1995 Baseball Vacation: Day 6

Looking back at a baseball vacation taken 13 years ago...

Friday, August 11, 1995

We left the Milwaukee area for Chicago around 11 a.m. We arrived and loafed along the "Magnificent Mile" in the afternoon, stopping to window shop and people watch.

This was the last game of our trip. We went to new Comiskey Park to see the White Sox play Oakland.

The new stadium was built less than an outfield-to-home's throw from old Comiskey, which is now a parking lot. Incidentally, we parked about 15 feet from the home plate in the original park.

Comiskey Park (now known as U.S. Cellular Field) was the cleanest of all the stadiums we visited and the stadium workers were definitely trained in proper customer service.

Their training came in handy when a fan in the rightfield bleachers couldn't handle an Oakland player's home run ball. It went through the fan's hands, hitting him on the chin.

The fan survived, and so did the White Sox, who won 13-5.

Five games in six days and a side trip to the "Field of Dreams."

Now that's living a baseball dream!

1995 Baseball Vacation: Day 5

Looking back at a baseball vacation taken 13 years ago...

Thursday, August 10, 1995

We got up at 6 a.m. and ate the hotel's continental breakfast before beginning the five-hour drive to Milwaukee.

We arrived 30 minutes before the Brewers met Toronto in a matinee game.

The atmosphere outside County Stadium was nothing short of festive. Hundreds of people were drinking beer (imagine that in Milwaukee!) and grilling hamburgers and bratwursts.

While standing in line to buy tickets, a woman approached us and gave us a pair of tickets.

It was at least 90 degrees at game time, so we sunbaked in the bleachers.

Toronto won, 8-4.

That evening we stayed at a hotel several miles south of Milwaukee. Our lack of sleep Tuesday night and Wednesday caught up with us. We slept for more than 12 hours.

Coming tomorrow: Remembering Day 6 of the trip

1995 Baseball Vacation: Day 4

Looking back at a baseball vacation taken 13 years ago...

Wednesday, August  9, 1995

Michael took the wheel shortly after midnight and drove from Des Moines to Iowa City and up to Cedar Rapids.

I napped.

The only vehicles we passed in Iowa were 18-wheelers.

I began driving again at Cedar Rapids, where we left the interstate for 70 miles of two-lane highways. We finally arrived at 4:45 a.m. and slept in my truck outside the "Field of Dreams" until the sun peered over Iowa's endless miles of cornfields.

The movie site didn't open until 9 a.m., so we ate breakfast at Hardee's and waited.

We arrived at the "Field of Dreams" promptly at 9 a.m., itching to play. The baseball diamond, which was carved from a cornfield, and two-story house were just as they looked in the Academy Award-nominated movie.

There were a handful of guys taking batting practice. We immediately joined them. After an hour and a half, there were about 60 tourists at the field.

"We have anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand visitors a day," said Rita Ameskamp, who owns the left side of the "Field of Dreams" with her husband, Al.

Another farmer owns the house and the right side of the diamond.

Both owners operate souvenir stands on their respective sides of the diamond, and there's obviously enough business for each to be successful.

Around 11:30 a.m., we hit the road in order to reach Minneapolis in time to see the Minnesota Twins play Oakland. 

We were running on 30-plus hours without any "real" sleep, and it was another five to six hours to Minneapolis.

I half-heartedly mentioned camping again, but Michael balked. "I don't know about you, but I'm sleeping in a bed tonight," he said.

We showered at the hotel, then drove to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Maybe I'm a traditionalist, but baseball in a dome stadium just didn't seem right. I liked it for one reason only -- air conditioning.

Oakland beat the Twins, 6-3, in 10 innings. After the game, we crashed at the hotel.

Coming tomorrow: Remembering Day 5 of the trip

1995 Baseball Vacation: Day 3

Looking back at a baseball vacation taken 13 years ago:

Tuesday, August 8, 1995

Again we got up early. 

We spent four hours at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Mo. Truman worked at the library after his presidency until his death in 1972. His office is on permanent display.

Our visit came only a couple of days after the 50th anniversary of Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. There was a special World War II exhibit depicting these world-changing events, including Truman's original draft of remarks he used to tell the world of dropping the A-bomb. 

Also on display in the museum was a copy of the infamous newspaper with the headline -- "Dewey Defeats Truman" -- that erroneously reported the result of the 1948 presidential election.

Truman and his wife, Bess, are buried next to each other in the museum's beautiful courtyard.

We also stopped by Truman's house, where he and Bess lived until their deaths, and bellied up to an old-time soda foundation at Clinton's Soda Fountain. Located across from the courthouse in Independence, the site was formerly Clinton's Drugstore where a 14-year-old Harry Truman landed his first job as a "soda jerk" for only $3 a week.

We ended the afternoon at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City's 18th and Vine Street Historic District. The museum included films, interactive video quizzes, and replica jerseys.

It is interesting to note that the Negro League played night baseball beginning in 1930, five years before the then all-white Major League.

That night we saw Jim Abbott, one of baseball's most extraordinary players, lead the California Angels against the Royals.

Abbott, who was born without a right hand, pitched seven scoreless innings and the Angels won, 4-0.

We left Kansas City around 10:30 p.m., 360 miles from Dyersville, Iowa, and the "Field of Dreams."

Coming tomorrow: Remembering Day 4 of the trip

1995 Baseball Vacation: Day 2

Looking back at a baseball vacation taken 13  years ago:

Monday, August 7, 1995

We got up early, showered, and played some baseball at the campground before driving into Columbia, Mo.,  to visit the University of Missouri campus. We briefly watched the Mizzou football team practice in the sweltering Midwest heat.

We stopped at Arrow Rock State Park for a picnic lunch on our way to Kansas City. 

A bluff on the Missouri River, Arrow Rock is historically significant for several reasons: it served as a crossing point for Indians, explorers, and early westward travelers; Lewis & Clark noted the area in their 1804 journals; and it later became part of the Santa Fe Trail.

The town (pop. 70) is adjacent to the state park and looked like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.

As we entered Kansas City, we stopped at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, and bought tickets for Tuesday's game. 

We camped at Watkin's Mill State Park several miles northeast of the city near Kearney, home of outlaw Jesse James.

Coming tomorrow: Remembering Day 3 of the trip

1-2-3, Hey Reitz!!

The hot corner, in a hot town
Thousands dressed in red
Clydesdales marching between innings
A decade before the Wizard plied his trade

One, two, three, hey Reitz

Teamed with the Franchise, the Mad Hungarian, and Bake
Hall of Famer Red was the skipper
He was the Big Zamboni
Scooping grounders on plastic grass

One, two, three, hey Reitz

Five hours in a Buick
To the round, concrete Busch
The tip of the Gateway in view
Sun gleaming off its top

One, two, three, hey Reitz

Is this where the love affair began
Between a six-year-old and the national pastime
Hot dogs, Coca-Colas, souvenirs
Boys cheering their man at third

One, two, three, hey Reitz

Baseball fanatics share dream vacation

Looking back a baseball vacation from 13 years ago ...

Baseball Fanatics Share Dream Vacation

First published in The McKenzie (Tenn.) Banner

Aug. 23, 1995

My brother, Michael, and I have followed baseball since 1975, when we started collecting and swapping Topps baseball cards beneath the shade trees at our boyhood home on Ash Street in Bruceton.

Michael was 6 years old and I was 9 in the summer of '75.

The shade trees at our old house and our interest in baseball cards peaked several years ago, but our fondness for the game grows.

Now that we're adults, we like to take baseball vacations when possible.

Our past trips include a visit to Cooperstown, N.Y., for the Baseball Hall of Fame's 50th anniversary in 1989 and to Cleveland two years ago during the Indians' last year to play in Municipal Stadium.

Only the baseball strike stopped us from seeing a pair of Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park last year.

Thankfully, the Red Sox refunded our money and we were able to spend it touring the city's vast American historical sites.

We started planning for this year's trip several months ago, gathering schedules and maps. Our top priority was a visit to the "Field of Dreams" in Dyersville, Iowa, where actors Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones starred in the movie of the same name.

Michael is a better organizer, so he found a week in August where we could sandwich a trip to the "Field of Dreams" between baseball games in five cities.

The following is a diary of our six-day, 2,406-mile baseball journey.

Day 1:

Sunday, August 6, 1995

We left Memphis at 6:30 a.m. and drove to St. Louis for a Sunday afternoon game. Busch Stadium brought back many childhood memories because our parents used to take us to see the Cardinals play.

The exciting Cardinal teams I remember from my childhood are quite different from the 1995 team, which is a lackluster bunch without injured Ozzie Smith playing shortstop.

Some names in the St. Louis starting lineup included Sweeney, Mabry, Caraballo and Sheaffer.

Who are these guys?

Where's Lou Brock and Ted Simmons?

We bought $5 tickets in the outfield bleachers. Several thousand Chicago fans followed their Cubs to St. Louis, and a few diehards waved homemade signs at the WGN-TV cameras.

St. Louis first baseman John Mabry emerged as the hero in the 13th inning. Mabry faked a bunt, then hit a run-scoring single through a drawn-in Cubs infield to give the Cardinals a 4-3 win.

After the game, we got lost trying to take a shortcut to Interstate 70 leading to Kansas City and endured eight miles of St. Louis slums. It was the scenic route, for sure.

We eventually found I-70, drove through a blinding rainstorm and camped at Finger Lakes State Park, which is located about 12 miles north of Columbia, Mo.

Coming tomorrow: Remembering Day 2 of the trip.

C'mon. Trade Me That Card!

Some 30 years ago, all the boys in our Bruceton, Tenn., neighborhood played baseball daily.

When we weren't playing, we traded baseball cards and talked about our baseball heroes.

One summer I took a liking to the specialty cards that Kellogg's inserted into its cereal boxes.

Most of the Kellogg's cards were 3-D, but one of my buddies traded me the majority of cards from the 1973 set, which were printed in 2-D.

It took some time, but I somehow managed to collect all of the cards in the '72 set except for stubble-faced Joe Torre of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Marty Roberts, who was a few years my junior, had the card that I coveted.

And he wasn't prepared to let it go without trading for something of greater value.

Smart guy.

It finally came down to a standoff between my prized card of Minnesota slugger Harmon Killebrew and Marty's card of Torre.

The standoff lasted for at least three days, long enough for everyone in the neighborhood to shout "Killebrew for Torre" at each of us until the swap was finally made.

Killebrew for Torre, anyone?