Growing up...how often did you go to games

[sturg1dj]

while you were growing up (lets make the age 8-15 years old) how often did you go to games, where did you go, who did you root for, how far away from the stadium did you live?


I grew up in Muskegon, MI which is a 3 hour drive from Detroit...a 3 hour drive to Chicago and a ferry ride across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. My whole familiy is from the west side of the state, which makes it amazing that we are such hardcore Tiger fans.

we never went to chicago, I don't know why...and the Ferry didn't start up again until I was much older so we would go to Tiger games.

I usually went around once a year and the most was like 4 games in a season. This was because my dad was very working class and worked in a factory 3rd shift. So it was very hard for us to go to games. I can't imagine someone like my dad who didn't get scheduled vacations just the sum of a vacation bonus would want to get home from work at 6am (or noon if he was working 12s or 4 if he was working 16s) and instead of sleeping driving 4 hours to see a baseball game that he could watch on TV. If anything I think the only thing that got him to go to the ballpark was his baseball crazy kid.

When I was a kid I would go to games at Tiger Stadium. Nothing was cooler then walking into the stadium into the dark insides and going through the tunnels to your seats because you went from dark to the greenest field you ever saw...it blew me away every time.

I would watch average Tiger teams during this time. Bad pitching, but a good power hitting team. These teams were led by such players as Cecil Fielder, Travis Fryman, Mickey Tettleton and my favorite player Tony Phillips. They also featured aging greats Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker who were still playing great.

After around my 16th b-day with everyone in my family working we didn't really go to any games. It wasn't until college when I went to another.

[JerseySoxFan19]

We usually go once a year. 2 at the Fens 1 at the Citizens bank ballpark.

[bluezebra]

My Dad took me to my first game at Wrigley Field in 1936, to see Dizzy Dean and the Gas House Gang play the Cubs. Unfortunately, I was only four, and have no recollection of the game. In my pre-teen and teen years, I would go to games as often as possible, sitting in the RF Bleachers for 25c. I went to Comiskey Park with two friends (brothers/White Sox fans) when their Dad drove. One of my cousins was a photographer for the Chicago times, and took me to a day game in August, 1948, when the Yankees were in town. Before the game, I stood on the OF grass behind 2B, about six feet from Joe DiMaggio, and couldn't even say hello. During the game, he hit a line drive home run into the third deck in LF, that broke the back of a seat. The second and third decks were unopened on weekday games (unless holidays), so it sounded like a bomb exploded when the ball hit.

When I came home from Korea, after a hitch with the Marine Corps, I still sat in the Bleachers, even when I got in on a pass. When I moved from Chicago in July, 1963, the Bleachers were still only 75c or $1.25, I can't remember for sure.

Bob

[sturg1dj]

My Dad took me to my first game at Wrigley Field in 1936, to see Dizzy Dean and the Gas House Gang play the Cubs. Unfortunately, I was only four, and have no recollection of the game. In my pre-teen and teen years, I would go to games as often as possible, sitting in the RF Bleachers for 25c. I went to Comiskey Park with two friends (brothers/White Sox fans) when their Dad drove. One of my cousins was a photographer for the Chicago times, and took me to a day game in August, 1948, when the Yankees were in town. Before the game, I stood on the OF grass behind 2B, about six feet from Joe diMaggio, and couldn't even say hello. During the game, he hit a line drive home run into the third deck in LF, that broke the back of a seat. The second and third decks were unopened on weekday games (unless holidays), so it sounded like a bomb exploded when the ball hit.

When I came home from Korea, after a hitch with the Marine Corps, I still sat in the Bleachers, even when I got in on a pass. When I moved from Chicago in July, 1963, the Bleachers were still only 75c or $1.25, I can't remember for sure.

Bob

how far away did you grow up from Wrigley...did you grow up in the city?

[gojays]

One of my favourite things about living in Toronto is how easy it is to get to a Jays game. They offer a season pass for top-deck seats for less than a hundred bucks, so I go to about 30 games a year. I can just take the subway downtown and walk 10 minutes to the Skydome.

[steve rogers]

I went to my first game in 1984. I was a Yankees fan and even though my Dad was a Red Sox fan he took me to the Bronx. I clearly remember the stripped cars and bums hanging out everywhere. He took me to Yankee Stadium again in 1985.

In 1986 my moms company got season tickets to Fenway park. She was too scared to go to the Bronx but Fenway was ok. She was a much loved secretary and everyone there knew I was a huge baseball fan, they'd give her all kinds of stuff for me, old Sport magazines with Mantle and Mays on the cover and even some old cards. I could tickets to any game I wanted. As a kid I didn't really care about seeing Red Sox/Yankees games I wanted to see George Brett play as much as possible. We had seats right up against the visitors dugout. I saw the Royals play 3 times that year and 3 more times in 1987, 1988 and 1989.

In 1990 she took me and 2 friends to see the Red Sox clinch the pennant. She actually waited in the car so that my friend could see the game.

Scott

[SamtheBravesFan]

In elementary school, I went to a few Braves games for free because I got Braves tickets for good grades.

I probably went to about twelve Braves games in my childhood. I was able to have field level seats for my birthday in 1996, because we had friends that weren't going and they gave us their tickets.

[Nutriaitch]

I went to a few Exhibition games played in the Superdome. A's/Giants for a 3 game set one year. I didn't make to my 1st (MLB regular season) game until I was married and had a kid. In '02-ish, I was in Dallas for work, and was able to see a Ranger/Reds game at the Ballpark in Arlington (NICE ballpark).
This year, I'll get to make my 1st Sox game (Houston, June 28).

Growing up, I watched the Braves, Cubs, and Mets a lot, because they were the only team televised often down here. After the strike, I gave up on the MLB for a LONG time, and watched mostly College Ball (LSU is less than 2 hours from me).

Cal's streak got me watching a bit, then the HR chase reeled me in a little tighter. The '01 World Series pulled me back even more. Another great series in '02 finished me off. I got the Extra Innings package for the 1st time in '03, and started looking for a team to follow (since I now had a choice instead of being force fed the same 3).

Todd Walker joined the Sox that year. He was a God-like player at LSU in the early 90's. I has watched him and Russ Johnson turn many double plays in Baton Rouge, so I had to see his team in the Bigs. Plus, the history, the curse, the Rivalry, Fenway, them being a bunch of scruffy guys who just played ball and didn't care about anything else. I was hooked.

[soberdennis]

I grew up on Long Island. I was a Yankee fan and usually went to Yankee Stadium once or twice a year. My dad worked for a company that had season's tickets and he got to use them once in a while.
Shea Stadium was much closer to home and we sometimes went to Met games as often as 5 or 6 times a year.
Either way I would usually root for the home team.

[rockin500]

about a game a year through the age of 16. the last game i went to before I got out of high school was opening day 1994 at wrigley. used to go to county stadium in milwaukee for kenosha night up until i was about 13. and then in 7th 8th and 9th grade I got tickets for white sox games for perfect attendance marks.

[bluezebra]

how far away did you grow up from Wrigley...did you grow up in the city?

I was born and raised on the West Side. Moved to the far North Side when I got married in June, 1956.

Wrigley Field is on the North Side. It didn't take too long to get to the games. The "L", the buses and streetcars stopped across street from the Main Gate. Parking was a problem, since Wrigley doesn't have a parking lot.

I just remembered that for many years, a bear cub in a cage was on the sidewalk in front of the Main Gate.

Bob

[EdTarbusz]

We went to about 10-15 games a year. My father was one of those guys who was genetically predisposed to say 'no', but he enjoyed going to the ballpark and there was usually a good chance that he would take us if we asked.

[Gary Dunaier]

I didn't really get into baseball until I was in my 20s. Earlier, I'd go to maybe one or two Mets games a year, and I was more interested in the scoreboard and the view from the upper deck than the action on the field.

Ironically, my father:

• as a boy, lived about a half a mile from the Polo Grounds (and, by default, Yankee Stadium)
• used to work at a television repair shop a couple of blocks away from Ebbets Field
• used to work in the NYC Transit Authority bus garage across the street from Shea Stadium

...yet he was never a big sports fan, so he never took advantage of his proximity to the ballparks to go to many games. He'd go to one or two, but that's about it. Go figure.