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.”

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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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