TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

Tom Szulga and his stepson Robert Werbe took a trip to check out

Arizona State University’s campus last month. They ended up at Game 1 of

the World Series before heading home to Newport Beach.

The Arizona Diamondbacks topped the New York Yankees, 9-1. Szulga even

caught a foul ball.

“We had always made a deal with the boys that if their grades were

good, whenever there was a World Series on the West Coast, we’d take them

to go see it,” Szulga, father and stepfather to three kids, said.

Robert, a 16-year-old junior at Newport Harbor High School, had

straight A’s. So the baseball-loving pair (mom Nancy stayed home because

she hates baseball, won’t even go to an Angels game and wants absolutely

nothing to do with the World Series) bought tickets from scalpers at $400

each and caught more than just a good game.

“There were tons of army people, New York firemen, cops were there

working the game and before the game they brought out a giant flag that

covered the whole field,” Szulga, a bond trader, said. “People in the

audience were very touched.”

Scalping, or buying tickets to sell them at inflated prices, isn’t

illegal in Arizona, Szulga added.

“It was just an absolute madhouse,” Szulga said.

After they watched the Diamondbacks “destroy” the Yankees, Robert and

Szulga headed right back to Arizona State University to watch a college

football game between ASU and the University of Washington.

“And that was actually a great game too,” Szulga said. “I wanted our

son to see, while we were out there, what a college football game was

like. That was a great game, which was decided in the last three

seconds.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.