Eight days, four cities, six games: Ballpark bus tour hits the road for 40th year

The charter bus pulled away from St. Paul's Midway Target store Friday morning, as 32 diehard baseball fans settled into their seats for eight days of beer, ballparks and barbecue — with more than a little history and culture tossed into the mix.

Julian Loscalzo is leading another Bleacher Bums Ballpark Tour. It's his 40th and, he says, his last.

"I've had people say to me, 'Man, you should turn this into a full-time business,'" said Loscalzo, a lobbyist at the Minnesota Capitol who has also been a beer vendor and bicycle taxi manager. "But then it wouldn't be as much fun."

Fun has been the name of the game since Loscalzo, a Philadelphia native who has lived in St. Paul since 1976, started fighting to save the old Metropolitan Stadium from the wrecking ball. Loscalzo's work at the Capitol is credited with helping win legislative support for the building of CHS Field in downtown St. Paul.

At least once a year, and sometimes more, Loscalzo's Ballpark Tours have ventured far and wide to catch ball games east, west and in-between. Last year, they went to Cooperstown, N.Y., for Tony Oliva's enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame. They've even made several trips to Cuba.

This year's itinerary features major league and minor league games, with stops in Des Moines, Kansas City, Mo., Wichita, Kan., and Tulsa, Okla. But it's about more than just the sights and sounds of baseball, Loscalzo said.

Visits are scheduled at the Woody Guthrie Center, the Bob Dylan Center and the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center in Tulsa, he said, as well as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City.

The plan is to be in Tulsa on Monday — Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

The trip's first official stop? Lunch at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, home of the last performances by early rock 'n' roll icons Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, who died in a plane crash nearby.

Loscalzo was asked if any of the tour participants are younger than 50.

"We have two," he said, chuckling.

Over the years, Loscalzo said, the ballpark tours have served as a salve for his and others' baseball-loving souls.

"It's kind of an avocation of love. Baseball has kind of kept me sane my whole life," he said, pointing out that he doesn't fish or have other hobbies. "It's a nice diversion from all the other stuff."

Eileen Smith, who has known Loscalzo for about 10 years, said people are now bringing their grandchildren on the ballpark tours. Smith's first trip was in 2014. She was on the bus Friday.

A woman who often joins her daughter is in her 90s and lives in California, Smith said. In an email, she said a group of men who've worked for the U.S. Postal Service joined the tours after Loscalzo's flyers for the tour jammed their machines.

Loscalzo is telling people this trip will be his last. But Smith said she's not so sure it isn't a marketing ploy.

For his part, the former ballpark beer vendor isn't quite ready to confirm that he's done.

"That's what I'm telling people," he said the day before departing. "Although, if enough people sign up, we may just have our First Annual Last Tour."