In my pursuit of seeing a baseball game in every major league stadium, I had paired Cleveland with Detroit on the same trip last summer. A couple of hours after picking up a rental car on the outskirts of Detroit I was in Cleveland, a city I’d otherwise never get to visit. It is a really great city with a picturesque downtown and beautiful architecture. I very quickly got a warm feeling about Cleveland and enjoyed the couple of days I spent there. Some of that had to do with Progressive Field, their beautiful ballpark. On my journeys so far, this stadium is up there with those in San Francisco, San Diego, Minneapolis and Baltimore as one of my favourites.

Walking around this stadium I loved how cozy it was. The seats hug the field and there really isn’t a bad place in the entire place to watch a game.

For the first of my two games in Cleveland, I chose a great seat in the lower level just off to the side behind home plate. The view of the game was outstanding from here.

As much as I loved watching the game from that amazing seat, my night was made by a chance encounter with the Guardians mascot, Slider. That made me two for two in mascot visits on this trip!

My new buddy Slider had a better view of the game as they allow him to stand on top of the dugouts to try to rally the home team to wins…. not so lucky this night as the Royals won 5-3.

This Cleveland visit wasn’t all about baseball. As a music nerd, I was really excited to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

There were lots of interesting exhibits and memorabilia and I took a shine to one of the interactive studios where I practiced some guitar licks. There’s a reason I’m an accountant and not touring the world in a rock and roll band.

I had a bit of a flashback to my childhood and time spent watching Much Music, Video Hits and Good Rockin’ Tonite – I nerded out a bit in front of Michael Jackson’s jacket from the Thriller video.

Cleveland had a nice assortment of very solid craft breweries right downtown. I had a very nice tasting flight at Masthead Brewing. The Hazy Headlines (2nd from left) and the Ethiopian Guji coffee stout (far right) were delicious!

Just before one of the baseball games I stopped into Butcher and the Brewer and while all of these beers stood out – it was a sample of their albino stout that the bartender offered up to me as we got talking that blew my mind. Unrelated – this was the first place that someone, upon listening to me talk, immediately pegged my accent as from Saskatchewan.

My last night in Cleveland had me back at the ballpark decked out in my Expos hat. I love how many out of nowhere conversations this hat has led me to across all of my travels. Lots of folks wanted to chat about old Expos memories on this trip.

From the front row of the upper deck on a beautiful summer evening I truly enjoyed this second ballgame. The beer tasted wonderful, the view over the ballpark and downtown Cleveland were exceptional, the home team won 5-1 and one of the heroes of the game was Canadian Bo Naylor with two home runs. Not a bad way to end my 2023 baseball trip leaving me with 12 ballparks to visit to complete the full circuit.