Star baseball players share their favorite road cities

— -- With a 162-game schedule that takes them across North America for seven months a year, no professional athletes spend more time traveling than Major League Baseball players. For the 2012 season, USA TODAY Travel and MLB have teamed up to get star players to share their recommendations and experiences from life on the road.

Our panel represents some of baseball's best -- and most colorful -- players, including pitchers CC Sabathia (New York Yankees) and Justin Verlander (Detroit Tigers), plus outfielders Matt Kemp (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Shane Victorino (Philadelphia Phillies).

Last month, we tapped them for travel recommendations near their teams' spring training homes. In this installment, USA TODAY asked each player which road city they most look forward to visiting, plus something touristy they've done on the road that they thought was worth it.

The Yankees' Sabathia calls out Chicago, citing the Midwest metropolis for "lots of good restaurants and good shopping." Victorino, in turn, puts in a plug for Sabathia's New York home: "I love to shop in the city!" says the Phillies outfielder.

For Kemp and Verlander, it's the presence of extended family that determines their favorite destinations. Says Kemp, "St. Louis and Houston are the cities closest to my family so they always come visit me there."

Verlander says he finds similar support in Baltimore or Washington, "because I get to see some family and friends that drive up from Virginia."

With off-days in great cities across the USA, we figured they'd have some experience as regular tourists too.

Victorino recommends Washington, D.C. "I love visiting the troops and national monuments," he says (as an aside, Philadelphia's dedicated traveling fans have also been known to flood the nation's capital when the Phillies play there).

Verlander enjoyed the sky-high city view eating on the "top floor of the Hancock Building in Chicago with some of the guys."

Sabathia recommends wine tasting in Napa, which he enjoyed as a side trip while in the Bay Area to play the Oakland A's.

As for Kemp, he says he enjoys the local flavor wherever he travels. "I'm more of a people-watcher so I just like to walk around and take in the people on the streets of the city I'm in."