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

Petco Park

Florida Marlins @ San Diego Padres
June 11, 2006

Marlins 7, Padres 3

W: Brian Moehler
L: Jake Peavy
S: Taylor Tankersley
HR: Cody Ross (FLA), Dan Uggla (FLA)
Attendance: 31,090
Time of Game: 2 hours, 53 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: San Diego, CA
First Game: April 8, 2004
Capacity: 42,445
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Following the Saturday night Angels game, I spent one last night in Anaheim before heading down the Pacific Coast once again. My buddy and I took off early Sunday morning in order to arrive in San Diego for a Sunday afternoon game at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The final game of my 2006 California trip was at another one of the best parks in baseball.

Petco Park is located in downtown San Diego, just a short walk from the San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was built in this area in an attempt to revitalize a neighborhood, and from what I can tell, it has done just that. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore in San Diego, but my limited impression was very positive. This is definitely a city I need to visit again. Not surprisingly, it was a beautiful summer afternoon in San Diego with barely a cloud in the sky.

Petco Park didn't go with the retro ballpark look and feel like many of the other stadiums built in the 2000s. The only significant retro feature is the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field. This old brick building now houses suites, a restaurant and some bleacher seating. The 100+ year old building was scheduled to be demolished to make way for the stadium, but was declared a historic landmark and eventually became a trademark symbol of the ballpark.

The rest of the outfield seating is quite unique as well. There are two levels of seating in both left and right field, but the wide open center field area gives the park an open feel. Lawn seating is available in center field. Our seats were in the lower level in right field. Interestingly, most of those seats in right field are not covered by the upper deck, which means the right field upper deck is pretty far away from the playing field. Our seats were very nice though.

Another distinctive feature of Petco Park are the two tall light towers just beyond first and third base that also house luxury suites. These towers separate the main seating areas into a few different sections, much like they have in Philadelphia and the new Washington stadium as well. There are three distinct seating levels in those areas of the park.

None of these California ballparks are hitters' paradises, but Petco Park is probably the best pitcher's park in all of baseball. The relatively deep dimensions, especially to right field, combined with the typical wind patterns, makes this a very difficult place to hit home runs. It is almost always at or near the bottom of the league in home runs surrendered. There were a pair of home runs in this game, but both of them would have been long gone in any stadium.

For the second time on this trip, I saw the woeful Florida Marlins play. In fact, I witnessed two consecutive starts by Marlins pitcher Brian Moehler. After getting rocked in San Francisco six days earlier, he was much more effective in this one. Meanwhile, the Padres sent their ace, Jake Peavy, to the mound. Peavy was not having a particularly good season though and 2006 probably wound up being the worst season of his career to date.

The Padres struck first in the bottom of the first inning. Three hits, an error and a wild pitch led to a pair of Padres runs. Brian Giles knocked in the first run with a single, scoring Mike Cameron who bowled over Marlins catcher Miguel Olivo. Adrian Gonzalez also added a RBI single in the inning. Peavy surrendered the lead in the next half inning though. Olivo connected for a two run single to tie the game. It was the first of four hits on the afternoon for Olivo.

For the second consecutive game on this trip, an intentional walk proved to be very costly. Peavy gave a free pass to Miguel Cabrera to put two men on with two outs in the top of the fifth. Cody Ross made the Padres pay for that decision, launching a towering three run home run into the upper deck in left field. This gave the Marlins a 6-2 lead. Peavy didn't make it past the fifth inning, yet managed to strike out ten Marlins in addition to the eight hits, three walks and six earned runs.

Moehler, on the other hand, had a nice outing. He only surrendered those two first inning runs in seven innings of work. Dan Uggla capped off the scoring in the ninth with a solo home run to the top level of the Western Metal Supply Co. building in left field. Taylor Tankersley pitched 1 1/3 innings to record the save. The Marlins won by a final of 7-3.

The Padres dropped to 32-31 after this game and found themselves in third place. However, the NL West was quite weak this season and the Padres wound up winning the division with 88 victories. They lost to the Cardinals in the '06 NLDS.

As I mentioned before, my only regret about this trip was that I didn't plan more time in the beautiful city of San Diego. Petco Park fits in very nicely with its surroundings in downtown San Diego. The entire 2006 California trip was a blast. Along with my first major trip in 2003, this was definitely one of the best baseball trips I've done and one I would highly recommend to others.

That's it for 2006. This brings me to 2007, when I crazily flew all over the country going to the remaining ballparks.

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Next stadium: Chase Field, Phoenix

Angel Stadium of Anaheim

Seattle Mariners @ Los Angeles Angels
June 10, 2006

Mariners 12, Angels 6

W: Gil Meche
L: John Lackey
HR: Richie Sexson (SEA), Adrian Beltre (SEA), Ichiro Suzuki (SEA), Mike Napoli 2 (LAA)
Attendance: 44,129
Time of Game: 3 hours, 12 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Anaheim, CA
First Game: April 19, 1966
Capacity: 45,054
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

The biggest break of my 2006 trip occurred between the Dodgers and Angels game, so I had two days off in the Los Angeles area. In retrospect, I wish I had planned this trip a little differently so I would have had more time in San Francisco and San Diego rather than Los Angeles since I preferred those two cities. I stayed at a hotel in Anaheim that was walking distance from Disneyland. I didn't bother visiting the theme park though. On Saturday night, I met up with a couple of my West Coast buddies to see the Angels play the Mariners at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Angel Stadium is located in Anaheim. The name of the franchise has changed several times, from Los Angeles (when the Angels were actually playing in LA), to California, Anaheim, and now back to Los Angeles. Personally, I think Anaheim was the right city name for the team since Anaheim is a decent distance southeast of Los Angeles. The Angels are now officially known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Why not of Anaheim, Orange County, California, USA, North America?

Angel Stadium of Anaheim, originally Anaheim Stadium and later Edison Field, is another one of the oldest remaining ballparks in the MLB. You certainly wouldn't know that by visiting the park today though. It has been renovated twice in its history due to tenant changes. It was originally built in the late 60's as the home of the Angels, who played their first few seasons at Dodger Stadium. Later, the NFL's Rams moved in and the stadium was converted to a multi-purpose facility with an upper deck surrounding the entire stadium. Finally, after the Rams moved to St. Louis in the mid 90's, it was converted back to a baseball only facility. The outfield upper deck was removed and the entire park received a makeover.

The current park really has no resemblance of a former football stadium. It looks like a typical baseball park with two large seating levels and a smaller club level in between. There is a single level of seats at field level in left field. The right field seats are elevated a bit, above the large right field wall. During the renovation, a rock pile with water fountains was added just beyond the left-centerfield fence, providing a nice scenic touch. Just outside of the stadium is the famous "Big A" sign and halo which is lit up when the Angels win. The stadium itself is often referred to as "The Big A".

Our seats were in the right field grandstands, up towards the top of the section. The only problem with the seats were that we could not see the portion of right field near the fence due to the high wall. Overall though, they were good seats and the price was right.

This is probably the best hitter's park in California, though not outrageously so. Plenty of home runs are hit to the alleys. The short fences near the foul poles allow fans to practically reach out and touch outfielders against the wall, if they so choose.

The ballpark certainly played small on this particular night, as my string of high scoring games continued, despite a pretty good starting pitching matchup. Gil Meche got the start for the Mariners and the Angels sent their ace, John Lackey, to the hill. Just like the previous games on this trip though, the starters really struggled.

Meche had trouble with his command in the early innings. In the second, he surrendered four singles, leading to a pair of Angles runs. Adam Kennedy and Chone Figgins had the RBI knocks for the Angels, but they wound up leaving the bases loaded. Meche settled down a bit after that, which is when Lackey's troubles began. After a pair of singles to start the top of the third, Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt doubled to right to score the Mariners first run. This was followed by an unusual play. Ichiro Suzuki grounded one to first. The runner on third wound up retreating to the base, but the runner on second had already decided to advance. So the Mariners lost an out when Betancourt was tagged out with two runners standing on third base. Fortunately for the Mariners, Jose Lopez hit a two run double later in the inning to give them a 3-2 lead.

Lackey ran into even bigger trouble in the top of the fifth. The Mariners had runners on second and third with one out when Lackey intentionally walked Raul Ibanez to get to Richie Sexson. That proved to be a big mistake as Sexson launched a grand slam to increase the lead to 7-2. The Mariners added one more run in the inning before Lackey was removed from the game, giving up eight earned runs. Things got even more out of hand in the seventh. Ichiro hit a three run home run and Adrian Beltre followed with another bomb to make it 12-3 Mariners.

The bright spot for the Angels on the night was rookie catcher Mike Napoli. He hit a pair of home runs: a solo shot in the sixth and a two run blast in the seventh. This was the second straight game on my trip where a player from the losing team hit two home runs. Rafael Furcal did the same at Dodger Stadium. The Angels scratched out a run in the eighth inning as well, but fell to the Mariners by a final of 12-6. Meche picked up the win despite giving up seven hits and four walks in just five innings. Both teams recorded 16 hits in the game and their were five total home runs.

The Angels were having a rough season to this point of 2006. They dropped to 27-34 after this game, which kept them in last place in the AL West. The Mariners improved to 30-34, a spot ahead of the Angels in the standings. The Angels wound up rebounding with a great second half to win 89 games, but did not make the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Mariners finished in last place.

On a personal level, it was fun to visit the place where my White Sox clinched the American League pennant the previous October. Side note: the Sox went 11-1 in the playoffs on their way to the World Series Championship. Their one loss? Game one of the ALCS against the Angels, the one game I attended. Tables were turned in 2008 though, when I was at the only playoff game the Sox won.

Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a very nice park. Despite being built in the 60's, this is really a much newer stadium than that. Although I was never there prior to the reconfiguration, I suspect the stadium is 100 times nicer now. After a fun Saturday night in Anaheim, I took off for San Diego the following morning for the last stop on my 2006 trip.

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Next stadium: Petco Park, San Diego

Dodger Stadium

New York Mets @ Los Angeles Dodgers
June 7, 2006

Mets 9, Dodgers 7

W: Tom Glavine
L: Odalis Perez
S: Billy Wagner
HR: Lastings Milledge (NYM), Jose Cruz (LAD), Rafael Furcal 2 (LAD)
Attendance: 44,230
Time of Game: 2 hours, 48 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Los Angeles, CA
First Game: April 10, 1962
Capacity: 56,000
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Following a couple days in the Bay Area, I decided to take the scenic route to Southern California. I drove along the Pacific Ocean on Highway 1. It was easily the most scenic drive I've ever made. Since I had a day off between games, I was in no rush. After spending Tuesday night in Santa Barbara, I drove to Los Angeles on Wednesday for my first visit to the nation's second largest city. After a little exploration, I found me way to Dodger Stadium for a Wednesday night game between the Dodgers and the Mets.

Dodger Stadium is located just north of downtown Los Angeles. It is situated in an extremely hilly area with the San Gabriel mountains providing a scenic backdrop to the stadium. The elevation of the stadium is quite a bit higher than downtown LA, because you can look down on the city from the area outside the park behind home plate. Palm trees also enhance the scenery around the stadium.

The ballpark was basically built into the side of a hill. If you walk into the stadium from the gates behind home plate, you are actually entering the top level of the stadium. From there, you can walk down several sets of steps to get to the gates that access the lower levels. However, the parking lots are beyond the outfield seats, so the gates nearest the lots are at ground level. Unlike most ballparks at or near major downtown areas, there is quite a bit of parking at Dodger Stadium. You better plan on it taking some time to get out of the lots after the game though.

Dodger Stadium is now the third oldest stadium in Major League Baseball (well behind Wrigley and Fenway), however it is well maintained and I doubt the Dodgers will be looking to replace it anytime soon. It is one of the largest baseball only facilities. There are three large seating levels in foul territory, plus a fourth level at the top of the stadium behind home plate. The second (loge) level is as large as you will see anywhere. I sat in the loge level down the first base line. The outfield features bleacher seating which is somewhat isolated from the rest of the stadium. The two outfield scoreboards are somewhat dated, but provide all the necessary information and are easily visible from all of the non-outfield seats.

This is another one of the great pitching parks. Although the wall is only 395 feet away to dead center, the distances to the gaps and down the lines are among the deepest in the league. The field is perfectly symmetrical too, so it does not provide an advantage to hitters from either side of the plate.

I don't normally like to talk about the local fans in these write-ups, because I don't think it is fair to judge a fan base on a single night. However, I feel compelled to mention that the behavior of Dodgers fans at this particular game was as bad as I've ever seen at a MLB game. It was especially odd considering this was a Wednesday night. There were at least three people escorted out of my section, including one who probably spent the night in jail after shoving a security guard. The woman sitting next to me had something stolen from her too. On top of all that, there were countless beach balls batted around and a wave started up with the Dodgers batting in a close game. I hate the wave to begin with, but it is completely inexplicable in a tight game when the home team is batting. But I digress...

The Mets and Dodgers squared up in the premiere matchup of this trip. The Mets were in first place in the NL East and the Dodgers were a close second in the NL West. Future Hall-of-Famer Tom Glavine was the starting pitcher for the visiting Mets. The veteran lefty was in the midst of the last outstanding season of his career, already compiling eight wins at this point in early June. On the other side, the Dodgers went with their own lefty, Odalis Perez, who was having a tough season. His troubles continued in this one as his ERA ballooned over 7.

The Mets tagged Perez right from the start. In the top of the first, they scored four runs, highlighted by a Jose Valentin double and a triple by rookie outfielder Lastings Milledge. Milledge's knock was the fifth straight hit for the Mets following a two out, nobody on situation. The Dodgers wasted no time scoring themselves. Rafael Furcal hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first to make it 4-1. The Mets got that run back in the second though. Carlos Beltan got an RBI single, knocking in Glavine who had walked to lead off the inning.

Glavine gave it all back in the bottom of the second. The Dodgers tied the game up with four runs, including a three run home run by Furcal, his second home run in as many innings. Furcal had already doubled his season home run total to four. Perez capped off his miserable night in the fourth by surrendering four consecutive singles and two more runs. In total, he was tagged for seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings. The Mets had a 7-5 lead when he departed. Glavine was not much better though. He gave up another leadoff home run in the bottom of the fourth to Jose Cruz Jr. to cut the Mets lead to one.

The scoring finally slowed down for a few innings. Milledge hit his second career home run in the top of the seventh. The two run shot extended the Mets lead to 9-6. The Dodgers had one more push in them in the eight. Nomar Garciaparra led off with a single, but was thrown out by Milledge trying to stretch it to a double. That wound up being costly because a walk and then a double by Andre Either only drew one run for the Dodgers as the headed to the ninth down 9-7. Billy Wagner came in to pitch for the Mets in the ninth and retired the Dodgers in order to pick up the save. Despite the shaky outing, Glavine picked up his ninth win of the season, which led the league at that point.

This was a very exciting game between two good teams. The Mets wound up winning their division with 97 wins while the Dodgers claimed the NL Wild Card in 2006. These two teams met in the Division Series, where the Mets swept the Dodgers prior to losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS.

Dodger Stadium is a great place to see a game. Despite being one of the oldest parks in baseball, I don't see any reason why the Dodgers would bother building a new stadium anytime soon. Although it was a rough night in the stands, Dodger fans have certainly supported their team well through the years, as they are always near the top of the league in attendance. Hopefully what I saw this night is not the norm for Dodger fans.

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Next stadium: Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim