As I said in my first blog entry, I have been to 15 major league ballparks in my life. I have written about five of them in my first two entries. Of the remaining 10, five are American League parks and five are National League parks. This entry will concentrate on the American League ballparks.
Let's start north of the border. Toronto's Rogers Centre (it was known as SkyDome when I went there) is one of the most massive and amazing sports structures in North America. Built in 1989, it is one of only two stadiums that still has artificial turf. It has a humongous retractable roof that can open for good weather and close in bad weather. The best amenity in the stadium is the fact that there is a hotel inside the stadium. Some of the rooms have a view of the playing field, so you can watch a live baseball game from the comfort of your hotel room. The rooms, as you can imagine, are pretty pricey. A room with a view of the field is over $300 a night (and no, I did not stay in the hotel while I was there). I was also impressed by the city of Toronto itself. It was one of the nicest and cleanest cities I have ever been in. The people were super friendly and the area that the stadium was in was very nice.
Moving on to Detroit, Michigan, I went to Tiger Stadium, in 1998, the season before it closed. Like Wrigley Field, it was one of the last remaining ballparks from the early 20th century. Getting there was a little bit of an adventure. I arrived in town the night before the game and got lost in Detroit. This was before GPS, and there were like no signs for the stadium once I got off the highway. So, I'm diving around Detroit (at night), not knowing where I'm going. Downtown Detroit is definitely not a place that you want to be lost in at night. It was kind of a scary experience. Now, turning to the stadium. It was a pretty neat ballpark. The history of it was the best part. I love seeing all the old ballparks. One thing that I didn't like was that there was some obstructed views of the field. There were big steel pillars that were holding the upper deck up all over the lower deck, which obstructed the view of the field if you were sitting behind one. One unique aspect of the stadium was that it sold mixed drinks (I don't remember what kind) in the stands. Just like most stadiums have a beer vendor, they had a mixed drink vendor.
U.S. Cellular Field (it was known as New Comiskey Park when I went there) is located on the South Side of Chicago. It was really the first "new" ballpark to be built with the old time feel to it. It has a smaller capacity than the Old Comiskey Park, but that adds to the nostalgia of the ballpark. Fans are close to the field and there isn't a bad seat in the house. I sat right behind home plate when I went there and it was a fun and enjoyable afternoon.
The first ballpark that I ever went to outside of Pittsburgh was Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. In the fall of 1993, I was a student at Clarion University. One of my friends was a huge Cal Ripkin fan, so a few of us took a road trip to Cleveland when they were playing the Orioles. It was the last season for the stadium and it couldn't close quick enough. It was basically a dump of a stadium by that point. We got there early and ended up getting really good seats. The right field outfield seats were all general admission, so we actually got front row seats behind the home run fence. There were only about five more games after this one left in that stadium, so I got to see one of the last games played there. One thing that made it so horrible for baseball is that it seated about 80,000 people and when the Indians weren't good (which was most of the time), it looked like they were playing in an empty stadium. We had a vendor offer to sell us beer, even though none of us were 21. I think, at that point, even the workers had stopped caring.
The only ballpark, besides PNC Park that I have taken my 10-year old daughter to is Tropicana Field in Tampa. We were on vacation at Disney World two years ago and the Pirates were playing the Rays in Tampa, so we decided to take in a game. This was one of the best experience I have had at a game. First of all, the parking situation was phenomenal. Their main lot was right next to the stadium, so we had about a 30-second walk to get inside. This was the most kid-friendly ballpark I have been in. From video games to a carnival to a batting cage, it had it all. But the best attraction of all was a sting ray tank in the park, where you could actually interact with and pet sting rays. It was like a zoo and an amusement park all wrapped up in one. And, oh yeah, you could watch a baseball game too. We sat in the front row behind the right center field fence and narrowly missed catching a home run ball hit by Andrew McCutcheon. The Pirates lost the game, but that pales in comparison to the outstanding time I had with my daughter at the ball field.
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