Superfan Attempts to Break Guinness Book Record at Ballparks

Anyone who thinks that sitting through one day-night doubleheader is enough to test your patience should take a look at Chuck Booth’s travel itinerary this summer.

The 38-year-old from Vancouver, British Columbia, is in the middle of a six-month stretch in which he plans to attend 217 MLB games in 183 consecutive days in all 30 professional ballparks across the country.

As the first person to attempt such a journey, Booth will attend two games in a single day 38 times, with most occurrences coming at different stadiums within driving distance, although he doesn’t even own a car.

He watched all of an 11-inning game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon then took the subway to the New York Mets’ Citi Field for a nightcap, before boarding a BoltBus with a $1 fare and 1 a.m. departure time to Philadelphia, where he stayed with his oldest brother, Trent.

On Thursday, after a pair of bus rides to Baltimore, he sat in Section 322 in the upper-deck behind home plate at Camden Yards, as he watched the Orioles edge the Boston Red Sox 6-5.

It was already Booth’s seventh of 20 scheduled trips to Oriole Park this season and would have been his eighth had it not been for the game played without any fans April 29 amid unrest in the city after Freddie Gray’s death. He still got a game in that day in New York.

“This is one of my favorite parks,” Booth said, noting ticket availability, affordability on the secondary market, and the $2.50 baked beans at Boog’s BBQ. “It’s top seven or eight and it’s risen the last couple of years. It’s helped that the team is a lot more relevant than it had been.”

Booth, who is single after separating from his wife seven years ago, has taken a half-year break from his job as a courier to make Guinness Book of World Records history once again. He already holds the record for seeing games in all 30 MLB venues in 23 days.

But why?

Growing up in Canada, Booth played catcher and had an offer to play at NCAA Division I program Liberty before a string of concussions, in baseball and football, ended his athletic career at 19.

Soured and held back by post-concussion symptoms, he swore off attending a game in person for several years until 2005, when he had the urge to see one in nearby Seattle.

“I kind of re-found myself and my love of baseball by going to the ballpark,” he said.

This entire trip, Booth said, will cost $22,500 or about $100 per game. Most of the funding came from an insurance payout from a car accident in 2010, in which he sustained an eighth concussion that brought back the scary symptoms that ended his baseball career.

It’s why, because of sensitivity to light, he prefers to stand under covered stadium concourses or sit in shady areas, like where he was Thursday. Along the way, he hopes to bring attention to the Sports Legacy Institute in Boston, which raises awareness on brain injuries in athletes.

But perhaps the most interesting part of his whole story is that Booth rents a car 365 days a year, and has for nearly 10 years, both for his job and baseball trips.

“I’m pretty good on Priceline and Hotwire,” he said. “I don’t need anybody to help me out. I’ve been to all 50 states. I’ve gone to 30 parks in under a month three times. I’ve got the geography pretty much nailed.”

While he’s planned the trip to the minute, there are of course moments out of his control. Like when the MTA bus he took from the White Marsh Park and Ride on Thursday afternoon clipped a utility poll downtown just two hours before Chris Tillman’s first pitch. After passengers were asked to get off the bus, he used Google Maps to find the closest stop on the 15 line, arriving to the park 20 minutes behind schedule.

“You learn to live with disappointment,” he said. “Get to the park. There’s always a maneuver you have to do. You have to think on your feet.”

In all, he’ll see roughly 9 percent of the entire 2015 MLB schedule, and the streak is not some glamour play. He lives by a rule that he must see the home-team field for at least five innings for the game to count in his book.

If he completes his journey, come early October, 217 games will amount to more innings than any major leaguer could possibly play this season, including spring training, regular season, and playoffs. He’s done the math.

“If they pulled a Cal Ripken and played every game, the most someone could play is probably about 212 or 213,” Booth said. “That’s every scenario to the max. And I might add a few more.”