Personal Ballpark Experiences 2004 (1 Viewer)

[LarryDavenport]

Great pictures Seth!

I've been to Safeco Field, The Kingdome, and Husky Stadium in Seattle.

and

Candlestick Park, Pac Bell Park, and the Oakland Coliseum in the Bay Area.

Now that the Kingdome is gone, Oakland Coliseum is the worst park I've been to. It's just the Kingdome without a roof.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Great pictures Seth.

 

[LewB]

Calling the folks outside the stadium 'ticket brokers' is being VERY kind ! Be careful dealing with them, fake tickets abound, and keep in mind that 'scalping' is illegal in NY and that there are tons of plan clothes police around.

 

[Shane Martin]

Lew,
Bleh I'll buy online.

 

[Doug Miller]

Just got back last night from Dodger Stadium. It was a quick 2-day trip, geared almost exclusively to seeing baseball (other than a quick trip to Universal to ride the new Mummy ride). Before I do a quick review, let me just say that my wife rules. New baby, 5 months old, and I'm good to go for a few days. Thanks!

Dodger Stadium was a lot of fun. Generally speaking, the fans made this a fun place to be -- overall, the park was only so-so. The park had some interesting quirks. I had field level seats for both games, but went in at the Gift Shop/Upper Deck entrance for Game One. That was a quite a climb. Hit the shop, then took an elevator to the Club level where I ran into Dick Vitale and Tommy Lasorda. Huh. That's not something you see every day (or so I thought). Made my way to the escalator down to field level where they check your stub before you can move on. I point that out for a couple of reasons: 1)You need a ticket to get to the field level, unlike some stadiums that let you go down there, but then make you go back up to where your seats are. BUT, 2)Once you're at your level they don't seem to care where you sit. Going to Safeco in Seattle pretty frequently, it's like a gestapo when it comes to your seats. I've seen people told to go back to their normal seats in the 300 level with less than 30,000 (when all they did was move down a few rows IN the 300 level). It's not like that at Dodger Stadium, which I thought was pretty cool for fans. The seating was interesting, people always bitch about finding your seat at Fenway, same goes here. Each aisle is split into two sides on the field level. One row will have seats 1-4 for TWO DIFFERENT sections. The seating arrangement is confusing as hell -- sure fire way to see who is "new" is to watch them find their seat. The distance between aisle at the field level is maybe 2 feet. The ADA must not inspect it here, I'f I were any bigger I'd have to turn sideways to walk to my seat!

First thing in, I had to grab a mythical Dodger Dog. I think my expectations were too high. I know I'm going to get it for this, but it tasted like a hot dog... a very mediocre hot dog. I tried the Super Dodger Dog, to see if there was a difference. Nope. Just a really mediocre hot dog (but the Dodger Dog plush look cool, I picked up a small one for my daughter). In terms of hot dogs, I still go with Fenway #1 (because of the bun...er, roll) and Safeco #2. Try a Major League dog at Safeco, they're juicy and have a good flavor to them.

Sitting in Dodger Stadium, I felt like I'd gone back in time. It felt like the 80's to me. I know the park was built in the 60's, but my Dodger memories come from mid/late 80's, the stadium had a good feel to it. I had a great time.

Moving on to Day 2, I entered in at the upper deck level again and took the elevator to the club level, where for the second day in a row, there was Tommy Lasorda again just hanging out talking with some guy. Huh, I guess it does happen every day.

Wrapping up, I wanted to say that I was really impressed with how FAN FRIENDLY Dodger Stadium was. Tickets weren't that expensive, I saw multiple families there. More interesting than that was the player interaction. The first game I noticed a line-up down by the Dodger dugout for autographs, (I was on the 1st base line the 1st day) Jose Lima was signing away. I thought that seemed pretty cool, he was down there for awhile. I figured it was an albatros. (A couple of the Rockies players were just talking around with fans on my side.) What I saw the second day cemented it. Day 2 I'm sitting on the 3rd base line and AGAIN, there's a line of people waiting for autographs. CORRECTION, there were 3 lines. Very organized lines, a single file line up the aisle, where everyone waited a turn and nobody pushed. Jose Lima signing autographs AGAIN, Alex Cora signing, some other guy signing. I sat in my seat for 15 minutes watching this and thinking that was pretty cool, but they were bound to stop any minute. I decided to hell with it and stood in line for Lima, who was taking pictures with about every single fan in line. Surely he would stop signing by the time I got down there. Nope. I swear that these players signed for close to a half hour before game time. I couldn't believe it.

Just for clarification here. I'm not an autograph hound. I've been to Spring Training and let kids through by my seats for autographs. I've been in the front rows and passed balls to players for kids behind me. It's just not that big of a deal for me. I'll also say that I don't think players are obligated to sign anything -- in Seattle it's kind of a good luck getting an autograph, maybe if you're lucky from a visiting player, and even then it's mayhem on the line, people pushing and begging, etc. To see this out of the Dodger players was VERY impressive. I saw it before Game 1, and saw it before Game 2. Overall fan experience, I would say that Dodger Stadium rates *****/*****.

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...017&a=31339226

Doug

 

[Jeff Gatie]

After going to Fenway for the first game of the double header yesterday, I have something to add to this thread. Met a bunch of people on the 'T' going for their first visit to our tarnished gem of a ballpark. They acted like they were going to see the Great Pyramid, the Parthenon or the Lourve. Good for them, I wish I could relive my first walk up from the crumbling interior to the green painted shrine that is Fenway.

But please, please, please, if you visit our "lyric little bandbox" and must take pictures of the field, the wall, etc., do it standing in an aisle and do it quickly. I had the misfortune of having great seats in box 124, row AA (right on the walkway) of the loge boxes. The view was perfect, right up the left field line to the wall and just to the right of the netting; which is why it was a disaster. You see, Fenway does not raise up the sections in back of a walkway, they are on the same level as the walkway iteslf. So yesterday, every Tom, Dick and Harry decided to stop and take a picture of my view, which quickly became a view of someone's ass and elbows for minutes at a time. It was bad enough that people were walking by, but at least once an inning someone would stand and click away as if it was a scenic overlook and unfortunately I could not "look over" them. I politely (in my best Bostonian "polite" tone) asked them to be quick and only a few got nasty, but I missed a good portion of the game.

However, I did not miss the "Embedded Yankee" give up a 2 run bomb in the 9th to put it out of reach because by then all the tourists were gone. Where were they to block out my view for that?!

 

[Rob Willey]

Interesting thread. I'll share my experiences:

Candlestick Park -- my first game in 1966. A Friday night back when games began at 8:05. Pretty tough on a 7-year old up way past his bedtime. And mother cold even in August! About five visits there all told through 1990.

Dodger Stadium -- about 30-40 visits from 1967-1984. Dodger Dogs are good, not great, but their reputation precedes them.

Oakland Coliseum -- about 40-50 visits from 1968-1994. Cold at night, hot during the day. Best ballpark franks of all were the old link sausage on a steak roll (but I always avoided the sauerkraut). Had season tickets in the second deck right behind home plate from 1990-1994. Prime foul ball territory!

Old Comiskey Park -- 1973. The most memorable thing about the visit was the field was half Astro-turf and half natural turf.

Fenway Park -- 1988. Went early and sat in the first row behind home plate. One of the Blue Jays was hitting off a tee into the netting right in front of me. I marveled at the fact that I was closer to the plate than the pitcher would be. Our actual seats were out in right field with a slightly obstructed view. Jimmy Key shut out the Sox 2-0 but Boston clinched the division the next day.

Pac Bell (now SBC) Park -- 2001. Beautiful park. My friend got the best seats in the house from a client, second row right behind home plate. I didn't see a lot of the park because you walk in off the street through an area with all kinds of concessions and right to your seat. I should have taken the time to walk around and explore. Oh well.

The park at the top of my "most wanted" list is Wrigley Field. Even though I lost a lot of my desire to go to ballgames after the strike in '94, I hope I catch a game at Wrigley before I die. Preferably a day game.

Rob

 

[Denward]

I grew up very close to Dodger Stadium so I've been there dozens of times starting from about age 7. My first game was an exhibition against USC. They used to play them every year after they broke Spring Training in Florida and admission was free so we got great seats near the field down the right field line. Before the game, I got Steve Garvey's autograph, but I tossed it because at the time he was still a scatter-armed 3B who would never amount to anything.

Other memorable games:
Old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore - We went in September of its last season. Walking through the neighborhood to the stadium was really cool.

Candlestick Park on July 4 - Night game and it was foggy, damp, windy, and less than forty degrees. Damn. What really made it memorable was that it was the nightcap to an overall great day. We had received tickets to the Soccer World Cup 2nd round at Stanford Stadium. It was the first time USA had advanced and they played Brazil. Brazil TOTALLY TOTALLY DOMINATED the game, but only squeezed one goal past the defense to win 1-0. I think they outshot the USA 20-2 even though they were down one player who got ejected pretty early for a flagrant foul. It was also my first exposure to Brazilian fans. They are the best. They've got drums, chants, songs, dances, flags, costumes and seem so happy about it all. Since then, I've seen them at tennis tournaments when Gustavo Kuerten was really good and they brought out the performance for him, too (although not as many as there were in a soccer stadium).

Veteran's Stadium - It was fireworks night so we got to go on the "field" after the game to watch. What a piece of sh*t. It felt like concrete with just a little padding and threadbare astroturf.

I've been also been to Anaheim, Camden Yards, Skydome (just watched BP from Hard Rock Cafe). I see most of my games now at Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Reds' AAA Louisville Bats. Nice new stadium that seats about 15,000.

 

[Daniel De]

Forbes Field, Pittsburgh.

http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/forbes.htm

 

[StephenT]

Here are some good pictures of PNC park:

PNC

Home of the 2006 All-Star Game!

I haven't been to many others, but I don't see how any can be better. That skyline as a backdrop is amazing. It looks like a painting even when you're actually there.

I've sat in a seat two rows from the rail on the first base side right by the photographers pit, so I could turn left and see right into the visitors dugout. You're literally at field level. I had to look around the first baseman to see the second baseman.

Also I was a few rows behind the home dugout when Sammy Sosa got hit in the head last year. A piece of his helmet went flying. What a sound that made. Pretty scary. He was probably only 30 yds. from me.

Any seat facing the skyline is the way to go. I like that they only made it seat 38,000. It's very intimate.

 

[Rob Willey]

Wow, what a coincidence! A close family friend operated a concession stand selling souvenirs at Dodger Stadium in the 60's and early 70's. After a game, I was helping him close up when Steve Garvey walked up. At the time, Garvey was another in a long line of forgettable 3B's for the Dodgers. My friend introduced us and I got his autograph, but the memorable thing was that I couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous blond he was with, his wife Cyndy.

I've still got the autographed picture around here somewhere.

Rob

 

[Grant B]

Yup and the other is the BB.
Finally went to see the Giants/ Dodger in LA. Bought a ticket on the internet the day before and got 3rd row right behind home plate, best at in my life. Nice place for being so old; they sure could do something about traffic for a place where everyone drives And like the myth, nobody but Giants fans showed up ealy and sinc h Giants won 7-1.....everyone but me left early

 

[Doug Miller]

Thought I would bump it for 2005 -- Feel free to change the title if you want:

Wife and I just got back from San Francisco. I was going to do Pac Bell... er, SBC Park last year, but she wanted me to wait so she could go to.

Pac Bell for me was the perfect park, at first glance. Outside the park is gorgeous. All around the park is great, going across the cove to McCovey's statue is a nice walk with a great view. You get inside the stadium with terrific sight lines, and a ton of things to see. We walked the whole park, going first across the right field area -- The seats in those bleachers have some great views of the field. Took the obligatory picture on the trolley in center (which is not provided on the link ), before making it to the 33 times clone of the mitt (that thing is cool looking!) and taking the ride down the Coke slide! Coke is it!

Everything that SBC has to offer makes this park near perfect -- Except the seats. We had solid seats on the 3rd base line 20 rows up from the field. If I sat straight in my seat I would have had an unparalled view... of the area between third and left. What?! Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was built after Safeco. In fact, SBC does everything better than Safeco except the most important part -- seeing the game. Every seat in Safeco is angled towards home plate. If the game had been a packed, which it wasn't, it would have made the game hard to see for fans that aren't on the aisle and would have needed to turn (we were on the aisle, so we would have been fine either way).

Good selection of food and liquors seems pretty extensive. Seeing a Jack Daniels trailer in center was a surprise. I had a really gross sausage from Willie Mays under the bleachers in center... some people might like it, but I didn't. Good ice cream sundae, and they even sell Whoopie Pies (which I thought my Grandma created, guess not).

Final review is that the park was great, but the seats were "eh". Outside the park, forget about it. There's nothing to do. Other than a handful of weird bars, there isn't anything to do or eat. I'm used to a row of bars with nachos, burgers, etc. I'm used to a bunch of food vendors and sausage carts. Nada. (Obviously, head into the city for anything to do.)

Next up on the list? Not sure. I'm thinking Petco, Bank One (just to get it off the list), or Minute Maid. Unless, of course, anyone has a spare All Star weekend/HR Derby/Game ticket that would convince me to go to Comerica.

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...017&a=31339226

Doug

 

[Joe Wilmore]

Doug you have to try Petco. Hang out in the gaslamp district before the game, and then walk down to the stadium. Really a great park.

 

[Mark Murphy]

I wish Fenway would be retired but thats not likely to happen. The "tourists" and those who never attend a game in person don't know what they are missing. I took in a game at Camden Yards last July (Nomah's last game) and I'll never look at Fenway the same again. I'm 6'1" and haven't fit in a seat since I was 14 yrs old. Just getting through the tunnels leading to field is damn near impossible. I guess the nostalgia works if you attend a game once a year (or less). I love the seats in RF that look out into CF instead of the action.

 

[Philip Hamm]

(I'm sorry for your loss of the Expos, Francois Caron, but we'll love 'em here in DC.)

I've got no photos.

RFK stadium is a nice baseball park. I've been to three games so far this season.

At the very bottom of the stadium, below all the ramps, right behind home plate, there's a little Foggy Bottom brewpub area. I got to the park an hour before gametime and used this as a staging area with some friends. The beer is fabulous.

The stadium itself is old and it shows it. There aren't enough bathrooms, the concrete is painted over multiple times, the seats are old but comfortable enough.

The kicker at RFK is the large section of movable seats on the third base side. The floor is steel instead of concrete, and the whole section is on wheels. You get the crowd jumping on that and the whole section rocks and rolls like you think the park is going to crumble! The rest of the stadium is designed to rock a bit also, but that section is the killer.

Kick the floor and it makes a racket! There's a handicapped section there, too, and somebody (with season tickets I think) bangs the steel floor with his cane, it makes a racket like you wouldn't believe. You can't help but join in.

The beer elsewhere in the stadium is good, keep walking, eventually instead of buying Lite in bottles for $6 you'll find Lite or MGD on tap for $5 for the same amount of beer. Walk a little further and you'll find one of many micros for $6.50. The hot dogs, sausage, and chorizo are all great, and you can bring peanuts and hot dogs into the stadium with you. The views of the game are all good. The grass is neat, the foul territory is huge (they don't build parks like that any more)!

The "production" part of the experince is very green. These are definitely first-timers not used to baseball. Music running too long, scoreboards taking halfway through the next at-bat to register runs, etc.

It is so nice to have baseball back. I wish we had a TV contract so I could watch more games.

This is not a new park designed to be old. It's the real deal, an old park, and one with character. I like it and even though they haven't even broken ground on the new stadium I already know I'll miss it.

Other parks I've been to in the past:

Memorial Stadium Nice old stadium, you always felt close to the action. Old fashoned straight wood bleachers for the "cheap seats". I liked it.

Camden Yards The quintessential "new old fashoned" stadium. Almost everything about it is perfect and well thought out. Love the warehouse and the fact that you can bring your own food and drink into the park.

Veteran's Stadium People hated it but I loved it because I grew up watching Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, Gary Maddox, Pete Rose, Bake McBride, Greg Luzinski, Tug McGraw, and the rest of that crew. I can not hate the stadium for how bad it was as a baseball facility when I have such a connection. I saw Steve Carlton strike out 14 and hit a dinger over the left field fence.

Yankee's Stadium Nice. I only went to one game and long ago so I remember it vaguely. Nice place.

 

[Todd Henry]

I'm off to my first game at Fenway next Friday night. Tickets are in the grandstand, section 31 which is down the left field line. Hope the view isn't too awful.

My list of stadiums includes 3 Rivers, PNC Park, Camden Yards, Wrigley and SBC Park. All of those new ones plus Wrigley are great.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Anything down the left field side is great, unless you get stuck behind a pole. Basically, every seat in Fenway is great, except for the Right Field Box. These are expensive for what you get (which is a nice view of center field, unless you lean way out and over). Any Bleacher seat is better than R. Field Box and cheaper too. You should enjoy your seats. Grandstand at Fenway is like being down in front at any other park because you are so close to the field.

Oh and before buying a beer, make sure you are not in the no-alcohol section. It is located in a couple sections down the left field line.

 

[Mark Murphy]

Todd lucked out (if he plans on having a beer...or ten) because he's in GS31. The non-alcohol sections are GS32-33. I hear they are very strict about that policy. Just remember that in the puritan city we know as Boston, one has to walk to a concession stand to purchase beer (two is the limit). The vendors are not allowed to sell beer in the stands.

 

[Evan S]

I'll add a few of my own experiences, especially those that haven't already been touched on.

I live in CT, so obviously I've been to Fenway and Yankee Stadium many times. But, not being a Mets fan, I've actually never been to Shea. I'm not a fan of either the Sox or Yanks (I'm an A's fan, go figure) so I can speak in an unbiased perspective.

Before I go on, I need to say that if you only get one time to see a park, the weather you get plays a huge factor in how you view the park. If it's crappy out, it's going to affect your experience, no matter what the park is like. With that being said...here's my rankings and point score (0-100) for all the parks I've been to. My scores are based on a ballpark experience only and have little to do with stadium amenities.

Yankee Stadium: 97 The house that Ruth built. I hate the Yankees but I love this park. The fans know their stuff and love their team. There is something mesmorizing about this park. Like you just feel like something special can happen at any moment. Food sucks, lines for the bathrooms are crazy and getting to your seats feels like you are walking a subway terminal, but once you are on the concourse, it's magical.

Fenway Park: 95 Probably only gets a lower score to Yankee stadium because I've been there so many times and have become slightly immune to it's charms. I've sat everywhere in this park and it's always a great time. Especially the bleachers in the summer. Best peanuts in the game, but parking around the stadium ($25) is an expensive joke.

Jacobs Field: 92 I absolutely loved this park. Awesome atmosphere, great area of the city. I love that you can see the action from just about every consession area in the park and the scoreboard is the best in baseball, almost entirely in full color.

Camden Yards: 91 Unfortunately my seats weren't that great or this would have scored higher. The warehouse area that you walk through to get into the park is outstanding and I like that it's a hitters park. The game I saw featured an 8 run inning by Seattle on an absolutely perfect day for baseball.

Citizen's Bank Park: 90 The new park in Philly is simply gorgeous. I don't like the fact it's not centrally located to the city and lacks character in that you can't get out of the game and just walk the streets of the city you are in and grab a beer. Best fan interactive experience and best food of any of the parks I went to.

PNC Park: 90 Would have definately scored higher if the game wasn't played in a misty drizzle all night, hampering my view of the Pittsburgh skyline. However, the walk across the Clemente Bridge to the park is awesome and the views are spectacular.

Kaufmann Stadium: 88 Been a while since I've been there, but another great, cozy park. I had good seats and you have to see the fountains at least once. Not a great location in the same respect I've complained about Philly's park.


Great American Ballpark: 87 Good park, but I took this one in on the same trip I took in Jacobs, PNC and Citizens Bank and this one pales to all three of them. The outside concourse is nice, but the food lines are atrocious for a new park. Best looking women in the crowd of any game I've been to though. And a nice fan experience on the outside concourse.

Qualcomm/Jack Murphy: 78 Football Stadium for baseball...nuff said.

Arlington Stadium: 76 The predicessor to the Ballpark at Arlington, this one is even worse than Qualcomm if you can believe it. A former minor league park and it felt like one.

My "to do" list for future park visits includes (in order), Safeco, Petco, Wrigley, Coors (I was outside the stadium, but in October and after baseball season was over), Minute Maid, Ballpark at Arlington, Comerica and maybe Rogers Centre/Skydome (been here too, but for an Auto show, not a ballgame).