Our first trip, in 1990, came about because we'd always wanted to see Wrigley Field and Dave was going to be passing through Chicago. The next trip, in 1991 happened because we both wanted to see Tiger Stadium and DC was going to be in Cleveland, a fairly short drive from Detroit. In 1996 we did our first trip not built around family visits (although we ended up seeing family anyway.) Another park we both wanted to visit was Kaufmann Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Royals. Dave had previously seen a game in Milwaukee's County Stadium and really liked it so we included that as well.

Both of us have lived all of our lives on or near the East Coast of the United States. DC is a New Yorker by birth and lived in Vermont for years. Dave has lived his whole life in the Washington D.C. area. We learned about Midwest etiquette the first night we were in Kansas City when we arrived at Kauffman Stadium during the National Anthem. Everyone waiting to enter the ballpark stopped talking and put their hand over their heart - behavior definitely not seen very often in New York and Baltimore! DC's beloved Yankees were in town so we stayed for two games, which they split.

Kauffman Stadium is very nice - the sight lines are excellent and the lack of seating in the outfield makes the park seem smaller than it actually is (they make up for it with a very large upper deck). This was the first year that they had a natural grass field at Kauffman. We had purposely avoided it until then. One of our favorite moments on the trip was sitting in the stands at Kauffman and overhearing two guys in their sixties sitting in front of us talking about how they are going to be seeing the St. Louis Cardinals the next day and going to Wrigley Field in Chicago the day after that - a preview of Two Guys & a Map, circa 2020?

Neither of us had ever been in Kansas City before and we loved it. The morning after the first game we headed over to The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, which was fascinating. We also drove by the house Truman lived in for years before and after the time he spent in Washington D.C. After that we headed downtown to The Negro League Hall of Fame located at the corner of 18th and Vine. The block next to that looked like it hadn't changed since the 1930s - then we peered in some of the windows and found there was nothing behind them. It turned out to be a set for a Robert Altman (of M*A*S*H fame) movie called Kansas City. Upon leaving the Negro League Hall of Fame we heard a great, loud, joyous noise coming from behind some trees - we went over to find a church with the windows open (this was on a very hot Sunday morning) and a wonderful gospel chorus shaking the rafters in there.

Kaufmann Stadium

Harry S. Truman's home

After the game we flew up to Chicago. We had thought about taking the train but the only train between Kansas City and Chicago stopped so often that the trip took thirteen hours! We decided an hour on an airplane sounded a bit more pleasant. Dave's sister Judy was living in Chicago then with her husband Steve and son, Isaac, so we had a place to stay. They pointed us to the train and the next morning we rode downtown. There was a documentary film out at the time called 'A Great Day In Harlem' which was about the creation of a famous photograph of nearly every big name in jazz in the 1950s who all gathered together one morning for the photo shoot. DC found a poster of that photograph and picked it up. Dave found some blues albums he wanted while poking around in a great record store downtown.

Then we headed out to Wrigley. It was much warmer than the first time we had been there five years before and just as wonderful, if not more so. We had thought about trying to get on one of the roofs across Sheffield Avenue from the ballpark - Dave had even gone so far as to call the person who controlled seating on one of the rooftops but he explained he only took groups of ten. (For more detail on Wrigley Field, see 1998 - The Two Guys & a Mapholder Classic Ballparks Tour - it truly is the greatest place on Earth to watch baseball.)

The next day we drove to Milwaukee - it's only 90 minutes from downtown Chicago, not much farther than Dave travels from his home in Virginia to see the Orioles. It happened to be Camera Night so we got to go on the field. We looked up and saw David Wells of the Orioles hanging out on the platform from which the Brewers mascot slides into a giant beer stein whenever a Brewer hits a home run. DC got a picture of Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray strolling our way (take my word for it, that's them). Shortly after the game started, Dave realized he wasn't the only one rooting for the Orioles (who smacked the Brewers around pretty well that night). There were three different sets of people from the Washington / Baltimore area who, for one reason or another, had arrived at County Stadium that night to see the O's.

Right after the game we drove back to Chicago and flew home the next day. On our next trip we did things a little differently - we brought along a mapholder.

Wrigley Field

Cal Ripken (center) and Eddie Murray (right)

Our most recent trip was in 2022 - The Kings 'n Queens Mini-Tour. For a complete list of parks we have visited, check out our Two Guys and a Map Ballpark Scorecard.