Road Trips!

TIM’S AND ROD’S EXCELLENT SPORTS ROAD TRIP ADVENTURE!

   On the Road is a classic 1950s novel by New England writer Jack Kerouac. It’s based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America. Traveling the country “in search of America” is not unusual, although the search often turns out to be more about finding one’s own identity than about sight-seeing or having fun. (Recall the classic “Road Trip!” scenes from the 1978 movie Animal House.)

   So in the spirit of Jack Kerouac and the Delta Brothers of Animal House, NHTI-Concord students Tim Martin and Rod Malone recently took off and hit the road, in search not of America, but of sports action.

   “With a new baby due in September, I wanted to get in another summer baseball trip,” explained Martin. “Earlier trips took me to many Major League parks including PNC in Pittsburgh, The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and Camden Yards in Baltimore. This year Rod and I figured it was time to get to Chicago.”

   Chicago meant seeing the Cubs at Wrigley Field in the afternoon, and the White Sox at US Cellular Field in the evening. So Tim got up before 3 a.m. one June day and drove south from Laconia, first picking up Rod and then heading south on a near-deserted I-93 to make it to Boston Logan Airport in time to catch a 7 a.m. flight to Chicago. Once in the Windy City, the Granite Staters made their way to the Billy Goat Tavern and procured some tickets for that day’s Cubs-Reds game.

   “Being a Red Sox fan at Wrigley field was amazing,” said Tim. “I looked for Red Sox savior Theo Epstein, now the Cub General Manager, but he was nowhere to be seen. We sat on the third base line about 20 rows up. Seeing the Ivy on Wrigley’s walls for the first time was special. Wrigley took us back in time to when baseball was the only game in town and the best place to be was in the stands scoring a game. No giant electronic scoreboards at Wrigley, but they did have an old-fashioned organ.”

   The Reds’ 2-1 victory confirmed Martin’s preference for National League action.

   “NL ball is still pure,” Tim observed. “I think that a game should only take two hours and pitchers should hit. If pitchers throw at someone in the NL then also they have to face the music at the plate themselves!”

   After the White Sox game was cancelled due to weather, Tim and Rod had to go to Plan B—getting into Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals at the United Center, where the Black Hawks hosted the Boston Bruins. The NH boys had to spend some money, but they got tickets on opposite sides of the arena, and watched Chicago overcome a 3-1 Boston lead and eventually triumph in triple overtime.

   “Easily the best sporting event I’ve ever been to,” said Tim. “But the game got over so late we skipped going to a hotel and went straight to Midway Airport for a 6 a.m. flight to New York to see a Mets game.”

   Despite the weather Tim and Rod made it to the Big Apple and then to Citi Field, where the Mets hosted the St. Louis Cardinals.

   “Citi Field is great,” offered Tim. “The Mets couldn’t decide whether they wanted a throwback park or something more modern. But it was a fantastic place to watch a game. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is a wonderful entryway. The park has interesting dimensions and fantastic  food.”

   Martin is a reliable food critic, as he works as a chef when not taking Sports Management classes at NHTI.

   After the Cardinals won the game 2-1, Rod and Tim went to Times Square and then hung out at Penn Station. Eventually, they caught a train to Boston and returned to Beantown after midnight. They drove back to the Lakes Region with their wallets a bit lighter, but with their lives enriched by a wondrous sports road trip.

   Jack Kerouac and the Delta Brothers would have been proud!