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August 24, 2001/Elul 5, 5761, Vol. 53, No.46
'Dream drive' bonds father and son
JEFFREY STANLIS
Special to Jewish News
From left, Debby, Heather, Tom, Zach and Joel Corcoran mark the end of the grand tour at Phoenix's Bank One Ballpark, July 25.
Photo courtesy of Tom Corcoran
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Interstate 8 marked the first leg of the journey - it took a father and son from Glendale to San Diego.
But for Tom and Zach Corcoran, the journey really began 30 years earlier at Chicago's famed baseball cathedral, Wrigley Field.
"In the summer of 1969, my grandmother took me to my first baseball game at Wrigley Field," says Tom, an assistant principal at Glendale's Sun Valley elementary school. "A few summers ago, Zach's grandmother took him to his first game, also at Wrigley Field. It really all got started then."
Zach, now 14 and an incoming freshman at Cactus High School, hatched the plan: to visit every stadium in baseball.
"He didn't know there were 30 stadiums," says Tom. "He didn't realize the magnitude of his suggestion."
Tom, ever the educator, used the idea as an opportunity to teach some geography.
"I told him to take a big map of the U.S. and put a star on the map for each stadium," says Tom. "I knew I had my ace in the hole. My wife would never let us do it."
Tom was wrong. Debby slowly warmed to the idea after she saw how other baseball nuts reacted to the suggestion. Last year, she told Tom they should do it.
The tour took two years to plan, lasted 57 days, covered 14,850 miles, and cost nearly $6,000. It included more than 270 innings of baseball, more food then Tom could imagine, an expensive digital camera and almost one speeding ticket.
Not bad for a summer vacation.
They started in San Diego: the Padres versus the Houston Astros, where Zach threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The journey ended in Phoenix: the Padres versus the Diamondbacks. At the final game, Debby threw out the first pitch and the entire family - Debby, Zach, Heather, 18, son Joel, 14 - led the audience in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the seventh-inning stretch.
"We were given the royal treatment almost everywhere we went," says Tom. "We got free stuff, got on TV and radio in many of the cities and met so many players. A lot of the players haven't even been to all 30 stadiums."
The tour wasn't just about baseball - it was also about seeing U.S. history firsthand.
In San Francisco, the Corcorans visited Alcatraz. On the way to Minneapolis from Denver, they stopped at Mount Rushmore and enjoyed a family reunion in Chicago. They saw the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls and NASA. They collected grass from the grassy knoll in Dallas and took pictures of the book depository building from which President John F. Kennedy reportedly was shot. After a game in Baltimore, they visited Washington, D.C., for two days. The side trip to the nation's capital provided one of the most memorable experiences.
"We were wandering around Arlington Cemetery, in a place we weren't supposed to be," remarks Tom. "And we stumbled upon the grave of Abner Doubleday, the founder of baseball. Here we are on this baseball odyssey, and among the tens of thousands of graves, we find the gravestone of the founder of baseball - and it was Doubleday's birthday.
"I thought right then, 'This is karma. ... A higher being is guiding us,' " says Tom.
But the Corcorans didn't trust fate to make their odyssey a success. Tom and Zach meticulously planned the journey, coordinating schedules to create the most efficient driving plan, finding friends or relatives who would put them up for a night or campgrounds nearby where they could stay. To minimize costs, they planned to keep hotel stays to a minimum.
"But finding a hotel near Yankee stadium isn't very practical," adds Tom.
The Corcorans toured in Tom's new yellow Ford Escape with "30 ballparks, 1 road trip, www.dreamdrive2001.com" emblazoned on the back. Wearing T-shirts with the same message, the duo developed a strong following among baseball fans along the way. They received more than 1,000 e-mails, and more than 28,000 people have visited their Web site.
In Cincinnati, the Corcorans tuned to a local sports talk radio station just as the talk show host, Lance McAlister, was discussing the "dream drive." They called into the program, and McAlister arranged for an AmeriSuites hotel, bought the Corcorans dinner and interviewed them on-air. The next morning, the vice president of marketing for AmeriSuites sponsored the duo, offering free hotel stays for the rest of their journey - almost three-quarters of the total nights.
"That was a big help," remarks Tom. "No more camping."
With their hotel budget now in check, the biggest expense - far beyond Tom's budgetary expectations - was the food. Of the hundreds of pictures Tom took, most were of Zach eating. Cheesesteak sandwiches in Philadelphia, pizza in New York's Shea Stadium, bratwurst in Milwaukee's Miller Park - and of course, hot dogs - helped Zach gain 25 pounds on the trip.
"But I've already lost 15 of that," says Zach.
His favorite ballpark treat was the two-pound kosher hot dog served on a sourdough roll in Oakland.
"I had no idea how much a 14-year-old would eat," says Tom. "My wife usually does the shopping."
Tom ate well, too, especially when they found the National Barbecue cook-off in Washington, D.C.
"I love barbecue," Tom says.
Despite the free hotel rooms and the culinary adventures, the trip was not without its troubles. Midway through the trip, Zach left a $900 camera behind the car and Tom backed over it.
"The camera was just crushed," says Zach.
And in Oklahoma, Tom's fast driving nearly got him in trouble with a state highway patrolman.
"He asked me if I knew how fast I was going," says Tom. "All I could say was, 'Hey, are you a baseball fan?' That launched him into a 20-minute conversation."
The officer let Tom go with a warning.
"He told us to be sure to have the barbecue in Kansas City," Tom adds.
Tom says it was the perfect time to be traveling with his son: Zach was at the age where he still likes his father and still thinks his father knows all the answers.
But the budding teenager - already discovering the effect of sarcasm - jokingly disagreed.
"Yeah right," says Zach. "I already know more than Dad."
The most friction between them was over the music selection.
"Dad made CDs with all his music," Zach remarks. "Old music of mostly dead people."
But they found middle ground, as Zach learned to love Rush Limbaugh and Tom learned to enjoy Dr. Laura. They bonded as father and son.
"It was a phenomenon that won't come around for another 30 years," says Tom. "It will be 30 years before we can be this close again. He'll buy cars and houses without my advice. He'll learn to be his own man. It will be 30 more years before he begins to ask my advice again or like to hang out with dad."
Proceeds from the tour, including any donations from visitors, will be given directly to the Phoenix Ronald McDonald House. Information on donations and a detailed online journal of their tour can be found at www.dreamdrive2001.com.
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