Wednesday, August 6, 2008

In Kentucky All Roads Lead To Baseball

Before I moved to Kentucky the only sports I ever associated with the state were college basketball and horse racing. I never even considered that it was a great place to live for a baseball fan.

If you take a marker to a map, put it on the town where I live and draw straight lines to Major League cities within a 700 miles radius you'd be surprised, as I was, just how many there are.

There are 12 teams: Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Cleavland Indians, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Kansas City Royals.

That's just the Major League teams who play within that radius. There are at least 4 AAA minor league teams that play within a 4 hour drive from my house.

I have already been to see games at Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh. I go to see AAA baseball teams, the Louisville Bats and the Nashville Sounds, at least once a year. One day I'd like to go see the AAA teams in Lexington, Kentucky and Indianapolis, Indiana play as well. I'm excited about the fact that there's supposed to be a minor league baseball team playing in Bowling Green, a town about 20 miles from where I live, starting next spring.

As far as the other 9 on the major league team list I would love to be able to attend a game at all of them. If you read my July 17 post about my side trip to Chicago you'll understand why going to Wrigley Field is at the top of my list.

While I do have a goal of completing trips to the ballparks on that list I am very realistic in admitting there are whole lot of other things in my life that come first. In the future if I have fulfilled all my other responsibilities and find myself blessed with the means to visit one, any, or all of these ballparks as a baseball fan it would be a dream come true.

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