The Ballpark Stampeders annual Stampede. Truth be known, when I planned my trips it just happened to be on the same date when I found out the date for the Stampede, so Score! I arrived at the Cincinnati airport and took an Uber to my friend Zach's house. He was walking distance from the stadium so it was very convenient. The day of the game we walked over fairly early to take in some city sights and before the meeting time at the stadium to meet the others. Upon arriving, it was great to see everyone I've seen leading up to this Stampede. David and Cindy Cantu, who I met in Houston; JJ Roman, who I met in Oakland; Gary Herman, who I met in New York, and many more than I met online prior to in person. There were at least 250 people there, all with their MLB passports in hand. As we checked-in we were split into groups. rotating from the stadium tour, the Hall of Fame museum, to the batting cages. It was quite an experience. The founder of the MLB Passport, Tim Parks definitely put together a great itinerary for all of us. In the batting cages I went lefty and righty, like the old days.
After the tours, we got to meet with a panel of people where all 250+ of us converged in one of the Red's stadium clubs. Tom Browning was one of the people on the panel. He pitched a perfect game back in the day and was quite the funny guy. After our yearbook photo we were free to do what we wanted before the game. I decided to stay on the reds 1st baseline and got my bobblehead signed. No other autographs. Game was fun, especially with the huge group. Reds 1 - Cardinals 4
