Ultimate Baseball Road Trip: A Fan's Guide To Major League Stadiums

by Josh Pahigian, Kevin O'Connell

The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip is part travel manual, part ballpark atlas, part baseball history book, part restaurant and city guide, and, not least, part epic narrative. Years ago, two baseball fanatics and entertaining writers set out to create a comprehensive guide to all the diverse and fascinating ballparks throughout the country. For the second edition, they’ve done it again, providing updated information on every venue from Boston to L.A., plus brand new chapters for the brand new parks, like the new Yankee Stadium, Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, the Mets’ Citi Field, San Diego's PETCO Park, Nationals Park in Washington, DC, the Twins’ Target Field, and Miami's Marlins Ballpark. With this book, you can skillfully plan and fully appreciate a road trip or a visit to any single park. Included are ticket and travel information, a detailed guide to the best and worst seats in each park, folklore and statistics on each park, tips on each park's trademark foods, and profiles of nearby sports bars and baseball attractions, all within a lively and fully illustrated narrative that reminds us that baseball is often the ultimate metaphor for the important things in life. Funny and irreverent and loaded with information, the book encompasses all the essential elements of a full-blown baseball road trip.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Travel

512 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I start? If you have read, devoured and lived the first edition you will go nuts with this one too! There can be no higher praise about a guidebook then 'I don't believe anyone should take a trip to a ballpark without first checking out this book'. The information provided is invaluable. This book tells you how to get a park, where to park a car, where to sit, where NOT to sit, what to eat and what NOT to eat - in the park and in the neighborhood. The witty and easy going style of the two authors make the book such a fun read. I had to stop constantly to share tidbits from each city's visit with my husband. A must own and read for someone planning a road trip to a baseball park. A must own and read for someone who is a baseball fan. I personally can't wait for the 3rd edition. A spectacular 5 star book.

[Dan Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I start? If you have read, devoured and lived the first edition you will go nuts with this one too! There can be no higher praise about a guidebook then 'I don't believe anyone should take a trip to a ballpark without first checking out this book'. The information provided is invaluable. This book tells you how to get a park, where to park a car, where to sit, where NOT to sit, what to eat and what NOT to eat - in the park and in the neighborhood. The witty and easy going style of the two authors make the book such a fun read. I had to stop constantly to share tidbits from each city's visit with my husband. A must own and read for someone planning a road trip to a baseball park. A must own and read for someone who is a baseball fan. I personally can't wait for the 3rd edition. A spectacular 5 star book.

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh Pahigian and Kevin O’Connell wrote for release in 2004 their book “The Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip: A Fan’s Guide to Major League Stadiums.” This 500+ page book profiles the history and features of 30 Major League Baseball stadiums In addition, the authors provide an in-depth review of city restaurants and stadium concession stands for each ballpark. I had visited 19 of the stadiums referenced in the book. Josh and Kevin’s descriptions and itineraries brought back many wonderful memories of the trips I took. I especially liked their recommended planning travel guides at the end of the book. I will use their recommendations when I visit the remaining 11 stadiums in order to complete my goal to visit every MLB city before I die. (P)

[Yvonne]

I've visited 12 of the 30 baseball parks by now and will surely read about the next 17 stadiums (no, sorry, no NYY for me!) as soon as I plan to see a good game there. This book is a great guide of the history of the (for some) 'holy grounds'. Keep updating! Las Vegas will start building (and demolishing) theirs pretty soon!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice update to the first edition which includes the newer stadiums built in the past 10 years. If you enjoy the history of baseball parks, baseball food & drink, or the history of the sport you will enjoy this book. The authors take you on a tour of all major league stadiums providing tips on parking, ticket purchase and seating locations, historic trivia about the field, as well as concessions options both inside the park and in the surrounding neighborhood.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that really needs to exist. I read the first one and found it very useful in planning trips to a few stadiums that I was fortunate enough to be able to visit. Compared to the frist one, this edition has better writing but seems less mature. The dialogue between the two authors was ok, but I felt like it was used too much. The information in the book, however, is top notch. The best information is the reviews of seating areas throughout the ballparks. This really lets you know where to sit and where to avoid, and I’ve used this information in several stadiums with good results. Descriptions are good, but these guys need to remember the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words.” You can describe the roof in Seattle all you want, but without a picture, I’m lost. More consistent pictures would be nice (i.e. pics of the field, outfield wall, etc) for every stadium, so we can see the described batter’s eye, walls with odd angles, etc.
My biggest complaint about the book is that the bitching and moaning about steroid use has got to stop. It’s not relevant to a ballpark guide at all and really detracted from the flow of the information. In all, this is a really solid second edition to a series with a great concept. Reading it really helped tide me over until baseball season starts again.