User:CharlieZeb

I'm Charlie O'Reilly, a baseball enthusiast and SABR member from New Jersey.

I got my interactive computing start in 1987 on CompuServe, using the handle "Charlie the Zebra" in certain online games. Upon joining America Online in 1993, I shortened my handle to CharlieZeb to meet the 10-character screen name limit they had at the time.

My first baseball game was on July 9, 1967, when the New York Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves, 5-4, at Shea Stadium. Jerry Buchek hit a game-tying homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth, and four batters later Ron Swoboda drew a bases-loaded walk to end it.

In 1980, I started working with the Rutherford Little League Baseball program. I also worked with the Lyndhurst American Legion Baseball team and the Jersey Pilots of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League during the 1980s. But my progression toward becoming the baseball nut I am today started in 1986, when I attended a New York-Penn League game between the Little Falls Mets and the Utica Blue Sox at Veterans Park in Little Falls. That was my first taste of the minor leagues.

By the end of 1989, I had seen baseball in a grand total of six parks: Shea, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Vets Park, McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, and Wahconah Park in Pittsfield. In 1990, I took my first baseball vacation, seeing eight games in eight days. The obsession grew from there. I saw my 100th park in 1996 (Community Park in St. Catharines, Ont.), my 200th in 2001 (KeySpan Park in Brooklyn), and my 300th in 2005 (Lewis and Clark Park in Sioux City, Iowa). As of the end of the 2005 season, I have seen professional baseball in 307 different ballparks.

I also photograph inactive parks I come across in my travels as well as a few parks where I've seen only college baseball, giving me a total of 425 parks on my Web site.

External links

• Charlie's Big Baseball Parks Page
• Rutherford (N.J.) Little League