Road Trip Tips & Tricks

As you may or may not know, I spend a LOT of time traveling during baseball season- most of it alone. I can't even tell you the amount of miles I have driven over the past 4 years! This season alone it is probably close to 2,000.. Not even counting air travel or spring training!

Along the way I have learned a few things that make life on the road easier, and I thought I would share!

Tulsa, OK

1. Make a plan. Life in general is better when you have a plan to work from, and travel is no different. I like to plan my packing list a few days head of time then pack the day before, so nothing gets left behind. I also make a plan for where I will make food, restroom, and fuel stops on the road. I have found that if I look up good stopping points in advance I won't have to end up using a sketchy little gas station bathroom just to find out I could have driven another 15 minutes and been at a nice clean starbucks or chickfila instead ;) 

2. Pack smart. I am a huge huge HUGE fan of packing cubes! You can get them on Amazon for pretty cheap. I like to organize by tops, pants, socks & underwear, and such. Having things separated by category helps to avoid my suitcase turning into a clothing explosion in the hotel room. As mentioned above, I like to make a thorough packing list in advance, and then pack everything except for my travel outfit and toiletries the night before. Anytime I try to pack on the day of travel, I forget things! 

3. Sleep. I am not the kind of person who can survive just fine on a lack of sleep. I *need* 8 hours. But we all know sleeping in hotels can be a struggle. Some things that help me immensely are using a sleep mask, playing white noise sounds on an app on my phone, essential oils, and bringing my own pillow. Maybe I am a diva, but I reallllyyy love my own pillow and sleep much better with it! 

4. Hydration is crucial! I can tell a huge difference in how I feel when I am dehydrated. And unfortunately, I basically don't drink any water on driving days because I like to stop as little as possible. For example, I stop just once in the middle of my 8 hour drive between Corpus and Frisco. I try to drink one full water bottle within the hour before I stop. Because of this, I am always pretty dehydrated at the end of the day! To help combat that, I try to drink extra water on the days before and after traveling. Staying hydrated helps me to feel and sleep much better in general. 

5. Bust the boredom. I don't know about you, but I just can't listen to the radio for more than an hour or two until I am bored and need something a little more stimulating. I like to use my drive time for making phone calls, and then I tune into podcasts! My favorites are anything that is true crime, right now I am loving Up and Vanished- the season finale is coming out soon and I am so anxious for it! There are TONS of podcasts on literally any subject you could possibly want to hear about, so check into that before your next trip.

6. Things to keep handy in the car: a bottle of water, advil (my neck and shoulders start hurting a few hours into a drive), protein bar or snacks, phone charger... What would you add??

Just a few things that make a difference for me! What are your road trip tips?

So, Can You Get Me Tickets?? // Baseball FAQs

I thought it would be fun to start a new series that addresses common questions about various aspects of baseball life. There are a few things that often come up as topics of conversation amongst the baseball world, and one of them is the assumption that players get unlimited free tickets to games. The reality is... Ehhh, sort of.

In the minor leagues, players are allotted 4 spots on the "player pass list" per game. So each day when Cy gets to the field, he has to go to put my name on the pass list before it gets taken to the ticketing office a little before game time. Then when I get to the game, I go to the will-call window and they have my tickets waiting. It is super simple and easy. When we have family/friends in town, we gladly can get y'all tickets this way! Home teams are usually more flexible if Cy needs to leave more than 4 tickets, but when we are on the road if we have more than 4 people coming, he usually can ask another player to use their pass list spots if they aren't using them that day. So if we are in town and you want to come see Cy play (or just come sit and chat with me... duh!) we are so so happy to get you tickets!

However, it is a completely different story when you get to the big leagues. Similarly to how it works for us in MiLB, big league players are allotted a small amount of specific seats in the designated "family"(players wives, kids, etc.) section (I believe 4) and a few in the "friends" section (I believe 2, I've heard these seats are generally kinda crappy). That is where the similarities end. First, it isn't so simple as writing names on the list, the player has to go through the team to coordinate the tickets. Second.... The tickets that players request to have are NOT free for them. If, for example, a player requests to have tickets left for his wife and kids, the value of those tickets are then considered "income" which the player is then taxed on out of his paycheck. Generally the player ends up paying around 40% of face value. A friend in Houston said that for them, it ends up about $30 per ticket. So by the end of the season, this can really add up!! I've heard stories of people not knowing this and then having to pay several THOUSANDS of of dollars in taxes for the tickets they gave out during the season. Crazy.

So moral of the story, big league players often don't/can't coordinate tickets for more than immediate family. Many people say that it is usually a lot better to just buy your own tickets on stub hub or whatever, because you can find good seats for much less than it costs the players to get them. Minor league games, however, are free and easy for us to get you to-  so come see us! ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo, Hannah


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