Miller to Busch and In-Between

I'm definitely not talking about beer here. In fact, my challenge will be to find good beer on my trip when half the parks I'm going to are owned by two of the three largest brewers of swill in this country. I didn't even think of how significant it would be to add Coors Field to the itinerary. My point is that the first park I'll visit is Miller Park in Milwaukee and the last will be Busch Stadium in St. Louis. I will not go on any brewery tours of Miller or Anheuser Busch, although I did visit the latter almost 20 years ago.

Here's my itinerary as it stands now (all times Central). I'll be at Miller Park on Monday, August 18, for a 7:05 PM contest between the Brewers and the Houston Astros. As of now, it's lining up for a C.C. Sabathia-pitched affair. It's 5 1/2 hours from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, so I haven't yet decided if I'll make it for the following night's game between the Twins and the Oakland Athletics (7:10 PM) or instead opt for Wednesday, August 20 at 12:10 PM. The way it looks now, if I choose the latter, I may get to see a Francisco Liriano start.

From there, it's off to Kansas City, 6 1/2 hours from Minneapolis. I have tickets for Friday night's game, August 22 at 7:10PM, between the Royals and the Detroit Tigers, so there shouldn't be any problem fitting in a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and maybe even a side trip to Nebraska on the way.

Why the possible side trip to Nebraska? Well, I've traveled to 40 of the 50 states in the union. In addition to Nebraska, I've yet to visit Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. So, I figured I could very easily hit my 41st state. Oklahoma and Arkansas also aren't far from Kansas City, but time might not permit me to get down there. To legitimately add a state to my list, I've decided that I have to do a little more than just drive into and out of the state, which admittedly I did with Kentucky when I was on a temporary work assignment in Charleston, West Virginia in the early 90's. The year before last, when I traveled to Alabama (state #39) for a week of training for my current job, I drove to Mississippi (state #40) and had lunch, which would satisfy my minimum requirement.

My final game will be Saturday, August 23, the Fox game of the week matchup between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, at 2:55 PM. Hopefully, I won't get ridiculed too badly for wearing my St. Louis Browns hat.