For Conway Corp Chief Information Officer Jason Hansen, baseball has always been about more than what happens on the field.
It’s about family, history and the stories that connect generations.
Hansen grew up outside Chicago, where his love for the Chicago Cubs was first influenced by his grandfather, a lifelong fan who began following the team as a child in 1929. Some of Hansen’s earliest trips to Wrigley Field were with his grandfather, whose job with AT&T brought him near the historic ballpark.
While Hansen remembers watching Cubs games on WGN growing up, his own interest in baseball really took hold around age 11 when he began collecting baseball cards. As he got older, he also came to better understand just how much the Cubs had meant to his grandfather.
After his grandfather passed away in 2005, Hansen discovered newspaper articles from his grandfather’s high school years. In one from the late 1930s, his grandfather named Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett as his favorite player.
He also found something else his grandfather had left behind: a baseball signed by the 1984 Chicago Cubs.
Those pieces of family history took on even greater meaning in 2016.
Hansen’s grandfather had once had the opportunity to attend the 1945 World Series but passed it up, believing the Cubs would make it back again. They wouldn’t return to the World Series for another 71 years.
His grandfather never got the chance to see it happen.
But Hansen did.
And he took his son with him.
The two attended Game 3 of the 2016 World Series at Wrigley Field, continuing a Cubs tradition that had begun generations earlier.
Hansen’s love of baseball eventually grew beyond the Cubs.
In 2008, he, his father-in-law and Conway Corp’s Chris Odom, his best friend of more than 30 years, set out on a baseball road trip with one goal: see a game at the original Yankee Stadium before it was demolished.
Then they started looking at the map.
“We thought, ‘I wonder how many stadiums we can get to if we did a week’s worth of baseball,’” Hansen said.
The answer was seven.
Over seven days, the group traveled along the East Coast, attending a baseball game every day and visiting iconic ballparks including Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium and stadiums in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C.
That trip sparked another goal for Hansen: visiting all 30 Major League Baseball ballparks.
He’s made significant progress, visiting 21 of the 30 active stadiums so far, although teams occasionally complicate his quest by replacing their stadiums. Hansen has been to previous homes of teams like the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Atlanta Braves, meaning a few destinations have found their way back onto his list.
But somewhere along the way, the goal changed.
Hansen still wants to visit all 30 MLB ballparks. Now, though, he’s just as interested in finding the ballparks that aren’t there anymore.
A visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City introduced Hansen to a part of baseball history he realized he wanted to understand more deeply.
Return visits—and eventually a personal tour with Negro League Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick—brought that history to life.
Hansen began studying the players, teams and communities that made Negro Leagues baseball such an important part of American history. He continues to learn about the innovation required to keep the leagues operating, the challenges players faced traveling across the country during segregation and the economic impact teams had on the Black communities where they played.
He also discovered how closely that history connected back to his beloved Cubs.
Cubs legend Ernie Banks began his professional career with the Kansas City Monarchs before joining the Cubs in 1953 and becoming the team’s first Black player. Buck O’Neil, who managed Banks with the Monarchs, later scouted for the Cubs and became the first Black coach in Major League Baseball.
Today, Banks and O’Neil are among the players and baseball figures Hansen most enjoys researching.
His interest has also led him back to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, where he has developed a friendship with Kendrick and is helping with fundraising efforts connected to the museum’s future.
Hansen’s baseball collection has evolved alongside his interest in the game’s history.
What began years ago with baseball cards now includes signed baseballs, vintage programs, autographs and other memorabilia—particularly items connected to the Negro Leagues and Ernie Banks.
For Hansen, the story behind an item can be as valuable as the item itself.
One of his favorite finds is a Satchel Paige autograph he purchased from a man who had obtained it as a young boy. The man had watched Paige pitch in Pennsylvania and, after hearing that Paige would sign autographs, realized he had nothing for him to sign. He picked up a discarded popcorn box, tore off a piece and handed it to Paige.
Decades later, Hansen purchased that small piece of baseball history—and asked the owner to write down the story behind it so the two could remain together.
That desire to preserve the story has also changed the way Hansen travels. Along with major league parks, he now seeks out former Negro Leagues and minor league ballparks. Sometimes the stadium is still standing. Other times, all that remains is a historical marker showing where generations once gathered to watch baseball.
For Hansen, finding those places is another way of keeping their stories alive.
The history Hansen has studied has also given him lessons that extend beyond baseball.
The Negro Leagues in particular demonstrate what can be accomplished through perseverance, dedication and a willingness to continue despite adversity.
“They just wanted to play baseball,” Hansen said. “When you think of adversity, when you think of perseverance and you think of dedication to playing the game, they were successful. You’re going to have bumps along the way, but that doesn’t mean that it’s unattainable.”
Those are lessons Hansen carries with him in his role at Conway Corp.
And while his appreciation for the game has expanded considerably since those childhood days watching the Cubs, one allegiance hasn’t changed.
He’s still a die-hard Cubs fan.
Lightning Round with Jason:
Hot dog or nachos?
Hot dog.
Day game or night game?
Day games for tradition, but night games have their own energy.
A historic game he wishes he could attend?
The 1943 Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game at Comiskey Park in front of 51,000 fans – Satchel Paige for the West and Josh Gibson for the East
Favorite baseball movie?
For Love of the Game, with Fever Pitch close behind.
How many MLB ballparks has he visited?
About 21 of 30.
The ballpark that started the quest?
The original Yankee Stadium.
Still on the bucket list?
All 30—and plenty of historic ballparks along the way.
