Joe Pfeiffer, 30
Irvine, Calif.
Want to set a Guinness world record?
All you have to do is hit the Web and point your browser to www.guinessworldrecords.com, where you can register a record attempt.
That’s what Joe Pfeiffer of Irvine, Calif., did before he set out to become the first person to watch a game at all 30 Major League Baseball parks … in 30 days.
“The Internet, man,” said Pfeiffer, 30. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
After registering his record attempt on the Guinness Web site, Pfeiffer waited and waited for nearly two months.
Then he got the call.
“I’m sure they did a lot of research to decide if they want to include that as a record,” he said. “They decided if I do it, I would be a Guinness world record holder.”
It was with that bit of motivation–as well four weeks of vacation time from his job as a salesman for SBC Communications Inc.–that Pfeiffer planned his quest, which began July 21.
Using team schedules found at Major League Baseball’s Web site, MLB.com, Pfeiffer arranged his game sequence.
“My goal was to see all the West Coast teams in one leg, and all the Florida teams in another,” he said.
But due to scheduling conflicts, Pfeiffer ended up crisscrossing the country, chasing games that fit into the holes on his calendar.
“It was a lot more tiring than I thought it would be,” he said, “If people want to see every stadium, I wouldn’t recommend this. There are easier ways to do it. You’re just so tired all the time.”
Indeed, Pfeiffer rarely had time to see a city, running from airport to ballgame to hotel and back to the airport. All his airfare was arranged through CheapTickets.com, which offered the best one-way rates, Pfeiffer said.
For his Major League adventure to be considered a record, Guinness set forth these stipulations:
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Pfeiffer had to see 30 complete games in 30 different stadiums in 30 days. Rain delays were OK, but a rainout meant no record. It should come as no surprise, then, that Pfeiffer followed the nationwide forecast several times a day at Weather.com.
He had to keep paper and Web-based logs of his journey. He started up a Web site, www.thirtyinthirty.com, to document his journey. His schedule, daily logs and personal impressions of each ballpark are detailed there.
(Wrigley Field–along with Boston’s Fenway Park–were his favorites. “Wrigley, the bleachers, it’s like the thing to do. It’s like a club scene.”)
At first, he updated his Web log, which used the free blogger application (www.blogger.com), using his T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, a wireless phone with Internet access.
“But I smashed the screen against a [stadium] chair in Texas, about midway, so I had to find Internet kiosks” for the daily updates, Pfeiffer said.
Photographic evidence also was required by Guinness. Pfeiffer used a 3.2 megapixel digital camera.
Overall, Pfeiffer’s baseball adventure could not been possible without the Web. “I don’t know how people survived without it,” he said.
In the end, in spite of a 40 percent chance of rain at Wrigley (on Day 20) and a 90 percent chance of rain at Fenway Park in Boston (Day 26), the baseball gods and the clouds lined up just right for Pfeiffer.
He completed his tour as planned and, pending final analysis from Guinness, set a new record.
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