Meet the Brothers
Mike's Total Ballpark Count
272
Gary's Total Ballpark Count
269
Hello again, ballpark collectors. Some of you may remember my former ballpark website, Fields of Dreams. After five decades on the East Coast, harvesting that fertile ballpark ground, I have moved to Colorado and look forward to spending the next 50 years exploring this vast and untamed land. However, no matter what state I call home, I shall always root for my beloved New York Mets.
I am grateful to Gary for being my lifelong friend and cheerful companion on these adventures. I'd like to give a shout-out to Joel, an honorary Ballpark Brother, who has joined me on many ballpark adventures.
I am especially thankful for my wonderful wife, who inspires me every day and encourages me to follow my passions and to do what makes me happy. A luckier man there has never been.
Mike
The Younger Brother
Mike was a popular pitcher in his school days. Batters loved him.
Shea Stadium was the first ballpark I visited and the Amazing Mets became my favorite team. I was then moved to Texas, where I lived for 30 years, road-tripping to stadiums north, south, east and west of the Pecos. Nowadays, I'm in northern Virginia, visiting stadiums and ballparks in the 13 colonies and the and all over the continent.
I'd like to thank Mike for making our Ballpark Road Trips truly fun and memorable. Special thanks to all of the folk who have joined me along the way, especially Susan, the self-proclaimed Baseball Hostage!
My motto is "Wherever you venture on vacation during the summer in North America, you can always catch a game at a ballpark nearby!"
Gary
The Older Brother
Gary & Mike
Not Really Brothers
And now for the big reveal...
Mike and Gary are not brothers. They met in elementary school on Long Island, NY and, despite not living within 200 miles of each other since the 9th grade, have remained the best of friends.
Childhood included a lot of wiffle ball and baseball board games like Longball, Strat-O-Matic and Statis-Pro, and a lot of heartbreak at the hands of the Mets.
Trips between New York and Texas and then Virginia evolved into baseball road trips, especially after we both discovered minor league baseball during the strike of 1994.
Since then we have tried to get to a few new parks every year, either together or on our own, preferably in a part of the country we've never visited. The goal is not, nor has it ever been, to see every ballpark. This isn't a mission. It's just good, clean fun.
The Wayback Machine
Baseball is in the Brothers' blood, as evidenced by this archival photo of their Great-Great-Grandbrothers, Eugene "Truelove" Aufforth and George "Dagger" Castro, during their brief playing days at the turn of the 20th century with the Levittown Village Greens of the short-lived Middling League.
