Ultimate Baseball
Road Trip Blog

Topics: Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, east coast baseball tour, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Nationals Park, hall of fame, Oriole Park, Camden Yards

June 12, 2011 - Our group arrived in Philadelphia on Friday from their respective homes to start the longest of our MLB tours for the season, our East Coast Tour. This is the granddaddy of all trips with games in Philly, Baltimore, DC, both teams New York, and Boston. We'll also have a free day in DC to explore the nation's capitol and we'll make a trek to the birthplace of baseball, Cooperstown, New York.

A few of our guests arrived early enough to take in the game on Friday night (because six games in 8 days isn't quite enough!!). So we shuffled out of our downtown Philadelphia hotel to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies host the Cubs.

The game seemed like the Phillies were going to runaway with it quite easily, especially after Placido Polanco hit a grand slam to make the score 7-0 and light up the liberty bell in center field.

But the Cubs made the game interesting by scoring five runs in the seventh and giving the Phillies fans reason to get even roudier. Ultimately the Phillies held on for the win. (Box score and wrap up here.)

As with all the baseball tours I host, I'll keep checking in from the road to let you know how things are going. Should be fun!

Topics: Washington D.C., Boston, Citizens Bank Park, Baltimore, baseball trips, Phillies, baseball tours, baseball travel, Yankees, Yankee Stadium, Cubs

June 14, 2011 - Our group tour headed out to Citizens Bank Park on Saturday afternoon to see the Phillies host the Cubs. As is usual for our tours, we arrived plenty early for our guests to walk around and explore the ballpark. One thing we had to do was grab a cheesesteak from Tony Luke's. After plowing through one of these myself, I can understand why Philly natives love these sandwiches (and why the line was so long!!).

After a 30 minute rain delay, the game got underway and was great fun. Cliff Lee pitched very well and the host team prevailed. Chase Utley even hit a home run just so our group could see the Liberty Bell in centerfield light up. (Thanks, Chase!)

CBP is a really nice ballpark. It's well laid out and maintained. They've incorporated local favorites like Tony Luke's and Chicky Pete's. And they don't allow fans to run up and down the aisles during an at bat, which is a huge pet peeve of mine in other ballparks.

One downside to CBP is that there really isn't much of anything to do around the ballpark. Part of the great experience at other parks like Coors Field, PETCO Park, and of course Wrigley and Fenway, is that there are so many great things to do before and after the game. I understand that there are things in the works to be built near CBP which will improve that part of the experience.

Off to Baltimore!!

Topics: Coors Field, Citizens Bank Park, Baltimore, Phillies, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Cubs

August 30, 2010 - The next stop on our Midwest 2 Tour was in St. Louis. We left Chicago mid-morning and made our way to The Gateway City in time to take a baseball stadium tour at Busch Stadium. The escorted tours that they give at Busch Stadium are pretty nice. You get to make the usual stops - warning track, dugouts, press box, suites, and club areas. What's unusual was that we were able to hit those spots so late in the day on a game day. Normally the team will shut down the field so that was an added bonus.

Here's a photo taken from the field at Busch Stadium. One of the things that you'll notice on your baseball road trips is that the newer stadiums have done a much better job of incorporating their surroundings into the ballpark. Remember the concrete bowls of the 60's and 70's? Or stadiums that were ill-fitting or designed for football? Thankfully they are being replaced with thoughtful stadium designs like Busch Stadium, PNC Park, Progressive Field and Citizens Bank Park.

We are always asked which is our favorite park so let me turn the tables on you. Which park is your favorite? What makes it your favorite? Let us know. It's always interesting to get a fan's perspective!

Topics: stadium tours, St. Louis, Progressive Field, Citizens Bank Park, baseball road trips, PNC Park, Chicago, Busch Stadium

Topics: Progressive Field, Citizens Bank Park, Yawkey Way, sports travel and tours, Cleveland, baseball tours, baseball travel, Pittsburgh, AT&T Park, U.S. Cellular Field, Oriole Park

Baseball Travel Tour Heads to Philly
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - After a day of site seeing in Washington DC, we loaded up the bus to head up to Philadelphia. This time, our package tour called for us to see the game in Philly, to load back onto the bus and to head on in to New York City to spend three nights in the Big Apple.

We arrived at the ballpark in Philadelphia and were reasonably impressed with what the city has done for its sports franchises. All of their professional teams had facilities within a half mile of each other with easy parking and walking and what appeared to be reasonable security, too.

Citizens Bank Park has a few features that it shares with other parks. The concourse areas along the base lines reminded us of the New Busch Stadium. The outfield concourse felt like Coors Field. It was very party-like with vendors, restaurants and shops, and places to hang out and catch the game.

We visited the center field viewing area which is pretty unique to the Bank. It's a standing room only section that was well occupied and, contrary to what you might think, fans were really engaged in the game. It was a great view of the park with the exception of the walls blocking the view of the action in center field. It was such a gorgeous night that we decided to hang out up there for a while. The team only sells SRO tickets on the nights of sell outs but this would be a really fun place to hand out with friends or to go if you are on family tours or small group tours.

We were impressed with Citizens Bank Park. It was very well done and had a great atmosphere. At this point the baseball road trip was half way over - 3 games down, 3 to go. Next stop, New York City.

Topics: Citizens Bank Park, Phillies, baseball stadiums, MLB tours, group tours