Bio of Road Trippers: Part 2

Name: Mike O.

Age: 25

Hometown: Cincinnati

Current Town: Cleveland

Favorite Team: Reds

Favorite Non-Reds Teams: Indians, Tigers, A's, Rays

Teams I Despise: Cubs (can't put into words how much i hate them and their loser fans), Dodgers, Cardinals, Mets

Most excited to see during the trip: Yankee Stadium, Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Philly Cheesesteak, Rocky Statue (Yo, Adrian!!).

Favorite Baseball Memories:

1. Getting to play a softball game on Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field). A once-in-a-lifetime experience I will never forget.

2. Staying up late as a 7 year-old to watch the Reds dominate the Athletics in the '90 World Series.

3. At Riverfront Stadium with my dad, watching the Reds close out a 3-games-to-none Division Series sweep of the Dodgers in the '95 Playoffs.

4. Attending the game where Adam Dunn jacked a 535-foot bomb over the batter's eye in CF. The ball left the stadium, bounced once off of Mehring Way, and supposedly landed on a piece of driftwood on the Ohio River. Needless to say, it's the longest HR in Great American Ballpark to date.

5. In attendance for Barry Larkin's first career grand slam in '01. It finally came after his 6,735th career at-bat.

Bio of Road Trippers: Part 1

Name: Chris Horne

Age: 23

Nicknames: Caveman, Diesel

Hometown: Cincinnati

Current Town: Chicago, but moving to Cleveland after the trip

Favorite Team: Reds

Favorite Players: Jeff Keppinger and Aaron Harang

Most excited to see during the trip: Reds games in New York and Toronto, Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, eating a real Philly Cheesesteak.

Favorite Baseball Memories:

1.Reds Spring Training 2008 in Sarasota with my fiancé Becky.

2.Family parading through our house with brooms after the Wire-to-Wire Reds swept the Bash Brother A's in the 1990 World Series (I was 6 years old).

3. Making a one handed catch of a line drive foul ball off the bat of Craig Biggio, in front of two of my bosses, while in Houston for work last year.

4. Cheering for the Reds in the Wrigley Bleachers the last two years.

5. Sitting next to 2 guys who were heckling Diamondbacks Reliever Mike "Funny Face" Fetters for an entire Reds game.

About the Trip

Welcome to our baseball roadtrip blog. Let me give a little background about the trip.

The participants (John, Chris, LJ, and myself) are all buddies from college (Miami University in beautiful Oxford, OH). We enjoyed our time there, having way too many crazy stories and experiences that could fill a book, and we have remained friends since we graduated over the past few years.

We all happen to be avid baseball fans, but have not had the opportunity to visit many MLB ballparks. The impetus for this trip was 2008 being the final year for Yankee Stadium. We wanted to catch a game in such a tradition-rich park before it becomes rubble. From there, the trip grew to over a week-long trek to visit other historic ballparks such as Fenway, as well as some great new parks like PNC and Comerica. An added bonus is that all the games during this trip will be interleague games, so we get to see some unique matchups that don't occur but once every few years.

So follow along with us over the next 10+ days as we document our travels, baseball experiences, and sampling of the local brews in each town.

Play Ball,
Mike