THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I’ve been to very few as well.  I would rank them this way:

Old Tiger Stadium
Old Yankee Stadium
Skydome (Rogers Center?)
New Yankee Stadium
Shea Stadium (ex-Mets)
Metrodome (ex-Twins)
Veterans Stadium (ex-Phillies)

I just realized that five of the seven stadiums on that list have been demolished or are about to be demolised.  Also there is a pretty big gap between the upper four on the list and the lower three.  I tend to like stadiums that are distinctive.

I passed up a chance to attend to the game in the Kingdome, which I don’t really regret.  I do regret not having gone to Camden Yards or Fenway, neither of which is incredibly difficult for me.  I’ve toured Olympic Stadium in Montreal but also regret never going to a game there, which despite the place’s drawbacks would have been interesting.

The one thing that the Big O has over all the stadiums is that it has the loudest fans.  Plus, the seat-banging at the stadium really resonates.

Really, the Curtis Pride moment had its greatest impact at Olympic Stadium.  I don’t think you could have gotten that anywhere else.  I was there and I got shivers.

(Pride is deaf, got his first MLB hit at the Big O, a double, and the fans did everything they could to make sure he could hear us.  It was great that he was at 2B, in the middle of the field.  The screams, the banging seats, we did it all.  He said he couldn’t hear us, but he said he felt the vibrations of the ground.)

I’ve been to a few more, so here we go…

1) Oriole Park
2) AT&T Park
3) PNC Park
4) Wrigley Field
5) Dodger Stadium
6) Coors Field
7) Petco Park
8) Nationals Park
9) Busch Stadium (Old)
10) Turner Field
11) Minute Maid Park
12) Yankee Stadium (Old)
13) Shea Stadium

4,118(t): Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers, Riverfront

I’m a tad biased in favor of Oriole Park, but (for me) it remains the standard by which all new parks should be judged.  AT&T and PNC are both fabulously gorgeous and feel like they belong in their respective cities.  I found Dodger Stadium to be a great place to watch a game; not so much for getting to a game.  The old Busch Stadium was a pleasant surprise, probably because Cardinals fans were so great.  Old Yankee Stadium was always one of my least favorite places; the seats didn’t face home plate, the ushers wouldn’t let you anywhere close to the field during BP, and Monument Park always managed to be closed.  The other defunct places were mistakes from Day 1.

Fun question…

1. Wrigley
2. Fenway
[big gap]
3. Old Yankee
4. AT&T
5. Angels Stadium
6. Busch
7. Qualcomm
8. Oakland Coliseum
9. Skydome
10. Metrodome

I’d have a few more parks in there, but there was no game on when I’ve been in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Seattle and Montreal, and I’ve always been too lazy to go to a Mets or Dodgers game. 

I’ve only been to seven hockey rinks, and three of them are defunct.

1. camden
2. shea
3. everyone else

camden is by far the best ballpark experience ive had, and remains the best each time i go.  shea is pretty much all nostalgia.  all the rest, old yankee, new shea, natioanls park, turner field, probably a couple others im forgetting, are all pretty much the same.  nothing too memorable.  oh yeah, rfk, that was an absolute crap place to watch baseball but it was cheap and relatively convenient for me to get to so i do have some pretty fond memories.

1)Citizens Bank Park
2)Camden Yards
3)Nationals Park
4)Memorial Park
5)Veterans Stadium
6)Shea Stadium
7)RFK Stadium

i don’t get around too much. 

i will say that i thank camden yards for what it did to inspire these new stadiums, but on the whole, its a terrible stadium.  the seating design is god awful.  the ushers are terrible.  it still has the bowl stadium feel since the concourses are behind concrete seats.

Exhibition Stadium was god-awful ... I once sat, during a sold-out game, in the farthest section of the bleachers, which I think were 300 feet behind left-center field.  We had a great view of the back of the outfield wall.

The second-worst seats were by right field ... they were narrow benches.  You put your butt right on top of the seat number.  They faced right field, not home plate.

But still, I miss it.  Nostalgia.

1) Camden
2) Fenway
3) Wrigley
4) Skydome
5) San Francisco
6) Old Yankee Stadium
29) Rogers Centre
439) Oakland

Camden, in my eyes, is spectacular at combining old-style looks with some modern ameneties (decent bathrooms, seat sizes, etc).

Fenway is my “home” park, and gets a lot of points for it’s location as well.  It’s as close to the heart of the city as you can get.

Skydome was pretty cool, at least on opening day when it was actually full.  Until it got bought/renamed/rebranded.  Now the “Rogers Centre” is just outrageously loud, and has those ridiculously bright monitors on the outfield walls.

Oakland’s stadium is about 3 times too big for the crowds they get, and is just an ugly mess of concrete in the middle of a lousy area.  It really has nothing going for it.

1) PNC Park—all the benefits of Camden but with the best “view” in all of baseball

2) Camden—not that it is much better than some of the newer ones but becasue it’s the first of the retro

3) Yankee (Old)—just something about the immensity of it

4) Kauffman—partially this is so high because of Royals bias, but I do think it is one of the more underrated ballparks.  Definitely distinctive and there really is no other stadium like it.  Given that it was built in the concrete donut era, in some ways it was ahead of its time

5) Comerica—I think they did their best to copy Camden, but actually made it better

6) Safeco
7) Progressive
8) Big A/Edison/whatever its called now - okay but not particularly interesting to me.
9) Dodger
10) Shea(old)
11) Candlestick

12) Turner
13) The Murph

14) Wrigley—I never have gotten the appeal of Wrigley, beyond “it’s old”
15) Fenway—Yeah, it’s got that historical feel, but that’s it.  Worst place to actually WATCH a game.

16) Oakland Colisseum

17-19) Olympic, Tropicana, Kingdome - not a big fan of the domes

20 - 23) Concrete donuts - Three Rivers, Riverfront, old Busch, Veterans

Wow, I guess I’ve been to a lot, not to mention about another 20 - 30 minor league parks.

Seeing that so many others rate Camden highly makes me very proud to live in Baltimore.  I think the thing I love most about the ballpark is that it’s just that: a ballpark.  It doesn’t try to be an all-in-one entertainment venue; it just focuses on being a great place to watch a ball game.  Yes, they totally missed out not leaving the concourse open to the field, but that’s about the only drawback I can come up with.  The park is integrated into downtown, the warehouse is a distinctive yet non-gimmicky identifier, and Eutaw Street is a great pre-game experience.  Now, if the team could just be relevant again…

I’ve only been to four, but I’d rank them:

PNC
Jacobs
/huge gap/
Tropicana
/sizable gap/
Municipal (the Mistake by the Lake)

In fairness to Municipal Stadium, I was only there once and I didn’t like baseball yet, spending much of the game trying to find out the Browns/Colts score.  But I’m still pretty confident it was a lousy place to watch a game.

I’m curious as to how you’re ranking these ... atmosphere?  Looks?  Amenities?  How well you can see the game?  Neighborhood?  History?

I’ve been to almost all AL parks and many NL.  I agree Camden Yards is the best.  My rank (based on atmosphere):
Camden
Gap
Cleveland--very cool
Anaheim--love the outside
Fenway (BTW, if you think Fenway’s the worst, you haven’t been to Toronto)
Gap
Petco (San Diego)
Yankee Stadium
Wrigley
Gap
The rest

PNC
Nats Park
Blair Co Ballpark (Altoona)

all are similar in design, BCB is actually the oldest

Good view of the field, interesting views outside, good concourses, an ‘openness’ (1st time at PNC I went to my seat without ever having a roof over my head)

Three Rivers (but when I was growing up it was the only thing I knew, had many memories of good ballgames)
Veterans

I like creaky old stadiums and small upright ones (stadiums where you get relatively close to the diamond even if you’re in the grandstand), but there’s nothing like Dodger Stadium on a sunny day.

1. Dodger Stadium

2. Wrigley Field

3. Fenway Park

4. Progressive (Jacobs Field)

5. Old Tiger Stadium

6. Toronto (in sunshine) (don’t like it with dome closed)

7. Anaheim

8. Oakland

9. Shea

Old and dead one: Candlestick (sucked)

Long gone: Wrigley Field in Los Angeles (where L.A. Angles PCL team played before Dodgers arrived). Loved this one as a kid.

Mitch/#10

Camden is awful to watch a game in, too.  sit along any of the foul lines and you’ll know why.  the seats face the field and not the batters box.  so you’re constantly straining your neck sideways.  but when you do that you see more of your neighbor than the game.  then add in the awful ushers who let anyone go to their seat at any point in the game.  completely awful.  i missed a first inning phillies homerun because of people going to their seats.

Metrodome

Bias?  Couldn’t be.

Mile high (Rockies)

I like weird stadiums, Mile High was bizarre and the atmosphere was great.

Kauffman (pleasant day)
Very underrated, but it’ll show up again.

PNC
Fun game, good park, great view

County stadium
A nice older stadium, I liked it anyway.

Wrigley
Not bad, and I do like weird stadiums

Stadiums i’m indifferent about

Old Comiskey
Don’t have much memory of it, but they had cool sox fireworks in the outfield

Coors, Camden, Comerica, US Cellular
PNC without the view. 

Stadiums I don’t like

New Comiskey
In between old comiskey and the current us cellular was a not so good new comiskey.  It’s better now

Kauffman (hot day)

On a hot humid day the stadium can sometimes block any breeze and create a dead zone of humidity that is nearly as intolerable as the product on the field.

1)Metrodome

2)....I need to get out more.....