Ultimate Baseball
Road Trip Blog

I awoke to a light blanket of white covering my lawn and the smallest of snowflakes falling from gray skies this morning. As my eye caught a bird (not the spring-announcing robin I’d hope to see) consuming berries from a snow-covered tree outside my kitchen window, I was left wondering when spring will truly be here to stay.

Super Bowl XLVI was blessed last week when central Indiana’s temperatures roared past unseasonably warm status.  As temperatures hovered near 60°, my boys were able to get outdoors and rid their young bodies of excessive amounts of stored energy, breathe in fresh air and, yes, slip their hands into their worn, leather mitts and play some baseball. I was so eager to shout aloud that Punxsutawney Phil's forecast was dead wrong, but had to remind myself that it was the first week of February and the weather would continue to be anything but consistently full of sunshine, warm and beautiful here in Indiana.  

But February, sweet February! It’s during THIS gloomy, chilled time of the year when pitchers and catchers report to prepare for the upcoming baseball season. It’s February that marks the beginning of spring training. It’s February when MLB teams begin speaking publicly of their new prospects.  Can you feel the excitement? Is it rushing through your veins and warming your soul? If not, hop on Twitter! Players are tweeting of workouts and preparing to pack, the media are counting down the days, and blog writers are itching to once again find the daily rhythm of writing about the sport that has captured their hearts.

The warm streak of last week has passed. The cold, frigid air is real. But as I watch the blanket of snow disappear as we approach the noon hour I ask myself, who really needs a robin to tell you spring is coming? You don’t have to look hard to see that all the signs indicate it’s already well on its way. Baseball games are fast approaching, are you ready? If not, start preparing! It’s already February!

Big League Tours is happy to customize your baseball vacation package to fit your travel requirements. On longer tours, like the West Coast, East Coast, and Midwest 1, we can take a day or two off the beginning or end of the published tour. Just send us an email, or give us a call, and we will be happy to provide a price quote.

We can also customize your standard tour with additional options. For instance, just let us know if you would like to take a city tour, visit a museum, or check out the local food scene. We'll be happy to recommend our favorites, as well as, take care of the details. Just let us know.

West Coast Tour Promotion Ends Tues., Jan. 31

Get a free hotel night on the West Coast Tour when you book before the end of the day Jan. 31. It's a free hotel night the night before or the night after the tour dates. For instance, if your flights will make it difficult to get to Seattle in plenty of time to comfortably get to the hotel, check in, and then get to the first game, come in a night early and we'll pick up the room cost. The other option would be to stay an extra night in Phoenix before flying home. But hurry, this promotion ends on Tues. CLICK HERE to reserve your spot.

GET A WEST COAST TOUR BROCHURE

April 2010 (Repost) - I know that ESPN bills last night's game as opening day but the purest in me just can't except that "made for TV" hype. Admittedly, I watched the game last night but still believe that the season doesn't officially open until today. Opening Day, after all, should be comprised of day games, shouldn't it? Parades, presentations, fanfare, too. If it was up to me, Opening Day would be a national holiday.

Today's the day that every team is tied for first and believes that they have a chance to stay in the hunt this year. Today's the day that we realize that we will have professional baseball played everyday until the first of November. Today's the day that summer begins in my book.

So enjoy the day today. Catch your team's opener. And get ready for another summer of baseball and taking baseball travel tours to see your team all summer long!

While I don’t mind sitting around and taking it easy at the beginning of each new year in front of the television watching more than a dozen football games, I must say, I prefer to be watching 9 innings of baseball. Many argue with me that football provides a more exciting and thrilling product. Perhaps that is true in their minds, and perhaps there is some truth to the fact that I have a far too simplistic mind that just flat doesn’t enjoy time clocks. Yet maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m okay with baseball being a less physical sport, but a dramatically neat game (as in tidy). I’m not sure. All I know is that I love the game of baseball and cannot wait for the new season to begin.

So while the NHL plays its Winter Classic in a baseball stadium today, college football continues to crown bowl victors, NFL teams prepare for the playoffs or talk strategy for future draft picks, and while my own hometown counts down the days until she will host her very first Super Bowl, I will continue to count down the days until Opening Day for Major League Baseball.

After today, my countdown will end in ninety-four days when my Cincinnati Reds take on the Florida Marlins on April 5, 2012 following a bunch of Opening Day ceremonies. How about you? How long do you have to wait until your team takes the field?

The Bronx Bombers are back in full force.

The Yankees have been hitting home runs at a record-setting pace at their new ballpark … and they'd have been on pace for more if they hadn't run up against Craig Stammen and the upstart Nationals during their most recent homestand. Through 35 games at the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees have swatted 66 homers, putting them on pace for 153, four more than the record 149 hit by the 1996 Rockies at Coors Field. The Yankees and their opponents, meanwhile, have combined for 119 homers at Yankee Stadium, putting the park on pace for 250, the sixth-most hit at one ballpark in a single season in baseball history.

To think, if not for the Yankees and Nationals hitting a mere four home runs in their June 16-18 series, that full-season pace would swell to 291, only 12 behind the single-season record of 303 hit at Coors Field in 1999.

No wonder they call it "Coors Field East."

Follow Your Favorite Team... Into the Afterlife?
November 11, 2008 - There are many die hard baseball fans out there, but I have never seen anything like this.  Eternal Image makes unique caskets and urns for their customers.  Clint Mytych, CEO and only 27, of Eternal Image is determined to change the funeral industry with an array of new ways to celebrate the person who has passed. 

Whether it is an urn for your favorite pet or you were a huge Phillies fan and you would like to dedicate your urn to the team, with the permission of Major League Baseball fans can now take it to the next level.

The MLB urns are made from aluminum, sits on top of a wooden shaped base and topped with a clear dome and baseball can be displayed.  Then the logo of the persons favorite team is displayed on the side as well as their name. There is soon to be a casket that focuses on your favorite team as well.  The casket will resemble a wooden bat and will be lined in the persons favorite teams colors.

Are you this big of a fan?  Join us on one of our sports vacations and maybe you'll catch that commemorative baseball that can be displayed on your urn.  Or maybe during one of our baseball stadium tours you could get a bat signed by a special player for that wooden bat casket. If your not ready to take your favorite team to the afterlife just enjoy them now with Big League Tours.