2015 MLB Trip Sponsors: Man Fish Brewery, Megabus.com, MLB Reports, National Car Rental and the MLB Ball Park Pass-Port.

Chuck Booth (Owner/Lead Analyst): Follow @chuckbooth3024

Follow The MLB Reports On Twitter Follow @mlbreports

***  I Will be live tweeting from all ballpark venues I am watching games at.  Join the discussion.

Chuck Booth’s 2015 MLB Park Historical Road Trip

The GOAL: 183 Straight Days (every single day at least 1 gm) Of ALL 30 MLB Parks Trip In 2015 (216 Games) view full year schedule.

The CAUSE:  To Raise Money for Concussion Awareness (via Sports Legacy Institute. donate money here) Through Inspiring Others.

I sit here humbled that I made it this far in my journey.  4 years ago at this time, I was not in a good place.  I was working, going home and trying to fend off headaches, dizziness and any loud sounds.

The government in my home town province of Canada, was not helping me with my claim versus a 2010 accident where I was hit and ran by a driver of a big truck.  I would later hire a personal injury and take them to task.  These were the dark days of depression one suffers from repeated concussions.  It even went to other parts of my body like arms and shoulders – tingling from stress.

So having said that, one of the things I did during this stretch was still capitalize my best skills with what was given to me. I turned to professional handicapping and earning Air Miles through a google search engine.

I used all the anger I had towards the situation – and it fueled me to earn as much as I could while on the shelf.

Airmiles used to have a search engine toolbar in which you could earn free miles by searching for legitimate searches. I found a loophole around that, and earned many miles for family members just by devoting time and effort when I was looking for extra work. The toolbar is no longer in play, but it help me gain many freebies in my 2012 and this current trip.

Before the accident, I delivered pizza and did my courier job as well.  It doesn’t sound glamorous, but let me tell you something.  For a vehicle that was already paid from the car rental I had with the 1st job, I could pocket a ton of cash driving around pizza.  That job was gone within 2 months of the hit and run.  I had done the pizza job for 9 years.

I was barely making ends meet with my courier job as a sole source of income, but I had a plan.  This is what I call living in the “Grey Area” of life.  I will save you the long version,  but here is what I did.  The basis of this lifestyle change caused me to earn more money and rewards than I have ever could have dreamed of.  It became the platform for the 2012 record streak I went on, and I am using the last benefits of this plan during this year’s odyssey too.

There was a search engine toolbar created by a Canadian Air Miles program. 

My family and friends have always trusted me to figure the best angle out how to do such things, so all provided me with their numbers, and let me use their amassed Miles for my trips. 

Most of you will never see this rewards program.  This company is in Canada.  They  gave away 30 free Air Miles a month for simply using the search toolbar.  (If you do this for 2 years per card, you can create enough Miles to redeem for 2 car rentals, or even a hotel stay.)

The problem with this toolbar – was that it was smart enough to know when you were planting random searches just to gain credit.  But alas, I found a way to bypass the system, and receive credit for every word I typed in.  No longer would I have the term “Macro” or invalid search reject my one word searches.

I tricked the toolbar by writing imperfect words like impe (instead of imperfect), the result would always come back ” Did you mean imperfect?”, but it rolled right passed the toolbar being suspicious you were doing searches that were just to receive credit. This was my outlet to keep my mind sharp – by designing imperfect words on the quick.

It took me about 15 minutes per month, per card, to accrue 30 Airmiles (which has a cash related value of about $4 – $5 based on the rewards you use for a redemption.  Times that by 50 cards, and I reeled in enough of these freebies to pay for 35 hotel nights, and 20 car rentals in 2012 and 2015.)

This was time consuming, but earning something for nothing risked is what I was left to do.  For the 2 years this toolbar feature was active, I typed my imperfect words, and gained family members the rewards.  With these Airmiles, you can unilaterally give them away as gifts to anyone else that is Canadian.

I also took advantage of Canadian law, to gamble lawfully on free contests that offered to win prizes from various entities in any sporting event contest. 

Having a huge understanding of odds and probabilities, we took advantage of having 50 of 2000 entrants in these prize pools.  Except for with that many entries, I could effectively rig the outcome – so that 3 or 4 of my people would factor in the cash payouts.

In the future, this may turn into the way players in fantasy sports leagues make cash.  By basically pooling their money together, having a few select experts to run the organized betting (like a gambling mutual fund,) and let the others just ante up the cash.

My situation was a little different in Canada, with our relaxed gambling laws, and there was no financial risk for my people.   I just won them money, and then in some cases, would ask for cash compensation for my efforts.  It literally paid for my entire 2012 record streak.

I won over 65% of the prize money offered for whatever contests I played in.

Both the handicapping (for the most part) and the Airmiles deal are over with me running this website now since 2012.  But the mlbreports.com is another way I can earn money in my work week.

Out of a 70 hours a week job, when I do work, about half of it is downtime for me.  I can keep up with this website, and a small fraction of the sports handicapping I do.  I still play the NFL Pickem Challenges each year, with the prize money being insane for the little amount of time put forth.

These ‘Grey Area’ earning opportunities were all I had to create extra money in 2010 – mid 2013.  It kept me active enough to where I exercised my brain.  Eventually I received an insurance payout for my injury, and recovered enough physically through therapy, to increase my workload at my courier job.

So when people ask me how long did it take me to save for this journey? I always reply “I am paying for it with my settlement money”, but I also have earned plenty of freebies from dedicating the time.

The point in divulging this information is to show that you should never give up.  Never surrender. I am not saying to live in the “Grey Area” either like I have done, but just keep active on something that interests you.

One of the aspects I am always happy with myself personally, is my ability to show up and perform work even when I am not operating at an optimum level.  They call this ‘mental toughness’ in the sporting world.

When I complete this mission in a few months I will probably be quite emotional, because it took a harrowing amount of personal sacrifice, struggles, and the ability to continue the fight when I felt like crap always.  It has tested me spiritually, physically and mentally, but I never surrender.

It is not just the 183 days of this trek.  It was the 4 years of plowing through daily life as a grind, where there was no time for rest – just to get to the opportunity.

Now that I have been on the road for 4 months and not working, I can honestly say that I am in the best shape mentally and physically that I have been in since the accident.  I feel the best I have as an adult.

I have been dropping weight very rapidly, and am able to do my 300 situps a day. By the time October 4th hits the schedule, I hope to be in the same physical condition I was in before I discovered baseball park food a decade ago.

Start of the trip

this was me Apr.5

The new and improved physically fit me on July.26 at Citi Field, and trending in the right way..

almost 4 months in

Stadium Count after Aug.4, 2015

(26 of 30 parks, I am finished for year with Angel Stadium, Comerica Park,  Busch Stadium, Fenway Park, Great American Ball Park, Progressive Field, Marlins Park, Globe Life Park, Minute Maid Park, Petco Park and Kauffman  Stadium.)

Trip Stats:

Projected budget – $22500 , I am plus $125 as of right now where I thought I would be financially.)

Hot Dogs eaten – 54

Beers Consumed – 59

Energy Drinks – 131 (including coffee)

Miles traveled thus far by all modes (52700 Miles).  Before you say that is a lot, I did that many by air in my 2012 World Record Streak.

Interviews TV.Radio.Internet.Podcast.Newsprint – 74total interviews (70 since June.01.)

Home team record is now astoundingly good at 81 – 61 (.570 win %).  Not bad when you consider that CBP in Philadelphia has the most games watched so far.

Games Per Park Breakdown – 143

CBP – 23 (Philadelphia)

Nats Park – 19 (Washington)

Yankee Stadium – 15 (The Bronx)

Camden Yards – 15 (Baltimore)

Safeco Field – 8 (Seattle)

Wrigley Field – 8 (Chicago)

Fenway Park – 6 (Boston)

Citi Field – 6 (Flushing Meadows, NY)

AT @ T Park – 4 (San Francisco)

Busch Stadium – 4 (St. Louis)

Angel Stadium – 3 (Anaheim, CA)

Chase Field – 3 (Phoenix, AZ)

Minute Maid Park – 3 (Houston)

US Cellular Field – 3 (Chicago)

Globe Life Park – 3 (Arlington, TX)

PNC Park – 3 (Pittsburgh)

Miller Park – 3 (Milwaukee)

O.co Coliseum – 2 (Oakland)

Kauffman Stadium – 2 (Kansas City)

Progressive Field – 2 (Cleveland)

Great American Ball Park – 2 (Cincinnati)

Marlins Park – 2 (Miami)

Tropicana Field- 1 (Tampa Bay)

Petco Park – 1 (San Diego)

Comerica Park – 1 (Detroit)

Coors Field – 1 (Denver)

Still Left to see

27.  Target Field, Minneapolis, MN (Aug.13)

28.  Rogers Center (Aug.14) Toronto, Ont, Canada

29,  Dodger Stadium (Aug.30) Los Angeles, CA

30.  Turner Field (Sept.29) Atlanta, GA

Makes 143 Games in 122 through Aug.4, 2015 – featuring 26 Doubleheaders, 1 missed and 1 madeup doubleheader, and one outright miss (Apr.07, that was cancelled and now rescheduled for July.07, 2015, in which I attended anyways. There was also a four day break for the ALL – Star Break).  I have 74 Games Left in 61 Days..

2015 Trip schedule.