Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Chicago White Sox @ Baltimore Orioles
July 20, 2002

Orioles 4, White Sox 3 (14 inn.)

W: Rick Bauer
L: Bob Howry
Attendance: 39,257
Time of Game: 4 hours, 54 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Baltimore, MD
First Game: April 6, 1992
Capacity: 48,190
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Three weeks after I moved to Virginia, I attended my first game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Until the Expos moved to DC and became the Nationals in 2005, this was the closest Major League ballpark to me, so I went to several games there each summer. Even now, I still make it up to Baltimore for a few games each year, usually when the White Sox are in town. It is definitely one of my favorite parks, which is one reason I keep going back. This game in 2002 was my first.

Camden Yards was a trend setter in a couple ways. First, the classic ballpark architecture has been copied by virtually every stadium built since 1992. The brick exterior, the mini-roof over part of the upper deck and the old warehouse across Eutaw Street in right field provide the charm of urban stadiums of yesteryear.

The other trend setting aspect of this park is how it was used to spark an urban revitalization of the downtown area. I don't have any first hand knowledge on this, but I have been told that the ballpark neighborhood was not exactly the popular hangout area it is now prior to the stadium being built. Along with the nearby Inner Harbour, Baltimore now has a great downtown social scene. It is still not exactly one of the nicest cities in the country, but has come a long ways thanks in part to Camden Yards.

My favorite part of the park is the Eutaw Street area between the right field seats and the warehouse. As far as I know, it is the only "street" inside the gates of a stadium. It is lined with concessions and gift shops, including some within the warehouse itself. The most popular concession in the park is located out there: Boog's Barbeque. Named after Oriole great Boog Powell, the former slugger himself is often there to cook for, and serve the patrons. Also in right field is a picnic area above the out of town scoreboard and right field wall. Curiously, you cannot really see the game from this area unless you are right up against the wall. One of the few flaws in this park.

I like the openness of the stadium too. The field itself is slightly below ground level, so those walking along the outside perimeter of the stadium in the outfield can easily peer into the park. There is a large picnic area in center field.

While the park does have a retro feel, they didn't forget to include the modern comforts and amenities. The concourses are wide and easily navigable, though you cannot see the game from them. Most of the lower level seats are very close to the field and even the upper deck isn't too far from the action. It is an extremely large park for a baseball-only facility, with a capacity near 50,000, so there are some bad seats in the outfield upper deck. They are reasonably priced though.

I was in the left field seats for this game, which is where I sit almost every time I go to a game at Camden Yards. Back at this time in 2002, good seats were hard to come by as the Orioles almost always had 30,000+ crowds. These days, I'm usually able to walk up to the park and buy tickets in the first couple rows of the outfield.

Gary Glover started the game for the White Sox while Sidney Ponson took the mound for the Orioles. The Orioles struck first with two runs in the third. The Sox picked up single runs in the 4th, 6th and 7th innings. The Sox took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the 9th, but the Orioles scratched a run off Antonio Osuna to send the game into extra innings. The White Sox didn't get much of anything going in extra innings while the Orioles blew several scoring chances. Finally, former Sox catcher Brook Fordyce ended it with a hit down the right field line in the bottom of the 14th inning.

This game turned out to be the longest game of my tour, though not the longest game I've seen at Camden Yards. The following summer, I saw a 17 inning marathon against the Phillies. This game against the White Sox "only" lasted 14 innings and nearly five hours. It started an unfortunate trend of many blown saves I have seen by White Sox closers in this park. While I'm pretty sure the Sox have a winning record in games I've seen in Baltimore, they have lost several in heartbreaking fashion. This was an unusual game in that there were no home runs hit in this home run friendly park.

Camden Yards is definitely one of my favorite parks. The teams that decided to use this park as a model for their new ballparks did so wisely. The exterior photo below is from this game in 2002, but the other two photos are from a different White Sox/Orioles game a couple years later when I had much better seats and a better camera.

Photo Album

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

From Baltimore

Next stadium: Jacobs Field, Cleveland

Miller Park

Anaheim Angels @ Milwaukee Brewers
June 23, 2002

Angels 5, Brewers 2

W: Kevin Appier
L: Ben Sheets
S: Troy Percival
HR: Tyler Houston (MIL)
Attendance: 23,751
Time of Game: 2 hours, 51 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Milwaukee, WI
First Game: April 6, 2001
Capacity: 41,900
Type: Retractable roof
Surface: Grass

I have been to many, many Brewers games in Milwaukee. My family and I used to go up there once a summer to do what everybody going to Brewers games does, tailgate, and catch a game. However, almost all of those games were in the old Milwaukee County Stadium. I have only been to Miller Park twice, with this trip in 2002 being the most recent visit. I went to this game just a week before I moved from Illinois to Virginia.

While I loved going to games at County Stadium, there is no comparison between the old park and the much improved Miller Park. In fact, Miller Park is distinctively different than even the other retractable roof stadiums with its fan-shaped roof. If you take away the roof, it has a very retro appearance from the outside, much like the other parks built around the same time. With the roof open, it doesn't quite have the same feel as a completely open park, largely due to the glass enclosures in the outfield. However, it is a huge improvement over a closed dome stadium. I would have preferred a strictly outdoor park in a city with reasonable weather for most of the baseball season, but so be it.

The park itself has never been, and probably never will be, the most distinctive part of the Brewers experience. Without a doubt, there is no better place in baseball to do a pregame tailgate than Miller Park. It is the only park where you would be out of place not hauling along a grill and a cooler. With garbage cans for charcoal dumping lining the parking lots, tailgating is not only allowed, but encouraged. The parking lots are abundant and easily accessible. Although I have never done it, I'm sure it is not unheard of to go to the park to tailgate but never actually make it into the game.

Fortunately, those who do make it into the park are treated to a very nice park with a lot of great seats. The four-tiered seating area bumps some of the upper level seats up quite high, but the view of the field is good. Perhaps the most distinctive part of the ballpark interior is the large video screen and scoreboard in center field and Bernie Brewer's slide in left. For those of you unfamiliar with Bernie, he's the mascot who goes down the slide after Brewers home runs. In the old park, the slide dumped him into a pitcher of beer. I don't believe that is the case in the new park, but I don't recall for sure.

Bernie isn't the only costumed entity at Brewers games. Another fan favorite is the sausage race, featuring people dressed up as your favorite types of sausages racing around the warning track during an inning break. Who can forget the infamous Randall Simon attack of the Italian Sausage? Versions of this tradition have since been copied by other teams, including Washington and Pittsburgh.

Miller Park plays very hitter friendly, largely due to the short power alleys. It isn't as unfair as some other parks though, especially with a lot of ground to cover in center field. I suppose it probably gets loud with the roof closed, but that was not the case for either game I've seen there. My seat for this game was in the upper deck on the first base side. I was in the fourth row, which provided a great view of the entire park.

This was the second time I saw the Angels play in June of 2002. Just like the game in Minnesota, Kevin Appier was the starting pitcher for the Halos. He pitched another solid game. The same can not be said for Brewers starter Ben Sheets. Apparently Sheets was healthy enough to pitch, for a change, but he was not effective. The Angels scored two runs in the first and three more in the second to take an early 5-0 lead. The big blow in the second was a three run, bases clearing double by Darin Erstad. The Brewers didn't score until a solo home run by Tyler Houston in the bottom of the 7th. The Angels held on for a 5-2 win.

I had forgotten how terrible the Brewers were back then to be until I looked at their lineup on this particular day. Jeffrey Hammonds hitting third pretty much sums it up. The Brewers loss dropped them to a pathetic 26-49. On the flip side, the Angels improved to 43-29 and were in second place at that time. That October, they went on to beat the Giants in seven games to win the 2002 World Series.

I hope to make it back to Milwaukee in the near future because Brewers games are always a lot of fun. Miller Park is not an elite park, but it is a great place to watch a game and a huge improvement over County Stadium. Hopefully they will continue to field competitive teams as they have the last couple years.

Photo Album

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

From Milwaukee

Next stadium: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore

Comiskey Park (U.S. Cellular Field)

New York Mets @ Chicago White Sox
June 11, 2002

White Sox 10, Mets 8

W: Todd Ritchie
L: Jeff D'Amico
S: Antonio Osuna
HR: Paul Konerko 2 (CHW), Frank Thomas (CHW), Magglio Ordonez (CHW)
Attendance: 20,156
Time of Game: 2 hours, 51 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Chicago, IL
First Game: April 18, 1991
Capacity: 40,615
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

This is going to come as a complete shock to some of you, but I actually have no recollection of attending this particular game. If it weren't for the ticket stub and scorecard, I wouldn't have even known I was there. Until I started gathering my items earlier today, I was certain I had attended this game with my buddy Dom and we had waited out a long pre-game rain delay before moving down to seats in the first row near the White Sox dugout. All of that is true, except it was a game I went to a week earlier against the Royals. Apparently I took the photos of the park at that game, a couple of which are posted in the album. However, I guess I chose the Mets game the next week to be the official visit. I don't have any photos from this game, so I've mixed in photos from a few other visits. That confusion shouldn't be a problem for this write up about the ballpark though considering I have probably been to 50+ games in the park's 18 year history.

Comiskey Park, which was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003, was one of the first parks built in the surge of new stadiums in the past two decades. Being the first has its drawbacks, particularly in the lack of an opportunity to learn from the good and bad qualities of the ones that follow. As such, Comiskey was never recognized as one of the elite ballparks like many of its successors have been.

Some of the criticisms of the park have either been remedied or are completely overblown. If you are going to the park simply to watch a baseball game, there are very few places better to do so. Almost every seat in the park has a great view of the field. The layout of the lower bowl is as good as any park I've seen. While Comiskey Park didn't wind up being the primary trend setter for new parks (Camden Yards probably gets this nod), one aspect that they did lead the way on was concourse design. I love parks like this one that have lower level concourses that allow you to walk around, get food or souvenirs, and still let you see the game on the field. Most, but not all, newer parks have followed this model.

This stadium has changed significantly since it opened in 1991. In the early part of this decade, the bullpens were relocated and are now more easily seen by fans. This caused the outfield walls to move in, changing the park from one of the best pitchers parks to one of the best for hitters. More changes came after the U.S. Cellular naming rights deal in 2003, including the addition of a fan deck in center field and the removal of thousands of seats from the upper deck. This was certainly a change for the better since the nosebleed seats in the old configuration accounted for one of the biggest complaints about the park. The upper deck seats that remain are no worse than any other park.

I'm admittedly biased when it comes to this park, so there isn't much about it I don't like. One complaint I will throw out though is that I'm not sure why the ballpark designers didn't come up with a way of showing off the best city skyline in the country. Perhaps home plate could have been placed in the southwest corner, like the old park, rather than the northwest. As it is, upper deck seats look out onto the Dan Ryan Expressway and some low income high rises, though many of those have been knocked down recently.

A couple more biased statements from me: U.S. Cellular might have the best ballpark food in all of baseball. Not surprising since Chicago is such a great, diverse city that loves its food. The tailgating scene is top notch too, perhaps only surpassed by Milwaukee. Finally, it is hard to match the big game atmosphere at this park. White Sox fans, though not a self-proclaimed "Nation", are as passionate about their team as any. I've witnessed few sporting events with as much crowd enthusiasm and participation as the three playoff games I've been to at this park.

As I said earlier, I really don't remember this game. I see my seat was in right field, behind the Bullpen Sports Bar, an area I have sat many times. I love sitting in the outfield in most parks, especially U.S. Cellular. I assume I went to this game with my family, but again, I have no recollection of that.

The Sox beat up Mets starting pitcher Jeff D'Amico. Frank Thomas hit a three run home run in the third inning. There is no doubt I have seen more home runs hit by Thomas in person than any other player. Paul Konerko added another home run in the Sox five run fourth inning. Todd Ritchie started for the Sox and had his typical 2002 outing. He gave up six runs in six plus innings. He was taken out after allowing three singles to lead off the seventh inning. All three wound up scoring, but the White Sox maintained an 8-6 lead. Solo home runs in the bottom half by Magglio Ordonez and Paul Konerko, his second, seemingly put the game out of reach. However, the Mets rallied for a pair of runs in the ninth, but came up short in a 10-8 loss.

This photo album is of the park, not this particular game. Two of the photos were taken at the game I went to a week earlier and another was from this past summer. I have tons of other photos from U.S. Cellular, but we'll just go with these for now.

Photo Album

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

From Chicago White Sox

Next stadium: Miller Park, Milwaukee

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome

Anaheim Angels @ Minnesota Twins
June 1, 2002

Twins 4, Angels 2

W: Kyle Lohse
L: Kevin Appier
S: Eddie Guardado
HR: Tim Salmon (ANA), Christian Guzman (MIN)
Attendance: 17,480
Time of Game: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Minneapolis, MN
First Game: April 6, 1982
Capacity: 48,678
Type: Dome
Surface: Artificial turf

A couple weeks after graduating from college, I went on a camping trip with a couple friends, Charlie and Mike, to Northern Minnesota. On our way back home, we stopped in Minneapolis, met up with Mike's brother, and went to a Twins game at the Metrodome. This would be the first official stop on my baseball park tour.

Let's just say I didn't get the best park out of the way first. Quite the opposite. I strongly dislike domed stadiums, particularly ones that do not have a retractable roof. Fortunately, only two such stadiums remain: Minnesota and Tampa Bay. I believe baseball is meant to be played outside. There are fundamental differences in the way the game is played indoors, especially on artificial turf. The Twins have switched to the improved field turf since I visited, but it is still not the same as natural grass with a dirt infield.

The Twins have a distinct home field advantage in the Metrodome. In addition to the necessary familiarity of playing on artificial turf, it also takes some experience to get used to tracking fly balls while looking into the white roof. Opposing players routinely lose sight of balls. Not surprisingly, this happened on a couple occasions in this very game. The dome can also be a difficult atmosphere for a visiting team when the seats are filled with screaming fans. This wasn't the case for this particular game, but I've seen more than enough games on TV where the fans had an obvious impact on the game.

I'm sure part of my dislike for the Metrodome is because my White Sox never seem to be able to win there. However, I don't think anybody outside of Minnesota (and not all of those within) would say the Metrodome is a good baseball park. Might be nice for football, but certainly not baseball.

Just walking in and out the doors of the stadium is a unique experience. The air pressure from within causes quite a gust when the doors are opened. Once I was inside the park, I felt more like I was at a large basketball arena than a baseball park. You simply lose some of what makes baseball great when you take away the outdoor elements.

Our seats were in the GA section in center field. We had a pretty decent view of the game from there, but I could tell that there must be thousands of pretty bad seats in the upper deck of the outfield, above the baggie wall in right and in left too.

I don't remember too much about the game, other than Angels outfielders struggling to catch fly balls. Both starting pitchers (Kyle Lohse for the Twins and Kevin Appier for the Angels) had good outings. The Twins broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 7th by scoring three runs, highlighted by a two out, two run home run by Christian Guzman. Everyday Eddie Guardado made things interesting in the 9th as he went for the save. Tim Salmon led off with a home run and the Angels followed with two more hits. However, Guardado got out of the jam without any more damage. The Twins won the game 4-2.

The upcoming 2009 season will be the final year of baseball for the Twins in the Metrodome. They are moving into a brand new outdoor park in 2010. Many are criticizing the Twins for building an outdoor park due to the early spring weather conditions in Minnesota. I'm personally very excited about it. I think baseball is better in the cold than in any condition indoors. Perhaps a retractable roof would have been a good idea, but that was probably cost prohibitive. As far as I'm concerned, the Metrodome can't close (for baseball) fast enough.

Finally, here are some of the photos I took at the Metrodome along with a scanned copy of my ticket stub, the program cover and my scorecard. I didn't invest in a digital camera until the following summer, so all of the 2002 photos were taken with my very cheap camera. In fact, I think I used a disposable camera for these Minnesota shots.

Photo Album

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

From Minnesota

Next stadium: Comiskey Park (now U.S. Cellular Field)

Welcome to my new blog!

It has been well over a year since I completed my tour of every Major League Baseball stadium. Ever since I started this quest back in 2002, it had been my plan to put together a web page of all my photos, ticket stubs, scorecards as well as accounts of my experiences. To some extent, I have done this, but in a very disjointed collection of photo albums and write-ups on my fantasy baseball league's web site. Since I think this interests people outside of my league, I decided to create this brand new blog to tie everything together.

Taking a step back, I should explain exactly what I did before diving into the details. Immediately after graduating from Notre Dame in 2002, I set a goal to attend a game at every Major League Baseball stadium. Although I wasn't sure how realistic it was, my plan was to go to about five parks each summer, hitting all 30 in six years. Many baseball nuts have done this before me. In fact, some with a lot more time and money have done it over a much shorter period of time. I've seen accounts of people who have done it on a single trip. Obviously, that was completely unrealistic for a recent college grad starting out with next to no money.

Generally, I attended new stadiums on a single summer trip. There were a number of exceptions to this though. For instance, the first summer (2002), I went to games in cities that I was already planning on visiting anyway. Then there was the last leg (2007) that took me on three separate cross-country trips. Last summer, I went to games at two new parks that had replaced parks I previously visited (Washington and St. Louis). I intend to continue to do this as new stadiums open. That means I plan to attend games in both brand new New York parks this summer.

Now back to this blog. Over the next several months, I plan on creating a new post for each stadium I visited. The entries will contain photos I took at the game, scanned copies of ticket stubs and scorecards, and my personal review of the stadium. I'll mention a little about the games too, but you will have to forgive me if I don't remember all the details about a game I watched six years ago. Some of my old posts on my league's web site should help jog my memory though.

There is one thing I will not do that you might be expecting. I do not plan on ranking the stadiums, as is probably the custom among those of us who have been to every stadium. I will tell you what I liked and disliked about each park and you might be able to get a sense about where it ranks. But coming up with a ranked order is not something I'm interested in doing, especially since there are so many stadiums I really liked. Almost all of the stadiums built in the last 20 years are great places to watch a game and the old parks have history and charm that can't be duplicated.

I will go in the order I attended the stadiums, which means the Metrodome in Minneapolis will be first up. In the mean time, click on the image below to view the Picassa Web Album I created a year ago. For the most part, I included three photos from each stadium: exterior, interior and an in-game shot.

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

MLB Stadiums