With Induction Weekend Coming, Baseball Hall Of Fame’s Official Tour Operator Opens Doors For Travelers

Unlike Greyhound, which tells riders to “leave the driving to us,” the official tour operator of the Baseball Hall of Fame covers all the bases.

Sports Travel and Tours, called STAT for short, handles start-to-finish arrangements for both individual travelers and those who prefer to join scheduled groups.

The Massachusetts-based firm, founded in 1996 by Jay Smith, offers sports fans any game, any time, anywhere. For example, passengers who partake of Induction Weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame each July, don’t have to worry about accommodations, access, ticketing, or parking.

“Because of our partnership with the Hall, we drop people off right there,” Smith said. “No one has to walk to town or look for shuttle buses. We take care of all the details and give people a chance to enjoy themselves and not have to worry about anything.

“We’re a perfect match: a round peg in a round hole. It took me 10 years to make it happen but it’s been a great ride and a great partnership.”

Prices posted on the STAT website for this year’s Induction Weekend range from $975 to $3,195 per person for seven separate packages ranging from two to three nights and featuring hotels in various locations.

“You can pretty much get anything you want with money,” said the 69-year-old Smith, a Brooklyn native who spent a year as chairman of the National Tour Association (NTA). “The only thing you can’t buy with money is your health.”

STAT’s 2023 offerings include not only regional baseball road trips but also such sports showcase events as the Super Bowl, World Series, Kentucky Derby, Masters, golf and tennis U.S. Open tournaments, and Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Weekend.

The company became the official tour operator of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, a month before the induction of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn drew a record 87,000 fans to Cooperstown, a Central New York hamlet with less than 2,000 permanent residents.

“If we had signed on in February,” Smith said, “it would have been unlimited. As it was, we ran 1,000 people in 20 buses, an average of 30 hotel rooms per bus.”

The company has eight full-time employees but adds freelance tour hosts, many of them former passengers, for Induction Weekend, usually scheduled after the All-Star Game in July.

“They love what they did and come back to us and say, ‘This is something I would love to do,’” Smith said. “We start them as assistants on several trips and then they get their own tour.”

It hasn’t been easy for the firm in recent years.

First came a recession, then the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered the sports world in March 2020. That year’s baseball season was shortened to 60 games and fans were replaced by cardboard cutouts and electronic cheering when the 162-game format resumed in 2021. There were even a few inside-the-cardboard home runs.

To make matters worse for Smith and his STAT staff, the 2001 All-Star Game was suddenly shifted from Atlanta to Denver after Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred objected to a new Georgia voting law he branded as restrictive. That move, announced during spring training, was a serious financial hit for the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Braves, and Sports Travel and Tours.

“There were moments I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it,” Smith conceded. “We were losing money on every person whose reservation had to be changed. We still had office overhead like rent, electricity, printers, and other expenses.”

A hybrid unemployment program called WorkShare, available only in Massachusetts and a dozen or so other states, saved the day, along with PPPs and stimulus stipends issued by the federal government.

“My staff was able to keep close to 100% of their full-time pay, which is why I was able to keep my entire team together through the duration of COVID,” Smith said.

After struggling financially for two years during the pandemic, STAT was struck by a man-made catastrophe when baseball owners imposed a four-month lockout that wiped out the Baseball Winter Meetings in December and half of spring training as well as freezing free-agent signings and trades.

“In 2022, we saw a little light at the end of the tunnel. We were down 72% but I was one of the fortunate ones since some tour operators were down 100%. We grew 200% over 2021 but it was still well shy of 2019. What we ran into was that freakin’ baseball lockout. That to me was almost as devastating as COVID the year before.

“Our big sales time for baseball is November, December, January, and February. Nobody was going anywhere and couldn’t make plans because no one knew when it was going to end. Even when Big Papi was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, nobody booked anything baseball-related. It was horrible, absolutely horrible.”

The lockout was lifted only in March, wiping out a chunk of exhibition games and forcing regular-season schedule changes in order to save the 162-game format.

COVID even hit Smith personally; he was stuck in Seattle when sports shut down in March of 2020 and caught the disease after it mutated into the Delta variant in the fall of 2021.

As a result of the pandemic, the Baseball Hall of Fame twice postponed the Class of 2020 inductions headed by long-time Yankees captain Derek Jeter. First it announced Jeter’s class would be inducted with the Class of 2021 but then it moved that ceremony from the traditional July date to early September, two days after Labor Day.

“Before Jeter was ever announced, we had 1200 people on the books,” Smith revealed. “We had planned for more than 2000 people (in 2000) and would have hit it. We then spent two-and-a-half months rolling people forward to the following year. It was a nightmare but my staff did an amazing job, especially considering we were all working remotely.”

Smith, a Yankees fan who later switched his allegiance to the Mets, has pictures of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Joe Torre in his office, along with one of Babe Ruth in a Red Sox uniform.

“We do more baseball than anything else,” he said of his company, “because more people travel between March and September than they do the rest of the year. It starts with spring training, when people want to get to nicer weather.”

A graduate of SUNY Oswego, Smith has a college degree in criminal justice. “I was going to go into juvenile probation work,” he laughed. “I just do that now with adults.”

Smith gives his passengers assorted extras, ranging from Hall of Fame pins, postcards, magazines, and memberships to talks by former umpire Al Clark.

“The big things take care of themselves,” he explained, “but it’s the little in-between things people can’t get on their own. It doesn’t take a lot to go from a good program to a great program. People like the games and events but it’s the small things people remember most.”

That helps spread the word through networking, Smith added. Repeat business, according to Smith, is 80 per cent.

“Once someone goes with us, they tend to come back in future years,” he said.

Sports Travel and Tours not only offers pre-planned group trips but also FITs (Flexible Independent Travel). “We customize the program to the likes of the individual traveler,” Smith said. “Then they go out and do it on their own. There’s no tour host but we package it all up and give them instructions. The price point could be the same if you do it on your own but we do all the work for you. We take the hassle out of it.”

Smith has been around the world with Sports Travel and Tours, going to Australia, Cuba, London, and Japan before testing a European river cruise concept last year.

“Every year, I like to bring in a new program that has a little spunk to it,” he said. “Next year, we’re going to Alaska to catch the Midnight Sun game in Fairbanks and then come down to Denali and Anchorage. I would also love to do an exotic trip to Australia to catch baseball Down Under.”

Smith witnessed the final game of Ichiro Suzuki, a long-time star in both Japan and the U.S.

“We caught Ichiro’s last two games at the Tokyo Dome,” he remembered. “Remember the video of Lou Gehrig saying goodbye? This was like that: an iconic moment. Every inning he played, there were 50,000 cell phone pictures taken. Every time he came to bat, he was cheered.

“In the seventh inning, he went out to right field all by himself, saying goodbye to the crowd. It was so incredible to see his fan base get so involved in that moment. The game stopped for 20 minutes while they took him out. It was a sight to see – the most incredible moment of my career. It still brings tears to my eyes.”

In Cuba, Smith and his STAT passengers met a man who invited them to his home after lunch. “He loved baseball and asked us if we had any time available,” he said. “When we got to his apartment, which was close to the restaurant, he pulled out scrapbooks and autographed baseballs. He was so thrilled to be talking baseball with people who also loved the game.

“Our tour guide was like a kid in a candy store. He could not believe he was talking to this historian. For him, it was like meeting Mickey Mantle for the first time.”

Another emotional moment occurred in Cooperstown during the induction of the Stadium Hall of Fame, created by the company to honor passengers who have visited all 30 ballparks with STAT. More than 150 people have participated in the program, which takes place every four years in the Hall of Fame’s Bullpen Theater.

Inductees get a plaque, a photo op with Smith, and the opportunity to say a few words to the group.

“Many people have a goal in life to get to every ballpark in the country,” Smith said. “Our Stadium Hall of Fame recognizes that after they’ve been to all of them.”

The two-and-a-half hour ceremony is moving to both participants and spectators, he added.

“Some of these folks get choked up,” Smith said. “They might remember a baseball connection with a parent or grandparent. It’s really fascinating. The last time we did it, an executive from the Hall of Fame came to see it. When it was over, he came up to me and said one word: ‘Wow.’

“We deliver fun for people. We plan, we coordinate, and we put it together. They sit back and relax while we do all the work. We find what people want. Finding tickets depends upon the game, the event, and where people want to sit. But tickets to a World Series game are not going to be purchased at the box office.”

Occasionally, Smith gets help from wife Carol, daughter Erica, 37, and son Ryan, 35.

“When they were little kids, maybe 8-10 years old, they would come to my office on a Saturday morning,” he said of his offspring. “Their job was to vacuum and clean the bathroom.

“When they got to high school, they helped out in the summertime. Both Erica and Ryan were tour hosts on Induction Weekend and really enjoyed it.”

For further information, see www.sportstravelandtours.com or call 800-662-4424. Advance reservations are recommended.