Last year, my friends and I made our ninth annual baseball trip. We chose New York because both the Mets and the Yankees had new stadiums.

We saw the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Mets at CitiField (unfortunately, as we always cheer for the home team on these trips). The next night we saw the Yankees beat the Mets at Yankee Stadium.

During one afternoon we spent time in Central Park, checking out Strawberry Fields and the Central Park Zoo. We took a short side trip to see The Dakota, the former home of John Lennon.

On the way to Central Park, we checked out the Big Apple Con (now called Wizard World). We met boxer Mia St. John, actor David Harris, wrestler Terri Runnels and the Iron Sheik and a few others. This was mainly for me, but the others were happy to attend their first such convention.

We had several great meals, including an outstanding Italian feast and a few lunches at traditional NYC delis.

We stayed at the Affinia near Madison Square Garden, which also happened to be hosting the Cotto-Clottey boxing match. A few of us ran into several boxers at a nearby sports bar.

On the way home, we were discussing it and comparing it to other trips. Most of us gave it a great score, but one guy shrugged and gave it a mediocre score.

Granted, this might not be the ideal trip for everyone, but if out-of-town baseball is the focal point of a trip, I can’t find one reason not to give this specific trip a top score. What else could you want?

Actually, that was exactly the question we asked our somewhat blase friend. Then we took turns tossing out favorite parts of the trip. By the end of this session, the malcontent was in agreement that it was a great trip.

Sometimes I guess we need to be reminded of certain things. Sometimes we need to sit back and really reflect on what we are experiencing. If every trip I ever took was anywhere near as fun as this trip was, I’d be one happy traveler.

— John Wroblewski, distribution specialistÂ