Re-introducing itineraries

Another summer full of interesting trips one could take.

If you had done itineraries with my last season, this would have been your first game: Thursday, August 3 with the Delmarva Shorebirds against the Lynchburg Hillcats.

As an effort to build a bit of interest in my baseball-related sister site The Knothole, I’m cross-posting this piece for a rare Thursday post on my eponymous site.

I had so much fun doing it last year - three different trips! - that I decided to do itineraries again.

For those of you reading my home site, the idea came from a post from last spring where I recounted some of the baseball-related trips I made back during my carefree single again days. At that time, I made three separate journeys to St. Louis, Cleveland, and New Jersey - in the former two cases to see family, and in the latter case in the hopes of watching the Delmarva Shorebirds clinch a playoff spot at the home of the hated Lakewood BlueClaws.

After I thought about it, I decided to have a little bit of fun and actually plan out some prospective trips to various parts of the country, using Salisbury, Maryland (and Perdue Stadium) as the home base. There were some rules I tried to follow (and will again this year):

1. All trips begin on Thursday, August 1 at the Delmarva game vs. Myrtle Beach. This serves several purposes, but the most important is that the trip sees all levels of professional baseball (independent to MLB) and Class A is difficult because Delmarva is as far north as the Class A Carolina League goes. The other Class A leagues are exclusively in California and Florida. So trips north or west will only get one Class A game.

2. With a few exceptions, the daily trip is planned as being less than 250 miles (as the crow flies.) In a real jaunt, that’s a nice six-hour drive (or less) that would give a person time to see the city or area that the game’s being played in.

3. Because the minor leagues (and most independent leagues) are dark on Mondays, that day is reserved for MLB. Last year, though, I had to build in a day off on one itinerary because the closest MLB team was on the road.

Last year, I brought up the idea of a PONY trip (Pennsylvania, Ontario, New York) and I came pretty close in my first itinerary - there was a detour to Cleveland to cover that Monday. (I’ve already figured a tentative itinerary out for this one, but things can change.)

I talked about a Carolina trip as well, and that is mostly doable except there’s no AA or MLB team there so I will have to include a team outside the Carolinas for those two levels - I will have to swing to Washington to see the Nationals and then down to Richmond (for AA) to maintain the trip’s continuity on the 5th and 6th. Luckily, it looks like I have a decent chunk of North Carolina to work with for the game on the 4th to keep the distances in line.

Now I had talked about a California-based trip but that would have to involve no high A or AA team, so I may put that in the hopper for 2025 as an extended trip with longer driving distances. Instead, I’m going to go back home again for my third and final trip, which means Fifth Third Field in Toledo will grace that itinerary. (It will be on the latter half of the trip as the Hens are home August 6-11.)

So subscribe to The Knothole or just come on over the next three Thursdays for some summer vacation ideas!

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