One of the cool things about doing what we do is building a network of great friends - people whose passion is traveling to ballparks, arenas and stadia everywhere. One of those guys is Sean MacDonald, who originally hails from Ottawa, Canada, but now works in Tokyo, Japan in the IT field.

We met Sean back in 2001, when he and his friend Aya spent an entire summer traveling the continent to attend baseball games. He and Aya launched their own web site, www.mlbroadtrip.com, which chronicled that initial journey and is still up and running today.

One of our most memorable events spent with Sean and Aya was back on September 18, 2001 when we all attended the first Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre Skydome following the attacks of 9/11. It was a difficult and emotional time for everyone, yet our good friends from Canada showed their solidarity with us Americans, offering a moving pregame tribute.

Since that first trip, Sean has made multiple return visits to the USA and Canada, attending baseball and hockey games, and like us holds bragging rights of having attended a game at all 30 MLB venues (Yes he made the trip to Nationals Park in April). He last visited Dunn Tire Park on a frigid Opening Day in 2003, and tonight made the return visit here to Buffalo, where we got the chance to catch up and share stories of our recent toad trip adventures.

Sean’s take on Buffalo and Dunn Tire Park? “Well it’s a beautiful ballpark. Hopefully I’ll get here someday on a sunny day” said Sean. “Otherwise I really haven’t seen much of Buffalo.” (By the way - we did the pilgrimage to Anchor Bar on Sean’s last vist so check that off!)

-Andrew Kulyk

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