Jake Mintz calls baseball bike trip from NYC to Chicago an 'unforgettable adventure'
By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer
On Wednesday afternoon, after two weeks, 1,200 miles of biking, 1.5 Mount Everest’s worth of elevation gain, 12 baseball games and 82 hours in the saddle, I’m officially done.
I made it from New York to Chicago, by bike, alive and in one piece.
Why did I do this? Back in November on my podcast, I said that if the White Sox hired Tony La Russa as manager, I’d walk to Chicago. I didn’t walk, but I like to think that I held up my end of the bargain pretty well, yeah?
I understand that this whole thing was like one of those Jimmy Neutron episodes where Jimmy’s ego gets himself in a sticky situation, and then he solves the problem and everyone praises him for his genius even though it was a situation of his own making. So at the end of the day, I fully realize this wasn’t something I had to do. I easily could have bailed. Sure, some people would have sent tweets or whatever, but things mostly would have been fine.
I biked 1,200 miles because I wanted to, not because of La Russa or Jerry Reinsdorf or anyone else. I did it because I wanted to see a big chunk of America by bike. I also wanted to see some baseball games with my buddy, Jordan Shusterman, have an unforgettable adventure and raise a bunch of money for a good cause. I was fortunate enough to have the means, ability and health to pull this absurd thing off, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
With all of it in the rearview mirror, I'm now being asked the same questions over and over again so let’s review the trip in a Q&A style. OK? OK.
How was it?
Incredibly fun. Challenging, but not quite as hard as I anticipated. The difficulties were more mental than physical. Dealing with the boredom and monotony was a lot harder than any soreness in my legs.
Being out and about consuming minor-league baseball was also a joy. My buddy, Jordan, and I used to do minor-league road trips every summer, but then real life got in the way for a while. Then, of course, last season was canceled due to COVID-19, so we hadn’t been on the road together in five years. So just living that life again was a joy.
How much money did you raise?
We raised almost $30,000 for LostBoyzInc, which is an organization in Chicago that provides baseball and softball programs for kids on the South Side. Pretty amazing. We also found out the money will be used next summer to send about 100 kids on a trip to Cooperstown to visit the Hall of Fame.
If you still want to donate and help us reach $30,000, you can do that here.
How was the baseball?
Frankly, pretty crappy. All baseball is a level of good above, say, football, but the particular games we saw were generally underwhelming and lacked any sort of competitive tension. None of the games was all that close as we were dealt a heavy hand of blowouts.
As for the MLB games, the home team lost all three we attended by a combined score of 23-3. The White Sox capped things off on Wednesday night with a lifeless 9-1 loss to the Royals. Sometimes there is no pot of baseball gold at the end of your 1,200-mile biking rainbow.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments that stick out in my brain, even though I consumed them extremely low on oxygen, electrolytes, calories and sleep. There was recent Pirates trade acquisition and former Yankees farmhand Hoy Park going opposite-field ding dong in Scranton; top-5 prospect Bobby Witt Jr. hitting what must have been a 110-mph lineout in Toledo; Miguel Cabrera picking up his 2,942nd hit in Detroit, or Lansing first baseman William Simoneit throwing 50-mph Eephuses in Lansing.
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It was also wonderful getting to see such a wide swath of the American baseball landscape. We saw games at High-A, Double-A, Triple-A, the majors, college summer league and Independent ball. Seeing so many different levels in such quick succession was almost like a fancy 12-course meal.
But the best part of the games was always the people we met, particularly at the minor-league level: the radio broadcasters, the media relations people, the concessions people, the folks in the ticket booth, the players themselves, our Twitter followers who came to say hi. All of that is what makes being around baseball so lovely. Interacting with those individuals before, during and after the game is always the most enduring part of the experience.
The moral of the story here is that if you watch 12 baseball games in 14 days, even if those 12 baseball games are a bit blah, you’ll still see enough wonderful things to make it all worth it.
How was the weather?
The baseball gods and the weather gods must have a group chat because as bad as the baseball was, the weather was sublime. I spent a grand total of 87 hours riding my bike, and I was in the rain for a total of 20 minutes. Even though I chose to bike across the country during literally the hottest time of the year, temperatures never eclipsed 85 degrees during the day and really hovered in the mid-70s more often than not.
With no off days built into the schedule (Which dummy planned this trip?), a thunderstorm or a heat wave were probably the most likely phenomenon that would have thrown the whole journey into the blender. But Mother Nature shined down upon me and granted us with the best two-week stretch of weather I’ve ever experienced.
Did you listen to music?
Yep. I’d say of those 82 hours, I listened to music maybe 40% of the time. I had a rule: No headphones on busy roads, so it was a lot of tunes coming out of my phone speaker. I had the same routine every morning: I’d ride for an hour, and then put on Mac Miller’s posthumous album "Circles," which is 58 minutes long. By that point I’d ridden two hours and the rest of the day was cake, so to speak.
Usually when you work out, you want high-tempo bops to motivate you through the burn, but when you’re spending six-plus hours riding a bike, you actually want to stay chill and keep your heart rate low.
That meant I went through a lot of Bon Iver, a lot of Marvin Gaye, a lot of Frank Ocean. I knew in advance that the single toughest climb of the trip, Cresson Ridge in the Allegheny mountains, was going to be about 45 minutes of grueling, exhausting riding at a snail’s pace. I also knew that Phoebe Bridgers’ superb 2020 album "Punisher" is 41 minutes long. So I just tossed my headphones in, zoned out and let Phoebe’s ballads propel me up a mountain.
If you want a playlist of some of my most played songs of the trip, click here.
How do you feel?
At no point was I in pain. Exhausted, sure. But never hurt or injured or in agony. Finishing a 110-mile ride after 10 days of riding feels like getting off the longest flight you’ve ever been on — except you were in the sun the whole time.
Speaking of flights, you know when you’re waiting to board and the flight before you deplanes and everyone walking off the plane looks like zombies. I basically had that feeling, except it was only me and I was also dehydrated and walking into a baseball stadium.
Your legs get sore a bit, but the worst part is honestly how your hands and shoulders feel. You switch up your hand and body position on the bike as much as you can, but no matter what you do it’s still a lot of weight to be holding in your hands.
I know that sounds awful, but it really wasn’t that bad. For the first week of the trip I was borderline useless and asleep by 10 p.m., but as it went on my body grew into what I was putting it through, and by Chicago it was all good. My legs are a little bigger, I lost a little bit of weight and I need to stretch my hamstrings out, but other than that I feel awesome.
What’s next?
There’s something in the works. The infancy of an idea is bouncing around my brain. I’m not sure it will be as epic as going from New York to Chicago, but it’s definitely pretty good. Stay tuned for next summer, folks.
Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.