Eight things I learned on a four-day, five-game baseball roadtrip

In four days of traveling around the eastern United States to watch baseball, I learned many things about the game and how it is experienced.

Last week, I went on a baseball trip with a few friends. We started at a Detroit Tigers game on Monday night, then visited the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals on consecutive nights.

Going to baseball games in some of the game’s premier venues and getting to watch some of the best teams in the country was an amazing experience and one that lends itself to observation and ideas. I learned a lot on the trip; here are eight of those things.

1. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs might have the best food in the country.

In-between Detroit and Philadelphia, we decided to stop in Allentown, Penn. for a AAA game between the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and Gwinnett Braves. In addition to the chance to watch some players who are one step from the Show, Coca-Cola Park offered what they boasted to be the best food in minor league baseball. I will not disagree with them.

Being the IronPigs, many of their specialty offerings are pork-based, including pork and macaroni ‘n cheese parfaits, pulled pork grilled cheese and several different varieties of bacon and bacon-related food. Their menu is not limited to pig products, however, as they also offer Belgian waffle tacos, cheesesteaks and roasted corn on the cob. Not only is the stadium’s fare unique and tasty, it is also well-priced for ballpark food: a specialty dish, a bottomless popcorn and a drink cost about $15, far less expensive than any major league park.

2. It is possible to score on a triple play

With the game scoreless between the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, brand-new Yankee Todd Frazier hit into a triple play to end the second inning. And also give the Yanks a 1-0 lead.

With the bases loaded, Frazier grounded to short and Reds shortstop José Peraza tagged out the runner at second. Peraza then threw to first baseman Joey Votto, who tagged out Frazier at first while Matt Holliday scored from third. Didi Gregorius, who had started on second base, hesitated before trying to advance to third. Votto threw to third and caught Gregorius in a pickle, and he was run down for the third out after he left the basepath. It was the first triple play run scored since 2006.

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3. The more stats you can put on a screen, the better

Baseball is the most quantifiable sport in the United States. Everything is trackable: pitch speed, pitch location, pitch count, pitch type, what pitches batters do and don’t swing at, and that’s just pitching. Not to mention the more advanced metrics for batters and pitchers such as OBP, OPS, WAR, WHIP, etc. Those numbers, along with the large sample size of a baseball season, help us understand how good players are down to a decimal point, yet most stadiums only display a few—not very helpful—statistics: batting average, home runs and runs batted in for batters, and win-loss record and ERA for pitchers. We have so many statistics in baseball and so much screen space in the average stadium, why not display as many as possible?

The Yankees had great-looking graphics and visual effects, probably the best we saw on the whole trip, and more screen space to work with than any other park, but somehow displayed the fewest metrics of any park we visited. Having open white space on a scoreboard where you could display information that helps observers—especially fans who might not be intimately familiar with every player on the team—is baffling. The Phillies, on the other hand, made the most of their limited scoreboard space and put all kinds of numbers on-screen, including walk and strikeout percentages for batters. As someone who cares very deeply about the data side of sport, it was welcome.

4. Philadelphia might be the nation’s most well-laid out sports town

While the bustle around Yankee Stadium is something of a nightmare, Philadelphia’s stadium district is extremely well-laid-out. The Wells Fargo Center and LP Financial Field are right across the street from Citizens Bank Field, but the area is not congested with other enterprises, like bars or restaurants. The stadiums are surrounded by parking, which makes maneuverability easy and lends itself to tailgating and pre-game festivities, which many Philadelphians were indulging in when we arrived. My friends and I remarked to each other as we left how electric the atmosphere must be on a night when both the Eagles and Phillies are in town. Of course, that act of leaving was easy because of how well the district was set up; we were back on the highway headed for Washington D.C. within minutes of the game’s end.

Detroit Tigers

5. The first Lansing Lugnut is still good at baseball

I have a soft spot for my local minor league team, the Lansing Lugnuts, a single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, which is why I write about them sometimes even though they aren’t particularly important. Carlos Beltrán is one of the original Lansing Lugnuts. He was part of the team when they moved to Lansing in 1996 and was the first Lugnut to make it to the big time, where he still plies his trade with the Houston Astros. It was for that reason that there was probably no individual player I was more excited to watch during the trip than Beltrán, and he didn’t disappoint, batting two-for-four in an otherwise poor night for the Houston offense. 20 years later and the first Lugnut is not only still playing at the highest level of the game, but playing well at that level.

6. Small amenities make ballparks that much better

There are many small things that stadiums can do to make the experience better for fans aside from good baseball. At Nationals Park, a charging station gives fans the opportunity to power up their devices during the game. Some clubs advertise apps that order food from your pickup for pickup skips long lines. Playing the radio broadcast and having TV screens throughout the concourse helps fans keep up with the action even when they’re not in their seats. Little things that stadiums can do that make life easier for fans go a long way.

7. The Nationals hit a lot of home runs

The Washington Nationals tied a major-league record with five home runs in the third inning on Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers, including four in a row. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stadium so electric, despite the stadium being only half-full for a weekday noon game. Everyone recognized that they were witnessing something special, and didn’t know how it was happening.

Whether or not the rally should be credited to Bryce Harper’s vengeance for his Wednesday ejection or the pigeon that watched the whole thing from behind home plate, the Nats took held an 8-0 lead and rolled to a 15-2 win, maintaining the best record in baseball.

8. There’s no park like your home park

When I started writing about the Lions and Spartans, it became more difficult to watch them purely as a fan. I had to be more impartial, more willing to recognize the team’s flaws than someone watching through green or Honolulu blue glasses. While I loved writing about those teams—and still do—I missed being just a fan to some extent. My excitements over the teams’ successes or frustrations with their failures were tempered by my need to write a good article.

In 2016, I decided to be a Lansing Lugnuts fan so I could be “just a fan” for some team and not worry about needing to be impartial or unbiased. Since then I’ve gone to Cooley Law School Stadium in downtown Lansing for as many games as I can, and when I got home at the end of the trip I was surprised with suite tickets to a game.

I went with one of my good friends, my former English professor, who remarked that the stadium was a “nice little ballpark.” The stadium isn’t large or particularly fancy. They don’t offer many creative food options and the between-innings entertainment is fairly tame and predictable. It has the charm of an industrial Midwestern state capitol, it’s rarely busy and you can grab good seats with a general admission ticket.

Next: Tigers trade Justin Wilson and Alex Avila to Chicago Cubs

Most importantly, it’s *my* park, and it feels very much like home.