Sep. 2—As avid baseball fans, Yuba-Sutter natives Mark Nimrick and his mom, Kelly Peccole, have always had a fond interest in Major League Baseball stadiums.
Nimrick said the duo’s first trip was to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Then the two hit Yankee Stadium, followed by Citi Field of the New York Mets.
At that point, Nimrick said he did some research and found a program known as Sports Travel and Tours, which was created for fans that attend games in all 30 Big League ballparks via a STAT Baseball Road Trip.
Nimrick said the process begins with making a flight reservation, while Sports Travel and Tours takes care of the hotel, tour bus and tickets to the games.
“There are times that we’ll get a tour of a ballpark depending on if the team is out of town the day before the game,” Nimrick said in a statement. “There are times that we’ll see two games at one stadium before going to the next city. It can be a bit expensive, (averaging) around $4,500 (or $5,500 for two) depending on the trip you take.”
Once Nimrick and Peccole accomplished their lifelong dream of seeing a game in each MLB park, the two were inducted into the Sports Travel and Tours (STAT) Baseball Stadium Hall of Fame earlier this summer in Cooperstown, New York. The ceremony coincided with the MLB induction ceremony that included David Ortiz, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Minnie Miñoso and Buck O’Neil as the class of 2022.
Nimrick said he has long been a fan of Ortiz, also known as Big Papi, and it meant a lot to him to see the inductees’ heartfelt speeches.
“To see them become so humble It was great,” Nimrick said.
The Sports Travel and Tours program is run in part by Anthony Incampo, Project Sales Coordinator for Sports Travel and Tours.
Incampo said this year was the fifth induction ceremony, where a total of 144 baseball fans have been inducted into Sports Travel and Tours Hall of Fame.
Nimrick and Peccole are the first from the Yuba-Sutter-Colusa region, Incampo said. Incampo said the process begins when the fan makes his or her first trip to an MLB ballpark. It’s then that Sports Travel and Tours sends a passport with a page for every MLB city.
“When you visit that stadium on a Sports Travel and Tours trip, we send you a sticker with the date to put in the passport,” Incampo said in a statement. “When they attend a game in all 30 cities, we invite them to Cooperstown for their own special induction.”
Incampo said the program started after a group of six saw all 30 parks in 32 days 22 years ago.
“We wanted to honor their achievement and came up with our stadium hall of fame program,” Incampo said.
For more information on Sports Travel and Tours visit https://bit.ly/3KGIrB9.
