My dad took me to my first major-league game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I got a foul ball hit by Willie Mays.

Since then, I've been to 23 baseball parks, including the giant 80,000-seat Cleveland Municipal Stadium and the world's largest garage, otherwise known as the Kingdome in Seattle.

I remember the smells and dark, crowded concourses of Wrigley Field, the old Comiskey Park, Tiger Stadium, Sportsman's Park, the former Busch, Shea and Yankee stadiums, County Stadium in Milwaukee and Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.

Someone wisely decided we needed parks built solely for baseball.

Open concourses. Few, if any, restricted views. Wider seats. Cup holders. Big, clean restrooms and grass playing surfaces.

New parks are pretty, usually framing downtown in the background of the outfield-Safeco Field in Seattle, Coors Field in Denver and even U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago.

After a 15-day driving trip to see friends and family, play golf and watch baseball, my wife Ryly Jane and I reached some conclusions:

* There isn't much difference between Nationals Park, built in 2008, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, built in 1992, and all those in between. The new parks were built with baseball and fans in mind.

* Philadelphia has something against signs. There's a dearth of signs for motels. Signs for how to tour Independence Hall. Signs for how to get in and out of Citizens Bank Park. Signs for how to use the subway.

* Albert Pujols, Todd Helton and Ryan Howard make you want to watch every pitch.

* Baseball pleasure reaches a peak when Baltimore's Felix Pie and Nolan Reimold rip shots off K-Rod of the Mets.

* Major-league shortstops are so good. The impossible is routine every game. Brendan Ryan of the Cards, Marco Scutaro of Toronto, Jimmy Rollins of Philly, Troy Tulowitzki of Colorado are some of the best.

* You can have a lot of fun if you go in disguise. I wore a Cardinals shirt to the Washington-Toronto game and a Phillies shirt at the Orioles-Mets game.

After the Nats game, on the Metro, a guy in a Ryne Sandberg Cubs jersey nodded at me across a crowded rail car. I nodded back and smiled. We knew real baseball was played in the NL Central.

At Baltimore, Orioles fans consoled me for the Phillies' loss that night to Toronto. "Hey, we beat the Mets for you," one guy said as he slapped my shoulder.

* The essence of cool is the inner harbor in Baltimore and Camden Yards with Eutaw Street along right field. Boog's Bar-B-Q, pretzel dogs, the plaques noting home runs in the right-field concourse (one is on the B&O Warehouse, where Ken Griffey Jr. hit a homer in the 1993 All-Star Game).

* Old-time baseball is alive in Philly's Ashburn Alley (named for Nebraskan Richie Ashburn) and the statues of Stan the Man and Ozzie Smith in St. Louis.

* If you want to meet people, keep a scorecard of the game and ask what's the best food at the ballpark.

* Being a Nebraskan, I know to put my wallet in my front pocket in big cities. But on the way out of the ball park, it seemed unnecessary because after the game there was nothing left.

Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.