As baseball's regular season comes to a close this weekend, it seemed an appropriate time to talk to someone who knows a thing or two about visiting ballparks.

Erik Mertens aka "The Peanut Guy," has been a member of the Tri-City Dust Devils' staff since their introduction 25 years ago. Somewhere along the way, however, Erik decided to take his love of baseball on the road and began visiting ballparks.

Earlier this summer, he completed his longstanding goal of visiting ALL the ballparks. Well, at least all of the current affiliated Minor League parks (237 total). He's also been to 39 MLB parks, 14 college wood-bat summer league parks, nine Independent League stadiums, and five historic Negro League fields. That's over 300 ballparks total!

Erik shares reflections from his journey with his. From those early years attending Seattle Mariners' games as a family in the Kingdome to late July, when a visit to the Ontario Tower Buzzers ONT Field completed his quest.

As Erik said in his Instagram post commemorating his accomplishment: "There is no better way to see our country (and continent) than visiting Minor League ballparks!"

We could not agree more:-)

If you'd like to track Erik's future travels, follow him on Instagram @erikthepeanutguy.

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