A father-child relationship is one of the most important in many people’s lives. History teacher Hamilton Hernandez and his dad, Hersh Hernandez, are no different.
While they don’t always enjoy the same things or see eye-to-eye on some topics, a connection through baseball formed early and has carried through the decades.
Hamilton and his father used to play baseball together when he was young. Now too old to play, Hamilton searched for a way he and his father could connect once again and transform their love that once played out on the field to one that plays out in the stands. The idea of visiting all the major league baseball stadiums emerged.
“They [the stadiums] were so uniquely different from each other. We thought it would be cool to see all of them,” Hamilton said. So far Mr. Hernandez and his father have seen games at 21 different stadiums since they started in 2012, just nine shy of the 30 major league stadiums in the United States.
Over the summer, Mr. Hernandez and his father traveled to the midwest and checked off Cincinnati, Detroit, and Cleveland.
“One of the reasons you fall in love with going to these places [is] because they represent the people there,” Hamilton said.
Hersh Hernandez said that one of his favorite instances of this was at Fenway Park in Boston.
“They brought out this Marine, she was dressed in her blues [uniform] and the stadium just went crazy. They carried her all around the stadium,” Hersh Hernandez said.
Mr. Hernandez and his father have become immensely closer than when they started back in 2012.
“Over the course of these trips, he’s become a closer friend to me. He’s always been a great dad, but we have more of a friendship now than we did before because we travel together and you make memories that way,” Hamilton said.
Hersh Hernandez explains that he’s amazed by how much his son knows now.
“He’s like a tour guide,” he said. Hersh Hernandez has loved traveling with his son, sharing it’s the best part of it all. One of his fondest memories happened outside of a stadium. He, his son, and his son’s then fiancé went to a restaurant with batting cages above it.
He explains that his son was always great at baseball and it was amazing to see him in the cages again.
Mr. Hernandez explains that his father has spent most of his life traveling, but during COVID he became more of a homebody.
Visiting stadiums again has helped bring him back out of his shell and give him the travel bug again.
“It was in Chicago, not a city he would have otherwise picked to go to, we were at the Cubs game. He [Hersh Hernandez] actually liked going back out and visiting new places again. That was really when he caught the bug and wanted to do three or four of these [stadium visits] a year,” Hamilton said.
Mr. Hernandez likes looking back and seeing how much the relationship between him and his father has grown from when they first started this adventure to now as they‘ve closed in on 21 stadiums.
“It was cool for me to see my dad re-find his sense of adventure,” Mr. Hernandez said.
Hamilton Hernandez and his wife now have a daughter. When she’s old enough they plan to introduce her to their tradition.
