FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Baseball trips - Trying to get to all the parks
Old May 31, 2005 | 11:42 am
  #37  
pinniped
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Hmmm...guess I'll throw my list out here, although I'll probably have to edit the post a few times because I'm always forgetting bits and pieces.

Home park: Kauffman Stadium (Royals)
Secondary home park: Wrigley (lived in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois for many years in the 90's; hit 10-15 Cubs games a year back then and still do 2-3 a year now)

Other than those two, my favorites are probably SBC Park and Fenway. Partly because of the parks, and partly because of the cities they are in.

Stadiums that I didn't have high expectations for, but was very impressed: the Big "A" in Anaheim, Dodger Stadium and Jacobs Field. I expected Dodger to be more run-down, which it isn't, and I didn't expect downtown Cleveland to be such a party, which it is. I had no expectations of Anaheim, but found it to be a clean, fresh-looking park after its recent renovations. Easy to get in and out of, and not because nobody goes.

Others that I think are wonderful places, but sort of interchangeable in a way: Safeco, Camden, Petco, Ballpark at Arlington, Coors. All are very nice in that new-retro sort of way. All have their little quirks that make them unique, but 20 years from now we'll look back at them as a single group of Camdenlike ballparks. Hopefully we will still consider that a positive thing.

Overrated: I had high expectations, but was disappointed: Yankee, Skydome. Yankee because, aside from the history, it's not a great place to actually *watch* baseball, and the after-game atmosphere outside the park pretty much consists of catching the next train back to Manhattan. Skydome, because for some reason I had this idea that Toronto is a lush, green, neighborhoody city. All we found was concrete and a mostly-empty ballpark occupied by a bad baseball team.

No real positive or negative opinion: Old Tiger, Oakland, Metrodome. The Twins organization tries hard to make the Metrodome a nice place, but they've just been dealt a bad hand. When it's a 75-degree sunny day, and I gotta go inside to watch baseball, something's wrong. Old Tiger had history but was clearly in very, very bad condition in its final season when we made our trip there.

Just flat out sucked: Comiskey, Busch. No further commentary necessary.

Next on my list: for sure Washington this fall on a late-season baseball trip, plus I might pick up Detroit's new park, Tampa, and perhaps Shea simply by being in the right place at the right time on non-baseball-related baseball. (Honestly, that's the ONLY way I'm ever picking up those three!)
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