Touching them all: Hubbard woman to be honored for Major League visits

Cindy DeWalt will be inducted into the Sports Travel and Tours Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

HUBBARD — It took nine baseball seasons for Cindy DeWalk to visit all 30 Major League ballparks.

On Saturday, her efforts will be recognized with her next baseball trip, a visit to Cooperstown, N.Y., where she and 25 other diehard baseball fans will inducted into the Sports Travel and Tours Stadium Hall of Fame.

The honor is sponsored by the travel agency Sports Travel and Tours with an assist from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“The constant comment of our travelers is that I want to see every ballpark before I die,” said Jay Smith, president of Sport Travel and Tours. “We put this program together with the Hall more than nine years ago and Cindy will be in the class of 2009 with 25 other dedicated fans.”

To qualify, a fan must visit each team’s ballpark within 10 years.

For DeWalk, an employee of the U.S. Postal Service for 20 years, her baseball journey across America began in 1998 when she and her mother, Virginia, took a trip to visit the West Coast ballparks.

“I saw an ad in Baseball Weekly,” said DeWalk, who chose a western swing to California and Washington because it included a stop in Phoenix at BankOne Ballpark, home of the expansion Diamondbacks.

“We had some friends there that we got to see,” DeWalk said. “Then, I had no idea it would snowball into this.”

Because her mother was no longer able to accompany her, DeWalk waited several years before adding to her list. In 2003, she went solo on a Midwestern swing and she admits she wasn’t sure she would finish.

“That trip included Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and Chicago,” DeWalk said. “I figured that if I didn’t like being on the trip by myself, I could always go home.

“But each trip has a host who is great, the make sure a single person doesn’t feel left out,” DeWalk said. “You get to meet some interesting people.”

She saved Boston’s Fenway Park for her 30th ballpark. In her other 29 visits, none were postponed by rain. But Mother Nature stopped cooperating when she visited Boston.

“I’ve had some rain but never any rainouts,” DeWalk said. “I was outside the park on Yawkey Way when they canceled the game.

“They were going to count that as a visit but I said no way,” said DeWalk, who flew back to Boston and purchased a standing-room ticket on top of the Green Monster.

Her favorite is San Francisco’s AT&T Park, which has undergone several name changes since it debuted as Pac Bell Park in 2000.

“I think it was SBC Park in 2005 when I was there,” Dewalk said. “It’s my favorite because it has the most spectacular water view.

“They have a cable car for fans to sit in. It has a wide-open concourse and the stadium tour took you into the visitor’s clubhouse,” Dewalk said. “Not all of them do.”

Her other favorites include nearby PNC Park (even though she’s a Cleveland Indians fan) and Coors Field in Denver with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field also are favorites, but she doesn’t miss Yankee Stadium.

“It seemed so dank there,” Dewalk said. “Maybe it’s because I just don’t like the Yankees.”

Her least favorites? Oakland’s Network Associates Coliseum and the Florida Marlins’ Landshark Stadium.

“They’re football stadiums,” DeWalk said. “Baseball shouldn’t be played in football stadiums.”

When DeWalk was about 9, she became an Indians fan because of a neighbor friend.

“They always listened to Indians games so if you went over there, you listened or you left,” she said.

Her first ballpark was Cleveland Municipal Stadium for a Father’s Day doubleheader.

“I remember all the poles,” DeWalk said. “I didn’t like the ramps going up [to the upperdeck]. Heights are a terror to me.”

As new ballparks join the majors’ roster, DeWalk has been busy revisiting cities. Later this summer, she’ll take a short trip to Cincinnati and St. Louis.

First is her trip to Cooperstown for Induction Weekend, followed by a trip to New York City to see new Yankee Stadium and the Mets’ Citifield.

“This year, I will be up-to-date with all the new ballparks,” she said.

And she’s decided she will return to Fenway in style — purchasing a seat atop the Green Monster.

williams@vindy.com