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Updated: 10:17 AM May 30, 2008
La Crosse Man Clears the Bases With MLB Tour Business
A La Crosse man hits a home run after he combines his love of baseball, with a unique vacation service. Posted: 9:40 PM May 29, 2008 |
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Baseball has always been known as America’s Pasttime.
"My brother took me outside and showed me how to play baseball threw a little batting practice at me played a little catch and he was a big baseball player and fan so I had to be."
Jay Buckley fell in love with the game of baseball when he was a little boy playing catch with his big brother.
Buckley says he loves the game so much he spent most of his adult life taking road trips to other ball parks and collecting memorabilia. That's when he got the idea for Jay Buckley’s baseball tours.
"It actually started as a vacation for me in the seventies when August came around I'd jump in my car and ride around the country taking in baseball games just really looked forward to it so much that I decided one day that maybe other people wanted to do this."
He says he was the first person in the country to start offering trips to stadiums all over the country.
He started locally in the early 80s and by the end of the decade he was organizing trips for anyone, to anywhere.
"I didn't even realize it at the time but I started hearing form people from California, Texas and New York so we got in on the ground floor."
Buckley says the most popular destinations are Yankee Stadium in New York, and Fenway Park in Boston.
"I have what I call the big four that's Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Cooperstown and Wrigley we have people from six into their nineties and we have families we have a lot of fathers and sons."
Buckley says these days he doesn't have a favorite team because he feels "safe at home" in any ball park in America.
"I've kind of lost identification with any team anymore I like that home team to win in the bottom of the ninth because that's the most exciting thing that can happen."
Buckley's next scheduled trip is on June 11 starting at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
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