The Black Sox Scandal and Forgotten Team of 1919

The 1919 World Series and Black Sox scandal, even today, may have been baseball’s darkest hour. The revelation that eight players from one of the game’s historically best teams had thrown the Series was an earthshaking shock to fans across the country, it resulted in tough new rules that in turn resulted in the permanent expulsion of one of the game’s greatest players, and it’s been poignantly immortalized in literature and cinema.

Much of the focus of the 1919 Series today is, obviously, on the Black Sox and on Shoeless Joe Jackson, the superstar Sox outfielder for whom fans seem to have the most sympathy.

And Shoeless Joe is still one of their best known players.

The book and movie “Eight Men Out” (both are excellent…check them out if you’re a baseball fan) paint a picture of a few ballplayers furious at their penny-pinching owner, falling in with a crooked crowd and ultimately getting thrown out of baseball forever. The book “Shoeless Joe”, and subsequent “Field of Dreams” movie, fictionally chronicle the return of Shoeless Joe Jackson to a corn field in Iowa and his ultimate redemption.

What gets lost in the story is the World Series winner…a Cincinnati Reds team that no one believed stood a chance against the mighty White Sox.

At the Reds Hall of Fame, a film is shown about the history of the Cincinnati Reds. The team’s second World Series title in 1940 is said to have brought a collective sigh of relief to the city…they had finally won a World Series honestly.

Yes, 1919 is in there.

There are some folks who believe that the Reds would have beaten the White Sox even if a few of the Sox’s best players hadn’t agreed to make Arnold Rothstein richer.

Everything is possible in baseball.

The 1990 World Series between the Reds and the loaded Oakland Athletics seemed like a mismatch, but the Reds not only won, they swept the Series convincingly. If someone questioned the legitimacy of the 1969 Series when the Miracle Mets topped the Orioles, they wouldn’t have been laughed at.

The 1919 Reds, despite not having been any great shakes before that season, were hardly pushovers. They won 96 games—the White Sox won just 88—and while they had little in offensive might beyond Edd Roush and Heinie Groh, they did possess a tremendous pitching staff. Dutch Reuther was 19-6 with a 1.82 ERA; Hod Eller was 19-9, 2.39; Ray Fisher was 14-5 and 2.17. That is some mean starting pitching.

A staff that strong, presumably, would have an edge in a short series…as we saw in 1988, 2010 and in many other triumphs of the underdog. As my father always said, good pitching always stops good hitting. (It’s kind of ironic that the first NL champion Reds team had little offense but great pitching, while the later Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s were just the opposite. Don’t tell Reds fans it’s all about pitching.)

Looking at some details of the 1919 Series, it’s certainly possible to see ways that the Reds could have triumphed in a clean contest.

This was their slogan in 2011, I believe. Ironic in retrospect.

Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver played too well for players supposedly trying to lose. Jackson hit .375, the highest in the Series, and threw out five baserunners, while Weaver hit .324, well above his .272 lifetime average.

It’s fair to say Weaver was telling the truth about his unwillingness to participate, and it’s not hard to believe Jackson’s similar assertion…Shoeless Joe did have a .286 average in games the White Sox lost, but that could arguably be attributed to better Reds pitching on the mound for those games, and in a short series, that is probably only 2-3 hits.

Three other players in the fix, Chick Gandil, Happy Felsch and Swede Risberg, had lifetime averages of .277, .293 and .243, respectively…good hitters if not great, but it’s not as though it’s positive they would have been the offensive difference had they been playing to win. Gandil hit .290 in 1919 and .233 in the Series; Felsch hit .275 and .192; Risberg, .256 and .080 in the Series (Risberg did walk five times, when strikeouts would have been easiest to fake).

That’s significant, I won’t argue, but for Gandil and Felsch only one or two more hits in the Series would have been normal for them…and remember they were up against some good Reds pitchers, so that’s no guarantee. The other position player in on the scandal, Fred McMullin, was a utility infielder who had only two at-bats in the Series.

“Great win guys! They almost played their butts off!”

With the Reds pitching as strong as it was, it’s not hard to imagine that even if there were no Black Sox scandal, that the Reds pitching could still have effectively shut them down. The Sox scored just 20 runs in eight games, and that’s with two of their best hitters hardly whiffing on each at bat. It was mostly the deliberate errors during games, and meatball pitches from Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, that lost the Series for the White Sox.

So what if Cicotte and Williams had performed to their considerable abilities? Cicotte’s ERA was 1.82 in the 1919 season; had he given up two runs in his starts—questionable given the Reds offense, but for the sake of argument—that might have been enough for the Reds to have won Game 1 and possibly Game 4, since the White Sox scored a total of just one run in those games.

Lefty Williams’s ERA that year was 2.64; the Sox scored just two runs in Game 2, so that could have turned out as a Reds victory as well. Williams obviously handed the win to the Reds in Game 8, so it’s hard to say whether the Reds would have won there.

It’s moot.

I’m not trying to positively assert that the Reds would have won in 1919 had the Series been clean; bookmakers were going heavily with the White Sox before the rumors of a fix, and they usually know what they’re doing, as anyone who bets on football knows.

I’m only suggesting that the 1919 Cincinnati Reds deserve some credit for a National League championship, a 96-win season and a stellar pitching staff, and that there are conceivable scenarios where in a legitimate Series, the Reds could have taken down the mighty White Sox after all. Stranger things have happened.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

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If you’re going to see the White Sox for the first time, I’ve put together some of my favorite Guaranteed Rate Field tips for you below. It may not present the same challenges as Wrigley Field on the north side, but to some, that’s what makes Guaranteed Rate Field a fun place.

Here are some tips you should know for your first trip.

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Hmmm…which window has that “generous” guy?

Visiting Guaranteed Rate Field Tip #1: Get tickets from the box office. That is, unless you can find a crazy great deal from a third party seller; but the White Sox don’t sell out most games and they don’t charge fees at the box office. You can save quite a few bucks this way, especially buying multiple tickets.

The only exceptions to this rule are Cubs games and perhaps Yankees and Red Sox games on July/August weekends.

You didn’t check your E-Guide?

Visiting Guaranteed Rate Field Tip #2: Avoid the upper (500) level seats! Yes, they’re cheap and yes they offer a nice panoramic view. They’re also restricted; fans with upper level tickets are not allowed to access other levels of the ballpark.

This can be a real downer for a traveling fan who likes to walk around an entire ballpark to see what food offerings and statues are there, and that’s most of us. 500 level seats are for people looking for a White Sox game on the cheap, not first time visitors. If you want to go cheap, go for the outfield corners.

Nothing but old lots that don’t take coupons to the right.

Visiting Guaranteed Rate Field Tip #3: Drive only on Sundays. The CTA Red and Green Lines both serve Guaranteed Rate Field well, as does Metra Rail. All three have stations close enough to the ballpark that it’s in view from the station platform.

You can drive to the game if you want to be a part of a tailgating scene that is certainly respectable, but it’s a fairly high parking cost. Parking is much cheaper on Sundays, though, so save the brats and grill for the Sunday afternoon games and use CTA or Metra (or the Pace Express!) for the rest of them.

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Chicago dogs in Chicago. When common sense just works.

Visiting Guaranteed Rate Field Tip #4: Have a Comiskey Dog. Or Burger. The Comiskey dogs are the Chicago-style dogs at the ballpark; it’s a dog the way it’s meant to be in Chicago, with yellow mustard, chopped onions, neon green relish, pickle spear, tomato chunks, sport peppers and celery salt. Or get the Comiskey Burger…with cheddar cheese, pico de gallo and other Chicago Dog ingredients.

There’s other great food here like Bobak’s sausages and elotes, but the Comiskey dogs and burgers are the true taste of Chicago.

The short porch will jack up your kid’s power numbers.

Visiting Guaranteed Rate Field Tip #5: Bring the kids. Guaranteed Rate has one thing on its neighbor in Wrigleyville; it’s much more kid-friendly. Not only is it a whole lot cheaper to bring the little ones to a game, there’s a terrific Xfinity Kids Zone in left field, with interactive games and a wiffle ball field on the upper level.

And not to be derisive of the smaller crowds the Sox are drawing, but it is a bit less worrisome with little ones to not be in a concourse jammed with people as Wrigley so frequently is. Wait until the kids are a little older for the Friendly Confines…for now take them to a game on the South Side.

There you go…some first time tips for visiting Guaranteed Rate Field. There’s a whole lot more to know of course…I’ve offered plenty of Guaranteed Rate Field advice on this blog, including how to choose a great seat, land a solid parking spot, and choose what to eat at a White Sox game.

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Hopefully this website has helped you with some decent Guaranteed Rate Field tips…I would have liked to know about that Comiskey Burger. But here are a few extras things you might like to check out while you’re at the “Rate” (sigh).

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Because when you think youth baseball, you think Xfinity.

Extra Guaranteed Rate Field Tips, #1: The Fundamentals Kids Zone. The Comcast FUNdamentals area is located in the left field corner…kids can play on a wiffle ball field, and learn all kinds of baseball skills completely free of charge. It’s really impressive, as if the White Sox were attempting to make up for not having a kids zone for years.

It is also accessible from the upper level, so you don’t have to spend for a lower level seat just to bring the kids to happy zone. Nearby is a “Rookie’s Club” selling kid-sized portions of food.

Before all those big buildings were there, you could see Wrigley from here.

Extra Guaranteed Rate Field Tips, #2: The View From The Upper Level. As mentioned before, if you have an upper level seat you aren’t allowed in the lower sections. But it’s not all bad, since the ramps are on the northern side of the ballpark, and at the top on a clear day you can have a fine view of the Chicago skyline. This is even worth the trip if you’re sitting in the lower level to begin with.

When they put lockers in for towels, it’s gonna rock.

Extra Guaranteed Rate Field Tips, #3: The Rain Room. The Rain Room in the large outfield concourse area is a throwback to the days of late White Sox owner Bill Veeck, who never ran out of ways to improve the baseball experience for fans. It is a small area where fans can duck out of the heat and have a cool mist sprayed on them. The original shower was brought over from the old Comiskey, but is only on display now as an ad for some plumbing outfit. If you want to get some odd looks, head for the Rain Room during an April night game.

There are also the player statues in the outfield, the tailgating scene before the game, and the humorous special promotions the White Sox feature, like 80s Mullet Night (OK, my past mullet isn’t something I’d admit to…not for upper level tickets, anyway). All good stuff. But these are three of my favorite Guaranteed Rate Field tips.

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I have great respect for White Sox fans. It can’t be easy. For all of the romanticizing of the 86-year championship drought endured by Red Sox fans and the continuing looking to next year that Cubs fans endured, White Sox fans never seemed to garner any sympathy for the 88 seasons that they pulled for the Pale Hose without seeing a championship.

Surely, thousands of fans attended games through their entire lives without ever once seeing their heroes on top of the baseball world.

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2001 was year 84 of the drought.

In the years from 1919 to 2005 after the Black Sox, the White Sox had four playoff appearances, losing in the first round of each one…the World Series of 1959, the American League Championship Series of 1983 and 1993, and the League Division Series of 2000. They had experienced almost every bit the level of futility as the Red Sox or Cubs, if not the devastating near misses. Yet the White Sox seemed to garner nowhere near the compassion.

One possible reason is, of course, the so-called Curse of the Black Sox. Bambino and Billy Goat curses are easier for fans to pour their heart into…after all, what did Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski or Ernie Banks or Ryne Sandberg do to deserve to never win a title in their careers? But it seems more just for the baseball gods to punish a team that desecrated the sanctity of the World Series.

To this day the biggest names associated with the White Sox to most fans are Charles Comiskey, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver and Eddie Cicotte…names that are just as well known (thanks partly to Eliot Asinof and Hollywood) as Frank Thomas, Luke Appling, Harold Baines or owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who paid for the 2005 championship drought-ending team. Even if you are sympathetic to Shoeless Joe, as many fans are, that can’t be an easy legacy to champion.

I’ve asked some White Sox fans what they think is the reason the Sox’s drought gets dismissed in comparison. The consensus is generally that while the Black Sox may have something to do with it, there are some other possible reasons too.

For one, White Sox never seemed to suffer the colossal near misses that the Red Sox did.

They probably figured they’d be putting up another banner well before 2004.

The Red Sox made four World Series in their 86-year drought; each one went seven games and ended in a Red Sox loss. In 1986 the Red Sox blew a two-run lead in the tenth inning of Game 6, coming within one strike of winning the Series before a ground ball trickled through Bill Buckner’s legs.

The Curse of the Bambino was by far the easiest of all to really believe in, given the crushing defeats that always seemed to befall the Red Sox. Until the NLCS of 2003 and the infamous Bartman game, the Cubs seemed to simply suffer from a usually incompetent roster more than a black cloud waiting to unceremoniously deflate fragile hopes.

Another reason a White Sox fan suggested to me is the lack of a well-known rivalry with a team whose success on the field has been the opposite of futility. The Red Sox have, of course, the fierce rivalry with the Yankees that has lasted ever since the sale of Babe Ruth to the Bronx. The Yankees are the most successful team in major sports history, with 27 World Series championships.

In second place in World Series titles is the St. Louis Cardinals…who scored a miraculous 11th in 2011, and who were for many years the Cubs’ biggest rival. While interleague play has turned Cubs and White Sox fans into snarling crosstown enemies, the Cubs fans rivalry with Cards fans is still going pretty strong.

Don’t worry, we’ll get another star pitcher when Feller retires.

By contrast, the White Sox have never had a team in their division racking up titles and bringing crowing fans into Comiskey/U.S. Cellular/Guaranteed Rate from out of town.

There’s a rivalry of sorts with the Indians, but the Tribe has been enduring a pretty long championship drought of its own—64 years as of this writing and probably counting. White Sox fans don’t care much for Tigers fans, but the Tigers have only put four titles on the board, just one more than the Sox.

Then there’s the characterization of the teams’ fan bases.

Two directions…two entirely different baseball worlds.

Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago are separated only by a half-hour train ride on the CTA Red Line. But they might as well be in different countries. At Wrigley a baseball game is a celebration that engulfs the entire neighborhood, from the rooftops of nearby houses to the drinking establishments where the party often continues, win or lose.

At Guaranteed Rate, fans are there to see a game, and the only partying is in the parking lots—although there is a considerable amount of happy times there. There is almost no ballpark neighborhood to speak of, and the South Side has a reputation for being a place people don’t want to be at night, so if you’re not interested in baseball, you’re less likely to enjoy yourself at a White Sox game. But at least won’t be surrounded by mai-tai drinking cell phone users, and you can better follow what’s going down on the field.

Sure, what the Cubs endured was rough, and being a Red Sox fan for those 86 years could have made normal people suicidal. That aside, it’s not like White Sox fans haven’t had to endure more than their share of heartache.

They won 99 games in 1983, only to lose an ALCS to a seemingly destined Orioles club. They had to face a well-funded Blue Jays team in 1993 and hung tough until a six-game ALCS loss. The 2000 Sox won 95 games, the best in the American League, but fell to the Mariners in four games of the ALDS.

For 40 years, Sox fans had to live with their team corrupted into a loss in their last appearance in the World Series. The 1959 World Series loss to the Dodgers had to be tough too…Sox fans knew very well by then how long it could be before their team could make it back to the Big Show, and indeed the White Sox wouldn’t be back again for another 46 years.

So what’s a measly 88 years?

That the Sox swept the Astros in four games in the 2005 Series probably saved the hearts of some older Sox fans, who would have had enough without a nail-biter seven-game Series.

To grow up in the city of Wrigley Field and the Cubs and become a White Sox fan, one must acquire or already possess a nonconformist nature. It could be argued that White Sox fans are more dedicated than most in baseball, even if the White Sox aren’t among league leaders in attendance. Not only did they go 88 years without a title, they did it without soulful books and poetic tributes from sportswriters about a suspected hex that had been placed on their team.

So here’s to the White Sox fans…and all their loyal dedication to the Sox without forming support groups.

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Most baseball fans will tell you that the demolition of their old home ballpark was a very sad day in their lives, and Old Comiskey Park was no slouch in its historical value. As an Orioles fan I still feel that way about Memorial Stadium. But time moves on, and the job of an author is to capture what was.

My friend Floyd Sullivan, author of “Waiting for the Cubs”, has done an outstanding job of just that, with his collection of essays from writers, players and fans about the old ballpark on the South Side of Chicago. The full title of the tome is “Old Comiskey Park: Essays and Memories of the Historic Home of the Chicago White Sox, 1910-1991“.

Old Comiskey Park, by Floyd Sullivan of the Waiting For The Cubs blog.

If you are an older Sox fan especially, this book should be your Bible when it comes to their beloved former home.

The book begins with a terrific piece from Carl Rinder, describing the early history of the area and the three neighborhoods bordering Comiskey: Bridgeport, Douglas, and Chinatown. This is followed by Richard Smiley’s essay of the construction of the new ballpark in 1910, replacing the then state of the art Sox Park.

From there the book details the history of events that took place at Comiskey…like the first ever All-Star Game, with the two teams led by the heavyweight managers of the day–John McGraw and Connie Mack; the Negro League games played by the American Giants of Chicago and the popular East-West games that were often played there; the 1919 “Black Sox” World Series, the 1959 World Series, the 1983 ALCS, and three other All-Star Games.

Sullivan himself contributes a section dedicated to other events held at Comiskey. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Cinderella Man”, you know that Joe Louis claimed James Braddock was the toughest fighter he ever fought. That fight took place at Comiskey. There were legendary wrestling matches, it was the home of the Chicago football Cardinals, even roller derby events. And of course, the Beatles played Comiskey Park.

My personal favorite parts of the book are the bits about the inimitable Bill Veeck, who owned the Sox for a spell and was known for his imaginative promotions.

Dan Helpingtine contributes a great bit about Veeck…including, of course, the story behind “Disco Demolition Night”. It wasn’t Veeck’s finest hour.

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Veeck as in wreck.

But Veeck’s contributions to the game are often underappreciated…such as the home run celebration, extremely common today but unusual when the scoreboard first exploded at Comiskey. That was not a popular celebration among other teams…which was precisely why it stayed.

And I didn’t know this: the tradition of Harry Caray singing ”Take Me Out To The Ballgame” started at Comiskey. Caray was the White Sox announcer, and Bill Veeck urged him to lead the crowd, knowing that everyone in the stands could sing it better than he could and wouldn’t be afraid to join in. If that doesn’t cement Veeck as a promotional genius, I don’t know what does.

Guaranteed Rate Field does indeed have the shower.

Another excellent piece comes from Greg Prince, author of the popular Mets blog “Faith and Fear in Flushing”. Prince tells his story of being in Chicago on business and wanting to visit Wrigley, but with the Cubs out of town he decides reluctantly to visit Comiskey instead…and while there he is shocked by what a true gem Comiskey turned out to be as a home of baseball, and to this day favors it to Camden Yards and PNC Park.

Towards the end are the somber reflections of players, personnel and fans as they share their memories and the emotion of losing their childhood second home. Interestingly, there is a consensus that it needed to be replaced among most, very unlike the angry fan reaction to the demise of Tiger Stadium. But this isn’t of much comfort to fans. There are quite a few tearjerker moments, something older Tigers and Orioles fans can certainly understand.

“Old Comiskey Park” is a large volume, and it works best as a coffee table book that you can open to any page and read a story about something that happened at Comiskey…like the first All-Star Game, the East-West Negro League games, or Disco Demolition Night. Or the great White Sox teams, like the Go-Go Sox or the South Side Hitmen, or the personalities like Charles Comiskey, Al Simmons or Bill Veeck.

For anyone who loved the old park, it’s an absolute must have…and for any White Sox fan or student of baseball history, it’s a great read. Check it out.

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Wrigley Field prepaid parking is a necessity for anyone willing to try driving to Wrigley Field. But as the guys at CubParking can tell you, you can do okay so long as you book beforehand.

Recently Nick Napoli of CubParking contacted me and educated me about ways people park their cars at Wrigley Field…and why they should order parking in advance. I was impressed enough with the Cub Parking service to interview him, and he graciously agreed to answer my questions.

Here is the exchange below…thanks Nick! And Click here to check out CubParking and land a fine Wrigley Field prepaid parking spot for your next Cubs game…

(Need more Wrigley Field help? Ballpark E-Guides has your back! Read how to find a great seat here, check this out for using public transit to Wrigley, check out this complete primer for saving money on tickets, and check this post out for all the great food at Wrigley…more coming!)

Awww…isn’t he a cute little fella? Yes, let’s park here.

I recommend to my readers not to drive to Wrigley, since parking is expensive and scarce by comparison to other ballparks. You offer a solution to that. How did you get started doing it, and what was the response early on? I know you guys are all Cubs fans, did you finally get fed up with parking hassles at Wrigley?

Well for starters that’s good advice. It’s always best to take the CTA to a Cubs game. The Red Line drops you off a block from Wrigley Field, it’s perfect. And you’re right, official Wrigley Field parking is scarce.

For people who choose to drive in, the locals here have been offering up their private parking spots since long before I was born. It’s tradition here, we have neighbors in their 70s out there parking and they’ve been doing it 50 years. They’ll tell you some stories man.

I started parking cars with my friends and neighbors when I was very young, maybe 8 or 9 years old. The neighbors would occasionally let me sell their spots too, it was a whole show. My kid brother who struggles with autism would set up a cooler of cold drinks and make tips. He didn’t mess around, Kurt. We don’t mess around at CubParking (laughs).

We should try to get a little closer.

You are, I’m sure, more familiar with the driving and parking experience at Wrigley than I am. Can you contrast the difference between booking your spot beforehand and searching when you arrive? I expect the difference is massive!

Yes, customers who book Wrigley Field parking in advance don’t even realize the difference until after they arrive in the neighborhood and experience the pandemonium for themselves. Online reservations aren’t scrambling to buy a spot off a stranger, they have an address, a place to go and a reservation.

And over the years we’ve seen everything, or so we think. Those who wing it are often left frustrated. They end up buying a street spot off some weirdo, which is illegal. Or they park with a random bad guy who parks you in a random spot and then people get towed. Or people return to their car to find it’s blocked in. Just so many variables and things that can go wrong and ruin your game day experience. And unfortunately it happens every game.

When customers book with us, there is literally none of that. We’re the good guys. We meet customers at their parking spot when they arrive, get them checked in and on their way. We live in the neighborhood too, so we’re around after the game too in case they need us. So you’re right again Kurt, the difference is massive.

I notice you offer “all night” parking…a very nice option in Wrigleyville. Is this mostly because you want to offer people a way to party without having to drive? Where do people spend the night?

Glad you asked! We started offering it because people would ask for it. Customers often want to come grab their car in the morning, we have spots for that. As people arrive for the game, we can usually tell who is staying out late and who is leaving in the 7th inning, but now we offer overnight and extend time parking to everyone just in case.

And I’m not sure where people sleep but we have had folks ask to sleep in their cars. If it has to come to that, we don’t mind. I think we all agree it’s better than driving drunk. So hey, sleep one off in our garage if you have to. We all appreciate it.

How does Cub Parking turn a profit?

We split all money with residents 50/50. Everyone’s happy, it really works great.

No, you can’t leave your car there for the weekend.

Would you say that Cub Parking is the most affordable option for fans? The Cubs offer free parking with a shuttle from near DeVry University. Does CubParking have better options than that?

Yes, we’re not only the most affordable option but we’re the best value too. That shuttle you mentioned isn’t a bad deal though. And you can’t compete with “free parking” either.

However, people who drive in often come in traffic from a long ways away. So the idea of finally getting out of the car and then waiting to pile on a crowded bus is not attractive. People want to get out of the car and just be there. Not to mention after the game you have to line up to shuttle all the way back.

For $20 or so you can park a block or two away from the park, leave early or stay late until traffic dies down. It’s money well spent, considering how expensive everything else is on game day. CubParking is the best money you will spend all day.

Do you have your favorite spots, say, for easy exit or for location close to hot spots in Wrigleyville? And if so, why?

Well, all of our spots are EZ Out, customers keep their keys and are free to leave whenever they want because they’re never blocked in. We have spots just steps from Wrigley Field and others that are up to 2 blocks away. There’s often a premium for the really close spots. But we also keep a few open for our regulars and seniors.

Are there plans for expansion, say for parking for other big city ballparks like Detroit?

Not really, no. We love the Cubs, and parking for Wrigley Field. It’s something we want to expand locally here in Wrigleyville. We’d like the whole neighborhood to use us. We put cash in our neighbor’s pockets, park responsibly, and even have spots for neighbors coming home that can’t find parking on game day.

We look out for our people. This is our neighborhood and we look forward to growing with it in the coming years.

(CubParking logo courtesy of CubParking.)

Want to know more about the Friendly Confines? Check out my exciting and informative Wrigley Field Guide!

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(Note: this review and this book were written before the glorious Cubs triumph of 2016. Eamus Catuli!)

Sometimes I think that if the Cubs won the World Series, it would be a gigantic letdown.

When the Red Sox finally broke their 86-year jinx in 2004, it was made much sweeter by the way it happened…an unprecedented comeback from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the hated Yankees in the ALCS. That would have been memorable even without a curse, but it lived up to how sweet a long-awaited World Series victory could truly be for Red Sox fans.

What could the Cubs do to match that, especially given that their futility has reached (and now passed) a full century? The White Sox went longer than the Red Sox did without a championship—a full 88 years—but the baseball world outside of Chicago almost yawned when they breezed past the Astros in the 2005 World Series.

No Longer Waiting.

There hardly seems any way an end to the Cubs drought could match the buildup. Floyd Sullivan, author of “Waiting For The Cubs: The 2008 Season, the Hundred-Year Slump and One Fan’s Lifelong Vigil”, doesn’t seem overly worried about the possibility.

Most people appreciate that it’s tough being—or more correctly staying—a Cubs fan. But until one reads Sullivan’s account of the 2008 season, one doesn’t really feel the effect of a lifetime of devotion without a payoff and with no proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

A blue W. For “Victory”.

Throughout the book, despite that the Cubs have one of their best seasons in years, Sullivan—and his equally devoted Cubs fan family—are always expecting the other shoe to drop, always waiting for the imminent disaster to befall their heroes.

One could hardly blame them, especially after the 2003 NLCS, when Steve Bartman’s unfortunate blunder sparked a legendary collapse. Despite that a writer of Sullivan’s skill could have easily put a few gratuitously heart-wrenching pages in his book about the incident, he almost skims over the subject, informing the reader that “if you’re interested in reliving it, Google Steve Bartman.”

Sullivan writes from a personal angle, but the book never feels like someone telling his own story. Instead he shares the pain and occasional euphoria of being a Cubs fan, something his family and friends, and certainly any fan, can relate to. At one point he humorously shares the possible double meaning of what his children get written on their Wrigley brick dedication, which reads simply, “Thanks, Dad”.

His family has moved from Chicago to York, Pennsylvania; and while this precludes frequent trips to the Friendly Confines each year, it does enable him and his family to see the visiting club in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which they do frequently, with a trip to Washington thrown in. His description of Nationals Park, which opened in 2008, is spot-on accurate.

His tales of trips to Pittsburgh are hilariously fraught with the dangers of the western PA Turnpike (with which I can definitely identify), but also a couple of weather miscalculations…one trip ends with a game postponed in what he believed was hardly a downpour, as a result he cancelled a later trip on his own due to torrential rain and missed a full nine innings of Cubs baseball at PNC Park.

It did.

The book mainly focuses on the story of the Cubs’ 2008 season, with some side tales of Cubs fan agony. It’s the centennial of the team’s last World Series championship (yes, that was in 1908), but it’s also a season where fans believe the team has the best chance to break the curse that befalls them, with pitchers like Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Carlos Marmol, and position players like Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Kosuke Fukudome.

Despite that the Cubs won 97 games and the NL Central Division in 2008, though, Sullivan never seems to believe that the Cubs will achieve the ultimate glory—indeed he almost predicts an easy victory for the Dodgers, the Cubs NLDS opponent. It bears out, with the Dodgers whitewashing the Cubs 3-0 in the series. Another Cubs season, as he puts it, ending with a loss.

But it’s not all bad…the family actually meets Ryan Dempster over the winter.

“Waiting For The Cubs” concludes with the story behind the Fred Merkle boner that cost the Giants the 1908 pennant…seemingly the last time that the baseball gods smiled on the Chicago Cubs…and Sullivan does a better job than most at clearing up what really happened that day at the Polo Grounds.

Many books have been written about the Chicago Cubs and their futility, but few of them capture the mind of the Cubs fan. Sullivan does it perfectly, making the story both personal and universal. No Cubs fan reading this book would disagree.

Nor, in fact, would any baseball fan. Highly recommended, whether you’re a fan of the Cubs, White Sox or Cardinals.

You can still hear Harry saying it.

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If you’re looking for a cool or romantic way to get to Fenway Park, try those fun guys at Boston Pedicab.

As you may know, only rookies drive their car to Fenway Park, or anywhere in Boston, for that matter. Narrow streets and world-class congestion make the public transportation system pretty popular in Beantown.

But public transit has its drawbacks, especially for those using it to get to a ballgame. I can tell you from the experience of nearly having my face pressed against a window for entire Green Line rides. Trains coming to and leaving games at Fenway Park get mercilessly jammed with Red Sox fans.

So now we have rickshaws as an option…

The perfect size vehicles for Boston streets.

Boston Pedicabs is a local outfit that employs college students, who pedal bicycles attached to rickshaws around the city. There are plenty of them available near Fenway, but the gentleman I e-mailed asking where best to find them (forgive me for losing the e-mail with his name) informed me that the Prudential Center garage some blocks east of Fenway is a good spot.

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The Pru lot is much cheaper than the lots closest to Fenway, and the Center is basically a mall with quite a few good pregame dining options.

The fellows riding the bicycles are friendly and will have a conversation with you as they’re pedaling you through murderous traffic to the park, and you can look around at the city rather than waiting for the driver in front of you to finally move.

Best of all, they’re free. But not really. The Boston Pedicab drivers subsist entirely on tips, so don’t be stiffing them.

That’s just one cool way to get to Fenway…but you should really know every way to get there, because Fenway is a challenge.

Boston Pedicabs website: www.bostonpedicab.com

Taking a trip to Fenway Park? This amazing Fenway Park guide will tell you everything you need to know…how to get tickets, choose a seat, get to the game and what to eat, and how to save money on all of it!

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The Red Sox have upped their food game of late, with adding such fancy items like fluffernutter fries and Mings Bings, but the Fenway Frank is still essential sustenance at Boston’s venerable ballpark. Keeping it simple is why Fenway Park has lasted so long.

The white bread bun. Only at Fenway.

I don’t understand why it’s so rare to see a hot dog in a mushy white bread bun, but it’s part of what makes this baseball hot dog so distinctive – that gooeyness around the classic baseball flavor.

The Fenway Frank is made by Kayem Foods, who added some garlic and smoke to the flavor when they took it over in 2009. Incidentally, Kayem also makes the dogs sold at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, but they claim it’s a different style of dog. I would hope so.

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Is that “mmmmmm” that they’re spelling with the mustard?

You can also get a Monster Dog, which is an elevated Fenway Frank – and is quite large at ten inches. Save some room for that.

Regarding the franks sold in the stands, by the way, they are boiled in water as opposed to grilled on rollers like at the concession stands. I like my dogs boiled, but I think I’m in the minority on that. Either way, the Fenway Frank is the essential “Fenway Park food thing.”

Incidentally, the Red Sox and Kayem celebrate National Hot Dog Day in July. People submit their variations to be chosen as the Next Fenway Frank, and that creation gets sold at the ballpark the rest of the season.

In 2017 it was a North End Frank: topped with pesto, arugula, roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomato and fresh mozzarella. Now that’s a hot dog.

But the same could be said about the simple classic Fenway Frank.

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In his excellent book “Ballpark: Camden Yards and the Building of an American Dream”, author Peter Richmond briefly discusses the emotional passing of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. He sums up the attachment Orioles fans had to 33rd Street by saying “it was what happened on the field that made Memorial Stadium special”.

I’ve seen this sentiment echoed in other places, and in remembrance of a great ballpark, I respectfully disagree.

(Pssst…interested in knowing everything about Oriole Park? Check out my complete guide to Camden Yards here!)

Without being critical of Richmond, he somewhat implies that Memorial Stadium wasn’t a great place to see a ballgame. And while his statement about the events on the field was true to an extent, as any O’s fan would acknowledge, it wasn’t the whole truth. A true Memorial Stadium tribute deservedly praises what was a great place for a night of baseball.

To fully appreciate how great Memorial was, consider the period that it lived in.

Are you SURE we’re going to a baseball game?

The Orioles played on 33rd Street from 1954 through 1991. 30 miles south, the Washington Senators began playing in cavernous D.C. Stadium (now RFK) in 1962, and played there through 1971 before moving to Texas and becoming the Rangers. Meanwhile, about 90 miles north in Philadelphia, the Phillies moved into Veterans Stadium in 1971—another venue designed more for football than baseball.

The multipurpose donuts that baseball fans sneered at for years were actually fairly popular when they first burst on the scene. With Busch in St. Louis, Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Riverfront in Cincinnati, and many others, cities and teams went the route of football stadiums that could be tweaked for baseball, with easy to maintain carpeted fields and locations near an airport.

Nowadays, ask most baseball fans what the worst venues are, and two names pop up frequently: Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay with its carpet and roof, and O.Co Coliseum in Oakland with its “Mount Davis” grandstand tactlessly tacked on for Raiders fans. During its tenure as home of the Florida Marlins, Sun Life Stadium usually ranked pretty high too.

Memorial Stadium, on the other hand, seemed to be designed more as a venue for baseball than football. Fans would tell you it wasn’t great for football, even as it earned the nickname “The World’s Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum” during the Colts’ glory years. This became even more pronounced when the Colts moved out of town, and the Memorial Stadium baseball field was no longer stained by the yard lines of a lesser sport in Septembers.

The “water fountain” dedication.

As a young baseball fan growing up in the Philadelphia area, the two-hour trip to Baltimore and an Orioles game was light years ahead of seeing a game at the concrete donut in Philly on the happiness meter. From top to bottom, everything seemed more special in Memorial.

It was smaller and humbler. It had a much more attractive brick façade on the outside, with a stunning and poignant dedication to World War II soldiers that I never neglected to read as we waited in line to get in.

It was in a residential neighborhood, which made parking difficult but was much easier to look at. The light towers stood majestically over the field, the first element of the ballpark to come into view after a seemingly endless ride on Loch Raven Boulevard.

Inside, the field was smellable grass, the seating almost everywhere featuring a pleasant background of the houses beyond center field. The hot dogs weren’t just hot dogs—they were Esskay Superdogs…what happened to them? (I’ll put the Esskay Superdog up against the Fenway Frank or Dodger Dog any day of the week, but that’s a biased O’s fan talking.)

The classic cartoon Oriole.

Sure, what happened there was baseball greatness. Part of what made being an Orioles fan special was a great team full of lovable characters. Of course Birds fans loved Brooks Robinson’s superhuman reflexes at third base, Jim Palmer’s perfectly graceful windup, and Earl Weaver’s manic fury with umpires.

The team was full of unsung heroes too in my youth—like steady outfielder Al Bumbry, the classic platoon of Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein, goaltender and team leader Rick Dempsey, and solid relief pitchers like Tippy Martinez and Don “Fullpack” Stanhouse (so nicknamed for the amount of cigarettes Weaver would smoke when he was on the mound).

There was nothing like Orioles Magic and teams that won so frequently with late-inning heroics. Being an Orioles fan was special, something you felt no other team’s fans had, not even Yankees fans.

But all of that was a huge bonus. Memorial Stadium was distinguished as a venue too, and just as much so when the Orioles faltered in the 1980s. It sat on 33rd Street, not being flashy, not going along with all of the modern, economically friendly and equally sterile venues of the 70s and 80s that treated baseball as a secondary sport. Had it lasted as long as Tiger Stadium or Comiskey Park, it may have been just as revered.

It was grass. It was open. It was bricks. It was all of the things teams eventually realized that they had forgotten in their concrete and plastic new homes. For a ballgame, few places were better than Memorial Stadium in its day. Of all of the stadiums back then, it was one of the few that actually didn’t need replacing, at least on baseball-friendliness grounds.

When Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, it was a spectacular triumph and instantly won over baseball fans everywhere. It is still today one of baseball’s best venues.

But it had to be. Orioles fans my age remember the shoes it had to fill.

Rick Dempsey’s poem dedicated to the pile of bricks on 33rd Street.

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Want to know more about Camden Yards? Sign up here for my completely free Oriole Park e-mail newsletter series, and score some seriously valuable info about tickets, seating, transportation and food…see you at the Yard!

Still the best Orioles manager ever.

On June 23, 1979, at the age of 11, I experienced what is still today my most memorable night at a ballpark.

It was a time when teams still held two games in a day for the price of one on occasion, and a time when the Orioles drew just over a million fans in good seasons—about 15,000 a game. That day, or more correctly that afternoon and night, the Orioles were taking on the Tigers in a twi-nighter.

My father had a connection at Memorial Stadium, who often would have great seats for us, but this night we weren’t so lucky, and we ended up in the upper level seats in left field. But it turned out to be a great spot to watch the flight of Eddie Murray’s walk-off home run ball in the first game, to the earthshaking delight of the crowd of 45,814 – a record for a Baltimore night doubleheader at the time. I still remember that announcement on the scoreboard, and enough beer splashing on me after Murray’s swing that I thought it started raining.

The Orioles had been down 6-2 in that first game and won 8-6. In the second game, the O’s would again overcome a 5-3 deficit with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to win 6-5. You can imagine the impression two dramatic come-from-behind wins made on an 11-year-old. My first game at the Vet in Philly was a great one, but it didn’t top this.

The 1979 Orioles especially were known for dramatic comeback wins, with a disproportionately large number of their 102 wins coming in the 8th inning or later. “Orioles Magic”, it was called, and it was attributed to both a dedicated fan base and the mood lift caused by “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” being played during the 7th-inning stretch at Memorial Stadium. With all due respect to O’s fans and John Denver, the Orioles late-inning heroics were probably more attributable to the amazing tactician in the dugout.

Earl Weaver certainly had the best overall talent in baseball from 1969-1971, when the Orioles went to three straight World Series with Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Paul Blair and the pitching tandem of Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar. The team won over 100 games in each of those seasons, winning 217 in 1969 and 1970.

But name some of the players in the later 1970s and early 1980s teams that were always in the thick of a pennant race in the toughest division in baseball. There was Jim Palmer and Eddie Murray, and…who? Longtime O’s fans remember the likes of Dempsey, MacGregor, Flanagan, Bumbry and Dauer, and possibly the best outfield platoon in history of Lowenstein and Roenicke, but if you weren’t an O’s fan, you likely wouldn’t know all their first names.

The Orioles challenged the Yankees and Red Sox, and the Tigers and Brewers, for the AL East crown every year with players that were never among the league leaders in any stat. But Weaver knew exactly when and how to use them. He kept records on everything, batting averages against certain pitchers, pitching success against certain batters. AL umpire Ron Luciano, with whom Earl had classic feuds, once said that “in a late inning situation, Earl would send up the batboy to hit. Everyone in the ballpark knew it was a ridiculous move. And the batboy would get a hit.”

I have a friend who understood me enough to get me tickets for a game at Camden Yards for my birthday in 1996. In the second row. As what I now consider great fortune would have it, that was the day the Orioles were celebrating Earl Weaver’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Part of the ceremony was Earl being driven around the field in a convertible sitting on the back of the car.

So Earl Weaver passed right by me, just a few feet away. I cheered extra enthusiastically as he went by, and he smiled and shook his fist a little for me.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the car was driven by Marty Springstead, another umpire with whom Earl frequently feuded. Presumably his appearance would suggest that their spats were behind them, but Springstead later said he was tempted to slam on the brakes and send Weaver flying.

No, umpires did not like Weaver. It was one of the funnier themes that ran through Luciano’s hilarious books. Luciano not only shared his own classic stories about Weaver, like ejecting Weaver in both ends of a doubleheader in the minors, but several other umpires’ stories as well.

In his book “Strike Two”, Luciano wrote about how managers get ejected and said that Weaver “can be used as an example of everything a manager should not do, except manage. For someone who spent much of his career in the clubhouse, he won a lot of ballgames.”

With baseball’s new replay system, the current generation of fans may never appreciate what an entertaining part of the game arguing with umpires could be. Weaver was one of the best.

And he had a reason for his fury with umpires. He was fully aware that his own ejection would not hurt the team. He could manage from the runway. But if Eddie Murray or Frank Robinson got ejected over a bad call, it would hurt the team. Luciano even admitted that Earl had his own way of making an umpire forget his problems with an Oriole player.

His players—like Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who wrote the hilarious book “Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine” about his often stormy relationship with Weaver—were also well aware of Weaver’s almost psychotic dedication to winning. Once he pulled Rick Dempsey from a game after a fundamental mistake, and then hounded him all the way into the shower screaming at him, until Dempsey turned on the water—and then turned on the cold water until a soaked Earl finally left.

And there was Don Stanhouse, a pitcher O’s fans my age remember well, whose style was unheard of even to this day: he would simply walk guys until he got to someone he could get out. It worked. And you can imagine how Earl would handle it. One time he walked the bases loaded with the Orioles ahead in the ninth; Earl screamed at pitching coach Ray Miller to “get out there and tell him to throw strikes!” Miller went out to the mound to a grinning Stanhouse and told him his fly was open. Stanhouse told him to tell Earl not to worry. On the next pitch the batter grounded into a double play to end the game.

Stanhouse’s nickname was “Fullpack”, as in the number of cigarettes Earl would smoke when he was on the mound.

Mike Flanagan once got into a jam with the bases loaded. Earl came out to the mound and told him: “Don’t let them hit it on the ground or in the air.” Great advice. The next batter hit a line drive double play to end the inning. Flanagan returned to the dugout, greeted by Weaver: “Am I a f***in’ genius, or what?”

Yes, in the dugout, he was.

For all of the legendary bouts with umpires and the fiery berating of players, Earl Weaver was unquestionably one of the best managers in the history of the game. I remember reading baseball publications when he managed, and in his era it was rarely disputed that he was the best in the game…an era of Billy Martin, Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tommy Lasorda.

My favorite story of Weaver’s skill came from Elrod Hendricks. It’s in the book “From 33rd Street to Camden Yards”, an excellent collection of quotes from key figures in Orioles history. It was Weaver vs. Tony LaRussa, when LaRussa was a new manager.

“When I’d just started coaching and Tony LaRussa was the hot new thing managing, he’d come in and make all sorts of moves, and Earl would just sit back with his arms crossed. And LaRussa is looking over at Earl like he’s getting him, you know. And then it’s the eighth inning, and LaRussa is out of bullets, and here comes Earl with Jim Dwyer and Terry Crowley and that bullpen. Earl just hammers him. And you go ‘Boy, that’s good. That’s as good as it gets, right there.’”

I share this Earl Weaver tribute because the Orioles were part of my life, and they are so because Orioles games at Memorial Stadium are my fondest memory of childhood. And they were fond memories because the Orioles won, often in an unforgettably thrilling way. And that, very often, was because of Earl Weaver.

So although the closest I ever got to meeting him was cheering him while he rode by me in a car, I still feel today the impact Earl Weaver had, on millions, and on me as an Orioles fan who reaped in excitement the reward of his excellence.

You will be missed, Earl, but you will be fondly remembered.

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The MLB Playoffs are here, and of the six division winners that have already punched their tickets to the postseason, only one…the Boston Red Sox of all teams…have seen a World Series championship since 1988.

Four of these teams haven’t even won a World Series in the ballpark they currently play in…that includes the Cubs…and two teams still haven’t grabbed a World Championship ring in their history. So playoff tickets will be in high demand.

Actually that’s a bit of an understatement. Cubs World Series tickets, should they make it, are starting at $2,000 for standing room.

It may be a little late for some of these tips to be useful, but file this away for next year, because if you’re seeking playoff tickets you can save a boatload of money by planning ahead:

1) Pay attention to the team newsletter.

You should always be signed up for a team’s ticket alert newsletter for any ballpark you plan to visit, of course, but the newsletter will let you know a) when season ticket holders can buy playoff tickets, since they will get first crack at it, and b) when the rest of us can buy tickets through the team, which will most certainly be cheaper than going through the markup.

Most teams give playoff ticket opportunities to folks who put down a deposit on a season ticket plan for the following season. This might be worth considering…you may want to get a friend or two in on it or sell your unwanteds on StubHub. If a team that hasn’t been good in a while suddenly goes deep into the playoffs, chances are good that tickets for the following season will go for much dough on the third party market.

But even if you have no season ticket aspirations, there will be some tickets still available through the team, and you’ll get an e-mail letting you know when they go on sale. You’ll have to be ready to jump on it as soon as they do, but the markup especially for teams like the Cubs will be significant…count on it being at least double the face price.

By the way, the team might hold a contest or an auction for playoff tickets, as the Cubs are doing…

2) Keep checking with the team.

It does happen; players and officials return their extras. Maybe not as much for critical games, but you never know. The point is to remember that playoff tickets especially will almost always be cheaper going through the team than through an agency or a third party.

3) Go for the “if necessary” games.

In my searches I noticed that when teams are making division series tickets available, the tickets for the first two “necessary” games go far more quickly than the game five or whatever tickets. So look into this option if you don’t absolutely have to go; you’re more likely to land a better seat at face price.

The team will refund whatever amount you pay for games that don’t get played (I presume that includes the fees), small consolation for missing the playoff game, but at least it’s safe.

4) Remember the third party market rules.

If you have to go through StubHub or Gametime rather than through the team, you’ll be paying more, obviously, but you at least don’t have to submit to the team’s season ticket demands.

Remember basic rules for using third party sellers: wait until about 2-5 days before the event to pick up tickets, or till the last minute if it isn’t that important to you, and be ready to snap up a good deal if one appears (hard to gauge, I know, just be realistic).

Also, be sure to go all the way to the checkout screen to compare prices; Gametime includes the fees in the displayed cost if you toggle “all-in pricing”, but StubHub does not, and you may be very surprised at the difference between ticket prices in similar sections.

You can set alerts on StubHub, but thus far that hasn’t worked very well for me recently. Couldn’t hurt though.

5) Be extra wary of scalpers and Craigslist.

I’ve written before about buying tickets on Craigslist and the potential for fraud, and how it’s generally not worth worrying about being scammed. It’s the same with scalpers. There are some things to know dealing with both, but the large majority of the time they are legit.

During the playoffs, though, when the stakes are higher and the costs of tickets skyrocket, you will occasionally read stories about scalpers and people on Craigslist selling fake tickets. I’m betting we may hear a story about this in Chicago. Just be extra careful.

6) Consider going on the road.

Let’s say you’re a die-hard Cubs fan who can’t put a second mortgage on their house to see a postseason game at Wrigley. Why not look into a trip to D.C.? Or L.A.? Or for that matter, Detroit? The Tigers could still make it as I write this, and we could see a World Series between two teams that are just a four-hour drive apart.

Since you’re reading this now for next season, if you think going to see your heroes on the road might actually be cheaper than seeing your team at home, sometime in mid-August…mark August 15 on your calendar…you should subscribe to the team newsletters of any team you think might make the playoffs. Remember, tickets will almost always be cheaper through the team.

Again, these tips may probably only be slightly helpful now, but if you want to get playoff tickets without losing your shirt, most likely you’ll have to plan well ahead anyway (I’ll re-post this earlier next time). So look into splitting a season ticket deal with a friend (you should probably share the postseason tickets too, just saying), subscribe to team alerts, and get your best practices on with StubHub.

Recently I interviewed Scott Chamberlain, a prominent member of Ballpark Chasers, and someone who has accomplished a pretty remarkable feat in 2016…he has paid just $2 for parking all season!

Scott graciously took the time to answer my questions and share his tips; hope you enjoy the exchange below.

How many games did you go to this year, and at how many ballparks?  

Up to this point, I am at 61 regular season MLB games at 8 different MLB parks and 155 sporting events on the year. I am at a slight disadvantage location-wise as I live in Indianapolis. I say slight because I have six MLB teams within a 4 1/2-hour drive of me yet none within 100 miles from my doorstep. Last season, I attended 143 MLB regular season games at all 30 MLB parks.

How did you find free parking? You can give me a couple of examples. Did you have a long walk in these cases, or were you going through unsavory areas of town?

I find free parking by trial and error. I have become very adept at reading street signage to be absolutely sure that a spot is free. For instance, on the south side of Chicago…there are a few blocks along 31st street that are free at all times and some that have the dreaded pay box. I’ve yet to receive a ticket as I would hate to see a “free” spot become a costly ticket.

Another good example is Wrigleyville. For day games, you can park on most streets around the stadium for free until 5pm. After that, the tow trucks are out in full force.  There are some main roads that have free parking at all times. These you have to walk 8-10 blocks but it’s a lot better than paying $15-$40 to park.

Also, I’ve found spots after doing research online or talking with fellow ballpark chasers. My favorite free spot find was given by a fellow ballpark chaser and close friend. They suggested a road southwest of Safeco Field near the port area. Sure enough, a simple six block walk to the stadium was all that was needed. And rather than fight traffic on the way out, it was strategically placed to where I could head south and onto the highway a couple interchanges down I-5 from Safeco.

Free parking is a must for me not only due to budget constraints but also ease of access. I don’t mind walking a mile or so in exchange for beating traffic around the stadium. However, safety is a concern and I will avoid unsavory areas. Miami, Boston, and Dodger Stadium are the three stadiums that I’ve had to pay for parking or use mass transit for as I haven’t found free areas yet.

Where did you pay $2 and why?

The $2 charge for parking kind of sticks in my craw a bit in hindsight. My drive from Indy to Cincinnati in May was longer than expected due to an accident on interstate 74. There was a bobble head that I wanted and I was worried about not getting it. I shunned one of my three “go to” free parking areas in exchange for rushing to the stadium for the giveaway. Even then, it was a metered spot that ended midway through the game so that’s where my $2 came from.

In retrospect, I wish I had parked in a usual free spot to have a perfect parking record this year.

You’re not cheating with this, right? No public transit or anything?

No cheating. When I did my 30 parks/143 MLB games last year, I kept a running total on every single travel expense from flights to parking to the Sunday morning hotel coffee before a game on getaway day.

What interested me about this exercise was the hidden expenses that are had. When going to Chicago for instance, I would always park at a CTA lot for five dollars and take the CTA train in. This would amount to an eleven-dollar move. Meanwhile, I was already in my car and for a few extra miles, could skip that move and park on the street.

New York and Boston are the only cities where I skip driving to games due to traffic or ease of access via mass transit. However, if you are wanting to do a NY/Philly doubleheader, street parking can be had in NY and Philly for a quick get-away.

What do you suggest for someone looking to park for free at the game? What are the hardest ballparks to find free parking, and which are the easiest?

If a fan is going to a game on a budget, parking fees can be a nuisance. I’d suggest arriving a couple of hours early and driving around a little to find good spots. The areas a block or two from the stadium are not necessarily convenient when you consider leaving after the game and fighting outbound traffic.

The easiest parks to find free parking are ones situated in a downtown area.  I’ve found that parking on edges of downtown areas and casinos have helped.

The hardest parks have been Boston, LA Dodgers, and Miami.

Do you hope to park completely for free in 2017?

I certainly hope so. I try to go to as many games as possible. It helps the budget to not have to pay to park.  Money saved here can go towards a food or drink item at the yard!

I live in South Jersey, about a 15-minute drive from Citizens Bank Park. Recently a few of my wife’s relatives visited from North Carolina, and they asked me about going to a game, since none of them had yet seen the “new” Philly ballpark.

I get nervous about things like this, since I have something of a reputation to keep. But we did fairly well.

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Where’s the concrete?

There were five of us, and I saved us $11 each on the face price of tickets with SeatGeek ($55 total), and found them a parking spot that was $6 cheaper than the Phillies lots (and closer to the ballpark than some of them).

On the way to the game we stopped at a produce shop for a $3 bag of peanuts that was enough for everyone, so that probably saved about $9 if we had bought peanuts inside. I saved $4.50 myself on a free soda.

“Now if you squint really hard here, you can see the Bull.”

Inside the ballpark I was something of a tour guide, answering all of their food questions…Wayback burgers, Tony Luke’s, the Schmitter, Federal Donuts, etc. There were two young ones with us that enjoyed the explanation of the neon Liberty Bell in right field.

We had great seats, in the 12th row just behind first base, and they got to try the classic cheesesteaks: the Tony Luke’s with provolone and the Campo’s “Heater”.

Now you know you’re in Philly.

A great time was had by all, followed by a very easy exit out of the parking lot back onto the highway. All for about $75 less than it normally would cost.

I’m not trying to brag here. Well okay, I am a little bit. I was pleased enough with the accomplishment that I literally considered hiring myself out as a Baseball Fan Consultant. <grin>

But think about what it costs to gather a group for a ballgame…the tickets, the parking, the food, souvenirs etc. You’re probably going to do that sometime in the future, or at least be part of such a group, right? Now imagine shaving $75 off of that total cost.

What could you do with that $75 while you’re in town? Get a nice souvenir, like a jersey? Enjoy a nice meal in Center City? Or even get yourself some gray sweats for the authentic “Rocky running up the Art Museum steps” experience?

True Philly genius.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

That’s just one case study…I will be including more in the future. But needless to say, I’m here to help.

(Note: this article contains affiliate links. If you use an affiliate link to make a purchase, Ballpark E-Guides earns a commission, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!)

So you have no problem taking a 4-5 hour trip to see your favorite team in another ballpark, right?

For fans whose home ballparks are outrageously expensive to visit, like Cubs and Red Sox fans, it’s a popular thing. Much of downtown Baltimore’s hospitality industry is dependent on Red Sox and Yankees fans that visit Camden Yards 21 times a year.

If you want to save a boatload of money on such trips, try a Megabus.

Just saying, when they’re in service they’re great.

Megabus is a luxury bus service available now in about 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada (and in the U.K. even, but anywhere they don’t play baseball doesn’t matter). They have single and double decker buses, all of which have Wi-Fi and free plug-ins. And they do it all for a ridiculous price, sometimes as low as $1. You have to book such deals well ahead of time, but that’s worth the trouble.

Megabus operates from popular transportation hubs in large cities, so your only part of it is getting to the transportation center. In my home town of Philadelphia, that would be the 30th Street Amtrak station. With most ballparks in downtown areas these days and easily reachable by public transit, you should be able to leave the car at home and save a ton.

I’ve used Megabus a few times with great results, but my favorite example is when I used one from NYC to Boston…for just $2.50 round trip. I found a couple of $1 fares and the fee was just 50 cents.

Between gas and tolls, driving that distance would cost at least $50—assuming you are using your own car. And that’s not figuring in the aggravation of the traffic, which is always bad in Connecticut and usually bad near New York and Philadelphia. Not dealing with that is certainly worth a few extra bucks. Did I mention the price of parking in Boston?

Four hours is a long time to ride on a bus, but Megabuses are clean, air-conditioned and comfortable, with free Wi-Fi to keep you busy. You can take care of all that other business you are too busy driving to do, or you can go onto the upper level and enjoy the panoramic view. You’re allowed one piece of luggage and a carry-on bag, which for a weekend trip should be plenty.

He may be small, but he looks friendly enough.

Megabus covers most major cities in the U.S. and Canada. In most cities (not all, but most) they’ll drop you off near a public transportation hub that will get you anywhere else in the city in short order, certainly to the local ballpark.

It isn’t perfect, according to some reviews I’ve read…sometimes buses are late (honestly…is there a bus service that’s always on time?), and a few people have complained that the Wi-Fi doesn’t always work.

But I personally have never had a problem with them, and to get from New York to Boston and back for practically nothing? I’ll take it.

www.megabus.com

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