A begining

August 10, 2008, the day of our, the Stadium Vagabonds founders, first road trip as we set off for central PA for the day. It begin with a visit to Gettysburg and the Eisenhower farm, but the real scope and purpose of the day was a Harrisburg Senators and York Revolution home game on the same day. Commerce Bank Park, the new bank name of the Senators stadium is located in downtown Harrisburg. The stadium is in one of the most unique locations in all of the minor leagues, an island located in the river which cuts through downtown Harrisburg, sits a stadium that appears to be ancient, but is not so. The home field of the AA team of the Nationals looks like it is a high school stadium.

This is one of the few minor league stadiums, which I honestly believe the town needs a new stadium. Almost all the time, I prefer the old stadiums, but Commerce Bank Park is terrible, and significantly worse than all the Atlantic League stadiums. If Harrisburg can finance a new stadium in Allentown for the Iron Pigs, they should be able to do so in their own town.

James and I then headed to York, an independent Atlantic league team, locate in the home of the Peppermint Patty. Sovereign Bank Stadium, which has to have a new stadium name, as Sovereign is no more, was a completely opposite of Harrisburg as words could allow. As James and I made our way to the box office, a season ticket holder asked us if we were going to the game, and we affirmatively replied. She handed us two front row seats, as she had extras.

The game just got better and better. The stadium is arguably the best in all of minor league baseball. The crowd was really into the fight with the Riversharks and enthusiastically cheered for free food from Pizza the Hut. The rules of the promotion were as follows. The opposing player with the lowest batting average in the starting lineup was the "Cheesysticks Player of the Game". If he struck out in the game, the entire crowd received a coupon for the item from Pizza the Hut. The Revolution won 3-2, and there is nothing better than 5,000 Americans screaming "REVOLUTION".

Overall, it was a great day in the middle of the Commonwealth. York developed and built one of the best stadiums and fan bases I have ever seen in the Minor Leagues, despite the fact it is an independent team. While Harrisburg is the opposite, and they serve as the current AA team of the Nationals, which explains alot about the current state of Washington baseball.

An intoduction:

I have long had the quest to attend sporting events in as many stadiums as possible. So far I have been to at least 523 games in 156 different stadiums across North America. In 2010, I made it to 47 different sporting events.

I am a die hard Phillies and White Sox, Eagles and Vikings, Blackhawks and Islanders, 76ers and Temple Basketball Fan.

I have always wanted to be able to share some of the great experiences I have had going to stadiums.

Here is a picture from the chiefs at eagles game at the Linc in 2009.

Let me introduce myself. I'm James. I've been a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan for a real long time now. I always followed the Eagles, Sixers, and Phillies. Grew up in Scranton area until I was 14, and I remember seeing many a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons game, the Phillies Triple-A affiliate for nearly two decades. (It enrages me that they are now the "Scranton Yankees"). I'm a libertarian socialist (look it up), and so my views on sports are shaped by politics. I enjoy beer, baseball, punk rock, and long walks on the South Jersey Shore.

Me and Sam like to go on roadtrips to see goofy things, especially minor league baseball, where you'll see some of the hokeist things in the United States. Hope you'll enjoy our trips as much as we do. I used to go to three Eagles games a year, splitting season tickets with Sam and another guy, but we decided to switch our money over to the Phillies after tiring of Andy Reid's bullshit, and also the fact that you could no longer walk up to a Phillies game like you could at the Vet or some of the early years of Citizen's [bank] Park and say, "Gimme the cheapest seats you got!" You actually gotta get them ahead of time now. After realizing you could go to a ton more baseball games than football games for the same price and get lots of free give-aways, we put our cold hard cash into the Fightin's.

This year so far, I have tickets to 22 Phillies games so far. Once their minor league teams release their give-away schedule, I'll snatch some of those up to. My goal this year is to see all six of the Phillies minor league teams, including the Gulf Coast Phillies (rookie league) and the Clearwater Threschers (Single A+), the two teams in Florida. Maybe 2012, I'll try to see the Dominican Phillies and the Venezuelan Phillies...

Welcome, and enjoy the blog, people.

James eats a triple onion ring burger while seeing the Williamsport Crosscutters (Short Season rookie team of the Phils)

What a home Nationals game looks like.

Jason Werth will see a lot of these "crowds" in Washington.

 This picture was taken at a May 5, 2009 day game between the Nationals and Astros. One of the few baseball games I have attended where the stadium staff seemed to outnumber the fans in attendance. This game eventually ended in Houston on July 9, 2009, with the winning pitcher no longer playing for the Nationals.

Finally

We went to see Temple beat Penn tonight. Sweet.