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KEVIN COUPE FOUNDER, MORNINGNEWSBEAT.COM

all that sort of stuff. All stuff to get people to the ballpark, to get fannies in the seats. Back in the mid-90s, I interviewed Charlie Dowd, a longtime baseball professional who then was the general manager of the New Haven Ravens. He explained it this way: in minor league baseball, you can't market the players because if they're any good, they're going to “The Show.” So you have to market the experience. Which means you have to make it a differentiated experience. These days, it is even more so. The number of options on which to spend one's entertainment budget are far more numerous, and so major league teams have adopted the minor league approach – lots of promotions that help to entice and entertain the customers. There are young people from the promotion staffs wandering through the stands, doing contests and giving away prizes. There are kids racing mascots down the left field lines.

Visiting every MLB ballpark has taught Me a valuable retailing lesson.

By the way, this doesn't even count all the minor league parks I've been to. (Like where the Utica Blue Sox used to play when they were a Red Sox affiliate. I wish I still had that cap.) I've had a great time visiting all these games and stadiums. I've consumed an amazing number of hot dogs (like Dodger Dogs and Fenway Franks!) and a lot of beer – much of it craft beer, especially lately – over the years, and lately I've tried other foods at ballparks that have improved their culinary offerings. (More on that below.) Which leads me to the business lesson that I've learned during my baseball quest. When I started on this, one of the things I noticed was that minor league fields tended to be a lot more fun than the major league variety. The big league parks tended to be a little more formal, a little more staid. But minor league fields, in addition to being a lot less expensive, also did a lot more

It's taken me almost a quarter-century to do it, but I recently achieved a long-held dream. I have been to a game in every major league baseball stadium in the country. All 30. A guy has to have goals. In fact, I've done more than just go to every major league ballpark. It has taken me so long to achieve this goal that I've actually visited 49 stadiums – 18 of them in cities (Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Chicago, Milwaukee, and two in New York) that have replaced those ballparks with new ones, and one of them in a city – Montreal – that no longer has major league baseball. When I started on this endeavor, I had as an ancillary goal the idea that I would bring back a cap from every ballpark. But my wife nixed that pretty early on; she was willing to tolerate my going off to see a game somewhere, or staying an extra day on a business trip so I could catch a game. But I had to stop bring home all those caps. (I acquiesced. That's how I've stayed married for 33+ years.)

to engage with patrons. There would be ice cream giveaways, dime hot dog nights, handing out of free t-shirts, on-field races for kids –

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