30 Major League Ballparks

11,000 Miles

6 Months

1 Bicycle

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LATEST NEWS

Boston Baseball Magazine is publishing a six-part series that I wrote about Major League Baseball fans. It's sort of a compare and contrast piece from the perspective of a Red Sox fan who stopped maturing in 4th-grade.

When you go to the park, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you buy the magazine. If you don't go to the park, you should subscribe. It is a bargain, and is packed with quality, insightful writing. How I got in, I'll never know.

You can read the installments here:

April: Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3

May: Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3

June: Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3

July: Pages 1 - 3

Aug: Pages 1 - 3

Sept: Pages 1 - 3

Thanks to editor Mike Rutstein for his permission to show it here.

THE STORY

In the summer of 2004 I rode my bike to all 30 Major League baseball parks to see a game at each one. I did this for the adventure, and to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The trip is over, but the fundraising is not. I hope you will still consider making a donation.

I started out in Atlanta on April 2 at a preseason game between the Braves and Red Sox. The last game was in Boston on September 26 for the last Red Sox home game in which they drubbed the Yankees. In between I pedaled 11,741 miles and saw 28 other games in 28 other parks.

If you are interested in donating to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Pan-Mass Challenge, may I suggest something like one cent per mile? That will work out to about $100. I'm trying to raise $125,000. You can learn how to donate here.

If you are interested in getting email updates about changes to this web site, you can sign up here.

If you have any feedback, or just want to drop me a line, you can do it here.

STATUS

Ballparks Visited - 30 out of 30 - 100%

Miles Pedaled - 11,741 out of 11,000 - 107% (not quite 110%)

Dollars Raised - $19,329.35 out of $125,000 - 15%

Location - Home in Provincetown, MA

 

2005 Pan-Mass Challenge

Just a quick note to let anyone out there who is still listening that I finished my first Pan Mass Challenge ride yesterday. It is a two-day, 190 mile bicycle ride across Massachusetts to raise money for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After riding it, I feel even more compelled to pester all of you kind folks to donate.

I was a little concerned that sharing the road with 4,000 other bikers would give me the heebie-jeebies, especially after spending last summer pretty much on my own. Luckily, it turned out to be a great experience.

Saturday started in Sturbridge and all went well until about mile 60 when I got terrible leg cramps. After a rest and various combinations of drugs, gatorade, salty food and bananas, the cramps eased up. By about mile 90 they disappeared, and I felt the strongest I had all day.

Sunday was a better riding day, although I nearly missed getting my bag on the luggage truck. I was just about the last one out of Bourne, and the roads were completely empty of bikers as I started out. Early on, I came around a corner where I surprised Larry Lucchino, one of the owners of the Red Sox, who was still out cheering on the few bikers who were still on this stretch of the route (his wife rides in the event). I was moving pretty fast, and didn't get a chance to thank him for keeping Manny.

I was cranking along, finally catching and passing a bunch of riders, getting into Ptown a little before noon. About a mile before the finish, Molly was waiting for me, hooting and hollering.

The event itself is quite a production. There are rest stops every 20 miles, staffed by an army of the kindest volunteers you will ever meet. At the second stop I got a massage to help my cramping quads. Others gave out peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, fruit and thousands of gallons of gatorade.

Bourne has a tent with over 100 massage therapists who donated their time and skills to help us out. In addition there was an enormous food court, a couple of great bands who played to a low-energy crowd who couldn't even stand up, let alone dance, and most importantly, free beer, courtesy of Harpoon.

I met lots of great people along the way. One guy who rode was a six-time cancer survivor. The roads were lined with folks who cheered us on. Some were cancer survivors who came out to thank us, others were rooting their family members on, and some were just watching the show. One sign was so funny, it nearly made me fall over. It said simply, "Cancer Sucks." And some folks put up pictures of family members and children who had been hit by cancer.

I'm a pretty stone-hearted bastard, but this was an incredibly inspirational and emotional experience. The good part of human nature was on display all weekend.

So, first off, I'd like to thank Mark Donovan and the Scituate firefighters for making a big donation that allowed me to ride this year. His son, Eric, is my pedal partner - a great kid who is fighting Ewing's Sarcoma and has gotten a lot of help from Dana-Farber.

Secondly, I'd like to encourage you to make a donation. A lot of people work hard to make this event happen, and when it's all over, it is by far the single biggest donation to the Jimmy Fund. Last year they gave over $20 million, and astounding figure. I would feel that I'm letting a lot of people down if I didn't ask you all to think one more time about helping the cause. Any amount will help and donating is easy - it takes about 30 seconds if you go here. Like I learned last summer, the real hard work is done by others - the riding is the easy part.

Thanks

GREAT NEWS!!

Pedal Partner Eric Donovan is now in remission. He worked really hard to make it happen, and still has a lot of work to do, but deserves a lot of credit for this great accomplishment. Way to go, Eric.

 

LATEST JOURNAL PAGE

Previous rants can be found on the Journals page (this is where you should go to read everything in chronological order). I'm woefully behind on these journals and working to get caught up - please stay tuned.

copyright 2004 Charlie Hamilton