Steven Kwan gave him exactly what he wanted.
On the first batter of Sunday’s Guardians-Rays game, the Cleveland outfielder ripped a double to deep right-center field, and from his seat near the third-base line, 53-year-old airline pilot Rowlands had his checklist satisfied almost immediately.
“There we go!” Rowlands exclaimed.
“A pitch and a hit. That's my requirement.”
That one swing finished a 22-year project that started at Yankee Stadium in 2004 and ended at the Trop. With that, Rowlands could say he had seen all 30 MLB teams play in their home ballparks.
“This has been the slowest of slow burns for me,” Rowlands said. “...
I'm pretty chuffed that I got them all done by 53 in the end. It's a nice feeling.”
Rowlands, who is from Leeds, England, watched the Rays’ 1-0 win with his wife and son on the final day of their Florida vacation before flying home Sunday night. He figures his 29-year career as a long-haul pilot for British Airways has taken him across the Atlantic 100-200 times to different U.S. cities, and plenty of those trips have included a stop at a big league park.
He doesn’t claim to be a die-hard baseball lifer. “You could lose me in no time with the intricacies,” he said. But he does love the game’s history, and his first visit to the old Yankee Stadium in 2004 sent him down the path.
“One became five became 10,” he said.
From there, the chase became a matter of timing, planning and a little luck. He could request trips to certain cities where he knew a game might fit, but those requests didn’t always line up with his schedule.
Delays could wreck everything. And because his job often meant late-night flights back across the pond, he could only make afternoon games on work days.
“There's been a lot of frustration along the way, where it's nearly worked but not quite,” he said. “But one by one, I chalked them all off. There's been a bit of luck as well.”
Between 2004 and 2011, he got to 12 different stadiums, often in major cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. He said he’s been to Wrigley Field seven or eight times, and Fenway Park - with its more than 110 years of history - stands as his favorite.
He also turned the trip into a souvenir hunt. Rowlands said he buys a jersey from every stadium and keeps the physical ticket from every visit. Back home, those tickets go on a board with a USA map, each one connected by string to the city where he saw the game.
“I guess I’ve got that bug or gene where when I do something, I want to do them all,” said Rowlands, who has also visited every home stadium of the 92 teams in the English Football League and Premier League.
His MLB pursuit went untouched from 2012 to 2016 while he was flying only within Europe. It picked back up in 2017 when he began piloting 787 aircraft.
One of his most memorable games came at Coors Field, stadium No. 28, when the Rockies fell behind 9-0 in the first inning and still beat the Pirates 17-16 on Aug. 1, 2025.
“That was my best,” he said.
Chase Field in Arizona became No. 29 less than two months ago. Sunday at the Trop completed the set.
“It's a really wonderful day out,” Rowlands said. “It’s really something special.”
In Other News...
Rays Just Lost A Catcher Option At The Worst Time
The catching market took a hit at exactly the wrong moment for Tampa Bay, with Shea Langeliers no longer available as a deadline option. For a Rays club that has been weighing ways to upgrade behind the plate, losing one of the more appealing names from the board forces a quick recalibration and narrows the lane as the deadline approaches.
Now the focus likely shifts to other possibilities, including Ryan Jeffers and Hunter Goodman, but neither comes with an easy path. Goodman in particular would be a costly get because of his age, production and years of team control, and the added competition around available catchers means Tampa Bay may have to pay more than it wanted to if it decides to act. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Suddenly Linked To The Kind Of Deadline Move Fans Crave
The Rays are once again being mentioned in the kind of deadline conversation that tends to get attention around baseball, the sort that suggests Tampa Bay may not be content to simply tinker around the edges. With the trade deadline approaching, the expectation is that the club will explore ways to upgrade, and that naturally invites speculation about whether the front office could chase a major arm if the market opens up.
One name has surfaced in that chatter because of both his talent and his recent form, and he has already shown he can look like a frontline starter again after an elbow procedure. Tampa Bay has never been shy about pursuing bold moves when it sees a chance to change its outlook, so the question now is less about whether the Rays would consider something ambitious and more about whether the opportunity to pull it off ever materializes. [Read more 🡒]