game result: Rockies 4, Yankees 2

Winning Pitcher: Ubaldo Jiminez

Losing Pitcher: A.J. Burnett

Homers witnessed: Jason Giambi, Troy Tulowitzki

We actually experienced erratic rain for much of the game. With that in mind and not feeling the need to sit in our crappy seats for the entire game we took off a little bit early. Nobody was too torn by the decision.

A three-hour ride to Baltimore was next on the docket. And West Baltimore is just as bad as the HBO television series The Wire would lead you to believe. We nearly hit a weird, drugged out dude on our way to the hotel. And there was a cop car sitting 10 feet away from the weird dude when we did it.

Originally we planned to go to Washington D.C. for some sightseeing prior to the Saturday night game between the Orioles and the Reds. But we were all kind of tired of all the traveling and elected to stay in Baltimore.

The first thing that I'd always wanted to do when I was in Baltimore and have never had the time was find the orphanage that Babe Ruth grew up in. In the interim the school had gone from being an orphanage to a Catholic High School named the Cardinal Gibbons School. The school closed at the conclusion of the 2010 school year and is now abandoned.

The baseball diamond at Cardinal Gibbons school. Ruth played on this diamond, but I later learned that the playing field during his time at the school was actually reversed

The school itself has already fallen into forms of disrepair.

The smokestack that you can see from the upper deck at Camden Yards

We wandered around the grounds so we could see if we could get a good look inside the building. We wandered around the front and someone decided that they would allow me the privledge of getting into the building by shattering a full length glass door. (I swear I didn't do it.)

Inside the orphanage/school. We may have borrowed a few things from the closet as souvenirs.

Second floor footage. Fear of finding homeless people living in there discouraged further exploration

After leaving the orphanage, we went back to downtown Baltimore and all went our seperate ways. I wandered down to the Chesapeake Bay and marveled at how much the city has improved that area since my previous visit five years prior, Caleb went to Fell's point and Jimmy saddled up at a stool at Pickles, where he'd stay for awhile.

I went back to see Jimmy at Pickles where he and Caleb had procured tickets to some event they were having at Camden Yards that involved an autograph signing session and a State of the Orioles address with Buck Showalter and Jim Hendry.

I passed on the autographs having already owned the players that were of interest to me, but settled down in the front row for the state of the Orioles address. Showalter and Hendry answered inane questions from the audience like "How can we be better fans?" while I laughed. With about 15 minutes left, I got up to leave. Showalter was answering a question but Hendry asks me point blank if I'd had all my questions answered (Off mic unfortunately). I said. "Sure. But stop trading for Cubs, its bad business." and walked away. That was fun.

Random Camden Yards shots:

The B.O. Railroad Warehouse. In my opinion, it remains one of the league's most interesting perspectives from home plate

Hanging out on Eutaw Street. Only one ball has hit the warehouse on the fly......who was it?

The game between the Reds and Orioles began and it was a fairly entertaining one. But only four of our trip participants made it into the game. Jimmy had one too many (or twelve) and was denied entrance into Camden Yards. Later, Jimmy reported that he was aroused from sleep by a police man while he was in a flower bed. I'd elaborate. But Jimmy doesn't remember what happened.......

The walk back to our car was an adventure.....one that can't be accurately described.

Game result: Reds 10, Orioles 5

Winning pitcher: Bronson Arroyo

Losing pitcher: Brian Matusz

Home runs witnessed: Joey Votto (twice), Drew Stubbs, Scott Rolen, Jonny Gomes, J.J. Hardy, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Matt Wieters

Drove to an area close by Pittsburgh (remarkably close to the Wiltshire Motel) in anticipation of Sunday's trip wrap up between the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Before getting to the game, we stopped by the Forbes Field monument on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Here is the centerfield wall.....

Centerfield at Forbes Field. That's not a misprint....457 feet

I'd been told before that you can't access the home plate at Forbes which is under glass in a science lab. Apparently I was lied to.

Home plate at Forbes Field. It's hard to imagine the layout based on where this is in comparison to the wall.

The Red Sox game drew a crowd to PNC Park that the beautiful park in Pittsburgh deserves and we had a good time in the bleachers.

I really appreciate the amount of Negro League presence the park has. Pittsburgh is a town rich in the history of the Negro Leagues. Heritage Park is an area of the park that honors those that played on Pittsburgh's competing Negro League teams the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. They even have a video screeninng room where they show a history of the negro leagues video. Sadly, I was the only one watching it that day.

Satchel Paige....an absolutely fascinating character in baseball history

PNC Park is a gorgeous park with a lot of awesome sights and sounds. I'm glad the Pirates are a little more competitive this year.....it makes me sad to see such a sweet park empty all the time.

Looking out to the Roberto Clemente Bridge

Game result: Red Sox 4, Pirates 2

Winning pitcher: Andrew Miller

Losing pitcher: Tim Wood (start the trip with a Tim Wood loss, finish the trip with a Tim Wood loss. Way to go ace!)

Home runs witnessed: None

That's it for this year......I'm thinking West Coast in 2012. I'm taking reservations now! (Just kidding, kind of.)

The Steve Soucie official ballpark rankings:

1. Fenway Park, Boston

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco

3. PNC Park, Pittsburgh

4. Wrigley Field, Chicago

5. Camden Yards, Baltimore

6. Ballpark at Arlington

7. Tiger Stadium, Detroit

8. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

9. Petco Park, San Diego

10. Citi Field, New York Mets

11. Old Yankee Stadium, New York

12. Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati

13. New Busch Stadium, St. Louis

14. Comerica Park, Detroit

15. Minute Maid Park, Houston

16. Miller Park, Milwaukee

17. Chase Field, Phoenix

18. Nationals Park, Washington D.C.

19. Coors Field, Colorado

20. Safeco Field, Seattle

21. Old Comiskey Park, Chicago

22. Progressive Field, Cleveland

23. New Comiskey Park, Chicago

24. New Yankee Stadium, New York

25. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

26. Kaufmann Stadium, Kansas City

27. Sky Dome, Toronto

28. Turner Field, Atlanta

29. Angels Field, Anaheim

30. Fulton-County Stadium, Atlanta

31. County Stadium, Milwaukee

32. Old Busch Stadium, St. Louis

33. Shea Stadium, New York

34. Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Oakland

35. Cinergy Field, Cincinnati

36. Pro Player Stadium, Miami

37. Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay

38. Metrodome, Minneapolis

39. Olympic Stadium, Montreal

Still missing Target Field.....hoping to cram it in by the end of Summer.