New York Mets vs. NY Yankees

Mets win 3-2 Pics
Here

 Day 1.  After
much anticipation, publicity, planning, and anxiousness, we finally went to the
first game of our 75 day, 22,000 mile, 30 stadium road trip.  As Yankee
fans, we were all geared up in Yankee jerseys, hoping they would at least win
one game for us tonight.  That didn’t happen, but we still had a great
time…

We left home today with our GPS system [we named her
Darlene], and our radar detector [named Willy], and they guided us successfully
to Shea Stadium in Queens, NY.

We did have some traffic, but we
still managed to get a decent parking space, in a wooded area, on the grass,
outside of Shea.  We got a cop to take our picture outside the stadium, then
we went in to take pictures from a lot of different angles.  Since we’ve
been to Shea already, this wasn’t a novel experience. But we still felt like we
were on a road trip, taking pictures of everything, paying attention to the
stadium architecture, nature of the fans, food, scoreboard, and field appearance.  Shea isn’t the nicest stadium, to say the least [check out
our ratings in the stats section].  But, Met fans are some of
the most knowledgeable and passionate of all baseball fans.  It pains us
to say this, but we have to give credit where credit is due.  The Mets are
also an exciting team to watch this year; the Yankees… ugh.  At least
the first home run hit for our fund [2 were hit by the way] was by a struggling
Hideki Matsui. 

Pettitte started out shaky, but calmed down to pitch a
pretty nice game.  7 innings, 3 runs… you would expect a $200 million
team to be able to score enough to give him the win.  Oliver Perez thought
otherwise, as Neal said throughout "they make all lefties look like Sandy
Koufax this year." He got the win after going 7 2/3 innings and only
giving up 5 hits and 2 runs.

We sat directly behind home plate, but it was the second
to last row in the whole stadium.  Nice perspective, but still very far…
so we moved in the middle of the 6th. We went to sit with Alon’s cousin David
Mass. Since we were keeping score [and we will do this every game, along with
getting a beer, eating a hot dog, buying a program, and a sticker for our
sign], we needed to run down so that we didn’t miss a pitch… but since Shea
stadium is so confusing, we ended up having to run all the way down to the
ground level, and then come back up to the loge level.  This impacted its
architectural ratings, as you will see… and we unfortunately missed one
batter.  At least we got some good exercise. 

The game was great, from a baseball standpoint, though it
was extremely short [thankfully, since it was frigid outside]… 2 hours, 18
minutes.  56,337 people in attendance [98.1% full]. 

After the game, we got out pretty quickly, which was good
considering the attendance.  We stopped off at Shop Rite to get a cooler
and beer for tomorrow’s Preakness Stakes at  Pimlico Park, in Baltimore, MD.  See you all there!

WWW.MLBRoadTrip2007.com for more details!

Neal and I came up with the idea of taking a baseball road trip nearly 6 years ago.  It was at first a far-fetched dream, but we never lost sight of our goals, and we finally decided to go on the trip this summer.  First and foremost, our plan is to attend a major league baseball game at each of the 30 MLB stadiums in the USA and Canada. In addition, we plan to visit numerous national parks, and enjoy the unmatched beauty that exists throughout our great country. However, we want to make this trip more than just something fun for the two of us. Thats why we decided to create the Home Run Fund, an idea designed to combine baseball with raising funds for charity.

Working along with local chapters of the American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities [RBI] organization, we have developed a way to raise funds for good causes throughout the course of our trip.  Our idea is that our sponsors [family, friends, companies, even strangers] will pledge an amount of money to contribute for every home run that we see on our trip [comprised of 30 games].  Contributors also get the option of donating a fixed amount of money, if they choose.

Please view the charity page on our website.  The downloadable donation form explains more specifically the details of our charity idea.  The address is: Www.MLBRoadtrip2007.com/charity.html

Download online_charity_form.doc

Allow me also to introduce Neal and me so you can get a sense of who we are and what we represent.  We have both lived in Suffern, NY for the entirety of our lives.  I am currently a junior at Cornell University.  I am concentrating my studies on Neurobiology and Behavior, with a minor in Applied Economics and Management, and plan to attend medical school after I graduate.  I have had a passion for baseball all my life, as well as traveling, photography, and learning about the world.  Neal Koral is currently a senior at Indiana University, majoring in accounting.  Neal also has a deep passion for baseball and all other sports.  Back in the summer of 2004, he was fortunate enough to intern for the New Jersey Cardinals, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals where his main duties revolved around daily ticket operations.

We will be updating our site and this blog every day of our trip with pictures, stories and stats.  Come back and visit daily for exciting news!!