The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has announced four inductees for 2019, including the first to be elected by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The four latest inductees join two that were chosen in December by the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee. Their picks were Harold Baines and […]
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Eight devoted baseball fans sat around a table in a restaurant in a New York hotel, gripped by tales told by retired American and Major League baseball umpire Al Clark. As the guests enjoyed their lunch, Al excitedly shared stories from his 26 years as an umpire, focusing on his journey to the major leagues. […]
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For Steve Tatro of Bellingham, Washington, Ken Griffey Jr. is the greatest baseball player of his generation. Steve remembers following the former Seattle Mariners centerfielder in the minor leagues when he was in college, and the stops he made in Bellingham at Joe Martin Field. So, in the months leading up to Griffey’s induction into […]
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With the arrival of spring, both baseball season and summer vacation are quickly approaching. Sports Travel and Tours makes it easy to plan a baseball getaway that the whole family can enjoy, and the Hall of Fame Induction Plus trip is no exception, offering access anywhere from the Induction Ceremony itself to the Parade of Legends. The trip, which is scheduled from Thursday, July 21 to Tuesday, July 26, will feature two games at two different ballparks starting in the Big Apple. After arriving on Thursday, travelers will mix, mingle and enjoy a meal during the trip reception, and hear from former Big League Umpire Al Clark during his “Ump’s Eye View” presentation, a Q&A focused on baseball from the umpire’s perspective. While in New York, travelers will stay in the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, located in the heart of Manhattan. The hotel features a state-of-the-art fitness center, even offering personal training and yoga classes, the sophisticated, yet casual Hudson Market Bistro, and a 24-hour business center for those who must telecommute. Starting on Friday, travelers will embark on a roughly hour-long tour of Yankee Stadium, which includes visits to Monument Park, the New York Yankees Museum, the clubhouse, the batting cage area and the dugout. That, and a half-day tour of the city all lead up to the San Francisco Giants versus the Yankees game starting at 7:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium. On Saturday, travelers move on to historic Cooperstown, where they will tour the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The museum features just under 40,000 three-dimensional items, three million books and documents, and 500,000 photographs. The next stop on the itinerary is historic Doubleday Field, where the Hall of Fame will present the Ford C. Frick and J. G. Taylor Spink Awards to broadcaster Graham McNamee and Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, respectively. Starting at 6 p.m., the Parade of Legends will commence as Hall of Famers make their way from Doubleday Field down Main Street. More than 50 Hall of Famers are expected to return to Cooperstown for the weekend, with the full list to be announced in early July. Sunday, of course, marks the big event: the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The event, which is expected to last two to three hours, will be held at the Clark Sports Center starting at 1:30 p.m. The 2016 Hall of Fame class consists of Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza, to be the 311th and 312th members of the Hall of Fame. A box lunch is offered by Sports Travel and Tours. During the Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, travelers will be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn Albany, which features cribs and high chairs for children, a 24-hour Business Center, a fitness room and a heated indoor swimming pool with whirlpool. Various dining options are just steps away with the 24-hour Pavilion Pantry Market, the Garden Grille & Bar and the Recovery Sports Bar with 40 large screen TVs, to continue with your sports-themed weekend. On Monday, the group departs for Boston for a tour of Fenway Park, where they’ll visit the Press Box and the State Street Pavilion Club. Starting at 7:10 p.m. that evening, they will watch the Boston Red Sox take on the Detroit Tigers. Travelers will spend the night at the Embassy Suites Boston, which features a 24-hour business center, a fitness center, an indoor pool with whirlpool and the Porter Bar & Grill. Complimentary breakfasts and evening receptions are offered daily. Travelers can depart at leisure from Boston on Tuesday. Additional pre-trip and post-trip hotel nights are optional. As part of the Sports Travel and Tours package, travelers will be transferred between cities and to and from events in a deluxe motor coach. Travelers also receive 24-hour trip assistance, a trip souvenir and a Baseball Hall of Fame membership that includes a subscription to Memories and Dreams Magazine, a Hall of Fame Yearbook and a 10 percent discount on purchases through the Museum Store. The Induction Plus trip is not one you’ll soon forget. Learn more about Induction Plus and Sports Travel and Tours’ other Hall of Fame trips, Seattle Induction Special and Eastern Loop.
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The pressure was on for Don Vickery. While eating dinner with his wife, Laura, at Dempsey’s Brew Pub and Restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, the diehard baseball fan was accosted by none other than the announcer for the Baltimore Orioles to participate in the restaurant’s trivia challenge. “In 1970, there were seven Baltimore Orioles players who made it to the All-Star team,” the announcer asked. “Name five of those players.” As Laura sat in the audience with her camera at the ready, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. Her husband’s favorite team was the Chicago White Sox. How much, she wondered, could he know about the Orioles? Turns out the question was easy for Don, who Laura describes as a walking plethora of knowledge about America’s great pastime. With ease, he rattled off five from the list of Mike Cuellar, Dave Johnson, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson, a feat which earned him an autographed photo of one of the Orioles. Such a warm welcome for two travelers from Mason, Michigan, as well as interesting and historic architecture, made our trip to Oriole Park at Camden Yards one of Laura’s favorite memories. In the past seven years, she and Don have visited an incredible 29 of the 30 major league stadiums with the help of Sports Travel and Tours. Their first trip was in 2009, when Sports Travel and Tours teamed up with an organization in Michigan to take baseball fans to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. “My original thought was, we’ll go on this trip, and, hopefully, we’ll find more men like Don who are walking encyclopedias of knowledge on baseball,” Laura says. “I thought, how could we go wrong?” The trip turned out to be even more than Laura had expected. “I thought all of the travelers would be men, but no, no, no,” she says. “There are always plenty of women and plenty of people through all walks of life. There are guys who are my husbands’ equal, but also people like me who are fans but don’t remember every statistic there is. “I was so pleased to find a peer group,” Laura adds of her first trips with Sports Travel and Tours. “From the onset, we were not disappointed.” Don also appreciates that Sports Travel and Tours ensures that travelers room in a safe part of town, no matter where they go. “Sports Travel and Tours always has pleasant people on its trips,” he adds. “There’s never been one tour that we’ve heard any negativity.” Don and Laura initially visited five stadiums in 2009, and continued to travel consistently from 2011 to 2015, checking four or five stadiums off the list each year. Now, only one remains: Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners. To tackle the final stadium, Laura and Don are taking an independent trip to Seattle for a game between the Mariners and the White Sox on July 20, accompanied by Don’s cousin Jerry Brown and his wife, Joan. “Because Don’s favorite team is the White Sox, we planned to see that game in particular,” Laura says. As part of their summer plans, the couple will room in a Seattle beach house before voyaging on to Vancouver. Once the two have visited the final, 30th major league stadium, they will be inducted into Sports Travel and Tours Stadium Hall of Fame in May 2017; they plan to celebrate surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Laura says that Sports Travel and Tours has helped her to support her husband’s passion for baseball, as she sometimes wishes she did early in their marriage. “Thirty-eight years ago, when we went on our honeymoon, we drove through Detroit, into Toronto and ended up near Boston,” she says. “Every town we went through, we managed to see major league parks, but I was young and would just say, ‘That’s nice.’” “Never once did I encourage Don to stop the car so we could explore the stadiums, and baseball is such a big interest of his that I always regretted that,” Laura says. “Sports Travel and Tours has helped me to reconcile that grief, and soon, we’ll have seen all 30 stadiums!”
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