Sports Bus Tours

You know, the only food that I can recall from going to the ballpark as a kid are hot dogs or sausages, peanuts, and Cracker Jack. I realize that part of the reason that my recollection could be so limited is that kids often zero in on their favorites and rarely stray from them. I was no different so I get that.

But seeing that Target Field will offer "Walleye on a Stick" (see my post from this morning) has me thinking about the varied foods that have cropped up at ballparks on our MLB tours. From the garlic fries at AT&T Park in San Francisco to the "corn off the cob" at US Cellular Field in Chicago. They serve sushi in Cleveland at Progressive Field - didn't see that one coming. And have some signature sandwiches like the Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh.

Teams have also incorporated former players' shops in or around the stadiums. There are barbeque stands in Citizens Bank Park and Orioles Park that don the names of Greg "The Bull" Luzinski and Boog Powell, respectively. You can buy a Cuban sandwich on Yawkey Way just outside Fenway Park at El Tiante and sometimes get an autograph from Luis Tiant himself.

Soon we'll be heading out on our baseball travel tours hitting baseball stadiums across the big leagues. It will give us a chance to sample the newest food offerings from each of the ballparks. So we want to know...what is your favorite ballpark food whether inside or out of the stadium? What are the gems from each of the cities that you think other baseball fans need to check out? Share your insights with other fans as we all prepare to hit the road for sports travel.

Looking for one of the best baseball bus trips available? Check out our Midwest 3 tour package. You'll get to see four of the Midwest's best baseball stadiums in four days. We'll travel in a private luxury motor coach to the stadiums and between the games, we'll setup baseball stadium tours and other escorted tours when the schedule allows.

This tour starts in the Motor City where the Angels will be in town to take on the Detroit Tigers. Comerica Park, pictured at the left, is a great park to visit. The team and the city really did a great job with this ballpark.

The next day we'll drive to Cleveland to see the Twins take on the Indians at Jacob's Field. (I know it's Progressive Field but that still doesn't seem right...)

Sunday morning we'll take a short drive to Pittsburgh for an afternoon game at PNC Park, another very well done stadium that replaces a 60's/70's vintage concrete bowl that was so prevalent in those days. Don't forget your Primanti Brothers sandwich!

We'll wrap up the last of our tour vacations for the summer with a stop in Cincinnati. We'll snag a tour of the Reds Hall of Fame Museum before seeing the NL Central division rivalry between the Cardinals and Reds at 7:10PM. I'd recommend the Montgomery Inn barbeque. Can't go wrong there!

This baseball vacation package promises to be a great time. For more details on this baseball tour and our other sports tours, visit BigLeagueTours.com.

A favorite one of our MLB Tours each year is our Big Apple Tour. This premier sports travel package includes two games at Yankee Stadium and one game at Citi Field. We'll stay in the heart of midtown Manhattan where you'll be close to Times Square, Fifth Avenue, and Central Park and so many restaurants, shops and sites.

This tour will provide you with two great chances to enjoy games at Yankee Stadium as the Yankees host the Blue Jays in an AL East division rivalry. The times for the games haven't been posted yet but we're sure that we'll either be entertained with fireworks for the 4th of July at Yankee Stadium or we'll be able to enjoy the festivities in the world's greatest city.

The next day we'll take a stadium tour and explore the city before we head out to Citi Field to see the Reds take on the Mets in their new home. If you haven't been to Citi Field yet, you should make the trip. It's a fantastic improvement over the old Shea Stadium. The design did a great job to incorporate old stadium features with up-to-date comforts.

To see more about this and other tour vacations being offered by Big League Tours, visit our website now to get all the details.

Check out this premier sports travel package that will offer you games at three different stadiums in one long-weekend tour vacation. We'll start with former city rivals when the (Brooklyn) Dodgers host the Bronx Bombers at Dodger Stadium. Dodger dog anyone? Yes, please! The next day, we'll head across town to the site of the 2010 MLB All Star Game, Angel Stadium.

The final day of the tour vacation offers a free day in San Diego to hang out in the Gaslamp Quarter, head over to Coronado Island, or take one of the small group tours down to Tijuana. As long as the team's schedule allows, we'll head over to PETCO Park for a private stadium tour.

Come into Los Angeles early or stay a few days after in San Diego for family tours of sites in those great southern California cities. Head to our site to check out the details on this tour and all the 2010 Tour Vacations that we have to offer.

Here's a great sports trip that everyone will love. Our group will be based in the heart of San Francisco, within walking distance of shopping and restaurants and just a short trolley ride away from the Wharf and Pier 39. The first day of this baseball stadium road trip, we'll take in a game at McAfee Stadium where the A's will host the Cincinnati Reds - a throw back to the 1990 World Series.

The second day, our travelers will be able to explore the sites of the city on their own. Visit the Golden Gate bridge, take a wine tasting tour of Napa Valley, our shop till you drop in San Fran's fashion district. The third day of the tour will feature a game between the Red Sox and Giants at AT&T park. Schedules permitting, we'll take a private baseball stadium tour of the park that sits right on the bay.

This is one of our baseball travel tours that also offers an interesting optional add-on. Come in a day early to catch the Cubs take on the Mariners at Safeco Park in Seattle. We'll add on game tickets, a hotel stay, and airfare to get you to San Francisco in time for the game at McAfee.

This is not only one of our sports travel packages that would make great baseball gifts for men, but it's tour that will make a great tour for couples! To see more about this and other MLB Tours being offered by Big League Tours, visit our website now to get all the details.

We'll begin one of our most popular tour vacations at our hotel in Midtown Manhattan. We'll head out to tour Yankee Stadium early afternoon and then head back that evening to see the Yankees play the Astros. Saturday we'll trek up to Cooperstown for the day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We'll grab dinner in Cooperstown and then head to Boston. Sunday, we'll take in the Phillies and Red Sox and, if the schedule allows, we'll take a stadium tour of Fenway Park.

The hotel is provided Sunday night after the Red Sox game as part of the package. You also have the option of coming into New York City early or staying later in Boston so let us customize your sports travel packages for you.

This baseball vacation package promises to be a great time. For more details on this baseball tour and our other MLB Tours, visit BigLeagueTours.com.

East Coast 1 is the granddaddy of our baseball vacation packages. The tour package includes 6 games in 6 different baseball stadiums, a free day to explore New York City, a day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a player appearance, and baseball stadium tours at some of baseball's most hallowed halls.

We'll begin in Baltimore, making the hotel there our home base for a few days. We'll have a kickoff reception at the hotel on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, we'll head to Nationals Park for an afternoon game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Nationals. Monday, we'll drive up to Philadelphia to see the Padres and Phillies. Tuesday, we'll take a stadium tour of Orioles Park and see the Yankees and Orioles play.

On Wednesday, we'll board the motor coach and head up to New York City, our home base for the next three nights. We'll go to Citi Field to see the Mets host the Padres. Thursday, you'll have the day on your own to shop 5th Avenue, take escorted tours of the city's sites, or to stroll through Central Park.

Friday we'll tour Yankee Stadium and see the Yankees play the Astros. Saturday we'll trek up to Cooperstown for the day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We'll grab dinner in Cooperstown and then head to Boston. Sunday, we'll take in the Phillies and Red Sox and, if the schedule allows, we'll take a stadium tour of Fenway Park.

The hotel is provided Sunday night after the Red Sox game as part of the package. You also have the option of coming into Baltimore early or staying later in Boston so let us customize your sports vacations for you.

This premier sports travel package promises to be a great time. For more details on this baseball tour and our other MLB Tours, visit BigLeagueTours.com.

Our Midwest 2 baseball vacation package begins in Chicago. Our group will meet at our hotel on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago and begin the tour by heading out to Wrigley Field for the great rivalry of the Cardinals vs. the Cubs for what will likely be a Sunday afternoon game.

On Monday, you'll have the opportunity to see the sites in Chicago - shop till you drop, take escorted tours of the architecture or skyline of the city, or take some family tours of the great museums. The next day will venture to US Cellular Field to see Josh Hamilton and the Rangers take on Ozzie's White Sox.

Wednesday we'll depart for St. Louis and Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals in their home venue. We'll stay in the heart of the city that evening and then leave for Kansas City in the morning. While in KC we'll see a game at Kaufmann Stadium and visit the Negro League Museum for a look into some of the rich history of baseball.

This premier sports travel package promises to be a great time. For more details on this baseball tour and our other sports vacations, visit BigLeagueTours.com.

My daughter has always enjoyed seeing the moon at night. As we sat in the New Yankee Stadium on one of our package tours earlier this summer, the clouds broke and the moon shone brightly. I decided to take a picture of it to share later with my 2-year-old. What I realized just after I snapped the shot is that the jumbotron added a pretty funny effect.

I think the young lady on the screen had just noticed herself but it appears she's pointing right at the moon. I hadn't thought of this photo until just now as I'm watching the Yankees and the Twins in the first game of the ALDS.

Do you have some photos from your baseball stadium tours, funny or otherwise, that you'd like to share with other baseball fans? We have the perfect place for you to do so, in our photo gallery at Big League Tours. Check out the Gallery and share your photos from your sports vacations.

July 24, 2009 - After a day of everyone being on their own - siteseeing, shopping, lounging around, whatever their hearts desired - we headed up to Miller Park in Milwaukee to see the Brewers take on the Braves. (Just a quick sidebar - I think all of the stimulus money has gone into construction between Chicago and Milwaukee...UGH!)

There was a threat of a thunderstorm that was supposed to arrive around 8PM so the roof was closed on the baseball stadium in anticipation of that. We've been to games at Miller Park where the roof was closed for batting practice and then opened for the game but this was our first visit where the roof stayed closed for the game. Here's a photo of the baseball stadium taken from our seats. Great place to see a game!

I really enjoy going up to Milwaukee. It's one of my favorite stops on our sports tours. The fans there have always had a good time. And now that the team has been playing well, they are equally into their Brewers as they are into their sausages and beer!

Wishing that we had kept score at the perfect game the previous day, we scored this game. No perfecto here, though. In fact, just the opposite - lots of offense from both sides. Click here to see the box scores and write up from the game.

Whether on a sports travel package or on your own, Miller Park is a great place to hit on a baseball travel tour. 

This week's Sports Illustrated has an article about the '69 Miracle Mets team and prominently features Art Shamsky in the article. Art is appearing on our upcoming Big Apple Tour which features games at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Maybe you were in New York that summer and fall, rooting for the Mets, the lovable (cue team jingle here) M-E-T-S Mets. You've been an optimist ever since. Of course you are. The club was a baseball comedy act from the year of its premature birth, 1962, right through 1968, losing an average of 105 games a season. And then came the surprise of '69. Elsewhere it was a horrible year, but New York witnessed a miracle: the Mets winning 100 games in the regular season, then beating the Baltimore Goliaths in the World Series. The miracle of Flushing Meadows, Queens.

Art Shamsky had no idea how lousy a year it had been. Not then. Shamsky, sharing duty with Ron Swoboda, patrolled Shea Stadium's rightfield, the first swath of green you'd see coming off the number 7 train. Shamsky was in his own little world that baseball season, 40 years ago, when Tom Seaver was a rising pitching god and Nolan Ryan a wild-armed reliever and spot starter and Jerry Grote, Texas badass, caught them both. Shamsky was a Jewish kid from suburban St. Louis, living in Manhattan, hearing kids (you?) scream Art Shamsky! as his big old Lincoln Continental entered the Shea Stadium players' lot, then going out after the game with the brothers—Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee—listening to jazz, wearing shades and long sideburns and striped pants, sipping house reds. It was many years later that he started making regular trips to the New York Public Library, in midtown, researching a book, twirling microfilm, making lists, catching up.

Good News, 1969: Man on the moon.

Bad News, 1969: Vietnam War, Manson murders, Hurricane Camille, the Chicago Seven trial, Chappaquiddick, inflation....

Shamsky is the unofficial class secretary of the '69 Mets, a regular when his teammates come together for parties, reunions, fantasy camps, golf tournaments, barbecues, card signings. Weddings. Funerals.

They gathered to bury Agee, centerfielder and leadoff hitter, in 2001. Agee—who'd almost single-handedly won Game 3 of the Series with a first-inning homer and for-the-ages catches on drives by Elrod Hendricks and Paul Blair—died of a heart attack, age 58, in his office on Second Avenue in midtown Manhattan, where he worked in the title search business. Shamsky was best man at Tommie's second wedding, in 1985, when he married Maxcine Green, a New York schoolteacher. O.K., not precisely best man. Best-man-on-deck, ready to pinch-hit if Cleon didn't show, and for the longest time that day it looked as if Cleon wouldn't show. But then he slipped in, cool as ever, saying, "Told you I'd get here." Rest in peace, Tommie.

The article is pretty interesting and points out how many young players were on that team that went on to have great careers. We're thrilled to have Art joining us in New York City on one of our upcoming baseball road trips. For a chance to meet Art Shamsky and other big league ball players, join us on any of our baseball tours for an unforgettable vacation.

May 9, 2009, Boston - There's no better way to wrap up a baseball spring trip than with an afternoon game at Fenway Park. So that's exactly what we did on the end of our East Coast 1 sports package. The Rays were in town to take on the Red Sox. Two left handers were throwing - Lester for the Sox, Kazmir for the Rays.

Here's a view from our seats. Not bad, huh? The Rays on deck circle was just a few feet away from us. When the game got out of reach for the Red Sox (they ultimately lost 14-5), the fans turned their attention to heckling the Rays as they prepared to hit. That proved to be pretty entertaining with a few of the Rays playing right along with them. I imagine that it's easier to take that sort of thing when you are pounding the other team...

Click here to see a complete game wrapup.

May 9, 2009, Boston - One of the most loved features of our MLB Road Trips are the inclusion of our Big League Player Experiences. This is where we bring in current or former big league players to hear their stories, ask them questions, take pictures with them, and get autographs.

If you've read any of my blogs from the past, you've probably gathered that I spent a little time behind the plate as a catcher. So it was a thrill for me to get to meet Rich Gedman, former catcher for the Boston Red Sox. Rich told our group about breaking into the bigs with great players on the Sox team like Carl Yastrzemski, catching for great pitchers like Roger Clemens, and what it was like playing at Fenway Park. Here we are after the group session on Yawkey Way just outside the ballpark.

If you've thought about giving baseball trips as a gift for someone, consider elements like our Big League Player Experience which turn the gifts for baseball fans into premier sports travel packages they are sure to enjoy!

May 7, 2009 - New York City
This is my favorite time of year. The baseball season is now in full swing, the weather gets to be a little more predictable, and teams are already jockeying within their divisions - a perfect timefor a baseball road trip!

Today our East Coast 1 Tour began in New York City with a stadium tour of the Yankees' new home. What an impressive place! The tour starts in their museum that's inside the stadium. The museum has autographed baseballs from many of the Yankees players throughout history, stories about the different eras of the team, and interesting information about the stadium.

Here's a picture of one of my favorite items from the tour. As a catcher growing up in the 70's, I idolized catchers in the big leagues. Thurman Munson was one of the guys I loved to watch. We learned last year when we were in the Yankees clubhouse on one of our group tours that the Yankees had preserved Munson's locker since the day he died. No one had used it since. His locker was moved in tact to the new Yankee Stadium and is what you see pictured to the left.

Whether you are a Yankee fan or not, this baseball stadium needs to be on your "must see" list for one of your upcoming sports vacations. The team is such a storied franchise and they've presented their history well in the new venue.

While on vacation in Florida, we decided to make a baseball road trip to catch a Marlins game in Miami. The game was on Sunday afternoon against the Phillies. The stadium is really easy to find as it sits just off of the Turnpike.

We arrived at the baseball stadium early to walk around and check things out. We found Dolphin Stadium very easy to get around in but it was definitely built for football. For instance, our seats were in the first row just outside the first base line but we found ourselves having to turn sideways to see the plate as our seats were pointed towards centerfield. I'm sure that the true baseball fans will be glad to get the new baseball stadium that's planned to open in 2012.

We expected that there would be plenty of Phillies fans (phans?) on hand. The winners of the World Series always have a good following on the road. What we didn't expect is that there would be so few Marlins fans. After all, the Marlins got off to a great start. They were at the top of the NL East, for crying out loud. I didn't see an official attendance figure but I'm guessing there weren't 15,000 people there.

Florida is always known for its baseball spring trips, but you can also take in some interesting sports tours throughout the MLB season. Check out our premier sports travel packages or contact us to be your baseball road trip planner for the custom tour of your dreams!

We Went to Bat For You!!!
We know that times are tough so we went to bat for you. We were able to secure lower rates from our travel partners and are passing on the savings to you. So for a limited time, take advantage of lower rates on all of our group travel tours.

We want to see you at the ballpark this summer enjoying baseball stadium tours, meeting Big League players, or just enjoying the game that we all love so much. So check out the revised prices of our 2009 Tour Packages and reserve your spot today!

Here's a quick snapshot of the tour offerings with hotlinks to the details for each of the sports packages:
East Coast 1 - New York, Cooperstown and Boston from $2,000 per person*
East Coast 2 - New York and Boston from $1,750 per person*
Atlanta - Atlanta Braves from $975 per person*
Midwest - Chicago and Milwaukee from $1,400 per person*
Big Apple - New York Mets and Yankees from $1,325 per person*
Seattle - Seattle Mariners package from $1,200 per person*

*All prices are based on double occupancy