BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I read this in the Milwaukee newspaper. Seems like a great way to combine a love of biking, baseball and a good cause (mentoring)..... must be the trip of a lifetime.

The blog is sort of fun to read.

They are scheduled to be in Pgh in early August. Anyone want to donate an OTB gift card, or other SWAG to them? Sounds like they would appreciate good community karma.

Foursome pedaling to all 30 stadiums, promoting mentors for kids

July 26, 2012

When I go see the Brewers play, I often park on the street near 50-something and Wells. Being the fitness god that I am, I then walk like A WHOLE MILE to Miller Park.

On Thursday, I met four guys ……who are riding their bicycles this summer to every major league ballpark in the United States, and the one in Canada.

They see a game at each one, and they run skills clinics for children while raising awareness of the great need for mentors. Some of these kids have never thrown a baseball or worn a mitt.

They're calling the quest Biking for Baseball and boasting that it's the world's longest charity bike ride.

Thursday they were at Miller Park, the 18th stadium on the trip, to see the Brewers play the Washington Nationals, and to meet up with a group of kids and adults from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee. The Brewers gave them 60 free tickets to the game.

Then B4B is off to Chicago, Detroit and a dozen stadiums to the east, before finishing in Boston on Sept. 21 as the season nears an end.

"We're very strict on our schedule. We have to be this far on this day," said Adam Kremers, 27, who lives in Denver along with trip mates Steve Lunn, 25, and Rex Roberts, 26. A fourth rider, Chase Higgins, 27, lives in Minneapolis.

A typical day on the road is 100 miles and then a night in a tent and sleeping bag before pedaling another 100 the following day. The riders are fit and tanned from the many hours under the sun in their pinstriped cycling jerseys. Their bodies are holding out fine, but they've blown through 100 inner tubes flattened by nails, glass and other hazards.

The guys started in Seattle for the home opener on April 13 and then headed to the next closest stadium 900 miles away in Oakland. Then came a 10-mile chip shot to San Francisco, where two of their bikes were stolen and their RV support vehicle died. There's no crying in baseball, so they got new ones and kept going.

The idea for this adventure was hatched in 2009 and it took this long to pull it all together. The guys, all unmarried with no kids, quit their jobs for this trip. Chase was a banker, Steve an English teacher, Rex a Web developer, and Adam a water resource engineer.

"Everything we own is basically in that trailer, which is cool but also kind of sad," Adam laughed, as he pointed to the bright green trailer on the street outside the home where they're staying in Shorewood.

The young men take turns driving the truck that pulls the trailer, following behind the three bikes and meeting up at the stopping place for the night, usually a campground but sometimes the home of a relative, friend or a kind stranger. They favor back roads and bike trails when they can find them.

In May, they rode 850 miles north from Phoenix to Denver followed by 850 miles south to Arlington, Texas. That was an awfully long way through desert and mountains to see the Rockies lose.

So far they have covered about 7,000 miles across the west, south and middle of the country. There's no baseball in Alabama and Mississippi, but they were memorable states on the way from Houston to Tampa in June.

"It was 20 inches of rain in two days, and it happened to be the two days we're riding right through it," Adam said. They tangled with a tropical storm in Florida, and then 100-degree heat heading up toward St. Louis.

"In St. Louis, we got to throw out the first pitch, but they didn't give us tickets, though," Steve said. After being on the field for the pitch, they had to leave the stadium to buy $65 standing-room tickets for the sold-out game.

In Kansas City, they met some of the Royals players, including affable outfielder Jeff Francoeur, who gave them a bat.

They're keeping a running blog on the trip website, bikingforbaseball.org. Their Twitter page, @Biking4Baseball, has grown from a dozen followers to 2,600.

Media attention has been easy to get, but it's been tougher attracting commercial sponsors for the trip. 1st Bank gave them $500, and other companies kicked in power bars, bike lube, sunscreen and wet wipes. Two fundraisers were held, and individual supporters kicked in about $8,000.