Dickie Dunn
Footballguy
There are so many things we love about baseball. The games are played in the warmest months of the year during and around the summer, and (mostly) outdoors. Though a hotly debated topic these days, the timeliness and leisurely pace of the game allows us to just kick back, relax and soak it all in.
And then there are the ballparks themselves. Nothing quite beats being able to go out to a baseball game on a warm evening, to have a hot dog and a beer and just enjoy the sights, sounds and thrills. Many of us are fans of football, hockey and maybe even basketball. But rarely do you hear people looking forward to their first trip to Paul Brown Stadium or American Airlines Center (quick: what city is that in?). Football stadiums, as well as hockey/basketball arenas, have a certain sameness to them … 100 yards of Field Turf, a 200-x-85 ice surface or 94 feet of court … lower bowl, luxury boxes, upper deck, etc.
That’s just not the case in baseball. For the most part, every stadium past and present has a uniqueness to it that is easily identifiable. Fenway’s Green Monster, the Wrigley Field ivy, McCovey Cove. Step out of the tunnel, look out at the green grass, and immediately you know where you are and who is playing that night. While the bases always are 90 feet apart and the mound sitting 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate, no two sets of foul poles are quite alike. A home run to right-center in one park dies as a lazy fly ball in another. And sometimes, what can be seen outside is just as cool as what is inside.
Unlike the other three major sports, baseball’s “cathedrals” are an attraction as much as the game itself. Many a summer vacation has been planned around making a pilgrimage, whether it is to catch one or two at a time, or even all 30.
My goal is to someday have them all covered. After visiting both Los Angeles and Anaheim two weeks ago, my list now stands at 24 current major league stadiums visited. Add in nine others that have met the wrecking ball or long since outlived their purpose, for one reason or another.
I’ve always intended to do a complete ranking of the stadiums I visit. Aside from a mental top five or so, I never sat down and put them all in order until just recently. Over the next few weeks, I will post my rankings starting from the worst of the worst and working my way to No. 1, hopefully one ballpark per day or so.
As a disclaimer, this won’t be a complete and comprehensive list, since there still are six MLB stadiums I have yet to visit: Rogers Centre (Toronto), Tropicana Field (Tampa), Comerica Park (Detroit), Citi Field (New York), Sun Trust Park (Atlanta) and the new Busch Stadium (St. Louis). In addition, I will be including the nine stadiums I have visited that no longer are in use.
At first I thought I would stick to just ranking the stadiums themselves, but it’s probably necessary to include more of the overall experience – where it is located, how easy it is to access, etc. In many cases, these are the types of things I used to separate one park from another in the rankings.
Feel free to chime in with your own lists, review or rip my rankings, or whatever. I guarantee I will have some ballparks that will be rated higher than many believe, and some perhaps lower. In some cases I will be going off memories far more past in my 40-plus years of going to major league games. Maybe this can even be a catch-all thread for those of us planning to visit a particular park someday to get some perspective or answer some questions.
Play ball!
And then there are the ballparks themselves. Nothing quite beats being able to go out to a baseball game on a warm evening, to have a hot dog and a beer and just enjoy the sights, sounds and thrills. Many of us are fans of football, hockey and maybe even basketball. But rarely do you hear people looking forward to their first trip to Paul Brown Stadium or American Airlines Center (quick: what city is that in?). Football stadiums, as well as hockey/basketball arenas, have a certain sameness to them … 100 yards of Field Turf, a 200-x-85 ice surface or 94 feet of court … lower bowl, luxury boxes, upper deck, etc.
That’s just not the case in baseball. For the most part, every stadium past and present has a uniqueness to it that is easily identifiable. Fenway’s Green Monster, the Wrigley Field ivy, McCovey Cove. Step out of the tunnel, look out at the green grass, and immediately you know where you are and who is playing that night. While the bases always are 90 feet apart and the mound sitting 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate, no two sets of foul poles are quite alike. A home run to right-center in one park dies as a lazy fly ball in another. And sometimes, what can be seen outside is just as cool as what is inside.
Unlike the other three major sports, baseball’s “cathedrals” are an attraction as much as the game itself. Many a summer vacation has been planned around making a pilgrimage, whether it is to catch one or two at a time, or even all 30.
My goal is to someday have them all covered. After visiting both Los Angeles and Anaheim two weeks ago, my list now stands at 24 current major league stadiums visited. Add in nine others that have met the wrecking ball or long since outlived their purpose, for one reason or another.
I’ve always intended to do a complete ranking of the stadiums I visit. Aside from a mental top five or so, I never sat down and put them all in order until just recently. Over the next few weeks, I will post my rankings starting from the worst of the worst and working my way to No. 1, hopefully one ballpark per day or so.
As a disclaimer, this won’t be a complete and comprehensive list, since there still are six MLB stadiums I have yet to visit: Rogers Centre (Toronto), Tropicana Field (Tampa), Comerica Park (Detroit), Citi Field (New York), Sun Trust Park (Atlanta) and the new Busch Stadium (St. Louis). In addition, I will be including the nine stadiums I have visited that no longer are in use.
At first I thought I would stick to just ranking the stadiums themselves, but it’s probably necessary to include more of the overall experience – where it is located, how easy it is to access, etc. In many cases, these are the types of things I used to separate one park from another in the rankings.
Feel free to chime in with your own lists, review or rip my rankings, or whatever. I guarantee I will have some ballparks that will be rated higher than many believe, and some perhaps lower. In some cases I will be going off memories far more past in my 40-plus years of going to major league games. Maybe this can even be a catch-all thread for those of us planning to visit a particular park someday to get some perspective or answer some questions.
Play ball!
