Basecrawl.com

BaseCrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:12:26 -0700

What's New

9.16 BaseCrawl's second teaser trailer

We have two BaseCrawl updates to announce.

First, Troy has written a new blog titled "I thought I had seen it all ..." He reveals EXACTLY how much it cost to gas up a vehicle and drive it 17,000 miles to every Major League ballpark in one summer. He also writes about the secret to pulling off a baseball road trip such as this on a relatively small budget, and all the people who made it possible. This blog features a slideshow, too, that you can find right here.

The other update, of course, is our second "teaser" for our forthcoming series of documentary shorts. We were not short on inspiration or motivation, but as we dove headfirst into new territory, all three of us found video journalism more challenging than expected. This teaser reveals some the challenges we met, the stupid mistakes we made and the overall buffoonery involved in stumbling through something for the first time. In a way, it also underscores the challenges we still face as we attempt to put it all together in the editing room.

Here's the description for the video:

"Three friends -- a math professor, a freelance journalist and an unemployed ecologist -- set out to chronicle a basecrawl through all 30 Major League ballparks in one summer. But the inspiration and motivation driving their documentary is tempered by technical problems, poor preparation and a general lack of experience. Yet they didn't let little things -- like learning to use the camera -- get in the way of their attempt to bring humor, insight and a unique perspective to America's storied pastime."

You may notice that our "Video Pods" tab at the top is now working. You'll eventually be able to scroll through all our videos there. These videos are currently being hosted on MySpace and YouTube, and may be found elsewhere shortly. Expect most of our video pods to be hosted by Current.com, the wonderful user-powered network that's democratizing journalism and filmmaking.

More to come ...

8.26 BaseCrawl's first teaser trailer

We are proud to unveil the first real video associated with BaseCrawl. We don't mean to be a tease, but this is just a teaser trailer for our project. There's a second teaser trailer on its way, too, that we'll post in a few days.

If you're curious, all the footage you see in this teaser was shot with "Gobbles," the name we assigned Camera No. 2. It contains no footage from "Timmy," our Camera No. 1. We're still busy converting that footage to a digital format we can easily edit.

The video pods are coming shortly. They'll begin appearing here as soon as they come out of the editing room. There will be one video pod associated with each game we attended during the summer, for a total of 31 (including the College World Series). But these pods will not be about the games themselves. They'll be about the people we met, the stories we heard and the baseball culture we observed. Each pod will range between 3 and 8 minutes. I've you want to see an example of the style and format, feel free to check out a non-baseball video pod Troy submitted to Current TV regarding the 2008 election here.

In between editing video we have written a few new blogs. Troy has written a tongue-in-cheek ranking of the worst places to watch a ball game in his new blog "Ranking the 'Bottom 10' ballparks." This is to complement Daren's recent blog ranking the best ball parks.

Daren has also written a heartfelt eulogy to BaseCrawl, reflecting on his emotions and thoughts now that our journey is over. It's called "I hate hot dogs" and gives subtle clues to his current whereabouts.

Again, if you've made your way to this site and followed our adventures, we cannot thank you enough. Please stay tuned ...

8.4 The end is just the beginning

Three friends began this journey May 24 in Missoula, Montana. Two finished it Aug. 4 in Phoenix, Arizona. After watching the Diamondbacks pummel Pittsburgh, Daren and Troy completed the first part of the mission: attend one game at every Major League ballpark in one season.

Arizona is a relatively new baseball team. So we spent the day asking fans: "Who was your favorite team before the Diamondbacks?" As you can imagine, the answers varied widely, and with each new team mentioned we were able to reflect on our journey. This will be the subject of our last video pod. Daren also reflects on all the parks we've seen by ranking them in his latest blog: "Wait! It's Over?"

Our project has gone through many incarnations, beginning as an unreasonable idea for a wild vacation, then manifesting itself as platform for journalism, storytelling and a series of short-form docs. We pooled our resources, drained our bank accounts, charged our credit cards and somehow made it to the end. But it's not really the end.

The quest is technically over, but the mission is just beginning. There will be several more updates in the next few weeks as we go through our footage and assess a plan to release our video pods. We are very appreciative of everyone who has taken an interest in our little project, enjoyed our scrappy photo albums and followed our blogs. We've had so much fun doing these things, but this is actually a video journalism project. And that part of BaseCrawl is now getting under way. We met great people, saw incredible places and heard amazing stories. We can't wait to bring these to you in moving pictures. The "video pods" tab at the top of this page might even start working soon.

In the meantime, we're still blogging. Again, don't forget to read Daren's eloquent ranking of all 30 parks here. Who's No. 1? Is is PNC Park or Yankee Stadium? All our photo galleries are up to date, too, including a few new pictures from Chase Field.

We'll be back shortly with some more closing thoughts, a summary of how much money we spent on gas (everyone wants to know) and updates on the progress of our project.

Thank you for following our journey. Please stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Daren, Troy (and Nolan)

8.2 Snickerdoodle, Texas Ranger

What is the fastest way to the heart of a Texas Ranger? It might be chocolate chip cookies, or maybe snickerdoodles. At least that's the impression we got after spending some time with The Cookie Lady, pictured above with the Rangers Six Shooters.

We ignored our original itinerary and took our time getting to the Dallas area, arriving three days behind schedule to watch the Rangers lose to Toronto, 6-4. But no matter, once again it was the amazing people we met and the interesting things we learned.

In this case it was Shirley "The Cookie Lady" Kost, her husband, Cal, and their famous cookies. Shirley's been baking cookies for Texas players for about eight years now. She's a fixture at Rangers' BallPark where she uses her season tickets to share cookies and joy with everyone around her.

We believe you can tell a lot about a baseball player by the cookies he eats. For instance, did you know that Ian Kinsler prefers snickerdoodles? Or that Frank Catalanotto's favorite cookie is pineapple/pecan combination with carmel icing known as the "Cat's Meow?"

Or how about Josh Hamilton, the rising star with the big guns and the big bat? Take note, kids: Hamilton always requests oatmeal raisin from The Cookie Lady.

We'll have more on Shirley and her husband, Cal, after we finish our video pod on baseball in Texas. In the meantime we've posted a few more mediocre photos, including some from the largest urban bat colony in North America and others from the game in Arlington.

It's off to Phoenix and our final stop on this BaseCrawl.

7.28 Astros fans in a league of their own

Some baseball fans have an incredibly odd way of expressing their love for their favorite teams. Such is the case in Houston where we were directed by folks on the message boards toward three unique Astros fan clubs: The O's Bros, Los Caballitos and The Little Pumas.

We made it our mission to explore the topic of fan clubism during our stop at Minute Maid Park. We found The Little Pumas' Web site before arriving in Houston and met them before the game. Daren then became an impromptu member of their club, donning a puma outfit and having one of his more interesting experiences at a baseball game. He writes about it in his new blog: "Welcome to Texas ... now go home!"

At the game we also were able to connect with the fine gentlemen known as Los Caballitos. They wear sombreros, ride stick horses and root for Carlos Lee. Check out their MySpace page here and an article we found on them here. More on them to come when we put together our video pod ...

Unfortunately we were not able to connect with The O's Bros, the loyal fans of Roy Oswalt. They're known for sometimes wearing wizard robes and performing a famous strikeout dance every time their favorite pitcher gets another K. Oswalt was pitching this night, but we were told the core members of The O's Bros were out of town. Sorry we missed you.

The Astros ran away with a 5-4 victory over the Reds, but once again we closed this chapter of our baseball road trip more pleased with the friends we made and the times we had. Troy has posted some pictures from Houston here, and we've compiled a few more here. The Little Pumas also posted their own blog about meeting us here.

We're headed to Dallas to eat some cookies ...

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

Troy has written a new blog titled "The business card that changed everything." Troy takes a moment to reflect on his own personal pastime, and the chance encounter with a professional scout that shaped his childhood obsession with the Oakland A's. The business card pictured above was given to Troy when he was 7 years old, and we ask anyone who knows what became of this man to send us an e-mail. Troy goes into greater detail in his new blog.

We were stunned by the devastation still evident in New Orleans three years after Katrina. Still photography is not the focus of this project, but we've posted a few new photos from New Orleans here that don't quite do justice to what we witnessed. But we have a lot of video footage that we'll share with the world ... eventually.

We also had another BaseCrawl moment and lifetime first. Shortly after passing the 15,000-mile mark, we entered Houston and promptly ran out of gas on the interstate. As we sputtered to a stop on the side of the road, we both looked at each other and said, "BaseCrawl." For us, this word has become synonymous with "FUBAR."

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

Pictured above is Dennis "The Menace" Shrader. He has a lot of balls, literally and figuratively. Before we saw the Rays lose 8-1 at home to Troy's A's, we visited Schrader's home in St. Petersburg for our upcoming video pod on what drives people to collect things -- in this case, baseball things.

Schrader collects autographed baseballs. He has more than 3,000 of them -- the largest private collection in the world. His balls have been autographed by seemingly everyone, including Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, Joe Dimaggio and Fidel Castro. Schrader and his wife, Mary, were two of the more interesting people we've met on our baseball road trip and we can't wait to show you their video pod when we're finished. You can learn more about Dennis and his collection at www.littlecooperstown.com.

In the meantime, Daren has posted two new blogs. His first, "Quiet down everyone! I'm watching the scoreboard" recounts our experience watching the Marlins get smoked by Atlanta, although Daren wasn't paying much attention to the game on the field. (By the way, the home team has lost the last five BaseCrawl games). Daren also writes about his childhood memories of Florida, and how much he misses his blanket in "I think I saw Figment on Bourbon Street."

As always, we met many great people in Florida. Nicole and Kevin put us up -- and put up with us -- for two nights in St. Petersburg. Thanks guys! We also said farewell to our impromptu BaseCrawl member, Emily Rice, who brought us much joy and comic relief during our five days together.

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

Our Destination

Related Sites

BaseCrawl on MySpace

BaseCrawl on Facebook

BaseCrawl on YouTube

Photo Galleries

Nolan's Photo Gallery

Troy's Photo Gallery

Daren's Photo Gallery

Photos by Game

The Crew

BaseCrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:37:43 -0700

What's New

8.26 BaseCrawl's first teaser trailer

Again, if you've made your way to this site and followed our adventures, we cannot thank you enough. Please stay tuned ...

8.4 The end is just the beginning

We'll be back shortly with some more closing thoughts, a summary of how much money we spent on gas (everyone wants to know) and updates on the progress of our project.

Thank you for following our journey. Please stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Daren, Troy (and Nolan)

8.2 Snickerdoodle, Texas Ranger

Or how about Josh Hamilton, the rising star with the big guns and the big bat? Take note, kids: Hamilton always requests oatmeal raisin from The Cookie Lady.

It's off to Phoenix and our final stop on this BaseCrawl.

7.28 Astros fans in a league of their own

We're headed to Dallas to eat some cookies ...

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

We recently checked game Nos. 24 and 25 off our baseball road trip list, watching Baltimore and Atlanta choke at home. We're entering the homestretch of filming and collecting information for our quasi-documentary project. Editing looms ...

Troy has written a new blog on how he'd rather have an Oriole on his shoulder than dirty Sox on his feet. Troy wore his Tigers jersey to our recent game at Camden Yards, unaware -- at first -- that Detroit was the visiting team that day. He compares this experience to wearing the Tigers jersey around White Sox fans at U.S. Cellular Field where ... well ... just read about it in "I'd proudly wear an Oriole on my shoulder."

We have picked up a new BaseCrawl crew member to bring us back to three. Emily Rice has picked up where Nolan Rice left off, and we couldn't be happier (there is no relation between these Rices). Emily is Troy's grad school classmate. She's been with us for four days, accompanying us to the contest in Atlanta where she watched her favorite manager get ejected for a record-setting 141st time. Oh, and her favorite team lost 15-6 against the woebegone Nationals.

Troy has written another new blog that covers Emily joining our team and the quirks of Southerners. It's called "Southern Hospitality and my date with Moonshine." Don't forget to click the links on that one. A special thanks goes out to Maureen and Marshall Rice for putting us up for two nights and showing us an incredible time.

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

Basecrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:35:07 -0700

What's New

8.4 The end is just the beginning

We'll be back shortly with some more closing thoughts, a summary of how much money we spent on gas (everyone wants to know) and updates on the progress of our project.

Thank you for following our journey. Please stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Daren, Troy (and Nolan)

8.2 Snickerdoodle, Texas Ranger

Or how about Josh Hamilton, the rising star with the big guns and the big bat? Take note, kids: Hamilton always requests oatmeal raisin from The Cookie Lady.

It's off to Phoenix and our final stop on this BaseCrawl.

7.28 Astros fans in a league of their own

We're headed to Dallas to eat some cookies ...

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

Our BaseCrawl has gone into overdrive. We recently attended five games in six days, putting 1,184 miles on our odometer as we covered both New York teams, Boston, Pittsburgh and the Washington Nationals. We would not recommend this itinerary to anyone, and if we could do it all over again we probably would have found another way. Ugh!

Troy has posted a new blog on our activities in Washington, D.C. After watching the Nationals get blanked at home, we headed toward our nation's capitol to protest and record footage for our forthcoming video pod. We urged our leaders to ban the designated hitter, say yes to contraction and make it strike four, you're out. You can read more about this in "Exercising our rights" in the blog section.

We wrapped up our reunion with Nolan, an original member of our crew who rejoined us for three games on the East Coast. Nolan has posted two more photo essays in the blog section about watching his Red Sox lose at Fenway and fulfilling his childhood dream of seeing the Boston Garden.

After Nolan left for Idaho, we drove a grueling 10 hours in one day (on three hours' sleep) to Pittsburgh to watch the Pirates win an amazing come-from-behind victory over St. Louis. We spent some time in a boat on the Alleghemey River during the game for our upcoming video pod, then caught another "nap" before driving 247 miles the next morning for the Nationals' day game. Ugh!

Our vehicle was impounded in Washington, D.C. after we left it for six hours in a two-hour zone. This left us stranded in our nation's capitol for one night, but we eventually found an expensive hotel that absolutely destroyed our lodging budget. We were also the beneficiaries of a $100 fine for the whole ordeal. Daren devoted a few sentences to this incident in his most recent blog.

There are lots of new pictures in all of our photo galleries (although we'd like to remind everyone that we're videographers, not still photographers). Nolan has posted oodles of pictures of his girlfriend in Boston, New York and New York. You can also see photographs from Pittsburgh and Washington here and here.

Basecrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:40:42 -0700

What's New

8.2 Snickerdoodle, Texas Ranger

Or how about Josh Hamilton, the rising star with the big guns and the big bat? Take note, kids: Hamilton always requests oatmeal raisin from The Cookie Lady.

It's off to Phoenix and our final stop on this BaseCrawl.

7.28 Astros fans in a league of their own

We're headed to Dallas to eat some cookies ...

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Nolan Rice, an original member of our project, recently re-joined the BaseCrawl crew (in person) for a three-game stint on the East Coast. As expected, he brought his girlfriend and spent most of the time shopping for flipflops instead of watching baseball or hanging out with his buddies. But we still love the guy and enjoyed sharing him with Beth for a few days.

Nolan resumed his blogging/photo essays duties. Our favorite math professor reports on watching the Mets beat San Francisco at Shae Stadium, what it's like to walk into Yankee Stadium wearing a Red Sox jersey and more about Beth, Beth and Beth.

We are way behind on updates but are determined to catch up. A LOT HAS HAPPENED recently that we'll be discussing in the coming days. Daren has posted a new blog that discusses, briefly, how our vehicle was impounded by Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. (more on that to come) He also offers apologies to several of the people who have made this BaseCrawl possible by putting us up in their homes.

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We also have gone great lengths to improve and update our MySpace site. If you're interested in seeing our video pods as soon as they're released, send us a friend request on MySpace and we'll send them to you via bulletins beginning in August. Another way to be notified about this stuff is to subscribe to our RSS feed at the top, right-hand corner of the page.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

Basecrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:52:54 -0700

What's New

7.28 Astros fans in a league of their own

We're headed to Dallas to eat some cookies ...

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

We've had a very, very busy 10 days and are behind on updates. Expect several in the next few days. Where to start? Well ... we hit two famous baseall museums in three days, attended a wedding in Upstate New York and watched Daren's Mets lose again in rainy Philadelphia (the Mets are 0-2 when Daren is present).

We've been shooting footage over the last few days for a video pod on baseball nostalgia (coming in August!). On a related note, Troy has written a new blog "Exploring a different kind of pastime." He covers some interesting footnotes on our visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, our stroll through the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (pictured above) and what it's like to discover a best friend's pastime.

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

If you haven't already, check out our "Roadtrip Map" section. It's more interactive than ever and will continue to evolve while we're on this adventure and beyond. If you click on a placemarker, a photo from that location will appear. Our videos will eventually be embedded here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

Basecrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:38:20 -0700

What's New

7.27 Behind every favorite team is a story

Twenty-seven down, three to go. We've parted ways with Florida, the East Coast and are headed west to mess with Texas after surviving Bourbon Street.

On deck is our date with the Houston Astros and their zany fan clubs.

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We recently checked game No. 17 off our BaseCrawl list. We spent a cool, calm Wednesday evening in Cincinnati, watching the home team lose yet again and enjoying the view from "Club Red" in center field at the Great American Ball Park.

Pictured above is Troy holding a sign at Club Red that says "from." In case you're wondering, the BaseCrawl crew has been writing one word on a dry-erase board at every game. When this journey is over there will be two complete, 30-word phrases that will play like sticky-note animation. Each word will appear with a different ball park as the backdrop. If you're really bored, you might even be able to figure out most of the phrases right now by checking out Nolan's flickr photo gallery, Troy's Webshots gallery, Daren's Smugmug gallery or our combined Picasa photo album.

Troy has published a new blog that he was reluctant to write, but promised several people. It explains why we were quiet for many days and covers some of the weird things that are happening to our bodies. But this truly is the final word about how hard it is to be us.

If you want to know how much harder it can be to attend one game in every ball park, check out the new link we've posted titled "Thirty on One." We met Cary Freels and his crew earlier on this journey. Cary has been riding a motorcycle to every Major League ball park this summer, raising money for the Livestrong Foundation. But unlike us, he's doing it in 40 days, not 75. And he doesn't have anyone to help him take the wheel.

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

Basecrawl | A baseball road trip for the ages

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:29:31 -0700

What's New

7.24 This guy has a lot of balls

New pictures are everywhere, and our map is up to date. Photos from Atlanta can be found here, Tampa Bay here and a few Marlins photos here.

We're now headed to a place where the stars at night, are big and bright ...

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Where did all the fans go?

We recently passed the halfway point on this baseball road trip, and to mark the occasion Daren has written a new blog ranking all the ballparks we've visited so far. Who's No. 1? Is it McAfee Coliseum or the Metrodome? Find out in "There's still 15 stadiums to go?!" And don't get upset if your favorite stadium didn't make the list, we haven't seen them all yet.

Our BaseCrawl has taken us to our first foreign land, but likely not our last (we intend to hit a minor league game in Mexico). We spent 24 hours in Toronto, visiting the cavernous Rogers Centre and wondering where did all the people go? We spent the night in a college dorm room before hitting the CN Tower the next day. You can see Troy's pictures from the Toronto game here, and Daren's here.

The trip back to the States took us by one of the coolest sites we've seen so far: Niagara Falls. We still haven't found out the cost of Daren's scalping citation, but the Verizon Wireless fraud department did call to inform us of a $730 bill for nominal use of our wireless Internet card while we were in a foreign country. We refuse to pay it, and if they come after us we're going back to Canada.

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

Basecrawl

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:25:53 -0700

What's New

7.21 New faces and places in Baltimore, Atlanta

As always, we've updated our photo galleries and you can find all of those on the left-hand side, including pictures from Baltimore here.

More to come tomorrow.

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

Game 15 of our BaseCrawl marked the halfway point of this journey. We dragged our feet getting into Cleveland's Progressive Field, and spotted a man watching the game from the most unusual vantage point. He invited us to join him, and our experience watcing the game from a rooftop (shown above) is the subject of Troy's latest blog: The best seats come to those who wait

Troy cleared the cobwebs and also wrote a second blog after an 11-day absence. He adds his perspective to the incident where Daren was nearly cuffed and hauled off to jail for ticket scalping. The blog is titled: Is this guy really the problem? Don't forget to read Daren's original take on getting busted by the Chicago police in An Idiot's Guide to ticket scalping.

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

We've also spent some time over the past few days correcting and restoring our archives section. You can cycle through the history of this project any time by clicking on the archives tab. But for now you can also catch up on all our BaseCrawl ups and downs here:

5.27 Welcome to Big League BaseCrawl
5.29 Oakland lays an egg for the Blue Jays
5.31 Now that's baseball in the bay
6.1 Angels win with a rally (monkey)
6.2 Ballpark food for thought
6.5 Goodbye Nolan and goodbye West Coast
6.9 Many, many miles later ... only two remain
6.12 What a Royal mess
6.15 Is there a baseball game in Omaha?
6.17 St. Louis and the perils of traveling
6.18 Now that's music to our ears
6.21 Nolan returns to see the Minnesota Twins
6.22 It's Miller Time with Brewers fans
6.24 Detroit and a bad case of fatigue
6.26 Father knows best (about the Cubbies)
6.27 Cops bust Daren in scalping sting

Basecrawl

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:53:00 -0700

What's New

7.15 BaseCrawl democracy in action

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

Basecrawl

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:10:28 -0700

What's New

7.9 "New York, New York" and Nolan's return

Our individual photo galleries have been updated so if you're interested in peeking ahead beyond this update, check out Nolan's recent photos here, Daren's here and Troy's here.

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates.

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

Basecrawl

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:44:59 -0700

What's New

7.6 Philadelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

6.27 Cops bust Daren in scalping sting

This is not a joke.

Our BaseCrawl's very own Daren Many (pictured above with citation) was apprehended by undercover cops Friday outside of U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago and nearly hauled off to jail (or so they threatened).

The game featured the White Sox vs. the Cubs -- storied crosstown rivals who created a hot ticket. We've been to 14 Major League Baseball stadiums so far, and everywhere we've gone we've noticed scores of so-called "scalpers" day-trading tickets and reaping the margins.

So we decided the subject of our storytelling here should be ticket scalping. We decided to partake in emersion journalism to accomplish this task, and when Daren attempted to sell extra tickets we had been gouged on through StubHub, he was accosted by four cops who were none to happy.

Daren was wearing a wireless mic, and the whole confrontation was caught on tape, including all the F-bombs and foul language the cops felt necessary to spew upon Daren. You can read Daren's detailed account of the confrontation in his latest blog: An Idiot's Guide to Scalping Tickets.

In the end, Daren was just fined and released, but the officers took his two tickets and replaced them with another kind of ticket -- one that might cost several hundred dollars.

We'd love to mention more about the actual game, but right now we're too busy trying to figure out how to pay for this mess ...

Basecrawl

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:42:02 -0700

What's New

7.6 Philladelphia, Cooperstown and nostalgia

A few new photos from Philadelphia and Cooperstown can be found here and here. Daren has posted some new photos here and here, too.

Shae Stadium is on deck. So are several more updates. Stay tuned ...

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Dear Toronto: Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

6.27 Cops bust Daren in scalping sting

This is not a joke.

In the end, Daren was just fined and released, but the officers took his two tickets and replaced them with another kind of ticket -- one that might cost several hundred dollars.

We'd love to mention more about the actual game, but right now we're too busy trying to figure out how to pay for this mess ...

Our Destination

Related Sites

BaseCrawl on MySpace

Thirty on One

Shea Nation

Photo Galleries

Nolan's Photo Gallery

Troy's Photo Gallery

Daren's Photo Gallery

Photos by Game

The Crew

Basecrawl

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:30:07 -0700

What's New

7.2 Turning the corner in Cincinnati

We're off to the Louisville Slugger Museum, then it's a game between the Phillies and Daren's Mets on Independence Day.

6.29 Dear Toronto: Where did all the fans go?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, staying with a close personal friend: Melanie.

On deck: Cincinnati.

6.28 Our secret seats in Cleveland

For our forthcoming video pod, we spent the day exploring the topic of fireworks and the unfortunate controversy surrounding Chief Wahoo that tempers Cleveland's place in America's pastime.

In other updates, Troy has posted a few new pictures from Cleveland that accompany his latest blog.

6.27 Cops bust Daren in scalping sting

This is not a joke.

In the end, Daren was just fined and released, but the officers took his two tickets and replaced them with another kind of ticket -- one that might cost several hundred dollars.

We'd love to mention more about the actual game, but right now we're too busy trying to figure out how to pay for this mess ...

6.26 Father knows best (about the Cubbies)

We have had a great time in Chicago so far. First off, Troy's father (pictured above) is here. He decided to get in on the action and flew out from Portland, Oregon to join us for two games, including the Cubs-White Sox game we'll be seeing Friday (June 27) on the Southside. Eldon Foster is a life-long Cubs fan who lived near Wrigley Field when he was attending DeVry Univeristy in the 1960s.

The subject of our journalism here is baseball superstitions. Before the Cubs game, we spent Wednesday exploring downtown Chicago, talking to baseball fans about curses and seeing what they're all about at the famous Billy Goat Tavern.

Tavern owner Sam Sainis and son Bill were incredibly gracious hosts to us at their incredibly famous bar. They met with us -- once again -- on relatively short notice and served up a few of their trademarked "Cheezborgers," which were made famous by a certain Saturday Night Live sketch from the 1970s.

Like we mentioned in our previous update, this two-person BaseCrawl crew has been feeling a little fatigued lately because of our intense travel itinerary. Yet we found some time Wednesday to relax on the streets of Chicago, where we soaked our feet in Lake Michigan, took a stroll to the top of the Sears Tower and generally contemplated how good it is to be doing what we love.

Unfortunately, the hometown Cubs had to ruin everything by losing like the Cubbies of old by a score of 10-3 to Baltimore. But we met some great fans at the game, who were celebrating their 100-year anniversary. And afterward we headed down to Harry Caray's.

We're not sure we believe in curses, but after we realized our stop at Wrigley Field was the 13th game on our BaseCrawl, it made us wonder.

Our Destination

Related Sites

BaseCrawl on MySpace

Thirty on One

Shea Nation

Photo Galleries

Nolan's Photo Gallery

Troy's Photo Gallery

Daren's Photo Gallery

Photos by Game

The Crew

Your Basecrawl.com update

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:45:46 -0700