Ultimate Baseball
Road Trip Blog

Yesterday, Major League Baseball released the team schedules for 2015. And now, our work begins creating the luxury baseball tour packages for the coming season.

As you can imagine, it takes some time to go through all 30 teams to design the most appealing tours for our guests. Our preliminary plans include full East & West Coast Tours plus, Midwest, Mideast, and Heartland Tours. In those tours, we will create shorter, "mini" tours like Atlantic Beltway and Southern California for folks that want a quick get away visiting multiple ballparks. We'll also go through the schedule to find the best destination tours for New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. 

Keep an eye out for our 2015 Tour Announcement email. We will be sending it very soon. It will include links to all the 2015 tours, plus early bird discounts for guests that purchase their tours before the end of the year.

We are excited about the upcoming season and hope you will join us on the road in 2015. Please call or email with any questions. (317) 806-2272

If you're a baseball fan and you have a bucket list, then this East Coast Tour is for you. You'll start this tour in Boston, home of Historic Fenway Park. The game should be a night game so arrive early and see some sites before we head over to the park and enjoy all the fun around Yawkey Way.

You'll leave mid-day on Saturday to make the trip to New York where you will have the evening on your own and plenty of time to explore Manhattan from your Midtown hotel. Sunday we'll head to Yankee Stadium, for, what we expect to be, an afternoon game when the Yankees are hosting the Pirates. We'll head back to Manhattan after the game and you'll have the evening on your own in the city.

You an option on Monday to direct the itinerary the best way for you and your companions. You can choose to spend the day in the city or take the day-trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Tuesday will allow you more time to see some sites in the city and then we'll head out to Citi Field to see the Dodgers and Mets game.

After 4 great nights in New York, the tour will head to Washington, DC on Wednesday. We should arrive early afternoon in the district and get checked into the hotel, which will give us plenty of time to get over to Nationals Park for the game between the Reds and Nationals. 

On Thursday, we'll take a short trip up the road to Baltimore. We'll be staying near Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the Inner Harbor. The game will probably be an afternoon game which will give you time to grab dinner at one of the restaurants nearby.

We'll most likely take a tour of Oriole Park Friday morning before heading to Philadelphia for you final night of the tour. It's a short trip to Philly, where we'll be staying in the heart of the city - close to sites like the Liberty Bell and Freedom Hall and close to Citizens Bank Park. 

Along the way, there will be stadium tours, an MLB player Experience and other Big League Tours extras. You could also consider coming into Boston early or staying over in Philadelphia. Let us know if you'd like to customize your tour in anyway. 

Each season, tours that feature the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Musuem are some of our most popular. In 2014, we have several tours that offer an opportunity to visit the Hall.  

You can select the Hall of Fame option on The Classics Tours, and most of the Big Apple Tours. Our East Coast Tours in May and June/July also have a Hall of Fame Option. In August, the East Coast and Hall of Fame Tours will visit the Hall of Fame and stay overnight in the Cooperstown area. Below are the links to all of the tours that feature the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Please feel free to call or email with any questions. I hope you will join us on a luxury baseball vacation in 2014. Don't forget... book by Dec. 15 and get 5% off your tour.

On every Big League Tours luxury baseball vacation, we put together a meet and greet with a former player on one of the tour days.  We were so pleased that Buck Martinez, former MLB player/manager and current Blue Jays broadcaster, was able to meet with us before the Yankees/Jays game at Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Stadium has its own Hard Rock Cafe inside the ballpark.  Our group took the easy subway ride to the ballpark and headed into the Hard Rock. But before the meet and greet, we experienced a little excitement at the Hard Rock.  

While waiting on Buck to arrive, we all noticed that an elderly diner in the restaurant was experiencing some problems.  He was choking. His son was unsuccessfully performing the Heimlich maneuver and his father's facial color was changing rapidly.  Our tour guest Nancy (a nurse from Canada) quickly ran around to the man, lowered him to the floor, and thrust his abdomen up expelling the food that had been lodged in his throat.  Great job, Nancy!! 

After things calmed down a bit, Buck began to speak to our group about his background and current position, as well as, his opinions on today's players and the game.  One of the great things about having someone like Buck Martinez is his insights into the current game.  As a broadcaster, he talks with the players and managers on a daily basis and sees many players/teams in his job.  This is the second time we have used Buck as our MLB Player Experience and we hope to have him back again in 2014.  He was great.

If you would like to join us on one of our tours in 2014, just click the link below and fill out the contact form.  We will add you to our mailing list and make sure you are one of the first to know about our 2014 schedule.

www.bigleaguetours.com

A few years ago, we named our tours that include Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Cooperstown, the Big League Tours Hall of Fame Tour. It seemed appropriate as many of our guests purchased these tours to mark 3 iconic venues off of their baseball bucket list. So, in August, the morning after our group had a great time in Boston seeing a Red Sox/Yankees game, we loaded the motorcoach and headed to the small village in up-state New York.  

If you have never been to that part of New York, I would highly recommend it. The area is full of vacation spots, restaurants, shops, and beautiful scenery. Cooperstown is no exception as it sits on the banks of picturesque Otsego Lake and is home to many of sites mentioned as well as The Baseball Hall of Fame. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the town just as much as I did the Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Musuem is where all of the baseball memoribilia is displayed and the history of the game recounted. From the very beginnings of the organized game to the stars of today, the museum covers it all. A true baseball fan who enjoys reading all the plaques, newspaper articles, etc. on display, could easily spend a couple of days in the Museum. As a lifelong Reds fan, I particularly liked all the displays that featured the first pro team, the Big Red Machine, Baseball's Hit King- Pete Rose, and the Black Sox/Reds World Series. I spent a few hours in the Museum knowing that I will be back next season hosting our luxury baseball tours. 

The actual Hall of Fame is next to the Museum. Mostly, it houses the Hall of Fame plaques for each induction class. Same as the Museum, one could spend a great deal of time perusing the info of the 300 or so people who have been inducted. As in the Museum, I was drawn to the Reds inductees. Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan have plaques side by side. I will definitely be spending more time in the Hall on the next trip.

There is so much to explore in Cooperstown. Glenn and I even had a chance to take a few cuts in the batting cages that are located outside of Doubleday Field. The pitching machines will throw curveballs, knucklers, sliders and fastballs. We decided that on the next tour, we will make sure to take our guests there. Hopefully, they will fare better against the machines than Glenn and I did.

We are already beginning our plans for next season. In a few weeks, MLB will announce the 2014 schedule, and shortly after that, we will announce our baseball package tours including our Hall of Fame Tours. Keep an eye on the website for all the info.   

Big League Tours has built its business by offering fans a chance to get closer to the game. We do that by guaranteeing lower level seats, planning meet and greets with former players, taking stadium tours, and in general, doing everything we can to make sure our guests are thrilled with their tour experience. The Red Sox made us aware of a new opportunity at Fenway and we jumped at the chance to offer it to our August Hall of Fame Tour group. It was the VIP Batting Practice Experience at Fenway. So, before the Red Sox and Yankees squared off in the ESPN Sunday night game, we made our way to the ballpark. 

Our tour host Sarah met the BLT group at the VIP entrance and personally escorted us into ballpark. This was my first time at Fenway Park. The “quaint” feel of the park struck me as we snaked through the small passageways finally entering the seating area right behind home plate. Sarah walked with us down the steps to the wall right beside the Red Sox dugout. She opened a door and led us onto the field. Our guests, and the BLT staff, were in awe as we walked onto on field area right behind home plate. We watched as the teams took batting/fielding practice. First the Red Sox, then the Yankees. Seeing those elite athletes bomb ball after ball into the stands was amazing. This on field VIP batting practice tour is a first for BLT, but it will definitely not be the last.

After 45 minutes or so on the field, Sarah suggested that we head up to the Green Monster to see if we could snag some home run balls. Sarah walked us up the steps and over to the Green Monster entrance where we went down to the seating area. A few balls were hit near us, but none of our guests were able grab one. But, the view from the Monster was fantastic.

We ended our tour by walking through the luxury suite area (yes, even old Fenway has luxury suites) and checking out the Red Sox Hall of Fame. All throughout the tour, Sarah gave us historical background on the stadium areas and the team. It was probably the best stadium tour on which we have ever been at Big League Tours.

We will make sure to include this VIP package on our 2014 luxury baseball tours to Boston. Keep an eye on our website for the 2014 tours announcement.  

We've made some changes to our Big Apple Tour 2 and New York Destination Tour 4 in August. It was necessary for us to move the start date of both tours to Aug. 20 based on the game times for the Yankees and Mets. Other game details, schedules, and pricing have also changed. If you are interested in these tours, please click on the links below to get all the new info.

Big Apple Tour 2 NEW INFO

New York Destination Tour 4 NEW INFO

If you would like an updated brochure for either of these tours, just click the brochure button on the webpages.

Please call or email with any questions.