Miami’s very own Cooperstown Hall-of-Fame fan

When Peg Champley ’76 sings “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” she’s not kidding around.

By Donna Boen ’83, MTSC ’96, Miamian editor

Not many people have visited all 30 stadiums in Major League Baseball — twice. Meet Peg Champley ’76. And now she’s making the rounds for a third time. No wonder she’s been inducted into Cooperstown as a Hall-of-Fame fan.

By her standards, visiting the stadiums during the offseason doesn’t count. Neither does walking in and right out again. After all, she’s there to watch the game.

“Typically, I go in and I sit down, and after the National Anthem, I don’t get up again. These guys next to me, they’re up and down. It makes me crazy. I’ll say, ‘Did you come to watch the game?’ And when they get up a second time, I say, ‘You can have one more time before you bring me a beer.’ ”

They usually do.

Born and raised in Chicago, she grew up a Cubs fan. From a family of seven (five of them brothers), she was the only one “glued to sports.” When she came to Miami to major in systems analysis, she joined the first women’s track and field team in the spring of 1973 as a shot putter and javelin thrower.

After Champley retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel, she settled in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, who also retired from the Army. Not long after, she saw an article about a travel company offering to go to all 30 ballparks in 32 days.

That sounded like fun to her. The problem was that she had a son in sixth grade and her youngest had just started kindergarten. When she found out the company also took shorter trips, she got on board. She started her first tour of the parks in 2004. When she finished in 2009, she’d had so much fun, she decided to go around again.

Only this time, she made it harder on herself because she decided to see the Nationals, the team she currently roots for, play in all 30 ballparks. She began her second tour in 2014 and finished this spring when the Nationals played the Marlins in Miami.

Peg and her husband in their Army uniforms — Peg Champley ’76 and her husband, Pete Adler, in 1990 as they prepare to deploy to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm–Desert Shield. They were logisticians in the same brigade in the 1st Armored Division.

Ballpark tips and trivia

“People were asking when I retired from the military, ‘Where are you sending your resume?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to get a resume. I’m going to the ballpark.’ I did my time. I have a Bronze Star and Air Medal. Those are the two that came from Desert Storm.”

Richmond, Virginia, doesn’t have any MLB teams nearby so Champley bought Washington Nationals season tickets so she could see National League Baseball and the Cubs when they came to D.C. After a while, she started cheering on the Nationals or, as she calls them, the Nats.

“As you get to know their young players as they come up, suddenly that team kind of grows on you. The next thing you know, you’re following them. Plus, it’s 120 miles each way (from Richmond’s suburb of Chester to D.C.), so that’s kind of an investment.”

Now that she’s finished two complete tours, you might say she’s a pro in her own right, so we asked her for some insider tips and trivia.

Peg putting peanuts out on a ledge — Peg, known for her rally peanuts, lines up the lucky peanuts at the Nationals’ D.C. stadium before game 6 of the 2019 World Series during the watch party. The Nats won. Enough said.

Best Stadium?

“When I traveled with the travel group, they would have a survey about all the stadiums. The bottom-line consensus among the travelers was PNC Park in Pittsburgh. It’s a beautiful park. It has a gorgeous view of the city skyline. It’s very moderately priced. It’s easy to walk across the bridge from the city. It’s not full of bells and whistles. It’s not overpriced. It's a very nice, simple ballpark.

Best hot dog?

“I was reading a comment sheet on who has the worst food, and it seemed like everybody talked about the bad hot dogs. I think it was Houston where they had really good dogs. On Dollar Dog Night, you can only get four at a time, but people just stood there all night just eating hot dogs.

“You go to San Diego, and they make fish tacos. Fresh fish. You pick your fish, and they’ll make your tacos, and they’re awesome.

“You go to Kansas City and the barbecue is phenomenal.

“The best kettle corn in baseball is at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. No contest. Get it early. They always sell out.”

Rowdiest fans?

After a long and hearty laugh, she said, “There are some serious rivalries. The Mets fans can be pretty rowdy and hard to take. Likewise the Phillies fans. They’re a little bit intense. It’s not that you can’t have good fun with them. But when you’re sitting in the stands, and the Philadelphia Phillies come down with 10 busloads of fans and take over your park, that’s annoying.

“Of course, you have intense rivalries on the West Coast. You just don’t want to get in the middle of a Giants–Dodgers game. Some games are better left watched on TV.”

Best game you ever witnessed in a stadium?

“I’ve seen a no-hitter. I saw two of them actually. Saw Max Scherzer pitch one and saw Jordan Zimmermann pitch one. Also saw Max Scherzer strike out 20 batters in one game. That was amazing.”

Most exciting single play?

“I have seen so many. I honestly have to go to when we won the wildcard game. If you ask the Nationals fans, what was the best play in the whole (2019) World Series run, we were down in the bottom of the eighth inning, Milwaukee leading 3-2, bases loaded. It was two outs and Juan Soto was up. He was a young guy, kind of crazy. He hits the ball, a base hit out to the right fielder. If he catches it, we can tie it with our guy scoring from second. But the guy whoofed on it, and it got past him, rolled out to the wall. Our guy from first also ran around and scores the go-ahead run. The place absolutely goes crazy. People threw beer up in the air and popcorn. The place just went nuts.”

Peg Champley — Peg at Nationals Park to meet with the regulars before a game. She has been with the Nat since the get-go as a full season ticket holder in D.C. since 2005.

3rd time around

What does she have to show for all her time sitting in the stands? She owns a pin from each ballpark and a baseball with each team’s logo on it.

But what about autographed baseballs?

“After the World Series, the Nationals had a special day where the season ticket holders could get access to all the players. I have my World Series tickets, and I have an autographed ball from each Nats player, so I have all that I need.”

When people hear she’s visiting all 30 baseball stadiums for a third time, which she agrees is “pretty hard core,” they will sometimes ask her if she’s nuts.

Her response?

“Everybody has a passion. Some people like to sit at the beach and read, some have a favorite place to sit and rest. Mine is up in the ballpark someplace, watching the game with a beer. Baseball is my favorite season.”

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