Traveling to every Major League ballpark has a certain romance, doesn’t it? At least for a subset of us hardcore baseball fanatics. It’s a bit draining, yes. And patriotic, too. Doing so is watching the national pastime and exploring America simultaneously.
Visit all 30 ballparks, and you’ll see much of the United States: up and down both coasts, across the South, the North, and through the vast middle. Counting every minor league stadium is incredibly taxing, too, driving through nothingness on the way to see many guys who might make it to the big leagues.
But for Todd and Tina Reichert, it’s worth it — all of it.
They’ve now been to 110 professional baseball stadiums, and only a few clubs in the Northwest League remain, as well as the Salt Lake Bees. Meaning the Reichert’s are a part of an unprecedented, unheralded club of Minor and Major League Junkies.
Many people love the idea of making it to each stadium, but executing it altogether is another matter.
Each new stadium is a bit like arriving in a new country. Everyone immediately is a little skeptical of your allegiance. There is strange local food and unique clothing, and it’s often easy to get lost wandering around.
“We just love to see what it’s like and how they adapt their flare to everything,” Tina said.
But eventually, it’s just baseball, and the many proponents that inspire have kept Reichert’s coming back for more — of course, with many stories to tell.
They’ll tell you about how they’ve seen Jackson Holliday grow up, seeing him “all the way from his early minor-league days,” seeing his many highlights (including his first professional walk-off homerun) along the way.
“We were in Aberdeen (high-A), and a few weeks later, we were in Bowie, and we go and check and ‘Oh Jackson’s playing!’.”
Or when they saw Bryan Hudson at a stadium tour.
“I go to Todd and say, ‘Is that Bryan Hudson from Burlington, Iowa?’” Tina said. “And he whips around and goes, ‘I know you guys.’”
And perhaps most memorably, the time they sat next to Wayne Gretzky, father of former Angels’ minor leaguer Trevor Gretzky, at a game.
“Trevor went 0-for that day, and his teammates were ripping him about how he should use a hockey stick next time,” Todd said.
The memories and miles for the Reichert’s have certainly added up — but they’ve learned some tricks along the way.
“We eventually started to get into a rhythm,” Todd said. “Finding out when to leave, where to eat… and we do our best to get a batting practice ball at each stadium we visit.”
How to count ballparks is its own art form — Todd would rightly say that now, at this year’s end, they’ve officially been to 110. For a ballpark to be counted, they must see a game there.
“Anything else would be cheating, we think,” Tina said.
There are, of course, other caveats that come with such a lifestyle, balancing traffic, and travel among others.
“One time, we drove from our hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, to Brooklyn,” Todd said. “Never again.”
“When you drive and see six lanes both ways, and I live down a gravel road,” Tina said with a laugh. “It’s a lot.”
But eventually, they caught a groove.
“There’s no other way we’d love to spend time together,” Tina said. “It’s a dream.”
And how will they end this incredible journey? The Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, Alaska — a game which falls just a week before their 35th wedding anniversary.
“And that’ll be it,” Tina said with a laugh. “Until we start something different.”
