Places I want to Visit in the..........SPORTS WORLD

*Cooperstown, Naismith, and Toronto - I've been to Canton, Ohio(Pro Football Hall of Fame and I recommend it to all football fans) but yet to check out the Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey Hall of Fames. Especially the Hockey HOF since its the only place of any hockey action we'll get for a long time(save maybe for the minor leagues) when Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, and Larry Murphy got inducted a few months ago.

* If these Storage Rooms could Talk - I would like to check out the "backrooms" of those same Halls, simply to see the cool stuff that isn't on display that the general masses go see. I remember seeing a feature once on stuff at both Canton and Cooperstown, getting to see some oddball stuff like a box containing the boxed-air from Ebbet's Field before it was demolished in the 50's/60's(when apartments were made on that same ground) to seeing the "masks" from the early days of professional football which has an interesting story. You see, it used to be considered demeaning to be "paid" to play football while college football was more popular and respected by the populace and sports writers, so players that took money to play football who didn't want to show their face would wear these "masks" that seem like a Gothic-style version of the modern-day helmet visors. Quite interesting!

*Take Me Out to the Ballpark - I would like to visit Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field. Of course one of those 3 baseball buildings has a terrible reputation for being a dump but I won't dare say by name(just remember that the area where this stadium is located rhymes with "Rocks").

Okay, what other places would YOU like to visit, if you could?

If you get to Wrigley, spend batting practice outside the ballpark on Waveland or Sheffield Avenue just beyond the left or right field bleachers. Bring your baseball glove. You can battle the rest of the fans for the balls that "go yard" during BP.

I think the most startling part about walking out to your seats from the Wrigley Field concourse is seeing the apartment buildings just beyond the outfield walls. It's so unexpected. Conventional wisdom says there should be an upper deck. But it's not there and you can see skyline starting with the next door neighbors! The ballpark is so compact, it looks like something the park district might have created simply to serve the neighborhood. Fans in the bleachers appear close enough to actually recognize people you might know. You'll feel like you walked into one of those photographs of an "old school" major league ballpark.

See a Notre Dame game in South Bend. But don't drive...ride the South Shore Line from Downtown Chicago to the end of the line in South Bend to see college football like the "subway alumni" did in the old days. There's a game-day shuttle bus to take you to the stadium. You'll swear the players were "outlined against a blue-gray October sky" when you get there.

I'd like to see a high school basketball game in The Fieldhouse in New Castle, Indiana or The Wigwam in Anderson, Indiana. Nine of the ten largest high school gymnasiums are in Indiana and the two biggest are The Fieldhouse (capacity 9,300) and The Wigwam (capacity 9,000). Although the phrase "March Madness" was coined by an Illinois sportswriter in reference to the Illinois high school basketball tournament, Indiana is still acknowledged as the center of the universe for prep hoops. If you're a college basketball fan, you gotta give your props to the preps and I'd like to see a game in the same spirit as the movie Hoosiers.

tony b.

As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in England, I HAVE to get to Heinz Field one day and see that crappy, although mecca like, turf. That's sporting priorty number 1.

Last year on my birthday I fulfilled one of my life-long dreams in seeing the Yankees beat the Sox in Yankee Stadium. It was such a great game and the atmosphere was unbeatable. And I think a year or 2 before that I saw a Yanks/Mets game in the Stadium and again the atmosphere was top notch!

I would like to go to a World Series game at the Stadium in which they actually clicned it, that'd be GREAT! I'd actually also like to see the Irish play in South Bend, plus UNC vs Duke in Chapel Hill would be nice.

I've actually been to Wrigley field countless times. And like YTB said, batting practice is pretty awesome. It's probably the best baseball stadium I've been too. I'm not going to say that it's the best facility, because the Bulls arena beats that, but of course that is basketball so it has to be indoors.

I actually almost got a Sosa homerun ball a few years ago in the bleachers but when i stood up to get it, some obnoxious guy spilled his whole beer all over me. What the hell is that? :rolleyes:

Dyersville, Iowa

Kentucy Derby