Episode 229 - Mapping the Path

Matt Burns is better known as Mapping the Path. He takes a yearly 3-week trip with his father to see ballparks in certain regions of the country. We get into Matt's planning, spreadsheets and everything else that goes into his trips. We talk about the hats voting and the videos he releases from each of the ballparks. He also shares his Proffitt & Loss.

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Mathew Burns -

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Curved Brim Media -

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Transcript

0:17

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Earned Fun Average podcast. I'm your host, Eric Prophet, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas. And with me, as always, I have Johnny Bolt, Lake Charles Gumbo Gators super fan, of course, tonight from the lovely Bayou Broadcast Center in downtown Calhoun City, Mississippi. Well, Johnny, you know you and I like to take some baseball trips, and we actually have, the one and only Mapping the Path, Mr. Matt Burns. How are you, Matt? Doing great, guys. Thanks very much for having me. Yeah, we appreciate you joining us. Well, Matt, one of the first things we like doing is, uh, talk about a hat, and you have an awesome hat, and then, a non-matching jersey, but kind of matching jersey. Would you mind sharing your hat as well as your jersey with everybody? Sure, yes. I went with a powder blue mix and match today. So, I've got, uh, Montgomery Biscuits cap here in powder blue with the, the navy brim there, with that, uh, yellow, uh, logo with the M and the biscuit peeking out, uh, and which really pops on that, uh, the powder blue. and I like a lot of their hats. They've got a nice yellow hat, uh, that's really great. Their, their bacon biscuit hat is, is fun. they do just great work with colors. and then I'm also wearing a Nashville Brewkes jersey, from our stop in Nashville, where they were really nice to us. I'd already gone to the team store, gotten my hat there, and, uh, and they handed me a $100 gift card. we threw out- Wow the first pitch. I threw out the first pitch that night as well, and I was like, "Well, I'm getting a jersey." I'm not a jersey guy typically. I've only got two now. but this is such a sweet jersey, I, I had to have it. Yeah, I love it. I was hoping... So I've been there before. So on a trip I took, one of the original iterations of Prophet Palooza. It wasn't technically the first. It was the first time we actually called it that. but basically, my brother and I did one the year before that was a little, smaller version, but then the kind of the first iteration in 2020. What was that, two, 2022, Johnny? Right. Uh, my brother and I traveled down and went to Montgomery, so we got to see the Biscuits play, and then went up to Nashville. I actually just got back from Nashville, about a week, little over a week ago. My son was playing in a, travel tournament there, but unfortunately, the Sounds were out of town, and then the next closest, the Bowling Green Hot Rods, were also out of town. We ended up getting to go down to Rocket City to see our friend Virgil and see the Trash Pandas play. But I did get to go see Nashville, see the Sounds a few years ago. I was hoping to get there again this year. But yeah, wonderful, uh, both those ballparks, between Montgomery and Nashville that you're representing there. but Mr. Bowen, what hat do you have today, sir? Oh, well, you know, speaking of our, our latest episode, uh, with our trip to Cape Girardeau, c- this came from the trip, was referenced in the, uh, in the episode. my Wally World moment. I didn't punch a moose or a red hawk when the bookstore was closed uh, like Clark Griswold. this is a Southeast Missouri State Redhawks hat that I, uh, as I mentioned, in our episode, uh, from Academy Sports. Thank you, Academy. I wear this hat on a pretty regular basis, 47 brand. A nice light gray. I've talked about my love of gray caps, and so I'm going, uh, representing, uh, SEMO. I don't know if they say, SEMO, you know." I don't know if that's a cheer. I Maybe I just made that up. Uh, but I don't know. Represent, representing those Redhawks tonight And for myself, so at the time of the recording here, in three days starts the 92nd Annual National Baseball Congress World Series. And then in, uh, well, I guess five short days then, gonna go through more punishment and we're gonna do baseball around the clock. Mm-hmm. I have myself, my wife, my youngest son, Virgil Brooks is coming up. Terry McCutcheon's coming back with his wife. I think maybe Chris Dorm. I think both my brothers are doing it, uh, my nephew. So for those that may not be familiar, so the NBC World Series has been here since 1935. Uh, it's kind of transformed over the years throughout, but right now it's a premier summer collegiate tournament. And so there's 16 teams, and they brought it back three years ago, so this is the third time since they've brought it back. So around the clock, they start at noon on Saturday, and it runs nonstop through Sunday night, basically 9:00 or so. So basically 11 games, roughly 33 hours. You have the standard 40-minute time, you know, breaks in between as they, get the other teams to come out and warm up, but otherwise there's not really many breaks. they do have sounders throughout each game where you have to go and check in, and then you get prizes and everything. So my hat today is the defending NBC champs, the Hutchinson Monarchs. Hutchinson's about an hour kinda northwest here of Wichita. My grandma lives there, so I've been to Hutchinson quite a few times growing up. but the Monarchs have been to the, championship three years in a row. They won it three years ago, took second two years ago, and then won it again, last year. So three straight championship appearances. Looking to go back-to-back here, uh, this coming year. as the defending champs, you get an automatic bid. They had a pretty good summer this year. I don't know that they won the league, but as the previous winner, you get an automatic bid from the, to the next year. So, we went to Hutchinson to see the Monarchs play maybe a month and a half ago, I went my, with my brother and my son, we went to a game there at their ballpark in Hutchinson, and they had these hats. So it's black, got blue pinstripes, has the M, kind of like I would assume the Milwaukee Brewers kind of M there, and on the back it says Monarchs. but I'm wearing a little summer collegiate in honor of the NBC World Series kicking off. Would you like to share, sir, the, uh, forecast for this weekend that you shared on the X? Uh, Matt, get ready for this temperature forecast from our meteorologist, Eric Prophet. So we are, here in Wichita, supposed to hit 108 on Sunday. Whoa. Woo, woo. And so that will be, you know, we're a good 24 hours, 30 hours into no sleep, where we've been watching baseball nonstop, running on no sleep, running about 108. Luckily with, uh, the games are at Wichita State, X Stadium, and they have a big, grandstand with a lot of shade, so we'll be sitting kind of upper underneath the press box to get, uh, in the shade as best we can, and we have little portable fans that we'll be bringing. But, feel bad for the players being out, because it's an all turf field. Mm-hmm. they have decided to do it there because there's not much time in between the games. They wanna try to put in as many games as they can. Playing on a turf field, they don't have to r- rake the field, the infield dirt and all that every game. So, mound I believe is, turf. Everything else is turf, so they don't have to worry about that. But yeah, being on the turf, it's probably gonna be close to 120 if I had to guess. Ooh. And that reminds me of the old days when they played at Lawrence Dumont Stadium. So before they were the Wichita Wingnuts for about 10 years, where they had an all turf field, they had turf infield and grass outfield, and that was kind of the first I've had ever seen that. And I actually got to play myself at Lawrence Dumont Stadium, and it was just kind of interesting to play where you had kind of faded turf at the time. It was kind of a faded green, and then you got the grass in the outfield. but yeah, being an all turf, I can only imagine how bad it's gonna be for the players out there on Sunday afternoon. So yeah, it's supposed to be about 108, so hopefully it's not quite that hot, but yeah, it's getting up there. It's been 100 today. Hadn't hit 100 yet until right about, you know, the last couple days, so perfect or imperfect timing for the start of the NBC on Thursday, and then running into baseball around the clock this weekend. Wow. I actually follow NBC on Facebook. Mm-hmm. They announced the teams that were coming, and then I went to the website. Now you probably know this. There are two Prophets photo On their website. You are on the website for the NBC, sir. Did you know that? I did know that. It is on the link where you go to Around the Clock. So on the main website, I don't see it on there, but I think once you click into the Around the Clock portal, last year, that was from last year, my youngest son Easton and I, there was some guy walking around in a Sasquatch, outfit, which I don't know that he'll be there this weekend. he'd be very brave 'cause last year, if I remember, it was hot, but it was bearable. But if it's gonna be 108, I don't know you'd wanna walk around in a, Sasquatch, uh, outfit or... they also have a main, mascot, his name is Laces, and he's, you know, a person but then has like a baseball head. And so he'll probably be out there, but I don't know how often he'll get around. And speaking of those mascots, Johnny, when we were in Jackson while we were heading back from Nashville, JR never came out, so I never got to see JR at all. Great mascot. Of course, he had his picture made with me and Pat Larson three years ago, so retired him that night. I was gonna say, is that why he retired and we didn't get to see him? I, I'm done. I'm This one game, I gave you people one game, I'm done. these two knuckleheads, uh, we're done, so. really good mascot though. Fun, fun goat mascot. For sure. Well, Matt, I guess we'll kind of just start then. There's probably just maybe a broad question in general. So, uh, you do a trip every year, and you get to do it with your dad. So, can you just share a little background of kind of like how that started and, what it's kind of evolved to at this point? Sure. Well, you know, we're lifelong baseball fans. I grew up in San Diego, so I was a Padres fan, unfortunately during the '70s. Uh, growing up, pretty rough teams in the yellow mustard uniforms, uh, playing out there. but we went to a lot of games, and I played, uh, ball through high school. I was a catcher. probably good enough to, uh, defensively to move on to, to college, but not, not with the bat in my senior year. but you know, we've always been baseball fans, and I went to, uh, just after work, just casually went to a San Jose Giants game, here in the Silicon Valley area where I live. And, it was just after work. It was a bunch of friends. There were some other friends that had just been laid off from that, from work, and so we all kind of got together to, to reconnect and all of that. It was happened to be opening night for the Giants, San Jose Giants, and so it was a packed crowd, and it was just the atmosphere was fantastic. You've got, you know, the fun and the field between innings. Uh, this, that old ballpark, it's kind of a big cement old, old style ballpark. They had banners hanging all over the place from all the historical things that had happened there, Giants great in the past, even, you know, from other teams, the A's and o- others that they, that San Jose had represented in the past. And, uh, Turkey Mike's down the left field line, which is like this concessions place. It's like one of the best in all of minor league baseball. And they did the beer batter. You know, the guy strikes out, and, uh, beer's off, 50% off for, for 15 minutes, and it just, on opening night. It was just a rush out to the, out to the beer stands for that. and I just, I just Y- and, and on the field, you know, like these are, these are guys trying to live out their dreams. It's hard not to root for both teams, honestly, guys on both teams. It's And they're different every year, right? So they're all cycling through. And it's so It And you're close to the field, all of that. And I just fell in love with the whole experience. And so I talked to Dad and I said, "I want to do a trip in California this year and see all the minor league ballparks." At the time there were 10, uh, and f- and the major league ballparks, there were five. And I'd been to those before, but, he wasn't able to do the trip with me, so I went with my son. And we went to 15 ballparks in 19 days. Made a big road trip out of it. Uh, stopped and, and saw some sights during the day and, and games during the night. And I just was completely hooked, and needed as much of this as I could possibly get. Uh, so I started to plan, uh, for 2020, which didn't work out so well, uh, with COVID. Uh, we had ar- actually booked hotels for a Pacific Northwest trip that, uh, that had to be canceled. but in 2021 we did a Carolinas trip. I got greedy. I wanted as many minor league, uh, ballparks as I could get in one trip, and the Carolinas is the place to go. And so we saw 16 ballparks in, 17 days in the Carolinas, and, uh, that was 15 minor league ballparks. One rain out, Augusta, which we went back to on this, this year on the southern trip. and then so we just continue to do this, and it's, and it's a travel trip as much as it is a baseball trip for us. You're getting to see America. You, you hear people say, you know, like Ben Hill, "The best way to see America is through minor league baseball." You're seeing the smaller towns and you're seeing, if you're taking a trip like this to so many different places, you're seeing all this sort of connective tissue between those places. You're And I try to get us on rural roads as much as possible and get off the freeways, and just try to see the places that, that we're visiting from a travel perspective. when I was growing up, I, I was, uh, I actually started out in journalism and I wanted to be a travel writer. That's, that And so th- this kind of really intersected for me, uh, with a way to see America, and I hadn't seen a lot of America. I'd flown into cities and flown back out. and so we did, the, the Carolinas trip and then we did a Pacific Northwest trip in 2022, a Mid-Atlantic trip in 2023, and then Eastern Midwest in '24, Western Midwest in '25, and this year we did the South, uh, 19 ballparks in 22 days. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that sounds a little bit similar to kinda how I got started out. So, around 2019, 2020 my middle son would've been about 10 at the time, and so we kind of did the same thing. We just like, "Well, we want to go see some baseball games." And so I kind of started to map some things out. And of course, like you said, 2020 happened. so the first time we really did anything it was my It wasn't even that son, it was my oldest son. My brother and I, we just did a quick little weekend trip over Labor Day of 2021 where we went to Northwest Arkansas and then went to Tulsa, Oklahoma City, which had a rare Monday game. 'Cause you know most teams at this point don't play on Mondays, but since it was Labor Day they had a game. And then on that Tuesday came back, you know, and Wichita had a game. So it was kind of like a little, four-game weekend little trip. And then that's kind of where it evolved, where our first big one then where we considered that Profit Palooza would've been in 2022, and then that's where we met up with Johnny. So that was kind of similar how you'd mentioned, uh, kind of how my brother and I did it as well. And is there any kind of rhyme or reason what region you pick? Is there, with, like, new teams, with new ballparks, 'cause I know you saw, like, Salem this year and a few others. Is there any particular, pattern or how you kind of choose where you go each year? I do kind of, like, try to look at multiple regions when I'm doing the planning and seeing what will make the most sense. the South was always a little bit hairy in my mind 'cause it's such a big area, and there's so many teams if you include all the collegiate summer league teams and, and some independent teams. and so I, I thought about splitting it up, you know, this year in terms of like, oh, we'll do this part of the South and then this part of the South and maybe make it like that. but when it got right down to it, it just, it, none of the schedules really worked out in a way that made me happy. And so to represent the South, I thought, let's see as, you know, like, much geography as we can. We went from Richmond to Biloxi and, you know, out to Memphis and, and, uh, you know, down into, into Georgia and such, and emphasize minor league ballparks. so we got to see 18 minor league ballparks in the 19 games we saw. The other one was the Lexington Legends. And, uh, so that was awesome. That's always my priority, and then kind of filling in, especially with Mondays, collegiate summer league will play on Mondays sometimes. But in this trip, we got our three Mondays off 'cause we, we did it in May and, uh, and also the weather was gonna be a lot better in May, in order to see the South. you know, we just have a, like, we just have about four regions left, like, that we haven't really explored at all. But I've just been kind of methodically just trying to identify good, a good package of, teams to see in each region. And I know, uh, it's been few years back, I believe your dad, you and your dad were on our friend Anna's Baseball Bucket List podcast kind of talking about it. So when you kind of first started, trying to map it all out, has that changed a little bit since how you, uh, map out where you're going now? Kind of tell everybody a little bit about how you kind of map everything out and make it work logistically. Yeah, it is, it's a crazy challenge. last I, I used to do spreadsheets, right? So you're putting the schedules in the spreadsheet. you, you've got your six-day schedules, which can be great and can be terrible, because, you know, you get yes, yes, yes, and then these guys are gone for two weeks, and, uh, and it just, and it doesn't work. So I would, I would basically, you know, get the schedules together, have a spreadsheet, and then just try to look at patterns. I had a little way of kind of marking up the spreadsheet to kind of create patterns to, uh, for home teams, and did a lot of that. But, you know, it's, it is definitely hard work. I would I remember one time on a Sunday staring at the spreadsheet for, like, four hours- Right and coming up with nothing. And except for a headache, right? And just felt dizzy afterwards. And it just wouldn't work. and then just going back and going back and, and brute forcing it and making it, making, uh, figuring out the one thing that would actually work. This year I did use AI a little bit, so, and I was still relatively new at the time. I've used it a lot more since at work. but I started out just I, I was very naive about what AI could do. I was like, "Hey, AI, go l- go look at all the schedules and figure it out for me and, and give me a great path," and all that stuff, and it, and it just hallucinated all kinds of things. It would, it would say, "Yeah, these guys and these guys and these guys," and you'd look and like, "Well, they're not playing on that date. They're not playing at home. In fact, they're not playing at all on that date. That's a Monday." Or like, uh, they gave me the, the Mobile Bay Bears as, as something to go see. And it's like, well, what, I didn't even give you that as one of the possible teams, so how, why are you returning this, uh, this team that doesn't exist anymore? so that was frustrating. And then I went to, I actually pitched, uh, you know, put up some money for the agent functionality, which got a little bit better results. It's able to open up windows and do Google Maps and figure out how long the drives are, 'cause I was giving it restrictions. I don't want six-hour drives, and maybe, and I want as few five-hour drives as possible, and other types of restrictions. And eventually I had a whole bunch of schedules. One, some that had more games than we did this year, but this schedule gave us all those minor league teams that I was looking for. Gave it to us in May. and, uh, and, you know, it's okay to have a few days off, uh, now and again to do laundry and stuff like that along the way. the worst, the biggest uh, not the worst. It was actually one of the best trips we've had, but, it was 23 ballparks in 23 days in the Eastern Midwest. And that was, that was hard, because, uh, not only you just, you don't have the time. We do need to do laundry in the trip, and we need to find that space, and man, you get that hotel and those laundry machines are already taken, and ugh, the whole plan is ruined. But we also flew in on that trip to O'Hare and went to a Chicago Dogs game that day. And then on our way out, going to the airport, we went to a Kenosha Kingfish game, and it was just crazy. I knew we weren't gonna see every inning of that game, and then it rained beforehand. But just the experience, just the, the effort that we're putting into it and, and just the kind of wildness of seeing all of these different places, just makes it really rewarding to look back on for sure. I'm not... Don't, don't regret it a single bit Well, I don't wanna jump too far off topic as far as baseball goes. You're talking about, uh, laundry at the hotel. So I had never experienced this before. When I was in Nashville with my family for my son's baseball tournament, our hotel had free laundry, and I'd never experienced that before. So when we got into town, 'cause we had actually left on, the 3rd of July. He had a tournament in Springfield, Missouri, so we drove to Springfield, and instead of driving four-plus hours back home to Wichita, we decided to go up to St. Louis for a couple days because my cousins and my aunt and uncle live on the east side of St. Louis, so we stayed with them for a couple days. Mm. Well, then from there we drove on to Cincinnati to see a Reds game, and then down to Nashville. So when we got into town in Nashville, we went ahead and just did a little bit of laundry, and then the night before we left, we did a little bit more. So I had never experienced that, 'cause, you know, it's usually not, it's usually not too terribly expensive. But I had never seen a hotel before that had free laundry, so I was like, "Well, we're gonna take advantage of that." Yeah, it's usually you're searching around for quarters, right? Especially these days, who's got quarters, to put into a laundry machine? But I do go to the bank before these trips and get a roll of quarters, but, or two. you have to, w- for these trips, we have to plan things down. We, we can, we can be flexible. We can do different things and stuff like that, but we do need to kind of, like, really understand when that laundry's gonna happen or, you know, lunch or anything else. Uh, and when I, you know, I talked about the planning broadly in terms of creating the schedule, but from there it's, it is, I do, I create, like, a hundred-page document. No, no kidding, like, with photos and everything, with information about the cities, the, uh, ballparks, the teams, their history, the fun thing they do at the ballparks, the sights that we're gonna see, 'cause we do see sights during the day. And, uh, and I share that all throughout the, the year with my dad as we lead up to the trip, and I'm giving him choices. "Where do you wanna go to lunch? Here are six places in Nashville, and here's a link to the menu and the vibe." And he gets to make the final decision, and same thing with sights. Do the same thing like that, and it's, we get down to, like, every 15 minutes is very well, well understood before we can do that trip. But that process is a way for us to also be connecting together throughout the rest of the year as opposed to just those three weeks, which is something that, you know, we really get out of this. I was telling Johnny, offline that we got the pleasure to meet up at the Kansas City Monarchs, I believe it was last year's- Yes Memorial weekend, and you were on your trip. And, I was up there. The Savannah Bananas were playing at Kauffman Stadium, and then we went to the Kansas City Monarchs the next day, and then we actually had stayed in town a th- basically for a third day, 'cause the Royals then were gonna be home on that Monday on Memorial Day. So we got a chance to meet up, and then I think a few days later you came to Wichita, but I think we were both pretty busy at the ballparks. I don't know that we even got to run into each other in Wichita, but it was fun to get to meet up with you. And then Lynn Smith was there as well at, at Kan- at the Monarchs game. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I forgo- I, like, I was looking around for you early on at, in Wichita, and then I just got settled into the game and- Mm-hmm like taking pictures and videos and everything like that. I should have messaged you, cause I know y- like, you're on, like, the first base side, I think, behind the dugout. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, that kind of leads me into another point then. So you talked about, you know, pictures and videos and everything, so one thing that everybody enjoys on there, c- as you're at the games and then even afterwards, you post a lot of videos and, pictures and everything. So just kind of tell everybody, once you're at the ballgame, kind of a little bit about what you do once you arrive at the ballparks. Yeah, as I said, I wa- I was in journalism originally, and so I still have that in me. Like, I want to kind of report on what I'm, what all the things that are happening. So I will be You know, when we get there, the first thing we do, we, we film a little bit of video outside, um, the ballpark. We're there when the gates open, and then we go straight into the team store. I get one hat, only one hat. I'm only allowing myself one hat from each team. Uh, and I've stuck to this. I've gotten a couple of others as gifts, but, uh, but I look the other way on that. and you know, I now have, like, a hun- I was just redoing this this weekend. I have 136 hats up on the wall now. but just one from each team because it will 'Cause it's 136 hats. I mean, imagine if I And I love the logos. I love the colors. I'm a design director now. So I love all of that stuff, but I just can't. I just can't. So we do that. Dad gets a baseball, a, a logo baseball. We film a little bit of stuff in there, and then, uh, then I s- I send him to his seat, and, and I start doing video and, and photos and stuff like that. And so after, uh, the trip is over, I, I've been doing a video series on YouTube, Mapping the Path, and it's usually just 10 minutes, 12 minutes long. It's got kind of a fancy introduction with music and animation that my son does, and then the rest of it is kind of a clip show of, uh, of, of the experiences at the ballpark. Uh, it's a little bit of gameplay, the mascots, the food, all that kind of stuff, and we just try to get you a, a little sense of the flavor of being at that ballpark. Uh, and then later on, I will then write about all of this, which is kind of the original goal was, uh, because getting back into writing and, and journalism while I'm still in, you know, working my, my design career. and that takes a long, long time. I, I usually post about 1,000 photos in, in all the different chapters that I, that I post on these trips and, and write probably a book's worth, uh, for, of around each trip. and so I do hope when all of these trips, when we're kind of done or winding down with these trips, uh, to kind of compile all of this into an actual book and talk about the experiences of, of spending these times on the road with my dad. Yeah. That's wonderful. I just love that you get that opportunity to go with him to all the ballparks and everything. And for those that maybe haven't had a chance or maybe are familiar with your, Twitter presence, I know you do post pre before you leave on the trip. Uh, usually you pick out four hats and then post them online and ask- Yeah the audience, to vote in the little poll on Twitter, kind of what hat. And I don't know if you necessarily go with what the majority is or just kind of what- Most of the time your favorite is. Yeah, most of the time I do. Occasionally I'll, I'll switch it up. I'll get my wife's opinion, I'll get my, my dad's opinion, and we'll, we'll figure it out, uh, in the moment. But, uh, the worst thing for me is to, to get into the store and not have an idea of what I want. Yeah. 'Cause it's just, it's just like a candy store, right? And you just, you How do I narrow it down to the top four, let alone the one, right? So, uh, yeah, I, I do need to prepare. For sure. Well, Matt, like Eric just mentioned about the fans vote, I appreciate you in- uh, including me in the voting process. I think you tagged me from the Barons game, if I remember that the beautiful red Black Beale, Barons hat was your selection, and that had been my nominee for the Birmingham Barons. Really? I really enjoyed being part of that process of w- each one of those, tweet I still say tweets. Tweets- Yeah, me too posts, whatever. A- and I, I enjoy being part of that process. I've discovered now with your latest trip why you've listened to this podcast. You're thinking, "If I can understand Johnny, I can understand anybody in the South." And why is that- It was good practice it is different, right? Like we, uh, just got back from Louisiana, and that's a different. that's a, a totally different. Uh, there's a, a town there that's Iowa. It's I-O-W-A. It's not far from Lake Charles. And I was listening to a show Saturday morning, and they called it I- Iowa. Like they, "Oh, they just dropped," like Iowa. Talking about a coach, was it baseball coach at Iowa, and I'm thinking, "What's I- oh, States is Iowa, right?" I wanted to ask you first question. Oh, there's so many I, I, I've thought of for you tonight. Being, here in this part of the country where you and your dad travel, what southern city surprised you guys the most when you you've done the research, you've looked up this and that, but when you got there, what southern city surprised you, w- we'll make it a two-part, in the best way- or the opposite direction, like this was not what I expected in a not so good way. Don't worry, Matt, Eric has a team of attorneys, He has many- attorneys on, on the standby here for our podcast. So far no lawsuits in four years, so. Yeah. I think, I had done a lot of research, so I had, I had a good idea of what the, you know, cities looked like and all of that stuff, but, but, but before I h- started all of that, you know, there, there was definitely a lot of eye-opening things. Louisville, we had, like our biggest site day was in Louisville, because we, you know, we went to the Louisville Slugger Museum, we, uh, went to the Ali Center, and we went to Churchill Downs, which is like a pretty good like three-day trip, let alone like a one-day trip before a b- baseball game. it w- that was pretty fantastic just seeing like, the places like, uh, Nashville and Memphis, bigger cities there, to, just to feel it firsthand is kind of like the, the difference for me. That's kind of what is, what is eye-opening, is not so much like I didn't kinda know the geography and what things were like there. just s- I'd heard a lot about these, these places. I'd never been to any of them except for Augusta when we got rained out, uh, on the first, first try. so this was all very, very new to me you know, I found something to like about pretty much everywhere we went. Some of them were smaller. They didn't have a lot of sights. We just kinda drove around town and just kinda looked at n- neat buildings and just got a sense of, of what things are like. But, yeah, I don't, I, I, I don't have, certainly don't have any, any town to drag on the list. Okay. Okay, Eric. You, you won't have, uh, attorneys on retainer from sure we cheat them and how, uh, will not have to be contacted. Matt with a, a great answer there. If someone was planning a southern baseball trip, but say they had a week to do the trip, and, and, and they got in contact with you and said, "Matt, what three stadiums do I have to see- Hmm on our week-long southern stadium baseball trip?" Yeah, I, and, and I've, you know, I've, first of all I'd like, I would hope in a week, you know, that they, that they're, whatever I recommend is clustered relatively close together. but you know, the new ballparks, in Richmond and Chattanooga were pretty fantastic. Uh, Richmond's, it's a beautiful ballpark next to the old diamond. and then, uh, Chattanooga is really unique because it's, you know, it's, it's built in the industrial zone where they were able to reuse all the industrial warehouses and stuff like that for group space. And I got a tour by the VP of marketing around the ballpark, and he took me into those places, and it was, it's just very different feeling than these So there's some cookie cutter ballparks out there, right? that did just the basics and they got it in. but Chattanooga's very different in that respect. It's just got a lot of character to it. and I would say like, Louisville was, is a beautiful ballpark. Nashville is a beautiful ballpark. I wish we'd able to s- spend more time there, uh, 'cause we did get postponed after just a few innings. But I think those would kind of be at the top of my list. They tend to be the, the bigger ballparks, where there's a little bit more, action going on, uh, things going on between innings, uh, food options. You know, some of the smaller ballparks don't have a ton of that. so the, yeah, I think those would be my choices. Those are three great ones. My, my brother-in-law, Chris, used to do a lot more baseball traveling. I guess now it was to get, get away from his wife. Now they're divorced, so maybe that's just my theory. I'm going on a baseball trip, my friend. Er, you know, gone. Now, now that he's moved to Charlotte, North Carolina from Birmingham, you know, and he If he goes, I don't He's not a big social media person and I, I don't Maybe he's still doing But they w- you know, do some really nice trips, and he absolutely, like you, loved Louisville. he texts me and was talking about how great the ballpark, the merchandise, all the You know. So, I, I heard that, you know, a couple years ago from, from Chris, and, that would be a fascinating town to, to visit. You know, I take a lot of pride, even though I've only been there a couple times, as somebody that grew up in Birmingham, around Birmingham and went to school, that's there. Right. Like, if you knew the Birmingham of the '70s and '80s, even the '90s when I was in, in school there, if you had told me in 1994 there's gonna be a brand-new ballpark built here in downtown Birmingham, cause it was just dead at night. Yeah. You might have stuff going on at the Civic Center, which that football stadium that's in Birmingham is also a miracle itself that a- that it was ever built. You know, that was debated for decades growing up about a new football facility. But I, I just You know, like I said, take pride in that because I would have never ever envisioned that would ever become a reality. And, and, first time we went, which gosh, it's been 13 years ago the, the year it opened, and I loved the Hoover Met, cause that was my Barons baseball. As a child Rickwood, but then, a teenager, in co- it was the Hoover Met. Right. And so I have these, these great memories of the, of the Hoover Met. But it just blew me away, like, you know, to have that first time experience, you know. And, and- Well, downtown ballpark too, right? Like, it, it came back to downtown, you know, with, with the new ballpark and, we, yeah, we, we had a great time there, uh, for sure. I- unfortunately it was Paw Patrol night. Oh. So, you know, they were wearing the jerseys and all of that for Paw Patrol. We had more alternate jerseys than we had real jerseys for home teams during this trip. It was crazy. you're thinking about the Birmingham Barons, you're thinking about, you know, all this history and, and Rickwood Field and stuff like that. And, and, and we did go to Rickwood, which was amazing. But, uh, and Michael Jordan and all of this. And then, you know, you wanna see them in those jerseys. You wanna see them wearing those hats and, and all that. And, uh, and they weren't wearing the hats, but they had the Paw Patrol sort of pinkish jerseys and stuff like that. but we got fireworks. It was a Friday night. It was a fun night. You know, it was all right. Uh, and they won the game, so that was good. I love, and I've not purchased one, is my wife hearing me, yet. they brought back the '90s Barons logo with the, uh, black and silver with the old Baron and- Mm. Oh, yeah, right the, uh- Love that. Absolutely love that logo. That's '90s Hoover Met, Barons baseball. Uh- Well, I would love to, Johnny, but I've already got my one hat from Birmingham- Oh on the recommendation of, of Johnny Bolin, right. Johnny Bolin. Bolin likes his, some red in his Barons color scheme because that was childhood. They used to Their old hat from like the '70s, I have of course a replica. And for some reason I bought a snapback, you know, New Era snapback, and I would wear that hat all the time. White front panel, red B, black, or I mean, red bill. Beautiful. Old school, 80s Barons, right? And, like, the snap part came out of the cap. Like, there's no super gluing, we're- Yeah, no coming back from that no coming back. That hat died and Yeah, I just, you know, like I said, my childhood with the Barons was red, white, and black, and I love that solid red with the black bill that you picked up. one last question. Favorite, this may be tough out of 19 locations, maybe top three, top three ballpark concession items. We, we talk about concession items here pretty, pretty regularly, uh, on the podcast. But your top three things you and your dad ate at these ballparks. I, I am prepared for this one, uh, Johnny. Okay. I had I made a top 20 list actually- Wow and, uh, posted that on Twitter a few weeks ago. so the first Number one for me was something I didn't expect, which was the Biloxi Bayou Bomber. and so this is a shrimp burger patty with smoked sausage, fried catfish, crawfish, sorry, and onion tanglers, lettuce, tomato. And I was I, you know, I'm always looking for regionally appropriate food when I do concessions and something that's unique at that ballpark. So I knew I had to have something in the Gulf Coast, you know, range. And I, uh, but I wasn't expecting a lot. It was amazing. That was a fantastic bite. number two was, in Knoxville, Chicago Cubs affiliate, we had Chicago dogs. my dad loves Chicago dogs. He got introduced to them on our Eastern Midwest trip when we had some Chicago games, and I think he ate five of those on that trip, uh, including one at the airport on the way out. Uh, he was like, "Go get me a Chicago dog. I gotta have one more." and so that, that probably would be the number one on his list, but, uh, they, they were very, very good in Knoxville. And then the one I put at third was, uh, the smack sandwich in Lexington Legends served that had pulled pork and spicy mac and cheese with pickles, and, uh, that was just very juicy, very great, uh, very great, uh, s- sandwich. Uh, like I said, I made a top 20. I would say I loved, like, the top, you know, 15 or so. There, there was a lot of good bites. that from Biloxi sounds absolutely amazing. There's nothing on that that I don't, the barbecue nachos there. That was my go-to. They had a local barbecue place, was it Murky Waters? Why can't I, how can I remember that? I hadn't been there seven years, but I mean, they, but they had a freestanding stand there, not the regular concessions, but their own setup, and I love their barbecue nachos. Now, only I would go to a seafood-friendly place and order pulled pork pork. Oh. but yeah, they, they were al- always fantastic. But I had, I, I've heard, talked to other people, you know, talking about this seafood option, and they had fried cheese curds because of- Mm-hmm the Brewers affiliation. I used to love it when they'd play Roll Out the Barrel. I mean, that just lit up the crowd even though we're, a long way from Milwaukee. I always like the way they, uh, they openly just embrace the Brew Or, like, they just, they love that affiliation. You always got that sense, that they just really, like that affiliation and like I said, embraced it and would sell the merchandise and co-brand and, And, and I always thought that when they It was neat. I And, you know, unless you're a Cubs fan, who really hates the Brewers? Yeah. they're like the most likable team. It doesn't matter which version of them, right? they're always likable. And you had Euchre for all those I mean, you know, they just a likable Unless you're their mortal enemy in Chicago, right? You're not you know, nobody really Oh, I'd never wear a Brewers hat," right? You we loved Biloxi. Um, they, they were really nice to us. Uh, I threw out a, a first pitch there. I threw out six first pitches on this trip, which was- Wow crazy. It just kind of like got its own momentum, and people just kept contacting me. It was just amazing. well, I met, uh, JD Blake, the, the broadcaster, and went up to the booth there and watched him work. and so that was, that was a great time, and it was a lively crowd. Like it Some, a lot of Sunday games, that was a Sunday game. Mm-hmm. A lot of Sunday games, you know, people are kind of, it's the sun and everything and a little, little more passive, but that crowd was really into it. it was, it was a good crowd. they have Those games are a lot of fun. They are absolutely a lot of fun. They do a, they do a great job. JD's been on this podcast what, here twice now? Is that correct? Wow. Mm, two or three. I don't remember. Notable Earned Fun Average fan. Yeah, he was on the holiday ender one year. why am I drawing a blank what we call that episode? The Average Holiday Spectacular? And in his own episode. So at least twice. I don't know why I'm thinking a third time, but at least twice, JB, 'cause Joe, really, really nice guy. That's a, it's a, one real big aspect of these trips is, is meeting a lot of people, um, who are aware of the trip and, and, and kind of rooting for us and excited to follow along. I met lots of like individual fans that I just didn't know before. Al- also a lot of, you know, folks that you guys know and work with, uh, sometimes, uh, Eric especially, of the DHC Sports Show. Uh, Patrick Larson came out to the Columbia Clingstones game. Donnie Weiss sat with us, uh, for the Augusta Green Jackets game and showed me around and introduced me to people, which was so nice. And, uh, Virgil Brooks, uh, we s- hung out for the like hour-long rain delay with him, chatting at the Rocket City Trash Pandas game. So, that's one thing I love about this too, is just getting, getting to meet people who have, share the same passion and, uh, and then who are kind of just rooting for us to, to get along the trip and watch, follow the map as we progress through the trip. So what he said, Johnny, is that Ed's not as friendly since he didn't get to meet up with Ed. No, I'm just kidding. Ed said I should've reached out to him, and these other guys reached out to me. Well, Matt, I'm kind of I bet you're kind of like me. I'm glad that it seems like each year the baseball schedules tend to drop a little bit earlier and earlier. it used to be closer to, w- wintertime, you know, kind of around the holidays, but I feel like earlier and earlier. They just dropped the 2027 MLB schedule during the All-Star break, and so I'm sure we'll have the minor league schedules coming out here soon, which I'm sure just like me, you probably are glad once it comes out. Gives you more time to, do some research and prepare for your trip. So, you probably are gonna wait to share it, but do you have a good idea where you're gonna go for 2027? The, the, uh, big regions we haven't been to are the Rocky Mountains, uh, Florida, Florida State League in, in Jacksonville and Pensacola and all that, the, uh, Northeast and the Southwest. I think the Northeast is probably the leading contender next year. I'd love to go to a Fenway Park game with my dad. uh, I'd love to see the Cape Cod League. I'd lo- and we would include all of the minor league teams in that region. Uh, if we could, I'd love to get up to, uh, Canada and see the, the Frontier League teams that are up there. There's three teams that are, they're up there. so that's, that's kind of It's ki- the, the region I'm looking at is kind of New England to Erie and then up. we got about halfway up on the Mid-Atlantic trip up New York to, like, Hudson Valley stuff, but we didn't get up to, like, Binghamton and places like that. If you happen to tune into the Earned Fun Average podcast in two days, you'll hear my brother and I just got back from our Profit Palooza trip. We were in Boston, and that's what the episode's about. So, uh, we got out to the Cape Cod League. Highly, highly, highly recommend it. There are 10 teams. We were there for two days, and it wasn't enough. Chatham Anglers. If you get a chance to go see the Chatham Anglers, of the five that we got to see, that was by far the best ballpark, so we definitely recommend that. Okay. and then we went to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and if you get a chance to go to the Puritan Backroom, that's where they invented the chicken tenders, and they have a coconut chicken tender that was absolutely amazing. So we had that for lunch, went to a ball game, and then loved it so much we drove about 40 minutes- Yeah one way back up a couple days later just to get more of the, uh, chicken tenders. So, uh- we talk about that a little bit on our trip, but yeah, if you get a chance to go up there. We did get to go to Fenway, and we got to see the Yankees Red Sox rivalry at Fenway, so that was a lot of fun. Mm-hmm. But yeah, if you do get a chance to get up there next year or in the next couple years, it's gonna be a fun trip, 'cause my brother and I had a lot of fun. Portland to see the Sea Dogs. Yeah. That was a lot of fun as well. So yeah, I definitely recommend that area. I would love it. And then with the Cape Cod League, my, idea is that to, to try to see nine innings across, like, three games in one night. Mm-hmm. 'Cause they stagger the starts. Yeah. They kind of start around 4:30 and the, and the last one starts around 7:00. They're all about a half an hour or so apart. Yep. 40 minutes, whatever. So I think we can maybe do that. Um, we... There, there's no, like, bucket seats that my dad typically wants to have or anything like that. They're very informal. So I'm, I bet we could bop in for a few innings and then go on to the next one. I think that would be super cool night. That's exactly what my brother and I did, yeah. So the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox don't have lights at their ballpark. Mm-hmm. So yeah, they usually start, if they're at home, around 4:30 like you mentioned. But then most of the others do, so we did that. We went to Yarmouth-Dennis for a, a few innings, and then went over to the Harwich Mariners, and then, like, over to Chatham to see the Anglers. Chatham's kind of in the middle of a neighborhood, and what's really funny is right there down the third baseline, there's a house and a really tall fence. Well, the homeowners built their own stadium, seats. So these metal bleachers that they just put seats on, and they just sit there on their side of the property, but they're just watching right down there from the third base side. Now, it's free to get into all the games. They do ask for donations if you'd, so choose. But Chatham had great merch, a lot of Cape Cod merch, and then a lot of specific Anglers merch. But that's exactly what we did. We just went to each stadium for a handful of innings and then moved over to the other, 'cause you're right, they're- 20, 30 minutes apart depending on which ones you go to. So, but Matt, one of the segments we do is the profit and the loss, and obviously you've had a lot of fun getting to go to all these ballparks here over the years with your dad. is there maybe one thing you can narrow down to a s- a particular profit that you can think of? Yeah, I think it would have to be, um, spending time with my dad. you know, when before we started doing these trips, he would come down and see us, uh, for, Father's Day, and we'd go golfing and we'd do a couple of restaurants and, uh, and that was great, but then I wouldn't see him a lot the rest of the year. th- all of these, uh, these trips are, are as I talked about before, just gave me opportunity to connect with Dad all year long about this and, and expose him to what I'm seeing about the places we're gonna go. And then just on the trip itself, it's intense. Like we're, we- we're together every minute of three weeks but we're spending so much time just talking and laughing and listening to podcasts and I think that absolutely has to be the profit. And then on the flip side, the loss, you know, obviously unfortunately you can't control it, but the rain, sometimes you get rain outs and you miss some ballparks. Uh, had a couple of those experiences on a few trips, and I got a chance I think like you did with Gus, I've gone back to some of those ballparks that I originally missed and got a chance to see some games or maybe once the trip ends and unfortunately you and your dad have to go back to your respective, homes or whatever. Any, uh, particular loss you can think of? Well, I, you know, this is gonna be a little less serious, but, uh, one of the things that, uh, has happened a lot on my trips, y- you may have seen my social media, I wear this hat and it's like a cowboy hat. It's like a, it's a Tilley hat. It's a very soft like outdoorsy hat. I have a habit of leaving it in team stores. because I'm trying on these hats, I'm so excited, we're filming each other, we're doing all this fun stuff, and then I just leave this hat that is a prized possession of mine. I've taken it around the world. It's all part of my, all my travel journeys. And so in 20, uh, 20, 4, I left it in Akron in, in Rubber Ducks team store. So excited about that sweet blue hat with a yellow duck on it. Yeah. And, uh, and just left it to hang in there, and didn't realize it until I got back to our hotel, which was like an hour away. And so I called the team store, they found it, they sent it home, but I was irritated the rest of the trip I didn't have my hat. So then fast-forward to the next year, the very first night, after I saw you in Kansas City, actually it was already sitting in the team store when I saw you because it, I got the Monarchs hat and I was like, "Oh, this is great. Wow." And I left it there again and I was so mad at myself 'cause I had stressed myself out about this hat, and I raced back to the ballpark and fortunately there was like two people there, the gate was open, I shouted around and, and they went to the lost and found and it was there. And I went like, "Phew." And so, okay, I'm telling myself, "Okay, Matt, you've got it in your head. You know how to do this. You don't, you're not gonna leave that thing in the store anymore." So of course seven days later in Fargo-Moorhead, uh, we, uh, I left it in the team store. And there was a lot going on that day. We were being interviewed by like TV news crews and from the local news and stuff like that. But I'd left it in the store. I dr- we were driving away. I remembered. I raced back to the ballpark. I had to slow down when we arrived because it was first responders night and it There was lots of police cars and stuff like this. So I just eased into the ballpark and ran upstairs, and I asked them, they said they couldn't find it, and then, so I just went away, was dejected, and I decided to get a backup hat. on that trip so this would never happen again, and I went, I bought it at REI, and a- just as I was leaving, Fargo called and said they had found my hat and they were gonna send it home. And so this year I said to dad, "Look, I've got a hat and I've got a backup hat. Bring your Tilley hat for sure and we're all set. Don't... We're not gonna worry about hats anymore." uh, he didn't bring his hat this trip. He forgot, and then so I gave him my backup hat, and then like a week into the trip he left it in a hotel. and so stress, stress, stress again. Uh, I called the hotel about four times before I finally got somebody who would be willing to help and get me a UPS code and so I could, uh, get it sent back to my house. I got to use the backup hat for the rest of the trip. at least when we're on camera. so anyway, that's, that's my loss, as small as it is. No, that's- 'Cause there's not a lot of loss on these trips. They're, they're all, they're all pretty positive. For sure, yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing both the profit and the loss there, and really have enjoyed you, uh, hopping on with us for a little bit here this evening. If anybody wanted to go out there and follow along with your journey mapping the path, and as you get ready for your trip for 2027 and anything beyond, where can people follow you online? Sure. I have a website, mappingthepath.com. That's got all of my s- all of my stuff, all my writings and, and, uh, video series and, and other things. Uh, then I am on Twitter at Mapping the Path, as well as Instagram and BlueSky, all of them at just Mapping the Path. I love it. Well, really appreciate it. please give your dad our best, and, can't wait to see what the travels look like next year. if anybody has a chance, make sure if you're out there at a ballpark, hopefully you'll run into Matt, say hi, and, follow him online. He'll obviously post what hats he's looking at possibly getting for his trip, the following year when he goes, and shares a lot of, good food and everything, and, bunch of enjoyable videos and pictures and everything. And it's just been a absolute pleasure having you on. And then make sure you guys go follow us as well. We're Earn Fun Average, Average is AVG, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, and Threads. One more time, Matt, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. America, lower your standards. Average is what these guys do best.