OT: Favorite MLB parks & why-

[uconnphil2016]

Fenway
Old Yankee Stadium
Dodger Stadium
Wrigley Field
Turner Field
Minnesota

That's all I've been to, and how I'd rate my experience in order. Wrigley Field was by far the most disappointing sports experience I've had. Went for Cubs vs Cardinals late in the season and wasn't nearly as cool as I'd expected.

 

[krinklecut]

Geez guys of course you never felt close to the game at Yankee Stadium - it's not a band box of seats on top of each other like at Fenway holding under 40K it held huge crowds up to 60K plus. If you were in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium for big games, which were often as many of you wouldn't know, it just meant something to be there. It was a winning tradition after all.

I've been to games a stadiums with close to the capacity of Yankee Stadium, like Turner Field, and felt much closer to the game than I ever did in the Bronx.

 

[David 76]

Mau, I think some of us just feel closer to the game when our team wins.

 

[mauconnfan]

Mau, I think some of us just feel closer to the game when our team wins.

I'd rather go to Fenway on a hot day, party at the Cask or an alike area establishment and see the cute Bostonians. I mean winning is secondary at a baseball game to me unless it's the playoffs - fun is #1.

 

[David 76]

Yankee fan here.
But I like Fenway. Old, quirky and full of lots of bad memories. Reminds me of me.

The old, old Yankee stadium is hard to beat. Loved the huge park with the monuments inside it. When DiMaggio hit a homer, he hit one.

 

[GemParty]

Due to the threat of rain, Marlins Park had the retractable roof closed. Never watched a game with the comfort of air conditioning. Attendence was low. Beautiful park. A real engineering marvel. Got to see a Pirates grand slam. No Marlins statue in motion tonight. Lost 10-0. Worth a visit. No more rainouts. Lots of concessions. Great views from everywhere. Fun time.

 

[UConnStats]

PNC Park is probably my favorite. Wrigley and Camden follow for me.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Spot on. I am a sox season tix holder for many years. But the few games I have attended at Wrigley are different and better IMHO. Better sight lines, friendlier atmosphere, and better bars outside the park. Same history to boot.

Old Yankee Stadium, Wrigley and Fenway stand out to me as I appreciate baseball's history.

Camden and PNC Park (Pirates) were my two favorite of the new wave of ball parks.

It's tough to put an exact reason as to why new Yankee Stadium feels so corporate (aside from the very high food and drink prices) but it just feels very sterile overall.

When you would go to old Yankee Stadium it even had its own smell and there was an aura there. Definitely miss going to it, but luckily my old man took me dozens of times growing up in the 90s/00s...which happened to coincide with one of the best periods of Yankees baseball in history.

I disagree with conclusions while understanding some of the reasoning. Chicago has better bars and can have a happier vibe, but Fenway has more of a diehard baseball vibe. Ultimately for me it comes down to this; IF you were a kid or a player and looking to have fun playing in a game you'd want to play with that Green Monster & try to hit one over it (nothing like that anywhere else in baseball) or smash one off it (similarly an awesome THWACK sound and unique exciting impact on the game). The Green Monster makes Fenway baseball games more exciting than anywhere else.

Wrigley better bars, great atmosphere, but the ivy is aesthetic & doesn't add anything to the game.
Camden is #2 for me reasons others have cited, perfectly done.
Citifield is OK, but the weird Brooklyn thing detracts from vibe
Coors is fun, a little sterile similar to Arizona & Atlanta

I can understand if cost is a factor and if you sit in a crappy seat then Fenway suffers. I do sit in the undersized, wooden grandstand seats and I agree if you are in Sections 1-12 and are over 200lbs or 6'2" then your personal comfort experience will be vastly inferior to some of the other parks. But chances are the BASEBALL GAME that you see at Fenway will be the most entertaining and for that reason it is the best park.

P.S. Say what you want about old Yankee Stadium & its mystique, but they tore that down and kept Fenway. We win bitches

 

[Deepster]

I disagree with conclusions while understanding some of the reasoning. Chicago has better bars and can have a happier vibe, but Fenway has more of a diehard baseball vibe. Ultimately for me it comes down to this; IF you were a kid or a player and looking to have fun playing in a game you'd want to play with that Green Monster & try to hit one over it (nothing like that anywhere else in baseball) or smash one off it (similarly an awesome THWACK sound and unique exciting impact on the game). The Green Monster makes Fenway baseball games more exciting than anywhere else.

Wrigley better bars, great atmosphere, but the ivy is aesthetic & doesn't add anything to the game.
Camden is #2 for me reasons others have cited, perfectly done.
Citifield is OK, but the weird Brooklyn thing detracts from vibe
Coors is fun, a little sterile similar to Arizona & Atlanta

I can understand if cost is a factor and if you sit in a crappy seat then Fenway suffers. I do sit in the undersized, wooden grandstand seats and I agree if you are in Sections 1-12 and are over 200lbs or 6'2" then your personal comfort experience will be vastly inferior to some of the other parks. But chances are the BASEBALL GAME that you see at Fenway will be the most entertaining and for that reason it is the best park.

P.S. Say what you want about old Yankee Stadium & its mystique, but they tore that down and kept Fenway. We win bitches

Says a Red Sox fan....

I think the Monster is a gimmick. Always have. Have listened to Sox fans talk about how much skill a guy like Yaz had playing that wall and never bought it for a second. For the few times he may have held a double to a single each season, he got off easy playing significantly less acreage out there in LF.

And, again....only Sox fans think they're the most diehard baseball fans. I go there and sit around a bunch of drunken slobs and girls in pink Sox hats in a seat that points me 90 degrees away from what I'm trying to watch.

 

[dennismenace]

Yankee fan here.
But I like Fenway. Old, quirky and full of lots of bad memories. Reminds me of me.

The old, old Yankee stadium is hard to beat. Loved the huge park with the monuments inside it. When DiMaggio hit a homer, he hit one.

Yes! The dimensions during Joe D's and Mickey M's time were 457 in left center, 463 in center and 402 in right center. Neither were true pull hitters.
It would have been interesting if they had played in a different park. Ted Williams, though more of dead pull hitter had to contend with Fenway's Center
and right center and not take advantage of the Green Monster. Also, DiMaggio missed a number of prime years in WWll while Williams missed prime years in both WWll
and Korea as a fighter pilot. Did not see Joe D play but did see the latter part of Williams and most of Mantle's career. The time of Banks, Mays, Matthews, Aaron
and so many more. Great era for baseball. Lots of memories.

 

[Husky25]

I've been to 24 current (AT&T Park, Camden Yards, CitiField, Coors Field, Fenway Park, Globe Life Park (The Ballpark in Arlington), Kauffman Stadium, Miller Park, Nationals Park, Oakland Coliseum, PNC Park, Progressive Field (The Jake), Rogers Center, Target Field, Tropicana Field, Wrigley Field, and Yankee Stadium III) and past (Busch Stadium II, Metrodome, Olympic Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, RFK Stadium, Shea Stadium, and Yankee Stadium II) baseball stadiums, plus Field of Dreams, City of Palms Park and I'm visiting at least two Cape League parks this summer.

I have a natural bias towards Fenway. It's where the home field of my favorite team, I saw my first game there and it is by far the park I've been to the most. Discounting that the parks I liked the most (besides Fenway) are probably Camden Yards, AT&T Park and Miller Park, with Wrigley a close 4th. Camden is Fenway South. The question on our particular Southwest flight was not, "Which game are you going to?" but, "How many games are you going to?" AT&T is picturesque and Miller is very comfortable to watch a game. I think maybe the seats are a tad wider to accommodate for the typical Wisconsin diet. We saw a game from the Right Field roof top at Wrigley and the next day from the Bleachers. Cubs games are an excuse to drink in the early afternoon. The game (and whether the Cubs win or lose) seems secondary.

By far the worst are the Oakland Coliseum and Stad Olympique (as the Quebecois refer to it). The Coliseum is not in the greatest of locales and, unlike Camden Yards, the stadium itself does nothing to make up for it. Stad Olymipique was just a complete Sh1thole. I went with my buddy on July 24, 2004 (Red Sox fans and A-Rod know what happened that day) and it was quite apparent why Major League Baseball was leaving Montreal less than 10 weeks later. I literally had my own bathroom and went undisturbed for a half-hour (must have been that rich French food). Busch Stadium was my first AstroTurf game and first in a multi-purpose cookie cutter stadium. The Metrodome was my first indoor game. I didn't like either. They didn't have any of the aromas I'd come to expect at a baseball game. RFK had the feeling of a football stadium and is also not in the greatest of neighborhoods. The only reason it is not among the worst I've been to is because it is the former home of my favorite football team and I was happy to see an event there.

Regarding the New York stadiums, CitiField blows Shea out of the water. It really is no contest (Shea was a multi-purpose cookie cutter stadium. Are you seeing a trend yet?), but I felt that as a baseball stadium (as opposed to a revenue generating attraction) Yankee Stadium II didn't really need to be replaced. Unlike II, I have no feeling walking into Yankee Stadium III.

 

[IMind]

I'm 6'2".. I love Fenway, been there a lot, but unless I'm in a new seat I don't even bother. I actually do like standing room at Fenway though. Cheaper, more comfortable, wander around the park when you're bored and great views of the field.

I hated Shea, but that might have been because I was so far up under the deck in center field that I had to duck down in order to see home plate...

Went to Wrigley... what I didn't care for was the fact that you can't walk around the park it really bothered me. What I did love about Wrigley was the staff. My wife had forgotten our tickets at home in PA. We had trouble getting through to anyone in the ticket office... so I grabbed $7 seats off of stub hub... went down to the field and talked to the staff. They looked up our tickets and gave us our original seats. They give you a little certificate if it's your first time at Wrigley, etc. a bit cheesy, but still was nice.

Miller Park was nice... good place to see a game, was a beautiful stadium from the outside, but maybe it was because the roof was closed.. I just didn't like something about it. Like watching a baseball game in a mall.

I've been to both Camden Yard and Citizens Park. I like both a lot. The inner harbor in Baltimore is just a fun place to spend a weekend too. There is literally no bad place to see a game in either park.

I may do PNC Park this fall if my schedule works out.

 

[David 76]

Yes! The dimensions during Joe D's and Mickey M's time were 457 in left center, 463 in center and 402 in right center. Neither were true pull hitters.
It would have been interesting if they had played in a different park. Ted Williams, though more of dead pull hitter had to contend with Fenway's Center
and right center and not take advantage of the Green Monster. Also, DiMaggio missed a number of prime years in WWll while Williams missed prime years in both WWll
and Korea as a fighter pilot. Did not see Joe D play but did see the latter part of Williams and most of Mantle's career. The time of Banks, Mays, Matthews, Aaron
and so many more. Great era for baseball. Lots of memories.

Part of what makes that rumored trade of Williams for DiMaggio so appealing. Imagining Joe D with the monster to play with and The Splendid Splinter aimimg for the short porch in right at Yankee Stadium.

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

Parks I've been to.
1. Renovated Yankee Stadium (76-08)
2. New Yankee Stadium
3. Fenway Park
4. Camden Yards
5. Shea Stadium
6. Turner Field






7. Tropicana Field

 

[FartMan69]

Says a Red Sox fan....

I think the Monster is a gimmick. Always have. Have listened to Sox fans talk about how much skill a guy like Yaz had playing that wall and never bought it for a second. For the few times he may have held a double to a single each season, he got off easy playing significantly less acreage out there in LF.

And, again....only Sox fans think they're the most diehard baseball fans. I go there and sit around a bunch of drunken slobs and girls in pink Sox hats in a seat that points me 90 degrees away from what I'm trying to watch.

Yeah but we can't be worse than Cardinal fans, yeah they have a dedicated following but they'll also let you know at any time possible.

 

[Deepster]

Yeah but we can't be worse than Cardinal fans, yeah they have a dedicated following but they'll also let you know at any time possible.

As a fan of someone other than the Sox or Yanks living in CT, I always crack up at how EVERY fan of those teams has to say "I'm a diehard....been a fan since they sucked!" like they all have this badge of honor that no other team's fan can wear.

 

[David 76]

As a fan of someone other than the Sox or Yanks living in CT, I always crack up at how EVERY fan of those teams has to say "I'm a diehard....been a fan since they sucked!"

Yankees never sucked like that. Our droughts are very brief comparatively. Red Sox can fit 7 of our spans w/o a world series into their one.

 

[mauconnfan]

Says a Red Sox fan....

I think the Monster is a gimmick. Always have. Have listened to Sox fans talk about how much skill a guy like Yaz had playing that wall and never bought it for a second. For the few times he may have held a double to a single each season, he got off easy playing significantly less acreage out there in LF.

And, again....only Sox fans think they're the most diehard baseball fans. I go there and sit around a bunch of drunken slobs and girls in pink Sox hats in a seat that points me 90 degrees away from what I'm trying to watch.

Yeah it's gimmicky no doubt. Different for sure and unique but more exciting, nah.

I know the year both Boggs and Mattingly were vying the batting title back in the 80's if Donnie played at fenway he would have hit .400 with 100 doubles using that green thingy for about 40 more 300 foot fly balls which at the Stadium were can o'corn while a double at Fenway. And I'm not exaggerating.

 

[Dogdeacon]

Says a Red Sox fan....

I think the Monster is a gimmick. Always have. Have listened to Sox fans talk about how much skill a guy like Yaz had playing that wall and never bought it for a second. For the few times he may have held a double to a single each season, he got off easy playing significantly less acreage out there in LF.

And, again....only Sox fans think they're the most diehard baseball fans. I go there and sit around a bunch of drunken slobs and girls in pink Sox hats in a seat that points me 90 degrees away from what I'm trying to watch.

I agree it's a gimmick or unnatural for a baseball field but I don't see any negative consequences of that nor do you cite any. Instead the gimmick works. Don't care if it is skill, athleticism or simply practice or habit to play the wall, well it is fun to watch people play it well or randomness. For example the lazy poor fielding Manny Ramirez got good at it which was fun in its absurdity.

Question was about parks so standard troll of fans is your gimmick used to obscure lack of objective reasoning.

 

[Deepster]

I agree it's a gimmick or unnatural for a baseball field but I don't see any negative consequences of that nor do you cite any. Instead the gimmick works. Don't care if it is skill, athleticism or simply practice or habit to play the wall, well it is fun to watch people play it well or randomness. For example the lazy poor fielding Manny Ramirez got good at it which was fun in its absurdity.

Question was about parks so standard troll of fans is your gimmick used to obscure lack of objective reasoning.

I don't really know that it works or it doesn't work. It just is. If anything, it probably skews the stats to some degree the same way a short porch in RF in old Yankee Stadium might...or a huge outfield in the older parks....or artificial turf for grounders in the cookie cutter stadiums). To me? Seeing a "routine flyball out" scrape the wall and turn into a double is no different than seeing a grounder skip through an infield like a golf ball on cement in the old Vet.

FYI - You were the one that said Fenway had more of a "diehard baseball vibe". If anything, you're the one trolling other fans with your pompous self image.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I don't really know that it works or it doesn't work. It just is. If anything, it probably skews the stats to some degree the same way a short porch in RF in old Yankee Stadium might...or a huge outfield in the older parks....or artificial turf for grounders in the cookie cutter stadiums). To me? Seeing a "routine flyball out" scrape the wall and turn into a double is no different than seeing a grounder skip through an infield like a golf ball on cement in the old Vet.

FYI - You were the one that said Fenway had more of a "diehard baseball vibe". If anything, you're the one trolling other fans with your pompous self image.

Wrigley's rep is fans have fun regardless (don't care if win or lose) & drink more if that's such a dirty thing, I don't think my choice to highlight a positive rather then troll & insult is pompous.

Stats integrity?! So an infield out at Philly or the lazy caught fly ball is more enjoyable or important to you than baserunners & the wall scraper that has the outfielder turning around 3 times and either catching or kicking it? Or the entertainment value of these hits is some unholy sacrifice on the alter of statistics?

Say you show up to a softball tourney and there are scale fields of all MLB parks, which do you want to play on, which would most people pick?
Say you get to take BP in a major league park, which would you pick?

 

[IMind]

Yankees never sucked like that. Our droughts are very brief comparatively. Red Sox can fit 7 of our spans w/o a world series into their one.

The thing about the Red Sox was that they didn't suck. There are very few periods where you can say that the Red Sox were horrid... it's just that they could never put it all together to win the World Series. I mean they're tied for 4th in all time winning percentage with St. Louis. That's what made it worse.

 

[IMind]

Yeah it's gimmicky no doubt. Different for sure and unique but more exciting, nah.

I know the year both Boggs and Mattingly were vying the batting title back in the 80's if Donnie played at fenway he would have hit .400 with 100 doubles using that green thingy for about 40 more 300 foot fly balls which at the Stadium were can o'corn while a double at Fenway. And I'm not exaggerating.

That's probably true... Boggs hit .397 that year at Fenway. FWIW though Boggs career numbers at Fenway .369 and at Yankee Stadium .322... Mattingly at Yankee Stadium .313 and at Fenway .313. I think things even out with the Monster.. for ever routine fly that's a HR there are five long singles that would have been a HR or a double someplace else. Based on everything I've read Yankee Stadium and Fenway are both pretty forgiving to hitters. I'd much rather a hitters park than a pitchers park... what fun is it watching infielders catch foul balls.

 

[Deepster]

Wrigley's rep is fans have fun regardless (don't care if win or lose) & drink more if that's such a dirty thing, I don't think my choice to highlight a positive rather then troll & insult is pompous.

Stats integrity?! So an infield out at Philly or the lazy caught fly ball is more enjoyable or important to you than baserunners & the wall scraper that has the outfielder turning around 3 times and either catching or kicking it? Or the entertainment value of these hits is some unholy sacrifice on the alter of statistics?

Say you show up to a softball tourney and there are scale fields of all MLB parks, which do you want to play on, which would most people pick?
Say you get to take BP in a major league park, which would you pick?

Says the Sox fan. I've been to the bleachers in Wrigley and Fenway and there's as much, if not more drinking in Fenway. And Wrigley certainly doesn't have the new Pink Hat Nation breed of "diehards" that Fenway does.

On your other points....

• Seeing an outfielder turning around 3 times to field a ball near the wall? That happens alot? Not in the games I watch.
• You said that the quirkiness of the wall "works". I'm just saying, all stadiums have something unique about them. They all add to a hit here or there being given or taken away. Big deal. For a non-Sox fan, the wall to me is a non-issue. I couldn't care less if they tore it down tomorrow.
• If I was playing a tourney or taking BP in a softball mini-park, it'd be CitiField. I'm a Mets fan.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I've been to
Fenway
Wrigley
Oakland Alameda
Dodger Stadium
KC
Candlestick (now torn down as it should have been)

I'll give Fenway and Wrigley a tie for nostalgia, closeness to the action, and fun around the park. Both are great and have traditions.

Dodger Stadium and KC are both commuter parks, you need to drive. KC is more fun, has football style tailgate action, and is just a very pleasant park with good beer and food, good sight lines etc. Dodger stadium is a bit cavernous, and is more or less underground. You enter at the upper decks. Still a cool place. Oakland is a pit.