John Kohl’s Baseball Journey – A Dizzying Pace Few Could Match
To the vast majority of the population, May 15, 1965 is simply a day. One far in the past, only vaguely recalled – if at all – and of little or no significance. John Kohl, however, is in the minority.
That was the day he went to his first baseball game.
The Baltimore Orioles hosted the New York Yankees that day in the Orioles’ former home, Memorial Stadium. “I was eight years old, and my family went to a night for employees of Westinghouse, which was where my dad worked,” the Baltimore native said. “I remember how excited I was – just walking in and seeing the green grass. I’d started getting interested in baseball the year before, but going to that game really sparked something for me. I was seeing Brooks Robinson, my baseball hero!”
It was the first of what is currently a personal total of 2,101 games – and counting – in an odyssey that has so far reached nearly 800 ballparks in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and nine total countries. In many years, he’s set a dizzying pace that even the most die-hard of fans would have had trouble matching.
In case you’re skeptical of those numbers, Kohl keeps documents on file that he continually updates – where and when he attended each game, along with the final score; how many games he’s gone to each calendar year; how many games/ballparks he’s seen in each U.S. state; and how many games he’s been to each year at each level (MLB, MiLB, college, etc.). He even breaks down how many games he’s seen each year in each minor league.
He’s recorded visits to 41 Major League Baseball parks (he includes the New York Mets/Philadelphia Phillies games in London last year and the Cincinnati Reds/Atlanta Braves contest at Bristol Motor Speedway this season); 180 U.S. minor league stadiums; and 217 college ballparks. Not to mention venues for summer collegiate leagues (157), U.S. independent leagues (48), and junior colleges (48). Plus, virtually all the MLB spring training sites, a few high schools, and games in Canada, Puerto Rico, Ireland, England, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia, and the Dominican Republic. And more.
He can tell you that he’s been to 86 parks in Pennsylvania, 77 in Maryland, 48 in Florida, and… well, a whole lot more.
“I’m glad we have Google Docs,” Kohl said with a chuckle. “I’d never remember all that stuff.”
At this point, he’s been to games in 782 ballparks. It is unclear if that is a record, as the Guinness World Record book does not track such a statistic, and there is no central authority that tracks all fans and the number of ballparks they have visited. But one has to think that Kohl’s ongoing mark must at least be near the top.
“I was hoping to get to 800 this year,” Kohl said, “but I’ve had issues with my back that limited me some.” Given that, he went to “only” 38 new ballparks in 2024 – including 10 in South Korea and Japan via an Extra Innings Travel tour, as well as an eight-day, 16-game slog through upstate New York.
Let’s dig deeper into how all this started.
A Fan Becomes an Aficionado
Kohl grew up in Baltimore and has lived in the same house virtually all his life. He participated in various baseball leagues from ages 6 to 18, but did not play high school ball because he was working. He also joined the local volunteer fire department at age 16, which eventually led to a career as a firefighter.
He was a baseball fan, of course, occasionally going to games and making his first visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1996. He still calls the Orioles’ 1966 World Series title his top baseball highlight. In a bit of a small-world story, he later worked occasionally with John Miller, a pitcher on that team who became a firefighter after his baseball career ended.
But Kohl had only been to four ballparks until 2005, when a divorce nudged him toward his current path.
“My son didn’t like baseball, so I hadn’t gone to games too often,” Kohl said. “After the divorce, though, I thought I had to do something, so I said what the heck – I had always dreamed of traveling to baseball stadiums when I was a kid and thought I should go visit a few. It really worked – going not just to MLB parks but ones in small towns and out-of-the-way places. I fell in love with it and the travel involved.”
Clearly.
He began slowly in 2005 – seeing MLB games in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York (Shea Stadium and the former Yankee Stadium), and Washington, D.C. – but kicked into high gear by seeing 50 games in 2006 and 72 in 2007.
“At first, I thought I’d just do MLB ballparks,” Kohl said, “but I went to my first minor league game – the Hickory Crawdads – in 2006 and saw the Tennessee Smokies two days later. I did my first West Coast trip that year, too. Before that, I’d only flown twice.
“The next season I went to spring training for the first time when the Orioles were still in Fort Lauderdale, and I went to my first away season-opener – the Orioles at Minnesota in the old Metrodome. When I left after the game, there were five inches of snow on the ground . . . That was kind of a shock because it hadn’t been snowing before the game, which was indoors,” he said with a laugh.
A year later, he finished checking off all the MLB parks that existed at the time, as well as the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, which was inspired by the movie of the same name. That left the question, “What next?”
Taking His Fandom Abroad
“The guys at the fire station asked me that,” he said, “so I Googled, and JapanBall came up right away.” JapanBall, now known as Extra Innings Travel, was founded in 1999 by Bob Bavasi.
“I remember him calling,” Bavasi said. “His thought had been to do a trip on his own, but once he figured out the cost and all the logistics involved, he figured it would be better to go with us.”
At the time, Kohl had never been out of the United States and did not even have a passport.
“My plane was late, so I didn’t arrive until the day after the tour started,” he said. “I was scared – petrified, actually. But after the first three or four days, I was sold and said I had to come back.”
And he did – in 2009, 2013, and 2018. He also went on Extra Innings Travel’s tours to the Dominican Republic in 2023 and to South Korea with a small Japan add-on in 2025. He is one of just 76 people inducted into the Extra Innings Travel Hall of Fame.
Photo courtesy of John Kohl
“I was delighted that he came on the first trip and then came back,” Bavasi said. “He was kind of skeptical about doing the group thing at first, but I think he discovered that it was nice to have the camaraderie.”
But those group trips represent just a portion of his baseball journey.
Ballpark Milestones
Aside from the first year he started keeping records – 2005 – the fewest games he’s seen in a season are 50 in 2006 and 52 in 2009. He’s seen more than 100 games in 12 different seasons, with the highs being 172 in 2012 and 200 in 2013. He checked off 74 – yes, 74 – new ballparks in 2012 and 41 more in 2013. The 200-game marathon in 2013 was especially wearing.
“I was exhausted when it was over,” he acknowledged. “I was baseballed-out.”
So he slacked off and went to “only” 227 games and added a mere 47 ballparks to his list over the next two seasons, leaving him with totals of 994 and 364, respectively, at the end of 2015. But after that (sort of) breather, he again revved up, more than doubling both totals in the past 10 seasons.
He retired from the fire department in 2015, and then took his first international trip to Scotland, Ireland, and England. He later spent two months in Australia, where he attended games at all six Australian Baseball League stadiums.
Photo courtesy of John Kohl
And the milestones have steadily fallen.
- Ballpark 100: Sarasota, Florida, home of the Gulf Coast League Orioles, 2009
“It wasn’t much back then – just a field and benches. I was kind of in shock and began to realize how long a road it is to the major leagues.
“After that, I went to Texas to see a Rangers game, and I got there in time that day to see the (independent) Fort Worth Cats play, so it was a day/night doubleheader – ‘Only’ 1,190 miles between stadiums!”
- Ballpark 200: Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, New York, Hudson Valley Renegades vs. Aberdeen Firebirds, 2011
- Ballpark 252: Bachman Park, Glen Burnie, Maryland, Youse’s Orioles vs. Alexandria Aces, a game in the Cal Ripken summer league, 2013
“I happened to sit with Ripken. He came and happened sit down next to me. I didn’t ask for his autograph or anything like that – I’m not a big autograph hound. We just talked for 45-50 minutes.”
- Ballpark 300: The Shipyard at Knute Nelson Memorial Park in Alexandria, Minnesota, for a game in the collegiate Northwoods League, 2013
“There was no Orioles connection there, but it was a cool ballpark built in 1938 near Lake Winona. I really enjoy the atmosphere around summer college league games or independent league games. In some ways, I enjoy that more than MLB games.”
- Ballpark 400: BB&T Park in Charlotte, North Carolina, Class AAA game matching Charlotte against Norfolk, 2016
- Ballpark 441: Dozer Park in Peoria, Illinois, Peoria Chiefs vs. Beloit Snappers, 2017
“I had gotten game number 440 the night before in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where they had a nearly two-hour rain delay but still were able to play the game. Then I woke up really early the next morning and drove to Peoria – a five-hour drive for an 11am start. As a firefighter, I worked at Station 4 and drove either Engine #4 or #441 most of my career, and it turned out that Peoria had a Dalmatian fire dog named Homer as the team mascot. I also got a game-worn jersey with number 41 on the back that was close to my size so I could actually wear it . . . a great day at the ballpark!”
- Ballpark 500: Simmons Field in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kenosha vs. Green Bay, 2018
“They had some seats in the ballpark that had formerly been at (the Orioles’) Camden Yards, and I was able to get a photo of me in one of them.”
Photo courtesy of John Kohl
- Ballpark 600: Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Rangers vs. Orioles, 2021
“With COVID restrictions just loosening. I was having a very hard time seeing any games, but I saw two colleges and stadiums in upstate Pennsylvania on April 13 to get to 598 and 599. Those were the first games the colleges had allowed fans to attend that season. I’d given up on getting number 600 with the Orioles, but I came home, packed and then drove to Texas! 21 hours and 1,383 miles to see the Orioles – this one took some work!”
- Ballpark 700: Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field, West Point, New York, Army vs. Holy Cross, 2023
“I chose this special location because my dad was a World War II veteran, and that was the 50th anniversary of his passing.
- Ballpark 782, the most recent one: Synobus Park, Columbus, GA, Columbus vs. Rocket City, 2025
“This year was pretty good, considering my health issues. I had the upstate New York trip, plus the time in Korea and Japan. And I got to see Es Con Field (the home of NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, which opened in 2023).”
Given all this, one might easily conclude that Kohl is a one-track, baseball-only guy. But that would be wrong.
Concerts and Fire Stations Too!
Photo courtesy of John Kohl
“Baseball is my biggest interest now, but I did a lot of walking and bike-riding before my back started acting up, and I’m really a big-time music guy,” he said.
Consider that he’s seen more than 1,300 concerts, attending at least one in 49 of the 50 U.S. states and in 18 countries. And, yes, he keeps track of this, too, so the “big-time-music-guy” description definitely fits.
“I love, love, love music,” he said. “All of types of music. I’ve expanded my music horizons as I’ve gotten older.”
Among the many, he’s enjoyed performances by the tenor Andrea Bocelli in Italy, AC/DC in Ireland, Elton John in Scotland, and The Killers in Tokyo. In San Francisco one year, he saw an oldies gig by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and also caught The Go Go’s at a small, 300-person venue.
“In Korea earlier this year, there was a concert at Jamsil Stadium (home of the Doosan Bears and LG Twins) after a game, and everyone else in the group left, but I stayed,” he said. “I didn’t know who was performing at first, but it turned out to be one of Korea’s biggest stars, Kim Jang-Hoon. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I just enjoyed listening.”
Extra Innings Travel president Shane Barclay said, “I traveled with John first in 2018, and his enthusiasm and dedication made an immediate impression. He travels in a way that I do – he takes advantage of the freedom we build into our trips. He will go with the group some and also do sightseeing and concerts and things on his own.”
That tour highlighted another of his interests. Kohl, who served as a firefighter for more than 40 years, enjoys visiting fire stations while traveling, and he and the group more or less stumbled onto the oldest fire station in the Dominican Republic, located in the city of San Pedro de Macoris.
“He requested the stop, and it ended up being a terrific experience,” Barclay said. “I think it was also a highlight of the year for the firefighters on duty that day, as they aren’t used to having tourists come by, and it gave them a chance to show off what they can do. The visit was so well received by everyone that we made it a part of the itinerary going forward.”
Kohl said that he would have been happy to just take a few photos, but the visit morphed into more.
“I like to visit fire stations when I’m traveling,” he said, “and I’ve been to fire departments all over the world. On this occasion, the station was just a few blocks from where we were going, and I asked Shane if we could make a quick stop and just take a few pictures.
“Sometimes I’m welcomed in to visit stations, and sometimes not. It just depends on who’s there and what’s happening at the time with activities or training. On this occasion, they were excited to give us a tour and show us how they get dressed in their turnout gear and respond to a call. Everyone enjoyed it, and it’s one of my great memories.”
That, and other memories, are enhanced by an extensive souvenir collection that includes baseballs, caps, jerseys, tickets, bobbleheads, and more. And, as you might expect, he documents these, as well.
He counts 392 caps, 843 balls, and 150 baseball jerseys. The caps are in alphabetical order, while the jerseys hang in a closet and are organized by league. Two shelves are filled with bobbleheads, and he also has a few football jerseys.
“It’s a pretty significant collection,” he said. “I’ve sometimes double-bought things because I’d forgotten what I had. I have the scorecard from the first (Orioles) game I went to and a big box of tickets from concerts and ballgames. Unfortunately, it’s harder to collect tickets these days since most are now digital.”
Photo courtesy of John Kohl.
Still, he’ll keep trying. There are more games and concerts to attend, more ballparks to see. He has his eye on Extra Innings Travel’s NPB spring training trip to Okinawa in February, and he’d like to catch games in the only three MLB-affiliated minor league ballparks he hasn’t been to – Stockton and Rancho Cucamonga in the California League, and the new facility in Salt Lake City.
“I’ve never had a bucket list, though – not any hard-and-fast goals,” he said. “Just to keep going.”
I’m happy to have been John’s guide for his trip to Es Con Field in Hokkaido. He also enjoys ice cream which is excellent and easily available. Any Extra Innings Travel members interested in going to Es Con please send me a message. The stadium is open even on days when there’s no game.