Road trip duo doing all 30 MLB parks

From the email box comes news of two fellas.. Neal Koral and Alon Mass, who are in the midst of a 22,000 trip by car to every Major League Baseball venue, and are also raising moneys for various charities including the Make A Wiah Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the RBI Program.

In checking out their schedule, turns out the guys are in our region today, visiting Niagara Falls enroute to the Rogers Centre in Toronto. We would have liked to give them a shout and hook up, but with Pete moving into his new house in Amherst and me wrapped up in Cheektowaga Democratic Party affairs, free time is at a premium this week.

Check out their website. And we send them our best wishes for a successful journey and great adventures!

Cubs to Vero Beach... yeah, right.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers slated to leave Dodgertown after the 2008 Spring Training season for a new headquarters in Goodyear, Arizona, the folks in Vero Beach will be scrambling for a new tenant.

But the Chicago Cubs?

So says TCPalm columnist Russ Lemmon in this article, which he must have jotted down after waking up from some wet dream of his.

Ain't happenin'... and here's why. The Cubs are the flagship franchise of Arizona's Cactus League. They regularly are the spring attendance leaders, the top revenue producers, and with easy non stop air service between Chicago and Phoenix, have been a huge tourist draw for Windy City snowbirds. Getting to Vero Beach by air is far more cumbersome.

The Cubs will be staying put at Ho Ho Kam Park in Mesa, in my humble opinion. As for Holman Stadium in Dodgertown, they might be able to attract the Milwaukee Brewers, now based at the Maryvale Baseball park in Phoenix, or even the Cincinnati Reds, whose attempts to upgrade their venue in Sarasota have been one disaster after the next.

As for us, we've got a 2008 USRT visit to Dodgertown right on our road trip schedule. It will be a combo NCAA basketball subregional at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum, and stops to a few baseball parks, Vero Beach being among them.

The greatest stadium ever built?

Those who will be attending the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea at the new Wembley Stadium in London will be the judge of that. This stadium will final open its doors after much controversy, delay after delay and cost overruns.

More info here from The Independent in the U.K.

A USRT journey to the United Kingdom has been bandied about from time to time. Wembley Stadium would certainly be the marquee event.

Reporting in from Pittsburgh... Sabres at Penguins tonight

It is a gorgeous 83 degree sunny day here in the 'Burgh... we're enjoying every bit of it and now sitting in our pressbox chairs high up in the rafters at Mellon Arena. Puck will drop in 15 minutes!


This is a photo of the remnants of the actual outfield wall of Forbes Field, once home of the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates... you can find this on the University of Pittsburgh campus.


Our good friend Kevin Dale, a/k/a the "Booted One", was in town on business so he hooked up with us before the game for some beer and wings at a pub near Mellon Arena.


These buildings across the street from Mellon Arena will be coming down very soon to make room for construction of the new Pittsburgh Arena, set to open in October, 2009.


A bird's eye view from the Mellon Arena pressbox!

Yum! Yum! Pittsburgh's Primanti Brothers Sandwich!

Sourdough bread... your choice of meat... cheese...cole slaw... and french fries... ALL PILED ON THE BREAD!

A tried and true Pittsburgh thing... we stopped in to their flagship restaurant in The Strip to enjoy lunch.

The USRT is heading to the 'Burgh!

Road Trip! Road Trip!

We're traveling down to Pittsburgh tomorrow... just a day trip. Lunch at Primanti's in the Strip; a visit to the University of Pittsburgh campus to get some shots and walk around; a glimpse of the site of the new Pittsburgh hockey arena. And then across the street to the Igloo... The puck drops for the Sabres and the Penguins at 7:05pm.

Assuming we're wi-fied, we'll be posting updates and instant photos right from the arena.

Washington Nationals new ballpark on schedule for 2008

Coming out of DC is this report stating that the new ballpark for the Washington Nationals, located on the banks of the Anacostia River, is on schedule and on budget.

The new venue, with the working title of "Nationals Ballpark" (you know that corporate moniker is coming!) will open in April of 2008. And of course this visit is firmly on the USRT radar screen!

Oy vey! It's time to "Play Ball" in Israel

Coming to six cities in Israel - Tel Aviv, Bet Shemish, Modi'in, Ra'anana, Netanya and Petach Tikva, is the new Israel Baseball League, which is set to take the field come June 24.

The fledgling league has more than a healthy dose of involvement from former MLB players and executives, and is being run by former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette.

Our longest USRT excursion ever was to Honolulu for the Pro Bowl, and that was 4680 miles. Buffalo to Tel Aviv is 5792 miles. USRT to Israel??? Hmmm..... nah!!!!

NCAA 2007 Buffalo... NCAA 2008?... Tampa!!!

By now we're counting down the days to the big event here at HSBC Arena. So today we're thinking, just where is the tournament going next year?

So away we go to the NCAA website and lo and behold! A subregional next year at the St. Pete Times Forum in downtown Tampa!

Yep... another pigout of NCAA college hoops... some Grapefruit League baseball games, including a must visit to the last season at Dodgertown at Vero Beach. 80 degrees and sunny.... yeah baby!

So it's a no brainer. We've just added that trip to the Ultimate Sports Road Trip schedule.