{"id":5035,"date":"2016-06-09T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=5035"},"modified":"2016-06-09T13:20:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T18:20:20","slug":"john-lathams-world-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2016\/06\/09\/john-lathams-world-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"John Latham\u2019s World Of Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lake Area MC Aims To Visit Every Major League Baseball Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Brad Goins<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"latham<\/a>John Latham has played many roles in Southwest Louisiana. He\u2019s been an MC, Elvis impersonator, bon vivant, man about town and general, all-around fun guy.<\/p>\n

And now, John Latham is also a man with a mission. He aims to watch a game at every Major League Baseball park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just something to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do it. Why not? … It\u2019s kind of a fun way to go to a place I\u2019ve never been … It gives me something to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

On some level, Latham\u2019s project has to do with his late father\u2019s love of the game \u2014 a love shared by the son. The two enjoyed watching Major League games together. (In the Latham family, it\u2019s always been about the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers. \u201cThere\u2019s those and there\u2019s everybody else,\u201d says John.)<\/p>\n

In 2009, before his father grew ill, John and dad Phil traveled to the last game they watched together \u2014 a Cincinnati Reds game.<\/p>\n

Several years later, as his father lay dying in the summer of 2015, he and John talked about how much they\u2019d enjoy seeing a Los Angeles Dodgers game. It would turn out to be their last talk.<\/p>\n

\"latham<\/a>One week after his father\u2019s death, John was sitting in Dodger Stadium, watching the Chicago Cubs\u2019 Jake Arrieta throw a no-hitter. Arrieta would go on to win the Cy Young Award for best pitcher in the National League in 2015.<\/p>\n

As far as baseball goes, fortune was kind to Latham in 2015. In the course of his travels, he managed to watch the Cy Young winners and Rookies of the Year for both leagues. \u201cIt was a good year,\u201d he says.
\nThe Logistics <\/strong><\/p>\n

How does one visit every Major League park when one also has to work for a living? To hear Latham tell it, it\u2019s a matter of planning, planning and more planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go when I can line it up with the days I have off,\u201d he says. Even though he\u2019s been to such far-flung locations as Los Angeles and Seattle, he has yet to use one vacation day for the project.<\/p>\n

He also tries \u201cto string together as many [games] as [he] can.\u201d For instance, in an excursion made shortly before this magazine hit the stands, Latham saw the Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies on three consecutive days. He used a combination of train, bus and plane rides to make it to all three cities and back to Lake Charles.<\/p>\n

Part of the extensive planning is done in order to keep down what one would think would be prohibitive expenses. But if you do it right, says Latham, \u201cit\u2019s not that expensive.\u201d He relies heavily on Travelocity and Expedia and Hotels.com. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to look at the right time,\u201d he says. In the end, says Latham, \u201cthe most expensive stuff is probably the ball park food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latham finds many options for cheap or free transportation. Drawing a contrast to Lake Charles, Latham says that in the cities he travels to \u201cthey want you to go places.\u201d He says there\u2019s either a bus or train station at every airport in the Major League cities. \u201cThey make it easy\u201d to travel about, he says.<\/p>\n

He makes particular note of Minneapolis, where the Minneapolis Light Rail goes to the Mall of America, where one can board a shuttle that goes directly to the entrance of the stadium.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"lathjam<\/a><\/p>\n

Pins from MLB stadiums Latham has visited adorn his Astros cap.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Snags <\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, careful planning can\u2019t overcome every obstacle. Indeed, planning can create its own obstacles.<\/p>\n

Take Latham\u2019s recent trip to see the Cleveland Indians. As always, he\u2019d lined up the cheapest travel and hotel rates. The problem was, the Indians were playing at 1 pm, while Latham\u2019s hotel didn\u2019t start admitting guests until 3 pm.<\/p>\n

Latham decided to resolve the problem by putting all the clothes he\u2019d need in a backpack and carrying the backpack into the stadium (and then later, of course, to the hotel). I was surprised to learn that Major League Baseball doesn\u2019t mind fans bringing backpacks into stadiums. The packs are inspected, but mainly \u2014 says Latham \u2014 to ensure that fans aren\u2019t bringing in food or drink. (Fans are permitted to bring in one bottle of plain water.)<\/p>\n

Latham also had to deal with an unexpected transportation glitch. He likes to use Spirit Airlines because it\u2019s the cheapest. But Spirit is an independent airline and doesn\u2019t cooperate with other airlines. Spirit can delay or change the time of a flight without offering its customers any alternatives. In the case of Latham\u2019s recent trip, Spirit simply cancelled his return flight from Philadelphia to Houston. Latham resolved the dilemma in the way that would give him the most enjoyment. He took a Philadelphia bus that would arrive at New York City\u2019s Port Authority early the next morning. And he booked a cheap late flight out of the city. He managed to save a little money, and \u2014 perhaps more important \u2014 spend a long day enjoying one of his favorite cities.<\/p>\n

One thing that\u2019s \u201cfrustrating,\u201d says Latham, is that in cities that have two teams, while one team is playing at home, the other tends to play out of town. Of course, that\u2019s bound to mean extra trips down the line, as Latham\u2019s visits always take place on a tight schedule.
\n\"latham<\/a>The Time Frame <\/strong><\/p>\n

Latham says, \u201cI don\u2019t have a particular time frame\u201d for visiting all the stadiums. One reason this is important is that it allows him to count visits to ball parks that were made fairly long ago.<\/p>\n

For instance, Latham considers an Astros game he saw in 1987 as the first in the project. The reason is that this Astros game is the first Major League game he clearly remembers attending.<\/p>\n

As with all the games he\u2019s attended for the project, Latham scrupulously documented the game, putting complete box scores, rosters, statistics and notes on personnel in a large notebook devoted to the project. For each game he\u2019s attended, the route of travel to and from the park is superimposed on a map of the U.S. There\u2019s a variety of photos of Latham at the scene as well as action shots of players on the field.<\/p>\n

Latham also counts the New York Yankees game he was watching on Sept. 24, 2005 \u2014 the day Hurricane Rita hammered Southwest Louisiana. As the Lake Area was windblown and flooded, Latham was sitting high and dry in the left field bleachers of Yankee Stadium.
\nCities <\/strong><\/p>\n

When he has time, Latham likes to explore the cities to which he travels to see the games. For instance, in a recent trip to see the Dodgers, he visited Santa Monica, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and all the \u201ctourist crap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLos Angeles had the best-looking fans,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Minneapolis, they all looked like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latham had traveled to Seattle to see the Mariners shortly before this interview. While he wasn\u2019t too happy about the cool temperatures, the city as a whole made a strong impression on him. \u201cSeattle has all the charm of New Orleans without all the garbage and smells.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latham dreams of seeing a West Coast game and an East Coast game in two consecutive days. If anyone can work out the logistics of such a feat, it\u2019s Latham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lake Area MC Aims To Visit Every Major League Baseball Park By Brad Goins   John Latham has played many roles in Southwest Louisiana. He\u2019s been an MC, Elvis impersonator, bon vivant, man about town and general, all-around fun guy. And now, John Latham is also a man with a mission. He aims to [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,4,1162,1161,1159,1163,1160],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Latham\u2019s World Of Baseball - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2016\/06\/09\/john-lathams-world-baseball\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Latham\u2019s World Of Baseball - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Lake Area MC Aims To Visit Every Major League Baseball Park By Brad Goins   John Latham has played many roles in Southwest Louisiana. 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