PORT ARTHUR — The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on June 13, 1990



    Many sports-minded fathers would surely agree that the ultimate description of quality time is a day at the ball park with their son. So how good could it be to spend one day at every park in the major leagues? In the same summer, no less?

    Beaumont attorney David Bernsen has been pondering that question ever since his son, Cade, was born 10 years ago. Now he’s in the process of making fantasy become reality.

    The Bernsens launched their baseball odyssey last week by attending games in Kansas City, Toronto, Montreal and at Boston’s Fenway park. They’ll do the West Coast teams later this month, make a swing through the Midwest in July, visit the East in August, then conclude with the easiest part — Arlington Stadium and the Astrodome.

    “It’s a little boy’s dream come true, and I’m not talking about my son,” says Bernsen, one of Lamar University’s all-time pitching greats. “I’m afraid to think about what it’s going to cost, but the experience Cade and I are having together will be worth the price.”

    The seed for the idea, Bernsen thinks, was probably planted when he was a youngster listening to games on the radio with his grandfather. He heard the announcers talk about places like Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field and longed to see them for himself.

    “I didn’t start thinking seriously about doing this until the last couple of years,” he advises. “When Cade was born, I jokingly told my wife that if I made it to 40 years old, this is what I wanted to do. I kept talking about it, my son pushed the idea as he got older and I finally made it to 40.”

    Deciding to attend a game at all 26 major league parks was the easy part of the Bernsen baseball bonanza. Putting it together logistically was a nightmare. Trips had to be scheduled around dad’s law practice, family obligations and the summer camps Cade would attend.

    “We spent the better park of a week coordinating,” Bernsen said. “We began by getting the schedules of every team. Then we tried to coordinate trips so we could see as many teams as possible in a certain area. The longest we’ll be gone at any time is from June 25 through July 2.”

    That would be the West Coast trip. It opens in Anaheim with the Angels hosting the White Sox. The next night it’s Kansas City at Seattle, followed by Detroit at Oakland on June 28. Then it’s across the Bay Bridge to watch Pittsburgh play San Francisco, down to LA to see the Dodgers meet the Cardinals and finally to San Diego for a July 1 game against the Cubs.

    The West Coast swing is one of two the Bernsen women — wife Diana and 8-year-old daughter Taylor — will make. They’ll also accompany the guys to New York. Other than that, it’s father and son leaving for the park early enough to watch batting practice, then hanging out in hotel lobbies afterward to meet players and get autographs.

    Bernsen, to embellish the experience for his son, made it a point to acquire a list of all the hotels where visiting teams stay in each city. He and Cade will stay in the same hotels. Already they’ve discovered that autographs are much easier to come by when players are returning from a victory.

    One other important discovery on the trip to Kansas City, Toronto, Montreal and Boston was to have tickets ahead of time. Bernsen mistakenly assumed Houston, where it’s seldom a problem to get a ticket, was the rule rather than the exception around the major leagues.

    It cost him a game in St. Louis and nearly did in Toronto.

    “We’ll have to pick up St. Louis on a one-shot deal, or maybe tie it in when we hit Cincinnati and Chicago,” Bernsen said. “We won’t get caught on tickets again. I’ve started making arrangements well ahead on our other games. Sellouts were something I didn’t consider.”

    Highlight of the opening leg of the trip was seeing Fenway Park for the first time. Besides attending a game in one of America’s most celebrated stadiums, the Bernsens were treated to Lamar ex Bo Allred’s major league debut for the Cleveland Indians.

    Allred added an extra thrill by tagging Roger Clemens for his first major league homer.

    The downside, to date, has been the concession stand situation in Toronto’s Skydome. Rather than the standard ball park food and drink, all concessions in the Skydome are operated by the McDonald’s franchise. The traditionalist in Bernsen couldn’t embrace chicken McNuggets at a baseball game.

    For young Cade, it’s been an experience that’ll stay with him for a lifetime. He’s either on a plane, at a ball park or staying at a hotel with a major league team. He’s talking to players. He’s getting cards and balls autographed. He’s seeing the old and new of the game’s stadiums.

    “There’s only one thing I’m requiring him to do, and that’s keep a diary,” Bernsen said. “We’re both keeping a diary. When the summer is over I’m going to put them up somewhere. About 10 years from now, I think they’ll make great reading.”

    Besides keeping diaries, the Bernsens are also bringing back programs and keeping ticket stubs from each park. They’re also rating the parks for which has the best hot dogs, the best peanuts, etc.

    Bernsen, though, already knows what’s going to be No. 1 in his rankings.

    “The time with my son is the best part. There’s no business, nothing to interfere. It’s just us and baseball.”

    And a really happy travel agent.

    Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net.