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MLB Stadium Experiences

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Steve_424

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With the lockout shutting down most news I'd be interested to hear some of your experiences in visiting different MLB stadiums. I'll start with a few of my own:

PNC Park - my favorite stadium aside from Progressive Field. Beautiful view, comfortable seating with good sightlines, excellent food options. I know we're supposed to hate Pittsburgh but I love PNC Park.

American Family Field - the retractable dome is awesome (I wish we had it here). Concourse is very open with plenty to see and do. Good food options, including Milwaukee's famous cheese curds.

Kauffman Stadium - I was surprised at how much I loved this stadium. The fountains have a really cool effect, they have a nice, interactive HOF to visit, and the kids area is the best I've seen (how many ballparks can you play mini golf at before the game?). Food was solid. The tour was the best we've been on. KC is a really cool city in general - BBQ is amazing and the Negro League Museum is a must-visit!

Busch Stadium - beautiful stadium with the famous Arch in the backdrop. Decent kids area. Tour was just ok - seemed like they were trying to sell tickets the whole time. St. Louis is another really cool city to visit in general.

Wrigley Field - I wish we could steal their outside area - it is AMAZING. Seriously, Google Gallagher Way if you've never visited. The park has improved with renovations but it's still a really old park. Pretty good tour, lots of fun stories from way back.

Great American Ballpark - The Reds Museum is superb and something I wish we'd replicate. Nice park overall, although if I'm being honest not much stood out aside from the museum.

Dodger Stadium - way different than most parks because of the surrounding terrain. Nice ballpark, but not much stood out aside from how historical it is.

Comerica Park - nice ballpark, decent food, unique attractions for kids. I just hate Detroit lol.

Guaranteed Rate Field - probably the worst one I've been too. It wasn't bad, just....eh. The concourse was a nightmare - so tight you literally couldn't move. White Sox fans are annoying so that probably didn't help.
 
I’ve enjoyed all the parks I’ve been to, but here are my rankings:
1. Citizens Bank Park - these first four are all gorgeous
2. PNC Park
3. AT&T Park
4. Great American Ballpark

5. Wrigley Field - make sure you get there early and sit in the bleachers



6. Oakland Coliseum - very blah








7. Fenway Park - total shit hole
 
Fenway Park - unique for obvious reasons, but that you can actually walk by most of it and not realize it’s there always astounded me. Inside… it’s a complete dump. It’s like the Muni was (old and shitty), but half as big and designed like an MC Escher and Dali painting combined.

Hubert H. Humphrey dome (RIP) - I went when the twins sucked, but the place was so big and so empty, it somehow made baseball even slower.

Oracle Park - love that the water is “right there” - also, like that you can go get a drink at a bar behind the outfield wall (if memory serves me right) - the stadium embraces the slowness of the game and gives you lots to look at (Ocean) and do (Bar)
 
Been to the following:

Chase Field - Feel like this one gets way more hate than it deserves. It's in the desert, of course it's domed and pumped with AC. Fairly sterile park but well maintained and good sightlines both times I've visited for a game.

Citizens Bank Park - Nothing special about the surrounding area but a nice ballpark.

Comerica Park - See Citizens Bank

Fenway Park - Love the neighborhood. Park is definitely dingy but it's really cool getting to sit in such a historical place. Got to sit on the monster, which was a sweet way to take in a game.

Great American - Nice park

Guaranteed Rate Field - Very meh. Did not care for the game experience there.

Camden Yards - You realize why it was upheld as one of the standard bearers for the new "retro" parks back in the 90's. Great facility and surrounding area. Really enjoyed catching a game here.

PNC Park - I'll echo what everyone else has said in here. Great ballpark with incredible views. I'd agree it's my favorite of all the parks I've visited.

Tropicana Field - 0/10; total dump; would not recommend

Wrigley Field - Great neighborhood and ballpark. Just as with Fenway, you're sitting in history. One of my favorites.
 
Chase Field - feels like a baseball field inside an airplane hangar, but not a bad view in the house.

Minute Maid - feels like a baseball field inside a mall, when the roof is open it is 10000000x better than when it is closed. Having a Torchy's Tacos in CF where Tal's Hill used to be is reason enough to go.

Old Arlington Park - oddly felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, and the backdrop looked like you were watching a game in an office building.

Safeco/T-Mobile - overrated, but for my money the best retractable roof stadium in baseball.

Coliseum - dump

Angel Stadium - needs updated big time, some Ohio Stadium like sightlines from certain sections where you can't see CF...you know, where Mike Trout is. Holds up with the MLB theme of not wanting your best players seen though.

Coors - very underrated ball park, always surprises you when you got to it, just comes out of nowhere with how well it blends in with everything around it, not a bad seat in the house either.

Petco - the west coast PNC. Just a beautiful stadium with an awesome backdrop.

Oracle - most overrated stadium in baseball. If it wasn't on the water it would be one of the most bland and hated stadiums in the league with its mini concourses.

Dodger Stadium - lot of people think its ugly or a dump, I love it for the fact that you can't tell you're in the 2nd largest city in the country while you're in it. Places like NY and LA I think its beneficial to the experience to separate it from the city. San Gabriel as the backdrop is beautiful as well. Pain in the ass to get to, plus the police academy is right there, which makes you question the stabbings.
 
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Haven't been to a ton.. But

1. T-Mobile Park (Seattle) - excellent food - not a bad seat in the house.
2. Progressive Field
3. Chase Field - the description of "fairly sterile" is dead on.
4. Target Field - for a "new" stadium... I thought this place SUCKED.

Been to a couple others but too drunk or long ago to assess fairly.
 
1. Oracle- food, drink, view all top tier
2. Progressive Field- biased but think our stadium is great and has a lot going for it
3. Fenway- dumpy and bumpy but has its charm
4. Wrigley- been 10-15 years but it was decent
5. Rangers @ Arlington. Stadium itself wasn't bad but nothing cool surrounding it and 100+ in August made it pretty unbearable. Makes sense why they got a new stadium with a roof
6. Great American- it seemed nice and new but nothing special about it
7. Oakland Coliseum- I have nothing good to say
 
I absolutely love PNC Park. That's number one on my list. Nationals Park isn't too bad... the area around it is pretty meh, but the stadium itself is nice. Comerica is one of my least favorites... huge stadium but just not a lot of personality to it at all. And then there's Progressive Field. Not too many bad seats in the house. Not a huge fan of some of their food options, but I can't wait to see some of the upgrades coming. But, I'd have PNC over Progressive.. then Nationals Park over Comerica.
 
Everyone shitting on the Trop is wrong. It’s charmingly horrible.

Chase blows. It feels so wrong watching baseball, and when the dome is closed, the fake light is really off. It’s like the field becomes gray.

PNC and Petco are amazing and as advertised.

I went to a old Comerica as a kid and just remember it was bad.
 
Everyone shitting on the Trop is wrong. It’s charmingly horrible.

Chase blows. It feels so wrong watching baseball, and when the dome is closed, the fake light is really off. It’s like the field becomes gray.

PNC and Petco are amazing and as advertised.

I went to a old Comerica as a kid and just remember it was bad.
I went to the old Comiskey as a kid, it was my 1st baseball game in person.. Turned out it was easier to watch the ballgame on the T.Vs they had set up all over the place then trying to see what was going on down on the field. Also when your 8 years old... Those bathrooms were SCARY.

Edit - OK I am a moron - for some reason I mixed up Comiskey, and Comerica.. Comiskey is where I went.
 
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I went to the old Comerica as kid as well, my 1st baseball game in person.. Turned out it was easier to watch the ballgame on the T.Vs they had set up all over the place then trying to see what was going on down on the field. Also when your 8 years old... Those bathrooms were SCARY.

Okay, so the bathrooms are like 95% of my memory. I was probably 5-6.

Weird urinal, and horrid smell. As if someone literally pissed shit and then shit piss on it.
 
Okay, so the bathrooms are like 95% of my memory. I was probably 5-6.

Weird urinal, and horrid smell. As if someone literally pissed shit and then shit piss on it.
LOL. Totally! The smell!!! - Like a porta-potty on steroids.. I seem to remember the whole place other than the actual seats smelling like piss.
 
1. Rogers Centre - Would rate slightly below Progressive Field but I'd also rather have tickets for it because it has a dome, and no rainouts. It generally stays full of energy.
2. Olympic Stadium - The home of the old Expos - was very barren, and I'm not surprised they moved. It is an interesting architecture though.
3. Old Yankee Stadium - I wasn't too impressed with this one. It was not a place of amenities, but I guess it's cool I was able to see a game there before it was demolished.
 
Okay, so the bathrooms are like 95% of my memory. I was probably 5-6.

Weird urinal, and horrid smell. As if someone literally pissed shit and then shit piss on it.
I went to old Tigers Stadium a lot when I was real young (from like ages 5-10). It was great being a Cleveland fan there in the 90’s. I don’t remember the bathrooms lol.

My main memories there:
1) Sitting in the center field bleachers with almost 0 fans around and having to move because of a wasps nest in the old splintery wood bleachers.
2) My mom always wanting to practically run from the car to the stadium due to how shitty the area was.
3) My dad getting nailed in the balls during batting practice. We were in foul territory in the right field corner and there was a perfect gap between the short wall and the railing for a one bounce line drive to fit through (yes he did get the ball).
4) How nice Mike Hargrove was. Seemed like it was his pleasure to take a picture with a couple young Indians fans.
 
1. Rogers Centre - Would rate slightly below Progressive Field but I'd also rather have tickets for it because it has a dome, and no rainouts. It generally stays full of energy.
2. Olympic Stadium - The home of the old Expos - was very barren, and I'm not surprised they moved. It is an interesting architecture though.
3. Old Yankee Stadium - I wasn't too impressed with this one. It was not a place of amenities, but I guess it's cool I was able to see a game there before it was demolished.
Totally forgot I went to Olympic Stadium. Went there during college in the spring. Anyway, the stadium was awful and totally empty except for this one totally packed section in the left field lower deck. My buddies and I couldn’t figure out why - maybe it was a French-speaking fan only section? NO. It was the cheap beer section. Turns out you could get beer for less if you sat in that section. They also handed out completely free beers at one point. Was the loudest the game got by a long shot when they gave out the freebies.
 

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