Busch Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals
July 24, 2008

Brewers 4, Cardinals 3

W: Eric Gagne
L: Ryan Franklin
S: Salomon Torres
HR: Ryan Braun (MIL)
Attendance: 41,233
Time of Game: 2 hours, 49 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: St. Louis, MO
First Game: April 10, 2006
Capacity: 43,975
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

The second new stadium I visited in 2008 was the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Cardinals moved into their new ballpark in 2006, which replaced the old stadium with the same name. I had been to the old park a few times, including the official tour visit back in 2004. I made it back the the Gateway City for a game during the third season of the new stadium. This visit was part of a summer trip back to Illinois. My sister Kathleen and I drove down to St. Louis on a Thursday afternoon in July for the game between the Cardinals and Brewers.

Before I go any further, I have to apologize for any omissions or details I may have forgotten for this writeup. Even though all of these reviews have been written well after my visits, at least I have had good notes to work from thanks to blog entries I wrote at the time for my fantasy baseball league. However, I never blogged about this particular trip, so I'm going strictly from memory and a little bit of online research.

Busch Stadium is situated in downtown St. Louis, immediately to the south of the old ballpark. It is a very short walk from the heart of the city, so there are plenty of things to do and places to visit before and after games. After the new stadium opened, the old park was knocked down. Plans had been made to turn that land into a "ballpark village" with shops and restaurants. This was supposed to be completed prior to the Cardinals hosting the 2009 All-Star Game. However, as of 2008, those plans had not materialized. At that time, it was still and empty space, partially used as a parking lot. As far as I know, this has not changed.

Busch Stadium is a very nice park, built with the same retro-looking style that has been very popular the last two decades. The red brick exterior gives the park a very classic look, and I would say is quite appropriate for the Cardinals. Unlike the old Busch Stadium which had a cookie-cutter multi-sport design, the new park looks and feels like a great baseball venue. The open design of the outfield provides a great panoramic view of downtown St. Louis, highlighted by the Gateway Arch. This also allows a bit of a breeze to flow in during the sweltering summer months, unlike the old stadium which turned into a sauna in July and August.

The seating area has a bit of a unique design to it. There are four primary seating levels from third base, swinging behind the plate and all the way out to right field. Then there is the more traditional three levels down the third base line out to right field. Throughout the park, the second level is much larger than the club level in most stadiums, which leaves fewer seats in the very top sections. The outfield consists of mostly bleacher seating in left-center and right-center field. Throughout the park, there are plenty of concourse standing room spots that allow you to watch the game from different vantage points. There are a couple large video boards in right-center. One curious design decision was putting the two main boards almost right next to each other. Those sitting in right field don't get a good view of either. At the time, the out-of-town scoreboard was the best and most detailed one I had ever seen. However, a few other stadiums have put in similar boards in recent years.

Busch Stadium plays very fairly for all players. Although not quite symmetrical, the dimensions are almost identical in right and left field. Albert Pujols doesn't seem to have any trouble hitting home runs in this park, but I wouldn't call it a launching pad by any means. Good pitchers can and do excel in this park.

Kathleen and I got to St. Louis well before game time in hopes of catching batting practice. Unfortunately, it rained all afternoon, which kept the tarp on the field right up to game time. But the rain did keep the temperatures down, so once it dried up, it turned into a pleasant evening. We sat in bleacher seats in left-center field. This game featured two playoff contending teams in a battle of the huge American breweries: Miller vs. Budweiser, Brewers vs. Cardinals. One of the beer vendors in our section used an interesting sales technique towards Brewers fans, offering them Miller Lite in a Bud Light bottle.

The Brewers were looking to sweep the four game series against their division rivals. One of their top pitchers, Ben Sheets, got the start against the Cardinals' Todd Wellemeyer. This turned into a great game, highlighted by a ninth inning rally. The Cardinals got off to a quick start with a run in the bottom of the first on a single by Rick Ankiel. An Albert Pujols sacrifice fly in the third made it 2-0 Cardinals.

Wellemeyer got into a jam in the fourth when he couldn't find the strike zone. He walked four Brewers batters in the inning, including a bases loaded walk to Jason Kendall. The damage was minimal though because the Brewers hit into a double play and did not get a hit in the inning. Wellemeyer helped his own cause in the bottom half of the inning. His single scored Ryan Ludwick from first thanks to an error by right fielder Corey Hart. Hart knocked in a run of his own in the fifth on a ground out, scoring J.J. Hardy and cutting the Cards lead to 3-2.

Both starters pitched well after that and the bullpens kept things in check as well until the ninth. Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin entered the game in the eighth and retired both hitters he faced, but getting the last three outs proved to be more challenging. Following a one out single by Hardy, Braun launched a two run home run in our direction giving the Brewers a 4-3 lead. It was the fourth hit of the night for Braun and the fifth time he reached base safely in five plate appearances. Salomon Torres came in to pitch for the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth and struck out all three batters he faced to pick up the save. The Brewers won the game and swept the Cardinals in a four game series in St. Louis.

This game was the end of a perfect seven game road trip for the Brewers. Overall, it was their eighth consecutive victory. This late July run helped lead them to the post-season for the first time since 1982. They won 90 games in 2008, earning them the National League Wild Card. They dropped the division series to the eventual World Series champion Phillies, three games to one. This loss kept the Cardinals in third place, but only four games out of first. Despite winning 86 games, the Cardinals finished in fourth place, their lowest finish in the division standings since 1999.

I was very impressed with Busch Stadium. It is certainly a huge upgrade over the old park. Cardinals fans have almost always supported their team in large numbers, and that has certainly continued in their years in the new park. Of course, it helps that they put a contending team on the field most years.

Since this trip in 2008, all of my visits to new parks have come during the first season for the stadiums. This meant a trip up to New York in 2009 to see a pair of new ballparks. I will write about those next. I have the benefit of having visited new Yankee Stadium for the second time just a few weeks ago for the ND/Army football game. Hopefully, I will be completely up-to-date with this blog by the end of the year.

Photo Album

From St. Louis (new)

From St. Louis (new)

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From St. Louis (new)

Next stadium: New Yankee Stadium, New York

Nationals Park

Atlanta Braves @ Washington Nationals
March 30, 2008

Nationals 3, Braves 2

W: Jon Rauch
L: Peter Moylan
HR: Chipper Jones (ATL), Ryan Zimmerman (WAS)
Attendance: 39,389
Time of Game: 2 hours, 22 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Washington, DC
First Game: March 30, 2008
Capacity: 41,546
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Although my official tour of the 30 MLB stadiums ended in 2007, that was hardly the end of my trips to new baseball parks. As I mentioned in my last post, St. Louis had already opened a new stadium since my visit there and Washington opened their new park in 2008. So I visited those two parks in 2008 and have made trips to three other brand new stadiums in the years since. The first stop was at a ballpark I have been to at least 50 times the past three years, Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

After moving to our nation's capital in 2005, the Nationals spent three years at the dated and not particularly well maintained RFK Stadium. If baseball was going to survive its third stint in DC, the franchise was going to need a first class stadium. In the spring of 2008, that is exactly what they got.

Nationals Park is situated in southeast DC on the shore of the Anacostia River, just a little over a mile due south of the Capitol building. Although there is plenty of potential, the stadium's location is probably its biggest drawback. It is mostly an industrial and residential area with very little commerce. This was supposed to change shortly after the Nationals moved in, but the economic downturn has postponed a lot of local projects. So there is not much to do or see in the immediate vicinity of the ballpark, which is very unusual in Washington. The location isn't all bad though. The park is very easy to get to via public transportation, with a Metro stop just a block away from the main entrance to the stadium. This is an absolute necessity in a city with so much gridlock on the roads. Another plus about the location is that you can get some pretty nice views of the city from the upper deck, particularly on the first base side.

In my view, Nationals Park is the first stadium built in the last 20 years which did not attempt to implement a retro look or feel. I said "first" rather than "only", because I would say the same about Target Field in Minnesota. Unlike most newer parks, Nationals Park does not have a brick exterior. Rather, it has a gray colored concrete and siding exterior which fits in well with most other DC buildings. It is a wide open stadium, especially in left and center field. The primary entrance to the stadium is in center field, where there is a huge concourse situated behind all of the outfield seating areas. There is an extensive selection of concessions and dining areas throughout the park, including the very popular Red Porch an Red Loft in center field.

The seating area features the typical three levels in foul territory, with gaps between sections of the upper levels, much like San Diego and Philadelphia. There are also a lot of lower level seats in the outfield, unlike RFK Stadium which had no such seats. There is a second deck in right field with an enormous HD scoreboard above it. Although my season tickets have always been in left field, I have sat in various locations throughout the park and am yet to find a bad seat. Some of the upper deck seats are quite high, but still provide a great view of the field and are very reasonably priced anyway.

Although it isn't quite the pitchers paradise of RFK, Nationals Park is still a great pitchers park. The biggest difference moving over from RFK is that it no longer takes a ridiculous blast just to clear the wall for a home run. But you still don't see many cheap ones hit in this park. The dimensions to the right field gap are shorter than left, but the higher wall in right does take some home runs away. One final observation about how different the old and new parks are is that there is actually some air flow in Nationals Park. Not that it is particularly windy, but there is an occasional breeze. At RFK, the lack of air movement created some very steamy summer nights.

I could have picked any number of games to count towards my official visit to the park, but I decided to go with the big one: the first regular season game played at Nationals Park. I had actually been in the park the day before for an exhibition game against the Orioles. But this one was a Sunday night game on ESPN and the first game of the 2008 season played in the United States (there were a couple games played in Japan the previous week). Just as he did for the return of baseball to DC in 2005, President Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch. It was the second of three presidential first pitches I have seen in person. As you would expect, the stadium was jam packed for this historic game. And what a game it was!

To give you some idea how bad the Nationals were in 2008, their starting pitcher for this Opening Day game was Odalis Perez who went 8-11 with a 5.57 ERA the previous season. The much more formidable Tim Hudson got the start for the Braves. Perez starting things with a bang, striking out the first batter, Kelly Johnson. The Nats offense wasted no time setting ballpark milestones either. They scored the first two runs in the bottom half of the first. Christian Guzman led off with a hit and scored on a double by Nick Johnson. Austin Kearns followed with a single to score Johnson. The Nats were off to a quick 2-0 lead.

Perez pitched surprisingly well in this game. The Braves didn't touch him for a run until the fourth inning when Chipper Jones hit the first Nationals Park home run to deep center. I found it quite fitting that Jones was the one who got the first home run because he seemed to hit home runs in every game I saw him play at RFK. He easily had the best home run ratio of any player I saw in person in that park. Anyway, he picked up right where he left off with a home run in the new stadium as well, but the Nats continued to lead by a run.

This 2-1 lead held until the ninth. Jon Rauch came in for the Nats to try to nail it down. But a one out double by Mark Teixeira put Rauch in a bit of a jam. Martin Prado pinch ran and advanced to third on a ground out and then scored on a passed ball by catcher Paul LoDuca. The perfect night was ruined, or so it seemed. Peter Moylan came in to pitch for the Braves in the bottom of the ninth and quickly retired the first two hitters. But then Nationals star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman came up to the plate. He blasted a 1-0 pitch into the seats in center field, giving the Nats a walk-off 3-2 victory. It was a fitting end to a very exciting night in DC.

This game was not a sign of things to come for the Nationals, however. They had a dreadful season, finishing with the worst record in baseball at 59-102. On a positive note, this poor season led to them having the first pick in the draft which they used on Stephen Strasburg. Meanwhile, the Braves also went on to have a miserable season, losing 90 games and finishing ahead of nobody but the Nats.

As most people know, the Nationals have had a rough six years in DC so far, finishing in last place every season except one. However, it should be noted that they have risen to the occasion in the three most anticipated games in franchise history: the first game back in DC in 2005, this stadium opener in 2008 and the Stephen Strasburg debut game in 2010. All three were exciting Nats victories. Unfortunately, those types of performances have been few and far between. There is hope for baseball to be successful in DC though. Nationals Park is a great place to see a game and they will have no trouble filling it if they ever field a competitive team. But only time will tell if that will ever happen.

Photo Album

From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

From Washington (new)

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Next stadium: New Busch Stadium, St. Louis

Minute Maid Park

St. Louis Cardinals @ Houston Astros
August 30, 2007

Astros 2, Cardinals 1

W: Matt Albers
L: Joel Pineiro
S: Brad Lidge
HR: Lance Berkman (HOU)
Attendance: 37,520
Time of Game: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Houston, TX
First Game: April 7, 2000
Capacity: 40,950
Type: Retractable roof
Surface: Grass

At long last, my 30 ballpark tour came to an end in Houston. Following a few days in the Dallas area, I drove down to Houston for a Thursday afternoon game between the Astros and Cardinals. As has been the case on several of these long baseball trips, I was a bit worn down by the end of this one. So I didn't spend a lot of time exploring Houston. Not that it would have been terribly pleasant to do so anyway in the late August heat. I drove straight to Minute Maid Park, which is located right in the heart of downtown Houston.

Minute Maid Park is another one of the modern retractable roof stadiums. From the exterior, it looks much like Chase Field in Arizona. In other words, it doesn't really look like a baseball stadium. But, again just like Arizona, the choice to build a retractable roof stadium in Houston made a lot sense. Unfortunately, the roof was closed the entire time I was in the stadium, so I didn't get a sense what the park would feel like with the roof open. I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time: I do not like indoor baseball. When the roof is closed at Minute Maid Park, it feels exactly like a closed dome stadium. There are large glass windows in left field allowing some of the natural sunlight to seep in, but other than that, you aren't going to be fooled into thinking you are outside when the roof is closed.

Originally called Enron Field, they quickly changed the ballpark sponsorship and name following the energy company's demise. Minute Maid Park replaced another stadium that was once considered a marvel of modern architecture some 35 years earlier, the Astrodome. While Minute Maid Park did not take on many of the characteristics of the Astrodome, it does have a few quirks that are reminiscent of other historic parks, namely an inclined hill in straight away center field that outfielders must scale as they run back for balls hit near the wall. On that same hill is an in-play flag pole, much like the one they had at old Tiger Stadium.

Another historic aspect of the stadium is it's connection to the train industry. The main entrance of the stadium was once part of Houston's old Union Station. In a tribute to that history, the stadium features a large wall in left field with a replica train that runs along the top of the wall whenever an Astros player hits a home run.

This is one of the more unique modern stadiums in terms of the design and seating arrangement. It is not an especially large park with a capacity just over 40,000. There are very few seats in left to left-center field, just the Crawford Boxes in left field. These seats are situated above a fairly tall wall in left, but are frequent recipients of home run balls due to the short distance to the wall. There are a lot of great standing room vantage points in left field too. Large arches in the wall allow people to see the field from the outfield concourse. There are two levels of seating in right field, and the standard three levels around the rest of the park. Although I didn't get to check out the view from there, the club level seats seem to be especially close to the field in this stadium. Overall, it doesn't appear that there are many bad seats in this park. I sat out in the lower level in right field.

The interesting design of the seating area also creates a very unique playing surface. Besides the hill and flag pole in center field, there are a lot of other interesting aspects of the outfield. In many locations in left field, there are literally lines on the wall to indicate what is a home run and what is in play. Moving out towards center from the Crawford Boxes, the wall dimensions shoot out quit a bit and there are several corners where balls can take funny bounces. Minute Maid Park is generally considered a good hitters park, but that is mostly because of the short porch in left. The rest of the field is relatively pitcher friendly. It is 436 feet from the plate to the wall in dead center, which is about as deep of a distance as you will find in all of baseball. Oh, and the playing surface is real grass, as opposed to the Astrodome which introduced AstroTurf to the world.

I have one small logistical gripe from this particular game that I feel compelled to share. As I always do, I bought a program before the game, but was shocked to find out it was $10 (at least twice the normal price). Later I discovered I was given an Astros yearbook rather than a program. So when I went back to try to make an exchange, I was informed that they didn't have any programs left. They had sold out of them a day or two earlier on Craig Biggio Day when they commemorated his 3,000 hit. I guess they don't have many printing presses on call in Houston. Anyway, the yearbook didn't have a scorecard, so I had to buy one of them as well. It had to have been the first stand-alone scorecard I had ever seen that didn't include a place to write in the pitchers and their stats, so I had to do that separately on the roster sheet, as you can see in my photos below. So that situation was a little odd, but back to more important things...

This game featured two NL Central rivals who had been the pride of the division in recent years, each having won a pennant over the previous two seasons. However, both came into this one below .500. In fact, the Astros had just fired their manager, Phil Garner, earlier that week. That didn't keep the fans away though. Over 37,000 were present for this Thursday afternoon rubber match of the three game series. The pitching matchup featured Matt Albers for the Astros and Joel Pineiro for the Cardinals.

Both starters pitched quite well in this one. The Astros got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning. Following a Mike Lamb walk, Luke Scott doubled down the left field line to knock in Lamb, but was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. The lead didn't last long though. In the top of the third, the eighth place hitter, Pineiro, led off with a single and advanced to third on a double by Brendan Ryan. Pineiro scored on a David Eckstein ground out. So Tony LaRussa's unusual batting order with the pitcher hitting 8th paid off this time.

Lance Berkman gave the Astros the lead in the fourth inning when he led off with a long home run to right field to give the Astros a 2-1 lead. Surprisingly, that score held up the rest of the game. After that, neither team had multiple hits in an inning until the 8th. The Cards got a couple singles off reliever Chad Qualls, but could not score. Craig Biggio had a pinch hit infield single in the bottom of the 8th for the Astros, but he was stranded as well. Then Brad Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to record the save and preserve an Astros win.

2007 was a very disappointing season for both of these teams. With the loss, the defending World Series champion Cardinals fell two games below .500, but remarkably they were only three games out of first place. They did not pick up the pace in September though and finished a distant third. The Astros finished even further behind the leaders and wound up in fourth place.

Following my brief stay in Houston, I flew to Chicago the next morning and spent the weekend in South Bend for the Notre Dame football season opener. So after thousands upon thousands of miles traveled by car, plane, train and foot, I had finally completed my six year, 30 MLB ballpark tour. It was a very rewarding experience and certainly something I would recommend to any big baseball fan. I have often been asked if I would consider doing something like this for other sports and the answer is no. For one thing, I don't love any other sport like I do baseball. But besides that, no sport features venues with such unique characteristics. Only in baseball is each playing field completely different. And similarly, the ballpark surrounding these fields are so much more interesting than those used for football, basketball or hockey.

So that pretty much wraps it up. But not really! I will continue to use this blog to add my visits to new stadiums that have opened since I completed my tour in 2007. Already by the time I finished, one stadium I had visited had been replaced (St. Louis) and another was scheduled to open the following year (Washington). In order to continue to be able to say I've been to every MLB stadium, I have been visiting each of these new parks as they have opened. So I actually have four more stadium reviews to write (Washington, St. Louis and both New York parks), plus I'll be adding Minnesota to that list later this week. So more to come soon!

Photo Album

From Houston

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Next stadium: Nationals Park, Washington

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

Chicago White Sox @ Texas Rangers
August 28, 2007

Rangers 4, White Sox 3

W: Wes Littleton
L: Mike MacDougal
S: Joaquin Benoit
HR: Paul Konerko (CHW), Jim Thome (CHW), Ian Kinsler (TEX), Gerald Laird (TEX)
Attendance: 20,261
Time of Game: 2 hours, 54 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Arlington, TX
First Game: April 11, 1994
Capacity: 49,115
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

My first trip to the state of Texas was during the last week of August 2007. That probably isn't the best time of the year to visit Texas, but nonetheless, I was ready to see just how hot it could get. Fortunately, it "only" reached the mid-90's in the couple days I spent in the Dallas area. I flew from Denver to Houston on a Monday and rented a car which I drove up to Dallas that afternoon. I stayed at a hotel in Arlington and was able to walk to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for a Tuesday night ballgame. I wound up spending almost all of my time in Arlington, so I really didn't see much of Dallas on this trip.

Arlington is about 20 miles west of Dallas. This makes the Rangers one of very few MLB teams that calls the suburbs home. The park is right down the street from the brand new Cowboys Stadium. At the time I was there, the football stadium was still in the early stages of construction. However, I did get a nice view of the progress as I walked right by it on my way to the ballpark. I'm curious to see what that area looks like these days with both stadiums up and running. In 2007, there wasn't a lot around there other than parking lots, although the Six Flags theme park is nearby as well. Originally named The Ballpark in Arlington when it opened in 1994, the park was later renamed to Ameriquest Field in Arlington, before switching to the current name in the year I visited.

No modern stadium has incorporated more retro ballpark themes than this one. From the red brick exterior, to the two level/porched right field seating, this stadium screams yesteryear. In true local fashion, everything really is bigger in Texas. An upper deck surrounds almost the entire stadium, except in center field where a four story office building creates a completely enclosed stadium. The lower level concourse has to be as large and wide as any concourse in baseball. The only problem is that it is located below the seating area, so you can't see the field from the concourse. This is definitely one of the most unique stadiums built in the last 20 years.

Despite these unique features, there are some things I don't like about the ballpark that keep me from naming Rangers Ballpark in Arlington among the best in baseball. First, I don't like the lack of openness. I think it is an especially odd design considering the extreme heat of Texas summers. Another head-scratcher is the location of the main scoreboard above the upper deck in right field. From field level seats, you almost have to strain your neck to peer up to it. Not to mention nobody in any of the numerous right field seats can see it. Finally, I appreciate the nod to old-fashioned ballparks with the right field seating design, however having poles that create obstructed views just doesn't make sense in a new stadium.

Much like my previous stop in Coors Field, Rangers Ballpark is another one that holds almost 50,000 fans. The three main seating levels stretch around foul territory, all the way out to left-center field. There are bleacher seats in left and right-center field surrounding a grassy backdrop in dead center. There is very little overlap between the main seating levels, so the upper deck is removed quite a bit from the playing field, however there are a lot of great seats in the lower level. For this game, I sat in the first row in right field.

Rangers Ballpark has a reputation as a great hitters park. This is primarily because the ball carries so well in the warm air. The outfield wall dimensions are very reasonable. In fact, the power alleys are quite deep and center field is very spacious. Perhaps the stadium's reputation is also built upon years of terrible Rangers pitching staffs. There is no reason a good pitcher couldn't be successful here.

I scheduled this trip around another White Sox visit. Unfortunately, I picked a bad summer to follow the Sox across the country. They stumbled into this game against an equally pathetic Rangers team. So it wound up being a battle of last place teams looking ahead to 2008. Gavin Floyd got the start for the Sox while Kason Gabbard took the hill for the Rangers. Both pitched decent games, but it wound up being the bullpens that decided this one.

The Sox struck first in the top of the first. Paul Konerko his a home run to deep right center to give the Sox a two run lead. In the third inning, Jim Thome hit a 422 foot bomb into the Rangers bullpen to increase the lead to 3-0. It was the third Thome home run I saw in person in the span of 10 days. It was also the 494th home run of his career. Ian Kinsler hit a solo home run for the Rangers in the bottom of the third to make it 3-1. The fourth home run of the game came the next inning as Gerald Laird hit a two run shot to tie the game. Home runs accounted for all six of the runs allowed by the starting pitchers.

The key moment of the game came in the top of the 8th with the game still tied at three. A single, walk and hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for the Sox with nobody out. Rangers reliever Wes Littleton managed to escape the jam without allowing a run to score. He induced a fielder's choice and a double play to get out of the inning. After blowing a golden opportunity in the top half, the Sox fell behind in the bottom half. Following a Michael Young single and a wild pitch by Mike MacDougal, Marlon Byrd knocked Young in with a single up the middle. Joaquin Benoit came in for the Rangers in the 9th and retired the Sox in order to secure a 4-3 victory for the Rangers.

Both teams were in last place at this point. The Rangers wound up finishing the season in last, while the Sox moved up a spot. However, the Rangers won 75 games in 2007 compared to just 72 for the White Sox. I wound up going back to the park for the second game in this series the following night. Once again, the Rangers won by a run, 5-4 in 11 innings. That game was even more painful to watch as a Sox fan since the hated Sammy Sosa wound up recording the game tying and game winning hits. Fortunately, I left town before the Rangers finished off the sweep on Thursday. After a few days in the Dallas area, I took off for Houston on Thursday for the 30th and final stop of my tour.

I'm actually making a return trip to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in just a couple weeks. I will be in Texas for a wedding and coincidentally the Sox are playing in Arlington that same weekend. Even though the wedding is down in San Antonio, I'm planning on driving up there for the Sunday night game. Hopefully the Sox will have better luck this time around.

Photo Album

From Texas

From Texas

From Texas

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From Texas

Next stadium: Minute Maid Park, Houston

Coors Field

Washington Nationals @ Colorado Rockies
August 26, 2007

Rockies 10, Nationals 5

W: Elmer Dessens
L: Joel Hanrahan
HR: Ryan Zimmerman (WAS), Ryan Church (WAS), Matt Holliday (COL)
Attendance: 24,086
Time of Game: 2 hours, 52 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Denver, CO
First Game: April 26, 1995
Capacity: 50,449
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Just a week after my cross country trip to Seattle, I set out on the final trip of my six year tour. This one took me out West again, but not quite to the coast. I flew from DC to Denver (via Houston) and then flew back to Texas after the game in the Mile High City. This was not my first time in Denver. I was there on a family vacation in 1993 and actually saw a Rockies game during their inaugural season. At that time, they were playing at Mile High Stadium, better known as the former home of the Denver Broncos. So this was my first visit to Coors Field. I was able to meet up with a friend in Denver and we took in a Sunday afternoon game between the Rockies and the Nationals.

After two record setting attendance seasons at Mile High Stadium, the Rockies moved into their new home of Coors Field in 1995. This baseball only facility in the Lower Downtown Denver was built to hold over 50,000 fans, partially due to the smashing success of their first couple years at Mile High. The stadium is in a very nice location with plenty of places to hang out before and after games. There didn't appear to be a lot going on in the city on this late August Sunday afternoon, but I imagine it is a happening place for Friday/Saturday night games.

Coors Field came along just a few years after Camden Yards began the trend of retro looking ballparks, so it definitely has a retro feel to it with the red brick exterior as well as many unique interior features. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another stadium with this high of a seating capacity that has such an open design. The large upper deck swings all the way around the right field foul pole out to center field, however left field has just the bleacher seats at field level. There is a seating area well beyond center field, known as the Rockpile, where the tickets are very affordable. The foul territory seating arrangement is very typical with three seating levels, including a pretty decent sized middle deck.

There is a purple row of seats circling the entire upper deck marking the exact one mile above sea level point. This row is near the top of the stadium, so most of the seats are not quite a mile high, although close enough in my book. Fortunately, our seats were well below those. We were just a few rows from the field down the third base line.

The thin air of Colorado has been a hotly debated topic since the Rockies joined the league in 1993. There is no doubt that balls carry better here than anywhere else in baseball. However, the "Coors effect" has been less prevalent in recent years. Don't get me wrong though: this is a tremendous hitters park. Balls fly over the fences routinely despite the deepest outfield fence dimensions in all of baseball. While the spacious outfield may take away a few home runs, it also leaves a whole lot of ground to cover for outfielders, so plenty of balls fall in for hits that would be outs in other parks. Singles turn into doubles and doubles into triples too. The success of Rockies pitchers in recent years is a real testament to their abilities.

This was the first time I had ever seen the Nationals play on the road. As usual, they were buried in the standings for this late August game. Meanwhile, the Rockies were a few games over .500, but seemingly too far out to be a serious pennant contender. That changed in a big way, but I'll get to that later. Elmer Dessens was the starting pitcher for the Rockies in this game. Joel Hanrahan got the nod for the Nationals.

On this sunny and hot afternoon, Coors Field played very much like the hitters paradise that it is. Ryan Zimmerman launched a home run to left in the first inning to give the Nats an early lead. The Rockies tied the game at one in the bottom half of the first on a RBI single by Todd Helton. Hanrahan allowed two more runs in the second in very ugly fashion. He walked the bases loaded with two outs before allowing a one run single to Troy Tulowitzki and a bases loaded walk to Matt Holliday. Four walks in the inning led to the Rockies 3-1 lead.

The third inning was even worse for Hanrahan and the Nats. After retiring the first two Rockies hitters, the next eight batters reached base safely. Here is the sequence of events: single, wild pitch, double, walk, double, single, home run, pitching change, single, double. The big blow was the two run home run by Holliday. Six runs and seven hits later, the Rockies had a 9-1 lead.

Surprisingly, neither team scored again until the seventh inning. Ryan Church hit a two run home run for the Nats off reliever Ramon Ortiz. A few more meaningless runs were tacked on after that. When it was all said and done, the Rockies came away with a 10-5 victory. Elmer Dessens picked up the win pitching six solid innings, allowing just the one first inning run. Meanwhile, Hanrahan took the loss and was charged with nine runs in 2 2/3 innings.

The Nats fell to 58-73 on their way to a distant fourth place finish. It was their most recent season in which they did not finish in last. The Rockies improved to 67-63, but were still in third place, six and a half games back with barely a month left in the season. Despite sweeping the Nats, they proceeded to play pretty mediocre ball until the middle of September. Then they put on one of the greatest finishing stretches in MLB history. They won 14 of their last 15 games, including a victory in a tie-breaking 163rd game against the Padres to claim the wild card spot. The hot streak continued into the playoffs where they swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks on their way to claiming the 2007 National League pennant, the first in franchise history. They got swept by the Red Sox in the World Series, but it was still a remarkable season for this young franchise.

After this game in the pseudo heat of Colorado, I took off for the REAL heat of Texas. This would be the last leg of my long journey.

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Next stadium: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington, TX

Safeco Field

Chicago White Sox @ Seattle Mariners
August 18, 2007

Mariners 7, White Sox 5

W: Jeff Weaver
L: John Danks
S: J.J. Putz
HR: Jim Thome 2 (CHW), A.J. Pierzynski (CHW)
Attendance: 41,121
Time of Game: 2 hours, 31 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Seattle, WA
First Game: July 15, 1999
Capacity: 47,116
Type: Retractable roof
Surface: Grass

Yet another long hiatus since my last entry. Now that I'm done with grad school, I really don't have any excuse not to get caught up with these in the next month or so. I left off in the middle of the last full season of my six year tour of every MLB stadium, which was 2007. A Memorial Day weekend trip took me to Phoenix and Chicago. My next stop was probably the most aggressive and illogical trip I made in this entire tour: a weekend trip to Seattle. I flew all the way across the country on a Friday evening, explored the city the following afternoon, went to a game and then flew back to the other coast on Sunday. Since Seattle wasn't exactly a quick trip from any other MLB city, I decided to make this one a trip of its own, and since I had no other purpose for making the trip than to see a Mariners game, I decided to do it on a weekend when the White Sox were in town. This happened to be in mid-August of 2007.

I really enjoyed my first visit to Seattle. It is a very scenic city situated between the mountains and the ocean. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco, but perhaps even a little more scenic. Of course, they don't have the greatest weather there, but fortunately it stayed dry during my time of exploration. On this particular Saturday, it was the exact opposite of what I experienced in Phoenix where there was barely a sole to be found in the streets of downtown. In Seattle, there were people everywhere, especially at the fish market near Puget Sound. I walked to Safeco Field from downtown. The stadium is situated just south of downtown, right next to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks.

I have had mixed reviews of the retractable roof stadiums I have reviewed so far, but Safeco Field is different. From the outside, it looks very similar to Milwaukee, Arizona and Toronto, but it is much different on the inside. What I like the most about it is that it really doesn't feel like a dome, even when the roof is closed. The roof consists of sliding pieces that cover the stadium more like an awning than an actual roof. Even with the roof closed, the ballpark is very much exposed to the elements. I imagine it is quite chilly in there for early season games. The roof was closed the entire time I was in the stadium. Although it was clear all day, it did start drizzling by the time the game ended.

Another interesting feature of the park is its proximity to the train yard just outside the stadium. Throughout the game, you can hear train horns sounding off. Some might consider this to be a little annoying, however I didn't mind it at all. It just helped add to the ambiance.

Like I said, Safeco doesn't really feel like a dome at all. The concourses are very similar to any of the newer outdoor parks I've seen, allowing people to watch the game while they wait in line for concessions. The seating areas are arranged in typical new ballpark fashion as well with two main seating levels and a smaller club level between them. The seating capacity is relatively high for a baseball only facility. There are a ton of outfield seats, especially in right field where there is a full-sized upper deck. My only complaint about the seating configuration is that almost all of the seats in left field are quite a ways removed from the field. This happened to be where I was sitting, in the first row in left field above the bullpens. There are much better seats close to the field in center and right field though.

Safeco Field plays like an outdoor stadium as well, especially when the roof is open (obviously). Since left field is completely exposed to the outside, wind can play a factor. Overall, this is a great pitchers park. It features some of the deepest power alley distances in all of baseball and there aren't many cheap home runs down the lines either. There aren't a lot of other distinctive features about the playing field.

This game featured two teams in completely different situations. The White Sox were suffering through a miserable, injury-plagued season and were well on their way to their worst finish in nearly two decades. Meanwhile, the Mariners were well on their way to their first winning season in four years and were very much in the playoff hunt. The Sox starting lineup featured four rookies, including starting pitcher John Danks. He was opposed by veteran starter Jeff Weaver. Both starting pitchers entered the game with ERAs over 5.00.

The Sox got on the board early on a solo home run by Jim Thome in the top of the first. A Juan Uribe sacrifice fly in the second knocked in A.J. Pierzynski and gave the Sox a 2-0 lead. Pierzynski added another run with a towering home run to right in the fourth. Unfortunately, Danks could not hold the lead. Raul Ibanez and Jose Guillen had RBI singles in the fourth and fifth innings respectively to get the Mariners back into the game. It was tied at three after five.

The wheels fell off for the Sox in the sixth. Danks allowed his ninth hit, a single by Adrian Beltre, to lead off the inning. He was then pulled from the game and replaced by Ehren Wassermann, who threw gasoline on the fire. A two run single by Kenji Johjima gave the Mariners the lead. Another hit, an error, a wild pitch and two intentional walks followed. When it was all said and done, the Mariners scored four times to take a 7-3 lead. The Sox were not quite done though. Jim Thome hit his second home run of the game in the eighth to make it 7-5. J.J. Putz recorded three outs in the ninth to pick up the save and gave the Mariners a two run win.

Despite the loss, Jim Thome had a terrific game. He hit two home runs (491 and 492 of his career) and very nearly had four. He flew out deep to center in one at bat and flew out to the wall in left in another. Meanwhile, five different Mariners recorded two hits in the game for a team total of 13. Weaver picked up the win after settling down following the early Sox runs. Danks took the loss, already his eleventh in just a few months in the big leagues. Fortunately, there would be better days for him down the road. The Sox miseries continued though, dropping their seventh straight. The streak reached eight the following afternoon as the Mariners swept the series. The Mariners improved to 68-52, but failed to go on much of a run after that and finished the season in second place behind the Angels.

I really enjoyed my short stay in Seattle and hope to visit again sometime. Safeco Field is a terrific stadium, ideal for protecting fans and players from the frequent Seattle rain, but built in such a way that it still feels very much like a baseball park. It is easily my favorite retractable roof stadium.

After this weekend trip to Seattle, all I had left was one final trip which I set out for just a week later. Like all of my 2007 trips, it required me racking up frequent flier miles as I flew to Colorado and Texas.

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Next stadium: Coors Field, Denver

Wrigley Field

Florida Marlins @ Chicago Cubs
May 28, 2007

Marlins 5, Cubs 3

W: Byung-Hyun Kim
L: Sean Marshall
S: Kevin Gregg
HR: Reggie Abercrombie (FLA)
Attendance: 41,630
Time of Game: 3 hours, 18 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Chicago, IL
First Game: April 20, 1916
Capacity: 41,118
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

After my quick trip to Arizona, I flew to Chicago on Sunday morning of Memorial Day Weekend 2007. I took the train directly to U.S. Cellular Field to meet up with my family for an afternoon White Sox game. On Monday, I headed back to Chicago for my third MLB game in as many days in three different stadiums. This one took me into enemy territory, Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Even though Wrigley was the closest MLB stadium from where I grew up, this was only my third visit to the "Friendly Confines". I was originally going to go to Wrigley during my 2004 trip, but had to postpone it. I had little trouble talking one of my Cubs fan friends into going to this game with me.

This is probably the most difficult stadium review for me to write. I'll try not to belabor the point to much, so I'll just get this out of the way right now: I do not like Wrigley Field, the Cubs, or anything having to do with the franchise. I can understand why Cubs fans hold the stadium in such high regard due to all the history made there and memories of great championship teams that have called Wrigley home. Oh wait, that isn't true. The Cubs have not won a World Series in the 94 years they have played at Wrigley and haven't won a pennant since 1945.

On a more positive note, the best thing Wrigley Field has going for itself is its location. Situated in the heart of a city neighborhood, the ballpark is surrounded by bars, restaurants and anything else you could want to occupy your time before or after a game. It is easy to get to via the El as well, although if you choose to drive to the game, good luck finding somewhere to park. Overall though, I find the neighborhood to be the best part of Wrigley Field.

Built in 1914, Wrigley Field is the second oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, behind Boston's Fenway Park. It was originally called Weeghman Park and was built as the home park for the Chicago Whalers of the soon after defunct Federal League. The Cubs moved in two years later (1916). It was also the long time home of the NFL's Chicago Bears (1921-1970). Until very recently, it held the distinction of having hosted more NFL games than any other stadium. That record was broken by Giants Stadium in New Jersey in 2003.

Being such an old stadium, Wrigley Field lacks most of the amenities found in modern stadiums. Electronic signage is almost non-existent. The manual scoreboard in center field is kind of cool for a nostalgic feel and has even been copied by a lot of newer stadiums. The narrow concourses beneath the seating areas are very cramped when the stadium is full. Also, you really get to know your neighbors in the seating area because the seats are quite small and the aisles are very narrow.

The distinctive features of Wrigley Field are the ivy covered outfield wall, the outfield bleacher seats and the rooftop seats across Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. The highly sought after bleacher seats have been expanded in recent years, but still make up a very small percentage of the overall seating in the stadium. I have not had a chance to experience a game in the Wrigley bleachers. There are only two levels of seating, which makes the upper deck seats extremely close to the action.

For this game, we sat near the back of the lower level, just beyond third base. In retrospect, this was a poor choice on my part because these are among the worst seats at Wrigley. There are probably more obstructed seats in this stadium than in any other MLB park due to the beams providing support for the upper deck. Unfortunately, we had one of these beams between us and home plate. Also, we could not see most balls hit in the air from this location. Lesson learned in case I ever decide to go back (not likely).

Wrigley Field has a reputation as a great hitter's park, but that is not always the case. Perhaps more than any other park, weather conditions play a huge role. When the wind is blowing in from Lake Michigan, it can be almost impossible to hit a home run. However, during most of the summer, the wind tends to blow out which leads to a lot of high scoring games. The power alleys are not deep at all and the basket separating the fans from the playing field winds up catching a lot of short home runs. The dimensions down the lines, however, are as deep as any stadium in baseball.

In my previous two visits to Wrigley, I did not feel out of place rooting against the Cubs since those games were against the White Sox and Cardinals, whose fans were well represented in the crowd. That was definitely not the case for this game against the Florida Marlins. So I kept my mouth shut and tried to go unnoticed.

The Cubs were coming off of a miserable last place finish in 2006 and were struggling a bit to this point of 2007 under new manager Lou Piniella. The Marlins were only a couple games better, so this was a matchup of sub .500 teams. The pitching matchup wasn't particularly compelling either. Sean Marshall got the nod for the Cubs and former washed up closer Byung-Hyun Kim started on the mound for the Marlins.

The Marlins struck first with an unearned run in the top of the first. A single by Josh Willingham knocked in Dan Uggla to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. The Marlins scratched out another run in the fourth, but overall, Marshall and Kim were extremely effective. Kim pitched six scoreless innings, surrendering just three hits and struck out five. Marshall's day ended in the seventh after surrendering a solo home run to the guy with the funny name, Reggie Abercrombie. Another single run for Florida in the eighth gave them a 4-0 lead.

Things got a little more interesting in the ninth. In the top half, Abercrombie reached on a walk and promptly stole second and third base and scored on a sacrifice fly to put the Marlins up five. The Cubs finally came to life in the bottom half. They started the inning with a walk and a pair of singles to get on the board. Then the Marlins turned to Kevin Gregg to get them out of the jam. He struck out the first two batters he faced, but then surrendered consecutive singles to cut the lead to 5-3 with the tying runs on base. The second of those hits was a two run single by Cliff Floyd. However, the rally was put to rest when Gregg struck out Aramis Ramirez to end the game.

The Cubs dropped to 22-27 with the loss. It was a tough 1-5 home stand for them, but the turning point of their season came at the tail end of the week when Piniella was thrown out of a game with one of his patented melt-downs the day after Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barret fought in the dugout. The Cubs rebounded to win the NL Central, but were promptly swept out of the playoffs by Arizona. Meanwhile, the Marlins improved to 24-27, but wound up finishing in last place in the NL East.

Perhaps I should go to games at Wrigley Field more often since the Cubs are yet to win a game I've seen there. However, I think it is best for me to keep my distance. I can't imagine a less enjoyable sports experience than seeing the Cubs win a game at Wrigley Field. Wrigley has some charm and has certainly become a "must-see" tourist destination. However, one has to wonder how much longer the Cubs will put up with playing in an outdated ballpark that has seen better days. Overall, it was a fun Memorial Day weekend trip with an interesting triangular route (DC to Arizona to Chicago and back to DC). The rest of my 2007 stops were not until a couple months later.

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Next stadium: Safeco Field, Seattle

Chase Field

Houston Astros @ Arizona Diamondbacks
May 26, 2007

Diamondbacks 5, Astros 4

W: Brandon Webb
L: Chris Sampson
S: Jose Valverde
HR: Carlos Lee (HOU)
Attendance: 27,836
Time of Game: 2 hours, 33 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Phoenix, AZ
First Game: March 31, 1998
Capacity: 49,033
Type: Retractable roof
Surface: Grass

2007 was the sixth and final year of my 30 ballpark tour. It was also the most ambitious leg of the tour. I intentionally left these ballparks for the final year because they were the hardest for me to get to in terms of proximity to one another combined with the distance from where I live. It wasn't realistic to do it all in a single trip, so I actually had three distinct baseball trips in the summer of 2007. In addition to all of that, I had an extra park to visit since I was unable to make it to Wrigley as planned in 2004. The first part of the 2007 tour was a Memorial Day weekend trip to Arizona and Chicago.

I had been to Arizona a couple times prior to this for Notre Dame football games at the Fiesta Bowl. Those were January trips though, so this was my first experience of Arizona in the summer, albeit a couple months before the oppressive summer heat. I had not spent much time in the city of Phoenix in those prior trips though. So this trip to Chase Field in downtown Phoenix was a brand new experience. I was very surprised at how dead downtown Phoenix was on this particular Saturday afternoon. Perhaps everyone left town for the holiday weekend. Or maybe people just don't spend a lot of time outside in the summer months. A friend came down from Las Vegas to join me for this game.

Chase Field, originally known as Bank One Ballpark, was built just in time for the Diamondbacks inaugural season in 1998. It was the first retractable roof stadium built since SkyDome in Toronto and the first ever built in the United States. It was also the first retractable roof stadium to feature a natural grass playing surface. A roof was a completely understandable and necessary feature for a ballpark in Phoenix.

The roof remains open most of the time to allow the grass to grow, but more often than not, the roof is closed for games during the summer months. On this night though, it was exactly the opposite. The roof was closed when we arrived at the park to allow the air conditioning to cool things off. Then they opened the roof just minutes before the first pitch. Surprisingly, it remained relatively pleasant for the duration of the game despite the 90 degree heat outside the stadium.

While I'm not a big fan of domes, this one is pretty nice. It helps that they are able to open the roof for games when the weather allows for it. Also, the grass surface is a nice touch. The exterior looks more like a basketball/hockey arena than a baseball stadium, but the interior is much nicer. This was the first retractable roof stadium I had been to since 2003, so I didn't have a lot of recent experiences to compare it to. I think it is very similar to Miller Park in Milwaukee though.

This is a very large ballpark for a baseball only facility. It seats nearly 50,000 people, almost all of which are in foul territory. There is just one level of seating in the outfield. The upper deck around the rest of the stadium is massive. The seats at the top of the stadium have to be about as high as you can sit at a MLB park. There is enough overlap with the lower levels to keep the upper deck relatively close to the field though.

Perhaps the signature feature of the stadium is the swimming pool in right-center field, which can be rented out for private parties for games. Our seats were in the second row in right field, not far from the pool, although we could not see it from our seats. The only problem with our seats is that we could not see a few parts of the outfield near the wall due to the unique layout of the outfield wall. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but coincidentally there were several balls hit into these outfield corners during this game. They were very nice seats though.

There is a lot of ground to cover in the outfield of Chase Field. It is well over 400 feet to the wall in dead center, and even further to the corners a little left and right of dead center. Despite the lengthy dimensions, there are still plenty of home runs hit in this park. The ball carries extremely well. Another interesting feature of the playing field is the dirt strip running between home plate and the pitcher's mound. The only other park with this feature is Detroit.

I have always known that Arizona is a second home or a retirement destination for a ton of people from the Chicago area. This was very much proven to be the case at this game. Besides my buddy and me, there were a bunch of other people in our section who lived in the Chicago area at some point, including several Cubs fans. It is no wonder the crowd is so mixed when the Cubs come to town. I would not have expected this for a game between the Diamondbacks and Astros though.

The Diamondbacks entered this game in third place in the competitive NL West, but not far out of first. They sent their ace, Brandon Webb, to the mound for this game. Meanwhile, the fifth place Astros countered with Chris Sampson. Webb had his typically good outing, but Sampson kept the Astros in it and this turned out to be a very exciting game.

The Astros scored a quick run in the first. It took the Diamondbacks a little longer to get their offense going. In the bottom of the third, Chris Snyder doubled to right field, knocking in Carlos Quentin to tie the game. Snyder later scored on a Chris Young sacrifice fly to give Arizona a 2-1 lead.

Webb had his sinker working all night, forcing the Astros into a ton of ground outs and strike outs. He received a bit of a scare in the sixth though. Lance Berkman lined one off his left arm. Fortunately, he was able to stay in the game. He did surrender a run in that inning on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Lee. The Diamondbacks added yet another sacrifice fly in the bottom half to retake the lead.

A two run double by Erik Byrnes in the seventh seemed to give the Diamondbacks a commanding 5-2 lead, but the Astros were not done. Lee knocked in two more runs for the Astros with a home run off reliever Tony Pena in the eighth. Jose Valverde shut the door in the ninth inning to secure a 5-4 victory for the Diamondbacks. It was already the 18th save of the season for Valverde.

The Astros dropped their seventh straight game on their way to a disappointing 89 loss season in 2007. On the flip side, the Diamondbacks moved closer to first place with the win. They wound up edging out Colorado and San Diego by a game to win the NL West. The Diamonbacks swept the Cubs in the first round of the playoffs, but then got swept in the NLCS by their division rival Rockies.

Arizona was fortunate enough to win a World Series in just their fourth season of existence in 2001. Since then, they have been up and down, but remain a pretty successful franchise. Chase Field has been an ideal home park for a team in the desert of Arizona. After this short stay in Arizona, I hopped on a plane the following morning to head to Chicago.

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Next stadium: Wrigley Field, Chicago