Baseball Vacations

Rivalry between two cities and their Baseball teams are a great thing to see as long it doesn’t turn violent or one side tries to humiliate the other.

I’m the Dominican Republic and I’ve been to a few cities in the united States and I attended a few Baseball Games.

In August 2002 I’ve got married and I planned my Honeymoon in a way that I could attend a Dodger Game in Los Angeles, I tried to convince my wife to go to L.A, but some people told her that in L.A. there’s nothing beyond Hollywood and the Beach, and we have the best beaches here in the Caribbean. In that circumstances I tried to find the nearest place of L.A. and that was San Francisco, C.A. the city of one the teams I more hate but the city was great and the people is very nice there, my plan was working out so I bought to tickets to go a Dodgers game, I rented a car and booked a hotel in Los Angeles, then I drove 6 hours just to see a Dodgers game, I don’t regret it, it was my only chance to go to Dodger Stadium, it was a dream come true, we had seats very close to right field and it was a 12.05 game, my wife was sun burned.

I did all that just to see the Dodgers and the city that had them for more than 40 years, the next day we drove back to San Francisco, then to Miami and to our country.

Last year in 2003 we planned our vacation to visit my sister in law in Boston, and of course I had to Fenway Park and see the Red Sox play, no matter the team they were facing, I tried to get opening season tickets but was impossible so I had to watched a game against Tampa Bay.

Boston is the nicer city I’ve been, I loved it, I was amazed on how the people love the Red Sox and the Dominican Players with them, even Manny.

One night we were having drinks at Cheer’s, I had my Dodger cap and the waiter ask me were I was from, I told him and he replies that I should wear a Boston cap because of Pedro, he ask me about him, I told him a story and the next minute he was telling the story to man and his son, in Boston they just love Pedro, that may me feel good, in the streets and in the T you hear people talk about how this year it’s going to be different, and for God’s sake thay haven’t won since 1918 and they still root for their team, they really love the Red Sox, they are very passionate about their team and their city.

We stayed a couple of days in Boston and then took a bus to New York, What a difference!, some people say about NY that either you love it or you hate it, for me, none of the above, so again I planned a Baseball vacation I got tickets for a Yankees-Twins game, fans root for their team but are not as passionate as Red Sox fans, in the streets you see a lot of Yankees memorabilia but when a team I winning everyone roots for them.

In the mid 80’s the Yankees were losing a lot of games and I don’t remember many people here rooting for them, now they have a lot of fans.

In last years playoff I was watching the game in a Sport bar, they were only 5 or 6 yankees fans there, my best friend and a couple of other guys, the rest of them were rooting for Pedro and the Sox, that did not matter, the Sox lost anyway.

In Yankee stadium the fans talked about baseball but they don’t show a lot of knowledge about the players, except Jeter and they know nothing about the other team, all they care is that they are Yankee fans.

I remember Mr. Jhon Rocker talking about New York fans, he was wrong, but in Boston the people seems to be more polite, one thing that impress me was that taking a Boston Duck’s Tour the wind took of my Dodgers Cap, I yelled at the driver to stop, he stopped in a red light, but a man ran almost a block to gave my Dodgers cap back that was amazing.

This year I plan to go to New York again in September, I hope our economy let’s me do it and I can attend a Mets or Yankees game.