It's falling into place...

Man oh man, it's starting to come together. The Red Sox came out with their 2006 schedule and motivated me to pore over over the rest of the schedules and figure out when the teams without schedules released were playing, based on the team's schedules that have been released. Does that make sense? I found out that the Red Sox are @ the Yankees on May 9 and I can fit 2 of the 3 games into my schedule. I have the full schedule down below. The Braves schedule isn't out yet but I found that they're at home on that date but I forgot to write down what team it was and I don't want to go through all the National League teams again to figure it out so that's blank. The Orioles game is a pure guess. The Blue Jays came out with a HOME schedule and are somewhere on the road that date. The Red Sox and Yankees are playing a 2-game series for the same 2 days that the Blue Jays are on the road AND the Blue Jays are @ the Red Sox for the second 2-game series so I'm thinking it's a division flip-flopping thing. The D-Rays full schedule is out and they're playing the AL West so that leaves those 4 teams to be playing each other and since the Jays aren't at home, they MUST be at Baltimore...I hope...because it fits into the schedule perfectly. I found out that the Orioles are on the road on the 3rd through the 11th or something like that and that would throw a severe monkey wrench into the plans.

YOU LIKE THAT RAMBLING? I CAN GO ON FOREVER. My apologies if you don't like baseball. Suck it up, this is my life and my blog. Without further ado:

Seattle......3-Apr...Angels
Oakland......5-Apr...Yankees
San Fran.....6-Apr...Braves
Angels.......8-Apr...Yankees
Padres.......9-Apr...Rockies
Dodgers......14-Apr..Giants
Arizona......16-Apr..Astros 14-16, Giants 17-20
Rangers......21-Apr..D-Rays 21-13
Astros.......22-Apr..Pirates 22-23, Dodgers 24-26
Atlanta......28-Apr
D-Rays.......29-Apr..Red Sox
Marlins......30-Apr..Rockies
Orioles......2-May...Blue Jays
Nationals....3-May...Marlins
Phillies.....4-May...Braves
Mets.........5-May...Braves
Boston.......6-May...Orioles 6-7
Yankees......9-May...Boston 9-10
Blue Jays....11-May..Oakland
Pirates......12-May..Marlins
Indians......13-May..Tigers
Reds.........14-May..Phillies
Tigers.......16-May..Twins
Cubs.........17-May..Nats 17-18
White Sox....19-May..Cubs 19-20
Brewers......21-May..Twins
Twins........23-May..Indians 23-24
Royals.......25-May..Tigers
Cards........29-May..Houston 29-31
Rockies......2-Jun...Marlins

I guess I could put the date first but I mapped out the trip based on route a few months ago so the cities/teams are first. Dave will be with me on the West Coast but that's the only passenger for now. I think the stretch in early May will be a good one. Fly to Boston on Saturday May 6th. May 6-7, Orioles at Red Sox. May 8 I'm going to Cooperstown and then May 9-10 you get 2 Red Sox-Yankees games. Then you get 4 games in 4 days and fly out of Cincinnati. All told you get 8 games in 9 days AND a trip to the Hall of Fame on the one off day. And you only need to use 5 vacation days since it's Saturday through Sunday. WOW! I should auction that one off, baby! 8 games in 9 days including 2 at Fenway and 2 Sox-Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Are you kidding me? I'm planning on sitting in the bleachers for one Sox-Yankee game and in the main area for the other. Did you know that you can't get to the plaques area in center field if you buy bleacher seats? Another reason to hate the Yankees, but since I get TWO games there I can enjoy the raucous crowd in the bleachers AND check out the plaques on day 2. Holy crap. I should probably rent another car for these 9 days to accomodate everyone that's going to want to come.

OK, I'm calm. Not really but I need to move on. One of the coolest things about this trip is getting to see a Giants-Dodgers game and a Red Sox-Yankees game. The Cubs-White Sox games will be cool also but I'd really like to see Cubs-Cardinals. There actually is a series June 2-4 at Busch so I might decide to spend even more time with Minh Ba than I already am and check out that series. Neither the Cubs nor the Cardinals have released their schedules yet but fans have sites where they did what I did and compiled each team's entire season schedules. THOSE are real fans.

The stretch in Chicago might also be a good time to tag along. My friend Anh is in med-school in Miluakee and he'll probably join me for part of the Chicago trip. I haven't talked to him at all but he told me a few months ago that he likes going down to Chicago for games. Here's what you should do: Fly in on the 17th and get 2 games at Wrigley, May 17-18. Then we go to the South Side and get two Cubs-White Sox games, at the home of the probable World Series Champs. The drive up to Miluakee with me, drink beer and go to the Sunday game. Fly home Sunday, May 21st out of Miluakee. OR, you can skip Miluakee and fly out of Chicago on Saturday the 20th or Sunday morning and just buy round-trip airfare, Home-Chicago for May 17-21. You get 4 games in 4 days, 2 at Wrigley and 2 cross-town rivalry games. However, you miss out on the road trip aspect but if you don't like driving then this is the package for you! You like my travel agent impersonation?

Well, folks, I think it's obvious that the best package means flying into Boston on Saturday May 6th and out of Miluakee on May 21st. 2 weeks of vacation time in exchange for 16 days of BASEBALL NIRVANA. 16 of the greatest days of your life. Not that any of the packages alone won't be great, but, man...

OK, I know not everyone loves baseball the way that I do and maybe I'm overhyping this a bit but HOLY SHIT I'M EXCITED! CAN YOU TELL?