A long journey to every MLB park, with much more than baseball as the priority

Nearly 50 years ago four friends from West Bremerton High School had an idea to something few others have finished. Now scattered around the country and years past their graduation, the the dream of seeing a game at every major league baseball ballpark keeps a group that met on the peewee fields close.

These four, 1965 graduates, hatched the plan at the Wildcats' 10-year class reunion, while talking about baseball, a sport they admit being crazy about.

So they started on a crazy odyssey that has taken them years to complete, deepening those decades-long friendships along the way.

Three of the four – Butch Holt, Al Treadwell, Leonard “Punk” Costello – went to elementary school together at Haddon, played peewee baseball with Naval Avenue and the fourth – Gary Schute – played peewees with Warren Avenue. But they all knew each other and gathered as friends when they got to Coontz Junior High.

Then after wrapping up at West, went separate ways.

Treadwell entered the Air Force shortly after graduation.

“Good for me, nothing but getting in trouble in Bremerton,” Treadwell says.

He was driving between Bremerton and Tacoma one day when he remembered how wonderful the smell of leather gloves inside Kitsap Sports Shop felt, turned to his wife Mary and said, “I know what I want to do, open a sports shop.”

Research told him the ideal location needed 75,000 population. He found that in San Diego where he opened Al’s Sport shop, the first of its kind in the city.

The shop became highly successful. He is retired from it now. He gave the business to a nephew, but still owns the building it is in, and stops by the shop frequently.

Holt, whose dad Eugene pitched for the Seattle Rainiers, played baseball at Olympic College and for the Kitsap Outsiders semi-pro team. He was a catcher, and tough as nails. He is retired from the shipyard and lives in Sequim where a grandson is on track to be an outstanding baseball player.

Shute is a retired optometrist living in Warner Springs in Northern San Diego County.

These four planned each trip in advance, including restaurants, thanks to Costello’s brother, Willie, who gave them a list from watching Guy Fieri’s famous TV food show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

Treadwell’s friends in the sports shop’s business gave them free game tickets.

The oddity is they traveled backroads, allowing them to see the country up close and talk to people where freeways would not.

They would fly into a city, rent a car and drive to the different parks. They visited Fenway Park in Boson, took a train back to Yankee Stadium, had the next day off and decided to drive to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"On the way to Cooperstown we saw a sign that said Woodstock,” says Treadwell. “Punk carried a man purse and he had a Creedence Clearwater CD in it.”

They put it in the car’s CD player, rolled down the windows and traveled through Woodstock with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts.

After visiting Shea Stadium and the Mets, the four took a train to Philadelphia to see the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

The first trip they ever took involved Eddie Stewart, who played on the Kitsap Outsiders, and went with Treadwell and Holt to Milwaukee because former Outsiders pitcher Greg Roraff, who passed away two years ago, was a close friend living in Wisconsin. They took in a short road trip's worth of Midwest baseball parks, starting in Milwaukee before a drive to Chicago for the White Sox, then Cincinnati, St. Louis and back to Chicago to see the Cubs at legendary Wrigley Field.

These trips are as much about the game being played as a chance to bask in the history associated with them, and sometimes an insider's view the average fan never gets.

In each park, they would walk up and down aisles on each level, go on a tour if available, and breathe in the smells and realize they were doing something most don’t do.

“We wanted a taste of the ballparks,” says Holt. “It’s just cool to be there. You can feel the history.

“We got in the clubhouse in Cleveland and into (manager)Terry Francona’s office. We talked to him for a while and then got to go on the field and watch batting practice.”

To get to a Blue Jays game in Toronto, the group ended up on a six-car ferry from Michigan. On a trip to Miami and Tampa Bay, Holt wanted to ride on a swamp boat in the Everglades. They got more than bargained for.

“It started to rain,” says Treadwell. “It just ripped.”

Costello, a retired Kitsap Superior Court judge, has seen a lot more than just baseball stadiums during his travels. He and wife Patricia McKenzie, a 1965 West High graduate, have visited the world. You name it, they probably have been there. They have had all kinds of dinners in different cultures. But nothing like Costello and pals encountered at Buzzard Billy’s in Waco, Texas.

The restaurant’s southern food menu advertised armadillo testicles. Costello and friends turned them down. They also turned down fried pig ear sandwiches at a different restaurant.

“I gravely declined,” the judge says.

Eating at House of the Throwed Rolls in Missouri was an unusual treat. Topping the menu was a huge fried chicken steak. A guy came around and offered stewed tomatoes and black-eyed peas and then another employee asked who wanted a roll. He would then throw it to the customer. If you fumbled it, he would throw another.

The foursome saw more baseball than just the pros. Treadwell had a friend that owned Hannibal Hoots, a baseball team in Hannibal, Missouri, that plays in Prospect League on Clemens Field, and then saw a minor league game in St. Paul, Minnesota where another friend was involved in a team's ownership.

“It reminded me of Roosevelt Field on a smaller scale,” says Costello.

They also visited the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, where Treadwell said Holt, Schute and Costello all learned they could not throw off a mound and reach the catcher without bouncing the ball.

Treadwell is a pilot and owns a six-seater 210 Cessna and used it on one trip to fly the guys to Los Angeles to see the Dodgers and Angeles play in their stadiums, and then back to San Diego to visit the Padres in Petco Stadium. According to some of them, the Padres may not always lead the league but Petco has the best of everything else, including food.

He used the plane to fly the foursome to Phoenix to see the Diamondbacks, then to Denver to see the Rockies at Coors Stadium, by way of Utah, where they flew over Bryce Canyon and between the big rock monuments there.

“Punk was excited and going ‘holy crap!’” says Treadwell, as they flew among the rock formations.

The trip to Houston was the best. They saw the Astros at Minute Maid Park, drove to Arlington for a Texas Rangers game, then drove to Kansas City to see Kauffman Stadium.

The group thought they had time to visit the Houston Space Center before the Astros played the Seattle Mariners in an ALDS playoff game, in October 2022. Holt, in charge of game times, got it wrong and by the time they got to the game it was the 16th inning. They had to beg the guard at the gate to let them in. By the time the four reached their seats it was the18th inning -- when Houston's Jeremy Pena ended the game with a home run, 1-0.

Two bonuses were attending a College World Series baseball game in Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series for softball in Oklahoma City.

Their last trip was to Washington, D.C., to watch the Mariners play the Nationals at Nationals Park. The wives went on this trip, but did not go to the park.

Next up may be a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

“It was not nuts, it was fun,” says Holt. “For us it wasn’t all about baseball, it was just being together. There were no arguments, we got along well. We have a fun time together.”

For Costello, seeing every stadium, and all the extras, and the travel with his wife around the world has taught one lesson: there is no place like being in Bremerton.

“Home is here,” he says.

Terry Moser is a longtime sports writer in Kitsap County and writes a regular column about sports personalities and history for the Kitsap Sun. Contact him at bigmosher@msn.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: A long journey to every MLB park, with much more than baseball as the priority