Sports Travel and Tours Offers Trip in June 2020

HATFIELD, MASS—Baseball fans who like to travel can watch the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Chicago Cubs in London this summer on a trip with Sports Travel and Tours from Thursday, June 11 to Monday, June 15.

The adventure kicks off with a reception and Ump’s Eye View talk with retired MLB umpire Al Clark. After 26 years behind the plate, Clark entertains fans with stories—such as what it was like to officiate at Nolan Ryan’s 300th win or Cal Ripken’s record-breaker.

Travelers will stay at the Hard Rock Hotel London at Hyde Park, featuring memorabilia and artwork in every bedroom that pays tribute to former residents such as Jimi Hendrix, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, and Buddy Holly. The hotel is also a short walk from shopping on Oxford Street, which is an option on Friday through Sunday, when guests will have leisure time to explore outside of attending the two matchups at the former Olympic Stadium. 

Travelers who want to explore even further afield will be pleased that everyone will receive a ticket for a hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus as well as an Oyster Card to access London’s trains.

“We plan for a lot of free time, which allows everyone to do what they want with these passes,” Clark said. A concierge who runs his own tour company in London will help in planning destinations.

For baseball fans, Clarke said, there is arguably no greater rivalry than the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Last July, Sports Travel and Tours took fans to experience that match-up in London, and, on the same day, viewed a Vincent van Gogh exhibition at the Tate Britain Art Museum.

Clark, a retired American league and Major League Baseball umpire who frequently has a role on Sports Travel and Tours trips as a speaker or guide, led last year’s baseball in London adventure. He said fans had a diverse experience that included taking in all London has to offer and dining on authentic pub food like fish and chips and shepherd’s pie.

Though MLB games have been played in Mexico, Puerto Rico and even Japan, last year marked the first time the bases were run across the Atlantic; 38 Sports Travel and Tours guests witnessed the occasion. 

Clark is excited about June’s pairing of the Cardinals and Cubs. “Sports Travel and Tours President Jay Smith leaves no stone unturned when it comes to providing for the traveler,” Clark said. “Whenever he sees something new that could enhance a baseball fan’s experience, Jay will research it and make it happen.”

Last year’s trip was memorable, Clark said. 

“It was absolutely tremendous to go to London to see the Yankees and the Red Sox play at a venue other than Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park,” he said. “It was just so different. It was exciting for the fans and for Americans living in London, who got to see the best baseball rivalry in the country—outside the country.”

Learn more about Baseball in London: Cubs and Cardinals.

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Hatfield-based firm is the official travel company of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

HATFIELD—As the days start to grow longer once again, many sports fans set their sights on the upcoming baseball season, mapping out how to get to the most anticipated match-ups and crossing stadiums off their bucket lists. That’s where Sports Travel and Tours enters the picture.

The Hatfield-based company regularly offers baseball trips from June to August, including several travel packages that take guests to witness the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y.

“Sports Travel and Tours takes the hassle out of travel,” Sports Travel and Tours President Jay Smith said. “All hotel accommodations, transportation and scheduling are taken care of, leaving the guest to focus on having a good time and making memories that last a lifetime.”

Smith founded Sports Travel and Tours in 1996. Its mission is to offer trip options to sports fans so they can attend games and other events across the United States and Canada. Smith and his staff have successfully worked with tens of thousands of travelers while fulfilling dreams and “bucket lists” worldwide.

Sports Travel and Tours has been the official travel company of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since 2007. The firm celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016.

Sports Travel and Tours offers trips for baseball fans that take them to all 30 major league stadiums as well as many minor league stadiums. The company also has its own Stadium Hall of Fame to honor travelers who make it to all 30 parks. There is an induction ceremony for them at Cooperstown every four years; the next one will be in 2021.

Baseball isn’t the only sport fans can take in through the company’s travel packages. Sports Travel and Tours offers themed excursions for fans of basketball, football, golf, hockey, horse racing, rodeo and soccer.

While many of the company’s travel packages feature destinations within the United States, Sports Travel and Tours has also branched out to offer international travel packages, including a March trip to Japan that features tickets to baseball games and sumo wrestling matches, and a football-themed trip to Dublin, Ireland, in August 2020.

Then there’s the Flexible Independent Travel (FIT) program, which allows travelers to customize a self-guided getaway to fit their budget, time and interests. All of Sports Travel and Tours’ offerings support a goal of helping travelers see any game, at any place, at any time.

“Our staff makes this happen through hard work, commitment to excellence and a strong desire to please our customers through whatever means necessary,” Smith said. “We love sports and the challenge of putting you together with whatever sporting event you may be interested in.”

For more information about Sports Travel and Tours, visit the company’s website at sportstravelandtours.com or call 800-662-4424.

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Sports Travel and Tours of Hatfield has served as the official licensed travel company for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for 12 years

HATFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS—Several years after launching Sports Travel and Tours, Jay Smith took a group of baseball fans to the induction ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time. He had 15 travelers. No one at the Hall of Fame knew his name or had familiarity with his Hatfield-based business.

Smith was determined to change that scenario.

Seeing the opportunity to collaborate with the acclaimed organization, he brought his idea to its leadership. “I remember seeing that we were a round peg and a round hole,” Smith said. “A perfect fit. I went to the guy who was then the director of sales, and I said, ‘I’m not leaving this planet until Sports Travel and Tours is the official travel company of the Hall of Fame.”

It took a few years, but Smith finally won the hall’s leaders over. In June 2007, Sports Travel and Tours was named the official licensed travel company for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Since then, when the phone sounds at Sports Travel and Tours and the ring has a particular sound, staff knows the call is coming in from 888-310-HALL, the only dedicated line that the Hall of Fame offers to anyone interested in a baseball travel package.

In today’s online era, there are also multiple links directly from the Hall of Fame site to Sports Travel and Tours’ induction packages.

What the Hall of Fame gets out of the arrangement is vastly increased memberships, Smith said, as well as efficient, organized and convenient access for guests. “You have people who love baseball. We take them to stadiums and make their travel easier,” Smith said.

Last year, Sports Travel and Tours took roughly 1,000 fans to the Hall of Fame; they experienced all the perks the partnership now offers, such as skirting interminably long lines to get in the museum and VIP seating at the induction ceremony for certain programs.  

This year, the business is offering 10 different packages, from the most basic Induction Weekend–Base Hit package to nine other selections that offer increasing add-ons to enhance the experience of getting out to see the six 2019 inductees. Mariano Rivera, Major League Baseball’s all-time leader in saves, pitchers Mike Mussina and the late Roy Halladay, and designated hitter / third baseman Edgar Martinez, were all elected by the Baseball Writers, while Lee Smith and Harold Baines were elected via the Today’s Game Committee.

Smith said his staff meets quarterly on the telephone with staff from the Hall of Fame. In a call February, the partnership was renewed for four more years. “I thanked them for continuing the partnership,” he said. “One of their vice presidents said, ‘Jay, you guys outshine every other official licensee that we work with. You’re not even in the same ballpark as anyone else. You rise so far above.”

Sean Gahagan, the vice president of retail merchandising and licensing at the Hall of Fame, said the biggest positive in working with Sports Travel and Tours is the total commitment to excellent customer service.

“Sports Travel and Tours goes above and beyond, paying attention to the smallest details to ensure that our visitors have a great experience on their trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum,” Gahagan said. “Every member of the Sports Travel and Tours staff has a passion for what they do. You can tell they really love their work, and it shows in the way they treat their customers.”

Smith said Sports Travel and Tours continually tries to improve its programming and services.

For instance, in years past, VIP seating was not offered as part of any package deal. Now, Sports Travel and Tours can choose between packages that include the VIP section seats—near players’ families and team dignitaries—or those in the general seating area.

Sports Travel and Tours arrives at the Hall of Fame a few days in advance to set up 500-800 chairs on the field where the induction takes place. “We are the only company that is permitted to do that,” Smith said. “Everyone else generally sets up behind us.”

Also, all travelers with Sports Travel and Tours receive a lanyard that allows access to an alternate entrance to the museum, which means they can avoid waiting an hour or two in line to buy a ticket.

Our travelers also arrive by bus and get dropped off in front of the museum; individuals must park in a lot several miles away and wait for the shuttle into Cooperstown.

In the first year of the Hall of Fame partnership, Smith said the numbers jumped up near to 1,000 travelers, but that was because two iconic players were inducted that year—Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. In the years following, the numbers were closer to 100 to 200. “Now, we are consistently upwards of 700 to 1,000 per year, depending on who the inductees are,” Smith said.

He adds that 700 people are already registered for the induction in 2020, even though the players won’t be announced until next year, and there is no programming yet.

“The partnership has opened doors for us,” Smith said.

He adds that the recognition his team received in February, and fulfilling the organization’s mission, means more to him than the increased sales. “Yes, there is a financial reward, but it’s a fascinating feeling to take travelers to the Hall of Fame and know you were a part of fueling someone’s passion. We’re hitting people in their souls. We bring joy to people.”

Fred White, of Temecula, Calif., and his wife, Kathy, appreciate the convenience of traveling with Sports Travel and Tours and have been on many adventures, including multiple induction ceremonies.

Over the years, the Whites have met sports stars—like former San Diego Padres pitcher Randy Jones and his wife, Marie Stassi, whom they spoke with in Cooperstown about his baseball career and battle with throat cancer—and they’ve also come to know the travel company’s guides.

“The thing that really catches me off guard is the knowledge of the guides,” White said, adding, “The staff make us feel welcome and like a part of the organization. That’s something you don’t find very often.”

Learn more about Sports Travel and Tours.

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Sports Travel and Tours offers travel packages to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for its 2019 Induction Ceremonies

HATFIELD, MASS—The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has announced four inductees for 2019, including the first to be elected by a unanimous vote of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The four latest inductees join two that were chosen in December 2018 by the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee. Their picks were Harold Baines and Lee Smith.

If you’re a diehard fan of any of these six players, you’re probably already thinking about how you’re going to get to the Sunday, July 21 induction ceremony. Sports Travel and Tours, a sports travel agency based in Hatfield, Massachusetts, has got you covered, offering 10 different travel packages so you can customize your weekend to fit your budget, schedule and interests.

Sports Travel and Tours’ selection of travel packages starts with the Induction Weekend – Base Hit package, and the nine other selections offer add-ons that enhance the experience of getting out to see these four 2019 inductees: Mariano Rivera, Major League Baseball’s all-time leader in saves, who was named on all 425 ballots cast in the 2019 Hall of Fame voting; pitchers Mike Mussina and the late Roy Halladay; and designated hitter / third baseman Edgar Martinez.

Rivera, 49, spent all 19 of his major-league seasons with the New York Yankees. He played a key role in earning the team five World Series championships and set career records in saves and games finished. A 13-time All-Star, Rivera was the last player to wear uniform Number 42, which was retired in honor of Jackie Robinson in 1997.

Mussina, 50, played 18 combined seasons with the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles and finished with 270 wins and a .638 winning percentage. At 39, he became the oldest pitcher to record a 20-victory season for the first time.

Halladay was killed piloting an aircraft in 2017 at the age of 40. He played for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies. He will be the sixth player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously. Among pitchers active since 1998, Halladay’s 67 complete games are the most in the majors, 13 more than runner-up Randy Johnson.

Martinez, 56, won batting titles in 1992 and 1995 with the Seattle Mariners, the only team he played on for over 18 seasons. He ranks as the Mariners’ all-time leader in runs, runs batted in, doubles, walks, extra-base hits and total bases.

Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season. Smith began with the Cubs and went on to record 478 saves while Baines started out with the White Sox and had 2,866 hits. Smith held the major league record for saves when he retired.

Whether you’re a fan of one of these stellar players or you simply want to experience an induction ceremony, Sports Travel and Tours has the trip for you.

With the Base Hit package, guests arrive in Albany on Friday, July 19 for an evening trip reception at the Hampton Inn & Suites Albany-Downtown, where you will stay for two nights.

Saturday’s festivities include watching the presentation of the Ford C. Frick and J.G. Taylor Spink awards at historic Doubleday Field, and seeing the Parade of Legends make its way through downtown Cooperstown. See current Hall of Famers and the 2019 class of inductees in the flesh!

This year’s award winners have already been announced, with Philadelphia native Jayson Stark earning the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for his contributions to baseball writing. Stark has covered sports for the Providence Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, ESPN, The Athletic, the MLB Network and Stadium TV. The 43rd Ford C. Frick Award is being given to Al Helfer, a mainstay in broadcast booths across the country for four decades and the play-by-play voice of Mutual’s Game of the Day.

The travel package includes admission to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on both Saturday and Sunday. Learn about baseball’s past and beginnings through the museum’s three-story timeline that features just under 40,000 three-dimensional items, three million books and documents and 500,000 photographs. The museum’s Plaque Gallery serves as the centerpiece, commemorating the sport’s finest players, managers, umpires and executives.

The induction ceremony will be held on Sunday, with sports fans gathering at the Clark Sports Center. It will be followed by a boxed lunch, and Sports Travel and Tours has daily breakfasts covered, too. As always, travel from the airport to the hotel and to all events is included, along with a Baseball Hall of Fame membership, a trip souvenir and 24-hour trip assistance.

One of the optional trip add-ons is “Ump’s Eye View: An Inside Look into Baseball,” featuring retired major league umpire Al Clark. Hear about baseball’s behind-the-scenes world and ask questions during Clark’s presentation at the Hall of Fame’s Bullpen Theater.

Other travel packages include:

• Induction Weekend – Extra Innings, which adds another night’s hotel stay and admission to the Legends of the Game Roundtable, where the Hall of Fame’s new inductees will reminisce with fans at Doubleday Field.
• Induction Weekend – Bases Loaded, which has all the features of Induction Weekend – Extra Winnings, but with admission to Clark’s “Ump’s Eve View” presentation factored in. Plus, guests receive upgraded seating at the induction ceremony, nestled in with the media, players’ families and major league VIPs.
• Induction Weekend – Infield, combining all the features of the Base Hit package but upgrading guests’ hotel accommodations to the Albany Marriott. This package also includes admission to “Ump’s Eye View” and upgraded induction ceremony seating.
• Induction Weekend – Home Run, which includes all the features of Infield while adding another night’s hotel stay and admission to the Legends of the Game Roundtable. Guests also receive a baseball signed by one member of the Hall of Fame’s incoming class.
• Induction Weekend – Grand Slam, which shifts the hotel once again, this time to the Courtyard by Marriott Oneonta Cooperstown Area (for a three-night stay). This package has a little bit of everything, building off the Base Hit package with admission to “Ump’s Eye View” and the Legends of the Game Roundtable, plus upgraded induction ceremony seating and a private program at the Baseball Hall of Fame called Artifact Spotlight, where guests can get an up-close look at artifacts not currently on display. As with the Home Run package, guests get a signed baseball, too.
• Induction Weekend – Base Hit Casino, which—as the name implies—is equivalent to the Base Hit package but with accommodations at Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. Guests also receive a $40 free play coupon, per night, to be used at the casino.
• Induction Weekend – Extra Innings Casino, which adds another night’s stay and admission to the Legends of the Game Roundtable onto the Base Hit Casino package.
• Induction Weekend – Infield Casino, adding upgraded induction ceremony seating onto the Base Hit Casino package.
• And lastly, Induction Plus, a six-day travel package that builds on the Base Hit but offers different hotel accommodations, with admission to the Legends of the Game Roundtable and “Ump’s Eye View,” along with three days spent exploring New York City and enjoying two Yankees’ games.

To learn more about Sports Travel and Tours’ induction weekend travel packages or to book a trip, call 800-662-4424.

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HATFIELD, MASS—Cindy Christen can’t remember a summer in which she didn’t spend time at a baseball stadium. Her father played amateur baseball while Christen was growing up in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. “I pretty much grew up in a ballpark,” she said. “My parents’ honeymoon was even spent at a ballpark because my dad had a baseball tournament.”

Christen, who still lives in Saint Cloud and follows the Minnesota Twins, is now a devoted Sports Travel and Tours traveler who hopes to visit all 30 major league stadiums to earn induction into the Stadium Hall of Fame.

“I’ve always wanted to tour the stadiums,” Christen said. “My dad, who played baseball into his 40s, passed away 18 years ago. He would have loved to see all the stadiums, so I’m kind of doing it for him and me both.”

Jim Athmann, who was inducted into the Stadium Hall of Fame in July 2017, introduced Christen to Sports Travel and Tours, and since then, she’s been traveling with friends, starting with a trip to Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Miami.

“Sports Travel and Tours takes care of everything for you,” Christen said. “You just get on the bus and go, without having to think about planning. When we get to the stadium, we always have great seats, and the tour guides provide plenty of background information about the parks.”

This year, Christen enjoyed the Triple Header travel package, on which she and her friend, Judy, visited stadiums in Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. Christen especially wanted to see PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“Pittsburgh was a beautiful park,” she said. “Comerica Park in Detroit was also beautiful, which was a surprise to me because Minnesota Twins fans love to hate Detroit. But for the day, I rooted for the Tigers and wore my Detroit shirt.”

Aside from the games, Christen also enjoys the side trips. While on the Triple Header, Christen and Judy visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

“From the baseball games to the side trips, everything is well organized,” Christen said. “Our accommodations are fabulous, and the Sports Travel and Tours staff is willing to help you with anything you need.”

With only two baseball stadiums left before she has visited all 30, Christen hopes to visit the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in 2019 and Rogers Centre in Toronto in 2020. By then, she’ll have 30 hats and visors, given that she buys one at each stadium she visits.

Christen won’t be alone when she makes it to Toronto, though. Her three sons—ages 19, 24, and 27—are hoping to accompany her as she checks off the last ballpark on her list. She hopes at least one of them would then also be able to attend her induction in the Sport Travel and Tours Stadium Hall of Fame.

“Looking toward the future gives them some time to plan to get there with me,” Christen said. “If they can make it to the induction, that is fabulous too. They think it’s pretty cool what I’m doing.”

Learn more about Sports Travel and Tours.

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HATFIELD, MASS—It may be football and hockey season now, but it’s already time to start thinking about the 2019 baseball season because Sports Travel and Tours, a sports travel agency, developed and announced their line-up of adventures!

Featuring classics like Windy City Plus and Central Express, Sports Travel and Tours’ season next year will also hold some newer trip options such as Ocean, Desert, Mountains and a Major-Minor Northeast trip that will make a stop at their offices in Hatfield, Massachusetts.

There are 18 travel packages in total next year, and they begin on June 6, 2019, and end with a trip that begins August 10, 2019. These treks will take baseball fans across the country for games, stadium tours, and sightseeing.

Among the classic trips back by popular demand are the East Coast Classic, which includes four stadium tours and city tours of Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. View photographs, documents, and artifacts at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, check out the historic Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and get up close to the action at six different games.

As always, Sports Travel and Tours is eager to help travelers make it to the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony on July 21, 2019, as well as all the festivities that come with it, like the Parade of Legends through Cooperstown, New York, and the Legends of the Game Roundtable at Doubleday Field. The Induction Plus and Eastern Loop tour packages are your ticket there!

The ever-popular Major Minor trip is back, too, but after a year spent exploring the West Coast, it’s coming to the Northeast, featuring stops in all six New England states to see six minor league games and one major league game at Fenway Stadium. New features include a visit to the elegant Newport Mansions, and a barbecue at Sport Travel and Tours’ home base in Hatfield, giving travelers a chance to put faces to the names and voices they’ve heard over the phone.

A brand new trip that’s on the roster is Ocean, Desert, Mountains, which centers on Southern California cities along with Phoenix and Denver. Tour Dodger Stadium, baseball’s third-oldest stadium and one of the game’s most beautiful, plus explore San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and enjoy six games.

Other baseball travel packages, in order of date, include:

• Triple Play, featuring stops at Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field, as well as two stadium tours.
• Stars and Stripes, which includes a Washington, D.C., city tour and a stop at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore.
• Southerner, taking fans on a five-day getaway to Florida and Georgia’s baseball destinations.
• Southern Swing, adding four more days onto the shorter Southerner trip and taking guests to enjoy the sport and attractions deep in the heart of Texas.
• Texas Two Step, on which travelers can explore Houston, Texas, including the Space Center, and learn the history of the livestock industry at the Fort Worth Stockyards.
• Central Express, featuring seven games, time to check out the St. Louis Ballpark Village dining and entertainment district surrounding Busch Stadium, and a tour of historic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.
• Mid-Western, a shorter version of Central Express that ends with a game at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Windy City Plus, a brief four-day jaunt centered around, of course, Chicago.
• Four Bagger, which includes tours of Baltimore’s Camden Yards and Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, plus a stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to see the Liberty Bell.
• SoCal, taking visitors to all three of Southern California’s stadiums—Petco Park, Angel Stadium, and Dodger Stadium.
• West Coast Classic, a 10-day excursion from San Diego up to Seattle that includes seven games and a tour of Los Angeles, California.
• Northerner, a shorter version of the West Coast Classic that starts in San Francisco and includes four games.
• And lastly, The Lakes, the only trip on the list that takes travelers to Toronto for a Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre, originally called the SkyDome.

Learn more about Sports Travel and Tours.

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HATFIELD, MASS—When Jim Mathis was growing up in Wichita, Kansas, summer meant baseball.

He was a boy who ran out to get the newspaper each morning in 1949, anxious to see how close Ralph Kiner was to beating Babe Ruth’s homerun record. Mathis lived only three miles from a minor league stadium and took advantage of every opportunity to watch games with his dad as a young boy and, later, with his friends. Mathis also played ball himself, participating in little league, American Legion ball, and on his high school team.

Mathis went on his first Sports Travel and Tours baseball trip in 1994 with his wife, Barbara, after reading an article about baseball tours in the Kansas City Star. Now a 79-year-old resident of Leavenworth, Kansas, Mathis has fond memories of his past four trips and eagerly looks forward to the next.

“It’s a no-hassle adventure,” Mathis said. “You stay in a first-class hotel. You get on a bus and go to games.”

Mathis remembers all his trips vividly. The first included stops in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, and Toronto, ending with two games at the SkyDome, now known as the Rogers Centre. In 1997, the Mathises took a similar trip, featuring games in Detroit, Toronto, and Boston, with a visit to the home of baseball, Cooperstown, New York. The couple also saw a Montreal Expos game before the team moved to Washington, DC, in 2004.

Traveling on his own in 2000, Mathis saw games in Arizona, San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco. This year, Mathis got back in the Sports Travel and Tours game on the East Coast Classic trip guided by John Warner. It began in DC, a city with personal significance to Mathis. “At one time, I could say I’d been to every city that had a major league park,” he said. “But then Montreal moved to Washington, and I’d never been to Washington.”

Having checked the East Coast Classic off his Sports Travel and Tours’ bucket list, Mathis can now say, once again, he’s visited every city with a major league park. In fact, he’s been to 39 ballparks.

Though Mathis had been to many of the featured stadiums before he connected with Sports Travel and Tours, that didn’t make the East Coast Classic adventure less exciting for him. In Baltimore, he toured the locker rooms and press box at Camden Yards, saw the statue of Brooks Robinson, and toured the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum, a fan favorite for the travelers. And during the tour of Yankee Stadium, he had his photo taken in the dugout, visited the New York Yankees Museum, and viewed the monuments.

His favorite part of the trip was meeting retired major league umpire Al Clark, who offered a talk about his career and experiences. “He remembered a four-game minor league series in my hometown,” Mathis recalled. “Al felt sorry for the umpire behind the plate because a fan was cussing him out over every play he made. The next night, when Al was umpire, the same fan was there, and the same thing happened. After the second inning, Al walked over to the fan and said, ‘I understand you don’t like my calls.’ Then Al asked the fan about the woman with him, which was his wife. Al said, ‘She’s not as good looking as the woman you had with you last night.’”

That quieted the heckler down.

As is the case with all Sports Travel and Tours trips, Mathis made a fast friend on the East Coast Classic tour. He and another devoted baseball fan, Brian Goddard of Joliet, Illinois, have been corresponding since to plan the next adventure. “He’s talking about taking a Sports Travel and Tours trip to the West Coast, possibly next year,” Mathis said. “If everything works out, I’m eager to join him.”

Learn more about Sports Travel and Tours.

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HATFIELD, MASS—It’s not often that Sports Travel and Tours travelers get to see the sports travel company’s home base, nestled in an all-New-England kind of town in western Massachusetts with roughly 3,000 residents. But that’s exactly what’s going to happen in June as part of 2019’s Major Minor Northeast tour.

Since 2011, tour guide Gary Laprade has been working alongside Sports Travel and Tours Founder Jay Smith to create trips that incorporate stops at both major and minor league ballparks. After guiding a Major Minor tour on the West Coast last year from Seattle, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, Laprade and Smith will bring this year’s trip back east with stops in all six New England states, starting and ending in Boston.

“A lot of people come to see Boston, but they don’t see the rest of New England, so we put this trip together to cover more ground,” Laprade said. “We’re at the mercy of the schedule of the teams because we want a nice flow where we’re not on the road too much.”

Laprade and Smith considered starting the trip in Burlington, Vermont, but decided it would be easier for guests to fly into Boston. A trip reception will kick off on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, giving returning guests a chance to reconnect as well as meet new travelers.

“This is the eighth year of Major Minor, and we’ve developed a core group of 20 to 25 people, so I expect there will be some regular faces,” said Laprade, who has been a tour guide with Sports Travel and Tours since the 1990s, back when it was called Sports Tours. “Meeting new people is always great, but it’s also nice to reconnect with people I’ve met before. It’s our little family.”

Laprade, who is a retired postal employee, lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and works part-time jobs as a middle school crossing guard and at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. He knows well how to incorporate travel with Sports Travel and Tours into a family experience. His 25-year-old son, Tim Haggerty, helped him lead the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Induction trip this year.

Many of the Major Minor travelers are Sports Travel and Tours Stadium Hall of Famers who have visited all 30 major league ballparks and are searching for a new challenge, Laprade said. Guests see parts of the country they wouldn’t see on our regular trips, such as Burlington, Vermont, the second stop on the Major Minor Northeast tour.

Over the past seven years, Laprade said Major Minor travelers have visited 27 minor league parks.

In Burlington on Wednesday, guests will go to a game between the Vermont Lake Monsters and the Hudson Valley Renegades at Centennial Field before heading south to Hartford, Connecticut, on Thursday for a game between the Hartford Yard Goats and the Bowie Baysox at Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Hotel accommodations for Thursday and Friday will be in Springfield, allowing Laprade to stay close to the Basketball Hall of Fame, one of Friday’s destinations.

Laprade will be right at home there as he shows guests more than 40,000 square feet of basketball history. Next stop, Sports Travel and Tours’ offices in Hatfield!

“We’ll have a barbecue at the office,” Laprade said. “Everybody will get to know the people they’ve only talked with on the phone—in person.”

Then it’s off to Norwich, Connecticut, for a game between the Connecticut Tigers and the Lowell Spinners at Dodd Stadium. In addition to a Pawtucket Red Sox game on Saturday against the Indianapolis Indians in Newport, Rhode Island, guests will also witness the exceptional elegance and stunning architecture of the Newport Mansions.

“Seeing the mansions in Newport this year is the equivalent of visiting Cannon Beach in Oregon, which was featured in the movie ‘The Goonies,’” Laprade explained. “That was one of the side attractions for our West Coast version of the Major Minor trip last year.”

After spending the night in Rhode Island, it’s time to head north for two more minor league games, both involving the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, who will take on Trenton Thunder at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Sunday, and the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field in Portland, Maine, on Monday.

Guests have plenty of time to experience Portland, as well as the nearby coastal town of Kennebunkport, with both a city tour and leisure time. Take your pick of lighthouse tours and whale watches, or enjoy the lobster that Maine is known for.

The trip’s final day of events, Tuesday, June 25, 2019, marks a return to Boston for the one major league game of the Major Minor Northeast tour. It’s a pairing of the Sox, when the 2018 World Champion Boston Red Sox take on the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park, the cherry on top of the otherwise minor league baseball experience.

Learn more about the Major Minor Northeast travel package.

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HATFIELD, MASS—For about 10 years, a brochure highlighting Sports Travel and Tours’ baseball-themed travel packages kept showing up on Manual “Manny” Cotla’s doorstep in South San Francisco, California. Colta would simply tuck the brochure aside, too busy caring for his two daughters to think seriously about a baseball getaway.

In 2018, Colta, now 58, realized his travel dreams with Sports Travel and Tours, a sports travel agency based out of Hatfield, Massachusetts. With his 21- and 25-year-old daughters both in college, Colta booked himself the Four Bagger package, bringing his oldest daughter, Amanda, and three of his friends along.

“Amanda and I had been talking about going to Cooperstown, New York, and I told her about the brochure and the Four Bagger,” he said. “For years, I’d been looking at it and wanting to do a trip, so we got on board a year ahead of time and started saving to go.”

What Colta appreciated most was the ability to sit back and relax while visiting New York City, Cooperstown, and Boston, checking out three stadiums along the way.

“It’s so nice that you don’t have to worry about parking a car or driving in a big city,” he said. “You can just relax on the bus. That’s the great part of it. Plus, there’s so much useful information, frequent stops, and side trips. It’s worth every penny.”

Aside from watching games at the major league stadiums, Colta and his daughter spent time together exploring each city, visiting New York’s Central Park and the 9/11 memorial, walking Boston’s Liberty Trail, and watching a play on Broadway.

“It was really cool to see the East Coast in the summertime,” he said.

Colta grew up on the West Coast and had never seen East Coast baseball stadiums before the Four Bagger tour. Visiting Busch Stadium and the former Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome when one of his girls was playing a tournament in St. Louis was the closest he had come.

Still, baseball had always been a big part of Colta’s life. He coached little league before his girls were born and had season tickets to see the San Francisco Giants. Given his love for this American pastime, Colta had a goal in mind.

“I want to see all the stadiums before they tear them down and rebuild them,” he said. So far, Colta had seen 14 stadiums by traveling independently, and another three on his first Sports Travel and Tours trip this year.

Amanda Colta had joined her dad in his goal, and the two already have their sights set on a 2020 Sports Travel and Tours trip to see stadiums in Toronto, Detroit, and Cleveland.

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HATFIELD, MASS—Chad Supranowicz was a third grader in 2007, when his mother, Stacie Weldon, gave him a map of the country for Christmas. Rather than highlighting state capitals, it featured the 30 major league baseball stadiums in the United States. The gift came with pushpins in three colors, so Supranowicz could mark parks he and his mother had visited, parks they wanted to visit, and parks they wanted to go to next.

Weldon’s gift for her son, now a 20-year-old finance major at the University of New Hampshire, marked the start of a quest to see all of the stadiums. So far, they had been on three trips with Sports Travel and Tours, a sports travel agency from Hatfield, Massachusetts, which have taken them to 13 stadiums. In their own travels, they visited roughly a half dozen.

“I’ve heard Chad say to other people on these trips, ‘My mom and I are seeing the United States, and we get to visit all these great places,’” said Weldon, 49. “It’s more nerve wracking when we travel alone, but with Sports Travel and Tours, we get a feeling of community. We’re all there for the same reason—a love of baseball—and we always have a good time.”

For Weldon, baseball was something of a family tradition. Her father was a New York Yankees fan, as was his own father. “When my grandparents would take care of me, we’d listen to the Yankees on a little radio,” Weldon recalled. She grew up in the Berkshires where Yankees fans were few and far between, but where New York was just around the corner.

Supranowicz was a Boston Red Sox fan like his father. Weldon had enjoyed teaching him about the sport and its all-stars, like Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Cal Ripken, and Bucky Dent, regardless of the team affiliation.

“I taught him the love of the game, and he also played from the time he was 4 until he graduated from high school,” Weldon said. “It was something I could share with a son, something I could have in common with him, like I had with my father and grandfather.”

Weldon and Supranowicz took their first trip with Sports Travel and Tours in 2008, the year after Chad received his map of the stadiums for Christmas. They started with a Chicago trip, and have since gone on an adventure that started in Toronto and wove its way back to the United States, visiting several ballparks at once. This spring, the Massachusetts residents went on the Southerner, visiting Marlins Park, Tropicana Field, and SunTrust Park in Miami, Tampa, and Atlanta, respectively.

As a junior in college, taking Sports Travel and Tours trips gave Supranowicz a chance to explore where he might like to settle after graduation. “He loved Toronto, for instance,” Weldon said, noting Supranowicz now looks at all their destinations with an eye toward what it would be like to live there. “We’re exploring.”

Meanwhile, Weldon and Supranowicz got to root for the Red Sox and Yankees, and chatted about the umpire calls and other details of the thrilling games they see along with their fellow travelers, making lifelong friends in the process.

“We met three older gentlemen who take trips together, one of whom lives in Chad’s college town,” Weldon said. “It’s like it was meant to be. We share photos and talk to the three of them and their wives by phone.”

In fact, when visiting Tampa, Weldon, and Supranowicz asked Sports Travel and Tours’ Project Sales Coordinator Anthony Incampo if the three men—who live only an hour away—could get tickets and watch the game with them. Anthony helped make that outing happen.

“We all went out to dinner together, too,” Weldon said. “It’s almost like they’ve adopted my son and we have this great new extended family.”

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