How Biking for Baseball Began

It started in 2009. 

Adam Kremers and Chase Higgins had grown up in the Kansas City area as KC Royals fans ever since seeing their Royals win the 1985 World Series (our eyes could barely open, but we saw it!). We parted ways for college (Adam to Colorado State, Chase to Kansas State) and had then resided in different cities post-college as well (Adam to Denver, Chase to Minneapolis). 

The Royals were finishing the last season series of the 2009 season against the Twins in Minneapolis at the Metrodome. It would be the last series of baseball to be played at the Metrodome ever! It was Greinke’s Cy Young year and Joe Mauer’s MVP year as well.

Adam flew out to Minneapolis to visit Chase and catch Greinke try and foil the Twins chances at becoming a playoff team (spoiler alert – Royals failed).

Before the game, we were talking about how it would be amazing if you could take all of the things that you love, combine them all together and come out with a goal and a sustainable career that you had an unwavering passion for, day in and day out!

So we started thinking, well,

We love BASEBALL

We’d grown up playing the sport, our coaches had been great mentors to us, we had become students of the game and we had traveled across the country to follow our Royals through their attempts to reach mediocrity (still trying). It’s a dream of every baseball fan to attend all 30 stadiums in one summer. And we had just heard that the Royals were going to be the host of the 2012 All-Star Game. (Momentum building)

We have always been big into endurance sports. We grew up running for our high school teams (cross-country and track). It continued into college, dipping into triathlons and longer distance running races. As we started our careers, (Adam, as an engineer, Chase as a banker), we commuted to work via bicycle and ramped up our endurance races into marathons and longer distance triathlons. Traveling by two wheels instead of four had merged into our lives as our favorite source of travel. So we thought,

Let’s ride our BICYCLES to each MLB stadium!

That winter, Adam had started to become involved with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Colorado. After having such great teachers, coaches and mentors growing up, it really instilled the idea that being a positive influence towards the development of our youth goes a long way. If everyone in this crazy world could find one other child in need and then be that positive influence they so desperately crave, this world would see a wonderful change. Seeing that first-hand through the BBBS program, allowed us the opportunity to find a great cause to ride for:

Cause Every Kid Needs a Coach

As we headed in to catch our favorite Royals take on the pesky Twins that night at the Metrodome, we were buzzing about the idea that we were going to ride our bicycles to all 30 MLB stadiums. The Royals lost, but a new idea had won!

Adam went to college with Rex and Steve at Colorado State University. After becoming friends throughout college, sharing the same interests, joining up in Denver and then forming the birth of this organization, we all knew we had a great group of guys to take on this journey!