Why the GABA is starting to resemble the 2000 Presidential election

I know, I know... I'm probably the only person on Earth right now who's checking websites for 2010 Texas League schedules. But, in my truly baseball-obsessed nature, I've been checking almost daily.

You see, Texas is a large state. VERY large. And to put together the Great American Baseball Adventure for 2010, you've got to know exactly which teams are at home, and when. Otherwise, it's a little difficult planning to go from Phoenix to New Orleans in a day.

Good news is, the Texas League schedules are on their teams' respective pages. You have to dig a bit (in fact, you might need a shovel or two - from most team pages, click on 'schedule', then on '2010', then on a month in which they might actually play baseball in 2010), but they're officially there. Maybe the Midland Rockhounds are reading this blog after all! (I'm not fooling myself into actually believing that.)

This leaves just the Florida State League. Ah yes... Florida. Remember it well. Lived there for two years, and never once did I see a hanging chad. And yet, the state seems to be weeks behind in reporting results of anything - elections, baseball schedules, profits from the local Morrison's early bird specials - anything!

Just kidding, Florida. You know I love ya. But you are now the only hole remaining in the GABA jigsaw puzzle.

The good news is, it's not a terribly large state (at least the part of it where minor league baseball is played), so I've already built the rest of the schedule and blocked off a couple of weeks to visit the FSL parks. June 3rd, the GABA would head to Jacksonville. Then the next 16 days would include soaking up beach sun, seafood, stories about the resident's grandkids, maybe a lap around Daytona International Speedway (one of the top sporting venues on the planet), and 14 more baseball games.

The Rays are at home June 8th-13th, and the Marlins (always making it tough) are home from the 15th-18th. Trouble is, the itinerary has us in Mobile on the 19th, so I don't see a Miami-to-Mobile-in-a-day trip.

Amazingly, the entire rest of the trip is set for 2010. And after spending all this time planning the GABA, I'm convinced it's too bad that we won't actually be taking the trip (a full-time job does pay the bills a bit better than a cross-country baseball trip). Just call it a practice run for some season down the road.

I'll post the full trip soon (maybe once the FSL schedules are posted, maybe sooner if I get antsy), but here are a few teasers: it starts in Pittsburgh and ends in Texas. Two of the games are All-Star Games (some might call that cheating, but I call it extra bang for the baseball buck!). There's a stretch where we take two separate 7-hour long trips, four days apart. There's another stretch (in May) with 15 games in 15 different cities in 15 days.

Maybe I should be some team's travelling secretary. Then again, I don't think the Red Sox would really like to go to 150 stadiums in six months. They'll probably just stick to the 14 AL parks, and an occasional NL stadium.

Anyway, the GABA 2010 schedule waits (im)patiently for the Florida State League...