Feature Story: “The Quest of Stadium Man: One Fan's Journey to See All 30 MLB Ballparks”
Twenty current stadiums down, and ten to go.
One of the best parts of being a baseball fan is exploring new stadiums.
Each ballpark is its own community and a shrine to baseball fandom. Think back to the first time you went to a game - the nicely trimmed outfield grass, the smells of fresh popcorn and hot dogs floating through the air, the crack of the bat, and the roar from the crowd. It’s a magical blend of history, culture, storytelling, and memories.
Those are just a few reasons why many people, including me, have the goal of visiting all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.
I have been to 11 current stadiums (Busch Stadium, PNC Park, Bank One Ballpark, Target Field, Miller Park, new Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium, Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park) and one stadium that has thankfully passed on (RIP to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (1982 - 2013), a truly awful place to watch a baseball game.)
But Tarri Haina, better known on Instagram as Stadiumman, is getting close to achieving that ultimate bucket list goal, and I talked to him to learn more about this epic quest. Haina has visited a total of 25 stadiums, 20 of these being stadiums where teams currently play.
When I caught up with Haina, he was in the midst of a Midwest baseball tour, having recently been to Chicago and Wrigley Field for the first time. He enjoyed watching the Cubs but noted that while he was there a fellow fan told him Wrigley was too modern now and had lost some of its charm.
From Chicago, he was headed north to knock off three more cities and their
stadiums before heading home to New York: American Family Field in Milwaukee, Comerica Park in Detroit, and Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Haina grew up in New York about three to four hours north of New York City and “nowhere near a ballpark.” He said this helped fuel his desire to someday attend baseball games.
He started watching baseball in the late 1990s, and as many 1990s cable kids remember, he watched Cubs and Braves games. For many years, the Braves and Cubs were seen by a wider audience of fans beyond their local market due to their national broadcasts on TBS and WGN.
Despite this early exposure to cable television, his favorite team, as you may have guessed, is indeed the New York Yankees. He started to follow the team seriously around 2004, and by the time the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, Haina was a dedicated Pinstripes follower.
He attended his first MLB game in 2005 at the original Yankee Stadium and caught a game between the Yankees and the Texas Rangers. Haina remembers on that day he was able to watch his favorite player, Alfonso Soriano, but unfortunately, that favorite player was now playing for the opposing team. Soriano was traded to the Rangers in the trade that brought Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees in 2003.
Haina said because of that trade he disliked Rodriguez from the beginning, and was an early adopter of the popular baseball practice of hating A-Rod. He noted that many people would end up hating Rodriguez later in his Yankee career for different reasons (editor’s note: this is definitely correct, for any number of reasons: cheating by taking steroids, lying about cheating and steroids, the 2004 ALCS “glove slap”, messing things up with J-Lo, and the list goes on and on.)
Haina said when he was a kid he wanted to be a second baseman just like Soriano and would impersonate Soriano’s crouched batting stance, much to his coach’s chagrin.
After that eventful first game in 2005, his next game was in 2008, when a friend asked him if he wanted to skip school to attend the Mets game.
Spoiler Alert - he took his friend up on the offer and was lucky enough to see the last opening day ever at the original Shea Stadium. Two weeks later, Haina went to a Marlins game at Dolphins Stadium. It was at this time he realized he had three stadiums down and at that point decided he would try for all of them - officially starting his journey.
Over the past 15 years, he has seen an average of around one stadium a year, but sometimes has gotten lucky and has been able to knock out multiple parks in a short time frame, such as his recent Midwest stadium tour.
A few years ago he attended his first San Diego Padres game and happened to check if the Angels or Dodgers were in town. Synchronicity struck and even though he hadn’t preplanned it, he was able to check off all three teams on a random weekend.
Any good fan has their own personal inventory of the stadiums where they’ve been and Haina is no different, compiling a list of his favorite places. He lists Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles, at the top of his rankings.
“Baltimore is so beautiful - the fans are nice, the workers are nice, the food is good, and even the parking is good.”
Maybe it is the Dad in me, but I think that parking is an underrated, but very important, reason to like or dislike a stadium. Haina said that Fenway Park comes in second behind Camden Yards because of the awesome atmosphere and history, but isn’t first because the parking is a mess.
Haina has also added his own personal touch to his stadium tour, which is collecting pins from all of his stops. He received his first pin when he attended a game at the new Yankee Stadium in 2009 and in the beginning, would wear the pins on his baseball hat while attending games.
Eventually, the pins started to hurt his head and his hat was simply too heavy to wear, so Haina carefully thought out a new game plan. As he smartly pointed out, “You can’t simply walk into Yankee Stadium wearing a different team’s jersey.” To be safe, he began wearing his pins on a non-descript generic USA jersey, which is a patriotic choice every baseball fan could get behind. He would collect a pin from every game he attended and soon enough it became his thing.
Haina said that most of the team shops in the stadium have pins for sale near the register. Sometimes even the stadium itself will have a pin, which is fortunate when visiting a new ballpark. Teams will also give pins away when special events or special games occur, such as a stadium’s first game, final game, or the anniversary of an important game.
Some of Haina’s Opening Day Pins
Once while attending a Mets game, Haina spotted the fan known as “Pinman,” who became famous for his pin collection. Haina wanted to get a picture with him but didn’t want to bother him. However, the next inning he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find Pinman asking him for a photo.
The fans around them continued to talk and someone asked Haina which player was on the back of his jersey. When Haina said it was empty, Pinman suggested that he became “Stadiumman.” He soon added that to his jersey and the rest is history.
He said the pins and jersey are a great conversation starter with fans wherever he goes. Haina said that his favorite thing about baseball is its rich history and culture, and the fans are the culture of the ballpark. Everyone has a story to tell and he feels lucky to be able to have so people share their stories with him.
This was no different at the recent World Baseball Classic in Miami. Haina was in attendance for Japan’s comeback victory over Mexico in the semifinals and said that no other game compares to that experience. The fans from Japan had special chants and cheers and unique instruments for each player as they went up to bat. When Japan hit a walk-off to win the game, people were jumping into his arms. And when fans of the opposing team lost to Japan, they were surprisingly still in a good mood - which is not typical at the average MLB game.
Haina saw the historic final game between the United States and Japan. This game ended in a moment that was cemented in history when the current best baseball player in the world, Shohei Ohtani struck out his Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout to cement the victory over the USA. After the game, Haina approached the ticket window and bought an extra ticket so he could have a paper ticket as a memento. He said that cost him $50 at the time, but now ticket stubs from that game are going online for $700.
Haina also didn’t come away empty-handed in the pins department. There were special World Baseball Classic pins made for the tournament and he came away with a gold WBC pin from a man who runs JapanBall, an organization that offers baseball tours in Japan. A fan from Mexico also walked up to him and gave him a pin off of his jersey.
With his Midwest tour completed, Haina now has the following 10 stadiums left to visit: Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Toronto, and………drum roll..……..Minnesota (which is the home state of the Relief Pickle)!
This means there is a chance at a potential follow up article and a potential Relief Pickle/Stadium Man collaboration with a live game report. Stay tuned for this and good luck to the Stadium Man!
