Chris Hilk

The joke around New York is that the baseball season ended last week, and it’s officially time for football. But these New Yorkers who refuse to look further west than the Meadowlands are missing quality postseason baseball played in the middle of the country by mid-market teams. The Brewers, Cardinals, Rangers and Tigers do not have the luxury of throwing money at any player who catches their eye; instead they pick and choose, often saying “no” to the prized free agents while building well-rounded teams that excel on the field. So now it’s time for the radical suggestion: maybe the Yankees should give this strategy a try.

Darren O’Donnell has decided to intertwine two of his passions: baseball and bicycle riding. The 24-year-old college graduate is in the middle of a six-month long bike ride around the United States, with a quick stop in Canada. But what makes this journey especially unique is the stops along the way. Darren is on a quest to catch a game at every Major League Baseball stadium this season. 

It was an overcast day at the Central Park Zoo and the threat of rain explained the smaller than usual crowd that came to see the animals. But as a horse-drawn carriage pulled up to the zoo’s southern entrance it seemed as if the dreary weather disappeared. 

I was flipping, one morning, through the sports section of my local newspaper to where the Major League Baseball Standings sat near the back. Upon reaching the page, something caught my eye while studying at each division. Surely the paper made a typo. There were six teams listed in the National League Central and only four clubs in the American League West. Thinking this was an innocent mistake and seeing as neither division housed my favorite team, my ten-year-old self dropped the matter.