THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, Sept. 2, 2016

Terry Best went through the sports trip of a lifetime nearly a month ago, crisscrossing part of the midwest, New York and Boston.

A resident of Post Falls and graduate of Coeur d’Alene High in 1967, track and field athlete at North Idaho College and University of Idaho graduate in 1972, the former language arts and social study teacher at Spanaway (Wash.) High shared highlights of his mostly baseball-oriented, 3,100-mile trip. Along with 55 other people from parts of the country from places like Los Angeles, Best boarded a bus and went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

THAT WAS only part of it.

He also watched six major league baseball games in six different states, starting with Miller Park in Milwaukee, then Rogers Centre in Toronto, Fenway Park in Boston, Yankee Stadium in New York City, Comerica Park in Detroit, finishing at Wrigley Field in Chicago watching the best team in baseball, the Chicago Cubs. Best flew home, while the group finished its stops at Target Field in Minneapolis, where the Minnesota Twins play.

Best started his trip by meeting Bob Kaupang, a history teacher in Redwood Falls, Minn., about 120 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Soon afterward, the large group visited the largest mall in the country, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., 10 miles south of downtown Minneapolis. Kaupang, from Minnesota, has been running this trip for 13 years. Best said he collects roughly $300 to $500 from the $2,200 trip, the first for Best.

“We stayed at Bloomington” said Best, who turns 68 in November. “One of the guys I went with was Gary Hill, Sr., who’s the father of Gary Hill Jr., a radio announcer for the Seattle Mariners (for 710 ESPN Seattle). He does the postgame and pregame shows for them. From there, we went to a game between the (Milwaukee) Brewers and the (Atlanta) Braves. Before we went to the game, I thought it was going to be similar to Safeco Field, but it wasn’t even close. But it was fun. The Brewers were the old Seattle Pilots (who only played for one season in 1969). We saw where the old Milwaukee County Stadium was located, in the parking lot of the new ballpark, (which was built in 1996).”

Best and part of the group got to see part of baseball history, which was made back on July 20, 1976, by Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who at the time was playing for the Brewers.

“We were in the parking lot after the game, and a security guard showed us where he hit his last home run of his career (an out-of-the-park homer). We sat just above the press box where (Hall of Fame broadcaster) Bob Uecker was calling the game. A few of us were listening on the radio to him during the game.”

THE GROUP made part of its trek to Cleveland, the group rode its way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. They held a banner supporting former cornerback Kenny Easley, who played strong safety for the Seattle Seahawks from 1981 to 1987, in his bid to be voted into the Hall of Fame by its Senior Committee, which named him a finalist on Aug. 15. Easley is considered to be among the best safeties not named Ronnie Lott during his playing days. When the Hall’s Selection Committee meets on February 4, 2017, in Houston, Texas, it will consider 18 finalists, including one senior committee-nominated former player (Easley), two contributors and 15 modern-era finalists (to be determined from a preliminary list announced in mid-September). The class can be made up of no smaller than four and no larger than eight members, with Easley needing the same 80 percent of the voting support required of all finalists.

“Bob was a big fan of Easley,” Best said. “He’s trying to help get him into the Hall of Fame. He watched the Seahawks play on television when he grew up in Minnesota and they just stuck. He’s also a big fan of (former Atlanta Braves slugger) Dale Murphy; he’s trying to get him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Then of course, there was the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although it was a little smaller than Best thought, it was pretty memorable. They also got to arrive the week after Ken Griffey, Jr. was inducted into the Hall on Aug. 5.

“We were given one of the tickets from when he was inducted,” Best said of Griffey’s achievement. “We got to see his plaque and (former MLB starting pitcher) Randy Johnson’s plaque. I’ve followed the Dodgers for years, I used to go to a lot of M’s games.”

In Toronto, they watched a Blue Jays game and they got to see their first Hall of Fame, the hockey one in downtown Toronto.

“It was in a mall and downstairs, which was weird,” Best said. “We saw (things like old jerseys of) Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull.”

On the way to a game at Fenway Park watching the Boston Red Sox, Best and the group went to the Basketball Hall of Fame, one of his best memories of the trip, in part because of Hall of Famers Jerry West, who’s now in the Golden State Warriors’ front office, and former UCLA coach John Wooden, who led the Bruins to 10 national championships in a 12-season stretch from 1964 to 1975.

“I thought it was the best Hall of Fame, because it wasn’t too big or too small,” Best said. “I was a big fan of Jerry West and I looked up to John Wooden.”

BEST’S SON Aaron Best is the running game coach on the Eastern Washington University football staff and his other son, Tyler, was drafted as a catcher in the 12th round by the Oakland Athletics in the 2004 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, played on two NAIA national title winners with Lewis-Clark State College and played against a few current major leaguers.

Recently, Best was a substitute teacher at Lake City from 2006-08, plus he coached JV football in 2007. He also taught at Central Valley the past two years and will be in his fourth season coaching eighth grade boys basketball for the River City Middle School. His predecessor at River City? None other than former Post Falls football coach Jeff Hinz, who died on July 20 after a three-year battle with non-smoker’s lung cancer.

“He was a great guy,” Best said. “I can’t stand what happened to him. I’m gonna miss him, that’s for sure.”

Best certainly crossed some items off his bucket list, one city at a time.

“This trip, if more people knew about this trip, I think they’d enjoy it,” Best said. “I’d definitely recommend it.”

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25.