B4B meets Shut Down Inning and Baseball Dreamin
Biking for Baseball went to the Rangers game last night at the Ballpark in Arlington, and needless to say, there wasn’t much to cheer about for the home team. The Rangers are still one of the best teams in baseball, but last night was not their night. We’ll have more on the game in another blog post. This post is about some really cool friends we met at the game last night.
One thing we’ve noticed about Rangers fans is how interactive they are on facebook and twitter. It’s really great to meet people on social media that share a passion for the game of baseball, and that’s what we’ve come across with Rangers fans. The other day, we were searching through some Rangers blogs and came across Shut Down Inning. What an awesome name for a blog! We gave @Shutdowninning a follow on twitter because we were prepping for the Rangers game in Arlington.
We actually got to meet Patrick, one of the founders of Shut Down Inning, at the game. We had some time to chat because the game wasn’t much to watch, and Patrick is a really cool guy. He’s a big supporter of B4B, and we’ve become avid readers of his blog. They just started in October of last year and have already built a very impressive readership. Very good resource for Rangers news! It’s great to be connected to Patrick and Shut Down Inning.
When trying to promote our cause, we’ve been reaching out to baseball fans, cyclists, and youth mentoring organizations, but we’ve completely failed to think of another huge resource that was pretty much right under our noses: People that travel to each ballpark. It’s a very supportive community, and that’s how we came across the other cool person we met last night.
RJ is an Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran who always dreamt about seeing a game in each MLB stadium, and he’s actually living his dream this summer. He keeps a blog called Baseball Dreamin that is a great follow. He’s been to 26 of the 30 stadiums so far and he’s finishing up in his home territory of Detroit in a few weeks. Definitely follow his trip on twitter @BaseballDreamin while he brings it on home.
We chatted with RJ for several innings during the blow out, and he shared so much knowledge and experience with us. He’s a great resource for us because we are still going to all of the stadiums he’s already been to. I can’t wait for us to become resources for other people taking a baseball stadium tour. It will nice to be able to share with others like RJ did with us. Huge thanks RJ!
Besides the outcome of the game, it was great to meet Patrick and RJ! Hope to see both of them down the road.