This coming summer a good friend and I are going on the fabled "baseball roadtrip" and seeing a game at every park. The friend wasn't a baseball guy until a year or so ago, at which point my constant nagging converted him to a Giants fan. As such, he'll probably hate me for the next couple of years. Anyway, our prior planned visit to Europe was scrapped for something infinitely better. We've been saving and planning for the better part of a year now, and the whole thing is starting to really pick up pace. Either that, or I'm just getting pumped that baseball is back on radio and TV.

I leave good ol' San Luis Obispo on the 11th of June (during finals!) to head up and meet my friend, then catch a game at Oakland. After that, we head down the coast catching the SoCal teams (enemy territory), Arizona, then back up for a wedding in Auburn and off to Seattle. From there, we hit Colorado and pretty much loop around the US. At the very end, we'll be coming back to hit a game at the Phone Booth (September 5th). Just in time to see Timmy pitch a no-no, and Schierholtz to hit his 30th homer of the year. A guy can dream, no?

In any case, we've got a bunch of things in place, so I figure I'd give you all a heads-up. We've got a little blog at www.thebaseballroadtrip.com detailing our plan and route, and a link to our facebook group as well (about 50 people so far!). We're hoping to build up a little hype about it so we can write a book chronicling our trip across America, and perhaps score a few free tickets if at all possible. I talked to a guy who has done the trip before who gave me some nice pointers on who to email, but I don't have my hopes set too high on that.

Either way, I'll have a laptop and a nice, shiny camera with me, so we'll be updating the blog often once June hits. Additionally, I'll stop in here and post some updates at the cove for you guys when I get a chance. I'll see us play at Wrigley and Turner field before we head back to SF.

We'll be using a site called CouchSurfing to crash with random people along the way to keep our costs low. It seems pretty legit, and hopefully we won't get killed along the way . If any of you displaced Giants' fans out there happen to have a room to spare for a day or two, though, let me know! If not, and you want to catch a game or just have a beer when we're in town, give me a shout! It'd be great to chat and put some names to faces. I set up an email addy for just this purpose: thebaseballroadtrip@gmail.com. Creative, I know. Finally, have any of you all done the trip before? Anyone have any tips? We're trying to cover all our bases early so we don't end up stranded in the middle of Florida with no cash; a fate far worse than death. I know there's a good travel-guide or two out there about the parks, but I figure I'll post on a few other (select) boards in towns we'll be spending a long time in.

Whew...sorry for the long post.