McAfee Coliseum (Oakland Coliseum)

Minnesota Twins @ Oakland Athletics
June 4, 2006

Athletics 5, Twins 1

W: Brad Halsey
L: Carlos Silva
Attendance: 25,247
Time of Game: 2 hours, 26 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Oakland, CA
First Game: April 17, 1968
Capacity: 48,219
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

2006 was one of the two years where I was able to hit all of the parks on a single trip (2003 was the other). It was also my first baseball stadium trip where I was not able to drive the entire way. I hopped on a plane and flew from DC to Oakland, through Phoenix. The trip got off to an exciting start as I happened to be on the same flight as former Notre Dame and Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman. I got a chance to chat with him for a couple minutes in the airport in Phoenix. Once I arrived in Oakland, I rented a car which I drove along the Pacific Coast before flying home from San Diego. Along the way, I went to games in all five of the Major League stadiums in California. Not only was this my first trip to these stadiums, but it was actually the first time I had ever been to the Pacific Coast.

The first stop on the California trip was McAfee Coliseum in Oakland. I definitely got the worst stadium out of the way early. McAfee Coliseum is the oldest remaining MLB stadium that is also used for football. It has gone the opposite way of most venues. While multi-sport stadiums used to be commonplace, most cities have built new single sport facilities for one or both of their teams. In Oakland, they remodeled the stadium in 1996 to make it more attractive for an NFL team as the Raiders moved back from Los Angeles. As a result, they built an enormous second level in the outfield, blocking any view of the distant hills. Not that it was a terribly impressive stadium before the remodeling either, but I suspect it felt a lot more like a baseball park back then.

On a positive note, the remodeling also included enhancements throughout the stadium, so it is actually in great shape for a 40 year old facility. The stadium is completely symmetrical with a circular exterior, except for the outfield. There are three levels of seats most of the way around the stadium. However, at the time I was there the upper level was completely covered up with tarps, drastically reducing the capacity I listed above. I think this might still be the case today. Needless to say, the A's don't usually draw enough fans for this to be an issue.

Another drawback of the stadium due to its football configuration is that a lot of the lower level seats are a long way from the playing field. McAfee Coliseum has the largest foul territory of any stadium, by far. There are very few seats that are in close proximity to the infield. I even question how great the lower level seats are for football games. It seems to me they would still be quite a distance from the playing field. I sat in the bleacher seats in right center field. They were GA seats, so first come, first serve. I was able to get a spot in the second row, which turned out to be a very nice place to see the game.

Although the A's teams of the mid to late 80's were known for their power, McAfee Coliseum is not a great hitters park. The huge foul territory obviously benefits the pichers, as do the relative deep dimensions to all fields. The upper deck outfield additions somewhat takes the wind out of play. Also, the ball does not carry particularly well on the cool evenings that Oakland is known for.

This game was on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon in early June. Rich Harden got the start for the A's. It was his first start since being activated from the disabled list, a place he has seen regularly throughout his career. In fact, he wound up going right back to the DL following this game. Carlos Silva got the start for the Twins and had a rough outing, as usual.

It was a little bittersweet for me to see Frank Thomas play in a uniform other than the White Sox for the first time ever. Thomas joined the A's for the 2006 season. I decided to wear a Thomas White Sox t-shirt, which was noticed by a few people. He also happened to be on the cover of the game program. It was painful to watch him play, not only in another uniform, but as a player who was only a shadow of his former self. He came up to bat for the first (and only) time in the second inning. He lined a ball down the left field line and nearly got thrown out at second as he hobbled into the base without sliding. Bobby Crosby came up next and lined a base hit into left center. Again, Frank barely made it home, but did score the first run of the game. They pinch hit for him the next time up.

Prior to the Thomas run, the Twins scored first in the top of the first inning. Joe Mauer hit a home run into my section in right-centerfield to give the Twins a quick 1-0 lead. Thomas started a three run rally for the A's in the second. Marco Scutaro knocked in two with a single to give the A's a 3-1 lead after two innings.

Harden kept mowing down Twins hitters, but was pulled after four innings due to reaching a pitch limit. He struck out six, but did allow four hits and three walks. Dan Johnson hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to extend the Oakland lead to 4-1. Brad Halsey then relieved Harden in the top of the fifth. He wound up pitching five scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win. The A's added an insurance run in the eighth inning on their way to a 5-1 victory. Scutaro was the offensive star for the A's. The utility infielder notched three hits, including the two run single in the second.

Both teams came into this game a few games under .500. However, it turned out to be a great season for both. The Twins wound up winning the AL Central, a division that had three 90+ win teams. Meanwhile, the A's also won a division championship in the AL West. These teams met again in the ALDS, where the A's swept the Twins in three games. The A's proceeded to lose to the Tigers in the ALCS.

McAfee Coliseum is not a dump by any means, but it is probably one of the worst outdoor stadiums remaining. It is certainly overshadowed by the stadium on the other side of the bay, which I will review next. In many ways, the Bay Area stadiums are reflections of their cities. Oakland is not much of a city compared to San Francisco.

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Next stadium: AT&T Park, San Francisco

PNC Park

Chicago Cubs @ Pittsburgh Pirates
September 4, 2005

Cubs 2, Pirates 0

W: Jerome Williams
L: Kip Wells
S: Ryan Dempster
Attendance: 23,204
Time of Game: 2 hours, 32 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Pittsburgh, PA
First Game: April 9, 2001
Capacity: 38,496
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

Wow, it has been two months since my last entry! Since my last review, I have been to two more new stadiums (both of the new New York parks), so I can once again say I have been to every MLB stadium. I'll write about those much later though. In the mean time, where did I leave off...

Ah yes, the last new park of 2005. After going to an early season game at RFK and a mini three game trip to the Southeast in May, the last stop was not until September of that year. I was in Pittsburgh on Labor Day weekend for the first Notre Dame football game of the season against the Pitt Panthers. My friends and I enjoyed a full day of tailgating, football watching, and postgame celebrating of a big Irish victory. Incidentally, that was the first game of the Charlie Weis era.

I was able to talk some of my friends into going to a Pirates game the following afternoon. Unfortunately, we used up most of our energy the previous day and were totally drained by the end of the baseball game. The game itself didn't help the situation since it was a boring game between two teams who were completely out of the playoff chase. All of that is quite unfortunate because PNC Park is easily one of my favorite stadiums.

PNC Park is situated in an absolutely perfect location, creating quite possibly the most scenic surroundings in all of baseball. The stadium is right next to the Allegheny River, near the meeting point of the three rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. Most of the stadium has a great view of the downtown skyline on the other side of the river. The golden-colored Roberto Clemente bridge adds to the impressive backdrop. Many fans walk across the bridge from downtown to get to the park. From there, they get a great view into the park.

PNC is a very intimate park, a rare characteristic of a newer stadium. It is one of the few stadiums with just two seating levels. It has the second smallest seating capacity in the MLB. Without a middle deck, every seat in the park is relatively close to the playing field. There are not a lot of outfield seats, although there is a pretty good sized bleacher section in left field, which is where we sat for this game. Actually, after sweating in the hot sun for a couple hours, we watched the last few innings from an unoccupied, shady portion of the upper deck.

Besides being a scenic park with great seats throughout, it is also a great place to play. The river beyond the right field seats might be a temptation for left handed sluggers, but very few balls actually make it that far. The tall right field wall is difficult to clear. Overall, the dimensions are very fair for batters and pitchers.

As I mentioned, this was a late season game between two teams going nowhere. Therefore, it was a pretty small crowd for a nice Sunday afternoon. Many of the fans were probably leftovers like us from the football game the day before, as well as the usual large Cubs fan contingency.

Kip Wells got the start for the Pirates while Jerome Williams took the mound for the Cubs. Not a stellar pitching matchup, however they were both sharp on this afternoon. Nomar Garciaparra gave the Cubs an early lead with a solo home run in the top of the second. As usual, Garciaparra had missed most of the '05 season with an injury, but continued a hot streak by hitting his fourth home run in six games. This wound up being all Williams would need.

The Pirates mustered just four hits in the entire game, all singles. It was a rare quality start for Williams, which probably says more about the lineup the Pirates were running out there. A Jeromy Burnitz double in the sixth inning scored Neifi Perez to give the Cubs a two run cushion. Williams continued to dominate into the 8th inning when the Cubs bullpen took over. Ryan Dempster struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to nail down the save and a 2-0 Cubs victory.

This was the Pirates eighth consecutive loss at PNC Park, a record at that time in that park. I have no idea if it has been broken since then, but my guess is it has. The Pirates haven't had a winning season since 1992. It is really unfortunate that this franchise has become a perennial loser, unwilling to hang onto their good players, because they have a gem of a ballpark.

I have been to PNC Park twice. I returned in 2007 to see the White Sox beat the Pirates. So I have seen the Pirates lose at home to both of the Chicago teams. I won't hesitate to visit again if the opportunity presents itself. My next entry will move on to my big California trip of 2006.

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Next stadium: McAfee Coliseum, Oakland

Tropicana Field

Chicago White Sox @ Tampa Bay Devil Rays
May 9, 2005

Devil Rays 4, White Sox 2

W: Lance Carter
L: Freddy Garcia
S: Danys Baez
Attendance: 8,774
Time of Game: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: St. Petersburg, FL
First Game: March 31, 1998
Capacity: 43,772
Type: Dome
Surface: Artificial turf

After another long hiatus in these reviews, I'm back at it. I left off in the middle of my trip to the Southeast. After attending a Marlins game on a Sunday afternoon, the following day I drove across the state of Florida, through the Everglades, to the Gulf Coast. I arrived in the Tampa Bay area well in advance of the Monday night game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

I already mentioned my dislike of domed stadiums in the Metrodome review, but I will reiterate it now. It is especially mind boggling to be playing indoor baseball in Florida. Tropicana Field gets a slight edge over the Metrodome since it is primarily configured for baseball only and is newer, but it still ranks as one of my least favorite parks. This was my second trip to Tropicana Field. I was also there in 2000 during a family vacation to Florida. It was pouring rain that day, so the dome actually came in handy. For this 2005 visit though, it was a bright, sunny day, making me wish I was watching a game outdoors.

Originally built in 1990 in order to entice a baseball team to relocate, or an expansion team to be placed, Tropicana Field did not get a permanent baseball resident until the expansion Devil Rays came along in 1998. The first franchise they tried to woo was actually the White Sox who were in a nasty stadium battle with the state of Illinois in the late 80s. Fortunately, that was resolved and the Sox remained in Chicago.

Tropicana Field reminds me a lot of Skydome in Toronto, minus the retractable roof. It is a pretty nice facility, but has way too much of a mall feel to it. There are restaurants and shops throughout the park. You have to leave the concourse area to realize you are actually in a sporting arena.

On a positive note, the stadium is definitely built for baseball. There are no roll-away seats or temporary walls like the Metrodome has. There are also no upper deck seats in the outfield. The only really bad seats in the park are the top part of the upper deck, which are generally blocked off (except in the World Series last year). The Rays rarely draw enough fans to make this much of an issue anyway.

As small of a crows as I was part of in Miami, this one was MUCH smaller. The announced attendance was 8,774, and a good percentage of those were Sox fans. I got a ticket in the club level behind the Sox dugout, but honestly could have sat pretty much anywhere I wanted.

The playing field is quite unique at Tropicana Field. Despite the artificial surface, they have a full dirt infield. Also the fieldturf makes the playing surface relatively similar to playing on grass. The uniqueness is mostly in the fact that several catwalks circle the stadium up near the roof. I have no idea why it was built this way, however they frequently come into play on towering pop ups and fly balls. They have some interesting ground rules for what happens when a ball strikes, or goes over one of these catwalks. The dimensions of the field are pretty standard, though there are some deep parts of the park just to the right and left of straight away center field.

On paper, this game looked like a huge mismatch. The White Sox entered the game with the best record in baseball (24-7), while the Devil Rays found themselves in their usual last place at 11-21. The pitching matchup seemed to give the Sox a huge edge as well. Freddy Garcia started for the Sox while the washed up Hideo Nomo got the start for the Devil Rays.

But in baseball, anything can happen on any given day. The red hot White Sox were not clicking this night. After a Scott Podsednik walk and stolen base to lead off the game, Tadahito Iguchi scored him on a double and later scored himself on a sacrifice fly by Paul Konerko. Those would be the only two runs the Sox would score on the night. Nomo wasn't unhittable, but the Sox blew several golden opportunities to add to their lead.

The Devil Rays got on the board in the fourth on a double by former Sox Chris Singleton. They scored two more runs in the sixth inning, with Singleton once again driving in the go ahead run. An insurance run in the seventh gave the Devil Rays a 4-2 lead. The Sox did very little off the Rays bullpen and came up short by a score of 4-2.

Despite this loss, 2005 wound up being a very special season for the White Sox. They went on to win their first World Series title since 1917. Coincidentally, I've seen the Sox play in Tampa twice and both seasons the Sox wound up winning their division. Meanwhile, the Devil Rays struggled to another last place finish. It wouldn't be until three years later when the franchise would finally gain some life and win the American League pennant. One can only hope that their success in '08 will lead to more support from the community, because it was pretty sad when I was down there. Another move in the right direction would be to build an outdoor stadium, but that probably won't happen any time soon.

This was the last MLB stadium stop of the trip, however I did stop in Charlotte on my way home to see the Sox AAA team play. There was one more MLB park to see in 2005 though. I went up to Pittsburgh much later that season. Hopefully it won't take me another month to write about that one.

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Next stadium: PNC Park, Pittsburgh