Great Towns for Baseball Fans to Live

Any of the big stadium SEC programs would be a good baseball town. I would never retire to the Philadelphia area. In fact, I left when my youngest headed for college. Within day trip radius there are five MLB teams (Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Orioles, Nationals). Within a shorter radius are minor league teams in Scranton, Allentown, Reading, Harrisburg, Trenton NJ, Somerset NJ, Lakewood NJ Wilmington DE and Aberdeen MD.

JCG

Sedona or Prescott Arizona, one mile high, 1 1/2 hours from Phoenix.

Santa Fe, New Mexico also one mile high.

Bob

I love Sedona, Bob --- sooooo beautiful --  but I don't think  I could live there - too remote. Somehow I have never been to Santa Fe.  I would like to remedy that, but think the vibe might be a bit too hoity toity for us. As far a Southwest towns go, we have visited St. George UT a few times because we have friends there and it's a good base for visiting the National Parks, but it's awfully hot in the summer. Same for Phoenix.

@Consultant posted:

JCG

Sedona or Prescott Arizona, one mile high, 1 1/2 hours from Phoenix.

Santa Fe, New Mexico also one mile high.

Bob

Both excellent suggestions. Great Juco baseball program in Prescott

JCG;

landing at the St George airport is like "landing" on a aircraft carrier. a drop off of 2,000 feet at the end of the runway.

Prescott is "old western" town. Strong growth.

Bob

St Louis is a very good baseball city.

@bandera posted:

St Louis is a very good baseball city.

One of the best! But is it a good place to retire? Cost-wise, A town with a minor league team, preferably affiliated with an MLB team I root for, would make more sense than an MLB city.

Richmond checks  lot of boxes.

Hi!

Wondering why you don't consider FL. I live in South Florida have for 45 years. If we were to move it would be to Tampa Bay area. There you have the Rays and college baseball USF and pretty central to spring training teams. Within that area you can travel almost anywhere to watch college baseball, FSU, Florida or hop down to UMiami. Plus you have golf, other sports as well, FB and basketball.

It's hot, but more humid, you get used to it. No worse that NYC area (jersey girl). You have the beach, you have swimming pools everywhere. If you are 55+ there are exclusive communities to live in.  The only problem is that the price of housing has gone through the roof, but no state taxes. The weather now is magnificent, 70s by day 50-60 is by night.

You can explore online, If you need a realtor in Tampa, let me know. Why not give it a try.

If things work out in for son in Gainesville we may consider a move eventually. It's really nice up there and central to both of Florida coasts.

I haven't posted in a while, but thought that this was worthy of giving advice on retiring in Florida.

PM for any questions.

Barbara! Welcome back! We have missed you.

I'm semi FL-friendly.  My wife is opposed to FL, frankly, and it's about the only place on the map that doesn't have any of our family  nearby, not counting a cousin I barely know.

However, I have made progress.  After a month of gentle coaxing and a few bitterly cold December nights, she has signed off on a Grapefruit League trip, which will no doubt include some time checking out neighborhoods.  The bad news is that we're talking 2023, not 2022.

Oh, and we starting watching Selling Tampa last night. If only we wanted to buy in the $5M range it would be perfect.

John

TPM's call is a great one.  Florida/Tampa/South Florida (Miami) etc.  So many reasons to want to retire in Florida.  We are looking at Sarasota (parents have been there for 32 years), Anna Marie Island (what a cool beach community but let prices come down), and will go further south and check out Naples or maybe Fort Myers and teach at FGSU and assist the baseball team!    Tampa though is a cool idea, I have to investigate further.

John,

Not back just visible.

BTW, you don't need relatives living in FL because everyone will want to come visit you!

Good luck. Keep me posted if you come to Jupiter for ST we are close by.

Edit: You can teach at USF! Better baseball team!

My daughter spent four years in Tampa. She intended to stay and go to law school in FL. But love got in the way. She met her future husband while home in the summer. He commuted by air to Tampa (cheap flight) three of four weekends for two years.

She moved to Washington which forced him to commute by train for three more years.

TPM, nice to see you post -  I was hoping things were good with you.  I saw Dave's big news on the Twitter machine.  Congrats

@T_Thomas posted:

TPM, nice to see you post -  I was hoping things were good with you.  I saw Dave's big news on the Twitter machine.  Congrats

Thank You!

I am going to throw my town in the hat:

Suburbs of Richmond, VA.  I live 9 houses from the city line, so I have great schools, lower taxes, and 1 mile from a new Trader Joes.

2 hours to DC (on a good day) with all that DC has to offer (plus 2 major airports and the Nationals).  1 hour to Williamsburg/Historic Triangle.  2 hours to the beach. 1 hour to Charlottesville/wineries/mountains/and UVA baseball.

Richmond has VCU baseball/basketball, Univ of Richmond sports, and several D3 schools a short drive away.

It's also on the map for cool restaurants!  Historic, great museums, and southern friendly.

The train can take you anywhere on the east coast if flying or driving isn't what you want to do.

Oh, and if you are a Giants fan, we have the AA Flying Squirrels!

Come visit!
(Edited:  I think I just convinced myself to stay and retire here!)

Thanks, Keewart - You had me at Trader Joe’s. But being able to go to Squirrels games is HUGE. I wish it was a little closer to Dulles, but there is a lot to like and we have family in DC so  Richmond is definitely a contender.

Go Spiders!! 😂

The Squirrels definitely make MiLB fun.

Raleigh-Durham would be great.  You've got UNC, NC State, Duke and Wake all within 25 miles.  You'll have the Durham Bulls and also the USA Baseball complex. You're a little bit far from an MLB team so that may be a factor.

@TPM posted:

Hi!

Wondering why you don't consider FL. I live in South Florida have for 45 years. If we were to move it would be to Tampa Bay area. There you have the Rays and college baseball USF and pretty central to spring training teams. Within that area you can travel almost anywhere to watch college baseball, FSU, Florida or hop down to UMiami. Plus you have golf, other sports as well, FB and basketball.

It's hot, but more humid, you get used to it. No worse that NYC area (jersey girl). You have the beach, you have swimming pools everywhere. If you are 55+ there are exclusive communities to live in.  The only problem is that the price of housing has gone through the roof, but no state taxes. The weather now is magnificent, 70s by day 50-60 is by night.

You can explore online, If you need a realtor in Tampa, let me know. Why not give it a try.

If things work out in for son in Gainesville we may consider a move eventually. It's really nice up there and central to both of Florida coasts.

I haven't posted in a while, but thought that this was worthy of giving advice on retiring in Florida.

PM for any questions.

I'll second the Tampa Bay area. I grew up in Pinellas County and would love to move back. The sports vibe there is great, there are tons of things to do outside, very diverse, solid food options, the airport can get you to most cities direct, and as you said, no state taxes.

The housing prices will be coming down there soon. They are one of a handful of areas in FL that is ripe for a "crash".

As a newer mid East coast FL resident (south of Daytona, north of Cape Canaveral) w/ a short pit stop in Charlotte, but mostly a southern NH resident for half a century... FL isn't all that bad - humidity/heat wise *blocks from the beach* it's not that much different than Charlotte which is 3.5 hours from the ocean. My wife doesn't count lakes that can have creepy crawlies in them as something she wants to live near. <shrug>  I like to say it's way easier to get cool after being hot than it is to get warm after being cold. And yes, your blood thins (or something like that) *really quickly*. A/C is a truly wonderful thing. No income tax, lower cost of goods, although house prices are like everywhere else (insane)... Rents are also a bit much. Within an hours drive of us there's some d2 ball, Stetson, and the Daytona Tortugas. Plenty of travel team tournaments taking place most weekends somewhere. It's entertaining to see how people act and try to think back to your own process, but that s*t gets old fast.

The hardest part for us is the kids don't live near. We do get visitors, but we find ourselves making the trips more often than not. We have more flexibility - it is what it is. Two of our kids live in Charlotte about a 7hr drive. The third is a 3hr plane ride to Boston and there's grand-kids there... We keep a place in Charlotte as a hurricane escape plan (plenty of baseball options there). My MiL is a snowbird (Dec -> early April) and is the primary reason we chose where we live, but the town is great...  My FiL lives outside of Tampa in Wesley Chapel - we visit, but I loathe driving around there when we visit as it takes forever to get anywhere, ymmv.  He tells us things are much more busy in the last few months (between new residents/transplants and snowbirds). As I'm sure our resident Rays fan could tell you - tickets are easy to come by ;-)... The Tampa area definitely gets some crazy weather and there is a reason why the hockey team is called the Lightning.

You could move to Savannah to become a Banana-Ball fan! It's coastal too, so ticks that box... Assuming you chose coastal CT for a reason...

I would say that Charleston is a good town for baseball fans, but the area is full.  Seriously 3 D1 baseball teams in "town" as well as a minor league team, another D1 team and 2 more minor league teams within about 2 hours, pretty good high school baseball in the area, Atlanta isn't that bad of a drive to get an MLB fix.

I must be the alter ego for places to move. I moved north. My second home is in Maine. My quest was to be closer to skiing. Maine is awesome in the summer. After years of skiing on the weekend (it was 325 miles from Redondo Beach to Mammoth or Philadelphia to Killington) other than a one week vacation, it’s a pleasure to be able to do weekday skiing.

I didn’t even have to have my hair turn silver to get a Silver Pass. It’s good for Sugarloaf, Sunday River and Loon. I haven’t been to Loon (NH) for decades. I’m a Sunday River regular due to the shorter distance. Sugarloaf is an awesome place to ski. It’s an overnight for a two day ski. It was a day trip when I was younger.

If I want warm I can always fly there. I have a couple of one week trips planned this winter.

Okay, I'll succumb to the "homer" bug...Charlotte.

Three Division I college teams in the metro area, along with one Division II team. (Can you name all 4?) Meanwhile on the professional front, you have the Charlotte Knights playing in the best AAA ballpark in all of baseball, a low-A minor league team and an independent league team; both of which play in brand new stadiums.

That's a LOT of local innings!

@Prepster posted:

Okay, I'll succumb to the "homer" bug...Charlotte.

Three Division I college teams in the metro area, along with one Division II team. (Can you name all 4?)

Depends on one's definition of "greater metro" ;-)

D1: UNCCharlotte, Davidson, Winthrop (Rock Hill, SC)... High Point is a solid 75 mins north on 85 as long as they're not doing construction in Kannapolis thru Salisbury... 

D2: Queens, Belmont Abbey, Wingate ('21 nat'l champs), Catawba...

@JohnF posted:

Depends on one's definition of "greater metro" ;-)

D1: UNCCharlotte, Davidson, Winthrop (Rock Hill, SC)... High Point is a solid 75 mins north on 85 as long as they're not doing construction in Kannapolis thru Salisbury...

D2: Queens, Belmont Abbey, Wingate ('21 nat'l champs), Catawba...

A+ with Bonus Points!

I'd decided to draw the line at Rock Hill; but, it's a blurred one and subject to one's own definition. Great job!

@gamecock303 posted:

I would say that Charleston is a good town for baseball fans, but the area is full.  Seriously 3 D1 baseball teams in "town" as well as a minor league team, another D1 team and 2 more minor league teams within about 2 hours, pretty good high school baseball in the area, Atlanta isn't that bad of a drive to get an MLB fix.

I love this call too.   I am a huge fan of Kiawah Island.   While I spoke of Florida earlier Kiawah is actually at the top of our list for retirement locations.   The beaches are amazing and the drive to Charleston is only 45 minutes.  You could also buy a lake home inland for USC or Clemson baseball.   So many options in NC, SC, and Florida. 

@JohnF  (and all) - good info.  Thanks.  The Bananas had not crossed my radar, so thanks for that too.

It's quite cold early this morning.  I hear a plane from the nearby airport heading out over LI Sound.   I check the flight radar app on my phone and tell my wife, 'West Palm Beach'.  She says 'hmmm'.  That's progress. Yesterday it was 'humpf'.

AAAHHH, Richmond Braves baseball. I wish they still had a AAA team.

... and Connecticut.

With #2 daughter and her husband's family in Richmond, #2 son moving his wife and daughter to Midlothian from CA, a fledgling family vineyard sprouting to the west and more family nearby including #3 son's new in-laws, I am considering moving to RVA. Crossing the Rappahannock on I-95 between me and all that is getting worse every summer. Plus, it would be 90 minutes closer to 2031_RHP.

My wife lived a few years in the Middle East and hates the desert. So, my dream of Arizona is mostly vanished. I have enjoyed one Spring Training week in Florida and the beaches on the gulf. It's a possibility but family will always top baseball.