NewsFan reaches incredible attendance feat
John Salvo has seen every possible matchup in each league
By Marty Noble / MLB.com
10/02/09 9:45 PM EST
NEW YORK -- It was September 2008 and John Salvo was in a South Florida hotel room, formulating plans for his 2009. He had the schedule for the Mets' '09 season in his hands and a look of surprise on his face as he examined it month-by-month. Salvo ran his fingers through the days of April, hoping to find "Astros at Mets." Then he searched May, then June. And as he did, his eyebrows -- and maybe his blood pressure -- raised. July, August, September. Had the schedule maker forgotten "Astros at Mets?" How could that happen? How in the name of Jimmy Wynn could the...But then Salvo found it -- "Astros at Mets, October 2, 3 and 4." Of course. The Astros would have to end their season with the Mets. Why not?
Salvo would have to wait until the final weekend of the season to "reach my quest," complete his task, or, to put it in his chosen terminology, celebrate his jubilee game. And now he has. When he and his obsessive buddies watched the Mets play the visiting Astros Friday night at Citi Field, this 62-year-old baseball extremist reached his goal of witnessing every conceivable intra-league matchup in each league, home and away. That is to say, he had seen the Tigers play in Kansas City, and the Royals play in Detroit; the Diamondbacks play in Pittsburgh and the Pirates play in Phoenix. And now, finally, the Astros play in New York.
That's it, done. Finis. After 55 years and 442 games in all American League and National League cities, he has seen 182 combinations in the American League and 240 in the National League. And Interleague... "Well," Salvo says, "I've seen a few."
What else can be expected from a fella whose Wisconsin vanity license plate carries a rather understated identification -- "MLB Fan." Yeah, and Sinatra's plate should have said "Singer."
Salvo saw his first game, Indians at White Sox, in 1954. He and his father drove down from Racine to Comiskey Park and an obsession was born. In 1976, he saw the Rangers play in Arlington, in that almost obsolete park. But the next year, Seattle and Toronto came into the league. "It was either quit or commit," Salvo said Friday night before the first pitch. He asked himself, "Gee, I wonder if I could do them all."
Salvo lost some interest in 2000. His energy and finances were tested.
"The amount of money I was spending on something so frivolous ..." he said.
He had been a payroll manager in a school district, retiring in 2002.
"My time on the road jumped from about 25 days a year to around 70," he said.
His affection/obsession for the game has cost him more than $100,000 and taken him over most -- about 70 percent -- of the country's Interstates. Moreover, it had made him something of a baseball Forrest Gump.
"I have seen two no-hitters, one triple play, Shawn Green's four-home run game and I managed to nab 15 foul balls," he says.
But those are rather modest entries in the baseball world of "been there, done that." But who else can say they witnessed this hat trick?
"I saw Roger Maris homer the year he beat [Babe] Ruth's record, and I saw Mark McGwire homer the year he bested Maris, and I saw Barry Bonds get a "splash hit" homer the year he topped McGwire. ... Sorry I missed Babe."
Salvo provides this autobiographical insight: "There comes with this, an intimacy with big cities, hotel rooms, rental cars, parking lots, freeways, traffic jams, toll booths, jet lag, vendors, beggars, scalpers, drunks, bad food and worse music.
"None of that is as irritating as 'the wave' or 'the chop' in Atlanta. Oh yes, I am a White Sox fan, as was my dad, and his dad, who saw his first Sox game in 1901, the initial season of the American League.
"The teams I love to hate are the Dodgers and the Cardinals. But I would never say that they 'suck.' Hearing that word hundreds of times per game is even more irritating than the wave. It's no wonder that those who can afford it, take refuge in enclosed luxury boxes.
"My favorite player of all time was Nellie Fox. I have visited his grave in St. Thomas, Pa. My best baseball moment was the next-day celebration of the White Sox 2005 World Series championship in downtown Chicago.
"And that winter we got a new dog. We named him Ozzie Guillen."
Marty Noble is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
