Danielle SolzmanThis Is Gonna Take A Few Years…
It’s always been a goal of mine to travel to every Major League Baseball ballpark to watch a baseball game and I’m pushing forward in trying to make this a reality.
I haven’t written about baseball regularly in a number of years but I’m getting back in the game. One, it gives me a home for writing reviews of baseball books again. Two, it would be a bit awkward writing about baseball (non-films) on my film/TV site. I’m also leaning towards reviewing baseball films on Dugout Dirt going forward. Three, it allows me to go on ballpark tours and write about them. I’m kicking off my ballpark tour series starting Wednesday, August 2 and they’ll be running every Wednesday for a number of weeks. Because of how strict MLB and teams can be with press credentials, it’s unlikely that I’ll end up in the press box anytime soon. If I feel like writing a feature story, I’ll go ahead and do just that.
As tickets rise, the cost of attending a game becomes increasingly expensive to attend depending on the market. After attending a STL-CIN game at Great American Ballpark in 2014, I didn’t get to another MLB game until my first STL-CHC game at Wrigley Field in June 2017. Jim O’Heir threw out the first pitch during the game, which aired on Sunday Night Baseball. My next game at Wrigley wasn’t until August 2022 when the Cardinals and Cubs were playing Game 1 of a double header. It just so happened that Adam Wainwright was pitching. It was the last time I was able to see Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Wainwright play together in person. The Cardinals lost both games but it’s always a treat getting to see future Hall of Famers like Pujols and Molina play in person.
Nowadays, I’m happy just to set foot in the stadium and go on a ballpark tour. I’ve gone on three of them this year with four more confirmed by the end of the year. The nice thing about the ballpark tours is that they enable fans to step foot in areas of the ballpark that are limited to players, coaches, and staff during a ballgame. Depending on events and whatnot, the locations that one visits is something that might change daily. Some teams have different tours that last anywhere from an hour to two hours. The St. Louis Cardinals offer a combo ticket that allows one to go on the tour and visit the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum.
I’ve found that the best times to go on a ballpark tour are while a team is playing on a road trip. This allows fans to get the most out of the price of admission. If I’m going on a tour, I want to be able to step foot in the dugout or sit in the press box. Even when a team is playing at night, stepping foot in the dugout isn’t always possible. According to the tour information on their website, Wrigley Field tours do not stop by the dugout on gameday tours. They only do this during non-gameday tours.
Speaking from personal experience this past June, the New York Yankees no longer allow fans to visit the dugout during a tour, gameday or non-gameday. However, it’s worth the admission cost alone just to visit both the museum and Monument Park. One gets to visit other areas of the stadium and learn history but you’ll never get to step foot in the dugout unless things change.
I’ve already toured Wrigley Field, Citi Field, and Yankee Stadium. Still to come are tours of American Family Field, Busch Stadium, Target Field, and Kauffman Stadium. Target Field is the only new-to-me field but I’ve only been to three stadiums since coming out as transgender in late 2015. Going back to stadiums I’ve already been to are necessary in rebuilding my photo album, too. Plus, a few stadiums have new statues in the time since my last visit. I’m hoping to get to even more stadiums during the next year. There are some stadiums that I’m unlikely to get back to in the near future and it comes down to the status of transgender rights but that’s another column for another outlet.
Building an audience is going to be easier said than done with a few social media platforms rising in Twitter’s ashes. Nobody knows which one will win out. I’m not on Threads or TikTok but Twitter’s demise is making it harder than ever for anyone to find an audience let alone get their work read. Will the same people interested in my thoughts on film be interested in my thoughts on baseball? I don’t know but I can only hope.
