All the World’s a Road Game

FOR Michael McDonough, vacation-scheduling takes care of itself.

“I block all of my vacation time each year on one day: When the Red Sox release their schedule in November,” said Mr. McDonough, a 27-year-old public relations professional from Boston. “Once the schedule comes out, it’s straight to the calendar.”

Although the season only begins today, Mr. McDonough has already planned trips to see the Red Sox play in San Diego, Chicago and Arizona, bringing him halfway to his goal of visiting all of the 30 major league stadiums.

Although it’s no surprise that devoted fans like Mr. McDonough would travel to see their teams, even casual fans are spending vacation time on trips involving baseball. A phone survey of 211,000 people by Scarborough Research, a consumer research company, found that nearly 60 percent of those who took two or more domestic round-trip flights for personal reasons from February 2005 to March 2006 identified themselves as Major League Baseball fans. Some were among those who purchased the more than 76 million tickets to see games at stadiums across the country last year, the third straight season Major League Baseball set an attendance record.

Of course, people who travel for baseball need a place to stay, and hotels in every major league city offer baseball packages. Last year, Holiday Inn became the official hotel of Major League Baseball after discovering that 60 percent of their guests identified themselves as baseball fans and that 25 percent had been to a game in the last year.

Also last year, Orbitz partnered with ESPN.com to create sports travel packages, and teamed with Stubhub.com, the country’s largest online ticket resellers, to offer travelers who are booking airline tickets the option of adding baseball tickets.

While hotels in big baseball cities are offering everything from transportation to souvenirs, they are not always providing tickets to a game. For instance, in Boston, where the Red Sox signed the superstar Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, a package at the XV Beacon Hotel seeks to lure visitors from Japan with a Welcome Matsuzaka package, which offers traditional tea service and a Nikkei newspaper, but not tickets to the game.

There are a number of hotels in Boston though — among them the Copley Place Marriott, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge and the Hotel 140 — that offer tickets to a game at Fenway Park. In San Diego, the Omni Hotel — which overlooks Petco Park, where the Padres play — and the Renaissance Toronto Downtown — which is actually a part of the Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays’ stadium — have both had success with packages that include tickets.

With very little digging, baseball fans can find hotels ranging from the Priory Hotel in Pittsburgh to the W Hotel in San Francisco that offer everything from tickets to ball caps to Cracker Jacks to attract fans.

Hotels aren’t the only ones in the travel industry scrambling to keep up with baseball’s appeal. Tour groups are also offering baseball-focused trips. For instance, Roadtrips, a Canadian company, offers a trip that takes fans to games at both stadiums in New York, as well as those in Philadelphia and Boston before a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. This popular trip is almost booked, prompting Roadtrips to schedule a similar one to Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and New York.

“Baseball is by far our most popular multicity sport,” said Janice LaBossiere, a marketing specialist at Roadtrips. “To be able to see Cooperstown, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium in five to seven days is a big draw for the baseball fan.”

Last year, Glenn Dunlap started Big League Tours, a baseball-specific tour operator offering not only tickets, but also behind-the-scenes tours of stadiums and a chance to meet former major leaguers. His company, based in Indianapolis, also customizes tours for groups as small as two travelers who want to see a certain team on the road or a certain number of ballparks.

In fact, the parks themselves are often the main attraction. From historic ballparks like Wrigley Field, which has been playing host to baseball games inside its ivy-covered walls since 1914, to more modern offerings like AT&T Park, where fans watch home runs sail into San Francisco Bay, there is a wide array of stadiums for fans to choose from, each with its own personality.

Part of the appeal is improved amenities, including the food. Ballpark fare now goes well beyond hot dogs, ranging from the former Oriole Boog Powell’s barbecue at Camden Yards in Baltimore to the garlic fries at AT&T Park.

Some parks have added areas specifically for kids, like the one at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, with a miniature batting cage, radar guns and four holes of miniature golf. Chase Field in Phoenix has a swimming pool in right center field.

Yet two of the most popular parks remain two of the most historic: Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Fenway Park in Boston. Last season, for a September game between the Red Sox and the Yankees in New York, Stubhub sold tickets to the game to fans from every state except South Dakota, and from Puerto Rico and Canada. No other event — not even the Super Bowl — attracted such a diverse group of buyers on the site.

A big problem for fans wanting to see all of the parks is that new ones keep opening. Angie Grover, 36, of Chicago, has been to all but six of the big league parks, but has to return to some cities, like St. Louis and Cincinnati, to make her goal.

“At some point, you want to put your flag in the sand and say you’ve been to them all,” Grover said. “But I can’t get them done quick enough. They keep opening new ones.”