Jack Murphy/Qualcomm

Jack Murphy Stadium had to be my last entry [excluding new stadia I have not yet visited]. I have attended hundreds of games at this park. For some of the years I was a season ticket holder. I moved to San Diego in October 1989. My second night in San Diego was the World Series game that was cancelled between Oakland and San Francisco. So my first full season in a city with professional baseball was 1990. 

I used to consider Jack Murphy to be the best dual-purpose stadium. I still think this is true up until the stadium expansion in 1998. Pre-expansion, the stadium was open at one end [above right field for baseball and one of the end zones for football]. There was an open feeling and a nice view of Mission Valley. It’s hard to beat the weather in San Diego. I think there were less than five rain-outs in the 15 years I lived there. The field was typically in great shape until football season. One of the coolest things the stadium did was to install ‘computer seats’ for two seasons. To give proper credit, they were really for football games, which explains why there were in the loge level at first base and left field [aka the 50 yard line]. In these sections, every other seat had a touch screen computer that allowed the user to see instant replay, live broadcast from all of the camera angles, and some other TV stations like ESPN. This was in 1998 – an era before smart phones when showing the replay of a close call on the JumboTron was just not done. As a hockey fan, having the computer seats allowed us to see Stanley Cup playoff games while at the Padre game. The computer seats were removed after two seasons. 

To get to the upper deck seats, there were a few escalators. San Diego fans are pretty laid back and getting in was always easy. There were also these circular ramps. You would alternate between walking down [or up] a section on the outside, then continue on the interior. I went to the playoff games against the Astros in 1998. Following one of the games we were walking down the ramps and the cheering in the interior was probably the loudest noise I have ever heard at a stadium. 

The stadium had a big parking lot that surrounded the stadium. I would give mixed reviews on tailgating there. On the plus side, there was a lot of room. They had special concrete cylinders for hot coals. On the down side you were not allowed to use more than your assigned parking spot. Most people would use an adjacent empty spot until the parking lot started to fill up. The police patrolled the lot as well and you were not allowed to throw baseballs or footballs – even Nerf balls. Most people still did and the police would only harass people if they gave them an attitude. A huge addition to the stadium was the extension of the San Diego Trolley line to the parking lot. Prior to this you were pretty much at the mercy of the parking lot to get to the game. The alternatives were some street parking that was not very close to the stadium. 

The food was very generic with two notable exceptions. One, Rubio’s Fish Tacos were very popular. There was always a big line there. The other, Randy Jones [former great Padre pitcher] had a barbeque restaurant which was really good. Randy was usually present and friendly with fans.

As I mentioned before, I have attended a lot of games here. I went to the home opener almost every year. It would be impossible to sum all of the great players and events I saw so I’ll give the abbreviated version:

• In July 1990, a co-worker with season tickets invited me to a double-header against the Reds. The big draw for the game…Rosanne Barr was going to sing the National Anthem. She ‘sang’ between games and by my recollection, there were as many people cheering as booing.
• In 1992 the All Star Game was going to be played in San Diego. In order to get tickets, MLB set up a lottery system. You sent a letter asking to be in the lottery and could submit one letter per address. I asked my co-workers who were not sports fans if I could submit using their address. I managed to put in 10 letters – and hit on three of them. One of the people who swore he wasn’t interested in going to the game suddenly changed his mind when his address was one of the winners. [Dick.] It was a good game to see. Griffey Jr. won the game MVP.
• In 1993 I was a season ticket holder. The owners were getting rid of all of the expensive talent in order to sell the team. For obvious reasons, the fans were unhappy. To placate them, the season ticket holders all received a letter from the owners letting us know that no other good players would be traded this year. Two weeks later Fred McGriff was traded to the Braves.
• In May 1994 I went to the Reds game when Tom Browning broke his arm. I could hear the pop from my seat.
• Somewhere in the mid-90’s the Padres introduced the worst mascot to date. It was a dog-like character with a giant baseball for a nose named “Bleupper”. I don’t think anyone liked this mascot and fortunately he didn’t make a second season.
• The 1998 playoff series against the Astros and Braves. I had tickets to every game. For the World Series against the Yankees I had a ticket to game 5. It was a sweep for New York. One of my co-workers ended up throwing away a ticket for game 3 since someone didn’t show up. [Rachel, if you’re reading this…I’m still a little bitter.]

Tony Gwynn was easily my favorite player to watch. He was the best pure hitter in his era and was worth the price of admission every night he played. I was never able to see guys like Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio play. If I was on the fence about going to see the Padres or not, I would think ‘what would I have given to see these great players in action?’ The fans would get on him about his weight. He wasn’t speedy at the end of his career but he could still make contact. I remember in his last season I was at a game where he was on second base and Dave Magadan [also at the end of his career] was on first. I turned to my friend and said, “Is that the slowest combination of base-runners in the majors right now?”

Trevor Hoffman was also amazing to watch. He was acquired from the Marlins. On his first night in San Diego, my friend John and I were at the game. Trevor was talking to a friend of his at the railing by the bullpen. John and I went down and introduced ourselves and welcomed him to San Diego. I’m sure Trevor has fond memories of that interaction. [OK, maybe not.] It was great to see a dominant closer in San Diego for all those years. In the early 2000’s my favorite trivia question at games was “who was the Padre closer before Trevor?” Most people didn’t know. [It was Randy Myers.]

Some of my other favorite Padres to watch: Ken Caminiti, Roberto Alomar, Greg Vaughn, Steve Finley, Kevin Brown [for that one year], Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, Rickey Henderson, and Wally Joyner. That’s not to say there weren’t other good players to come through San Diego. Other people I saw in the Padre uniform included Joe Carter, Jack Clark, Fernando Valenzuela, Tony Fernandez, and Ryan Klesko. For visiting players, if they were a regular starter in the NL from 1990 to 2003, I probably saw them at least once.

Jack Murphy was a good ballpark…pre-expansion. The Padres definitely upgraded by moving into Petco but I have very good memories of the Murph.

Nationals Park

I had to save Nationals Park and Jack Murphy Stadium for last for different reasons. I am now a resident of the DC metropolitan area and the Nats are the home team. As a fan of the game, I want to see the local team do well, something the Nats haven’t accomplished over the past two years. Given a choice between living in a city with a bad team and living in a city with no major league baseball, the choice is obvious.

Nationals Park is a nice facility. It’s not great, but it is a really nice place to see a game. The majority of people travel to the game by Metro (the DC subway system). There is an exit a few hundred yards from the main entrance into the outfield. This entrance has two ticket window areas and some self-serve kiosks. If you prefer to scalp tickets, there are a number of unauthorized resellers between the Metro station and the ballpark. My only complaint about this entrance is the lack of any real outside architecture. The field is below street level. As you come in through the outfield entrance you are at the top of the field-level seats. In place of any substantial ballpark aesthetics for this entrance are two big [and ugly] parking garages. These garages serve another purpose which is to block the view of the US Capitol building from the stadium. There are a few seats where you can see the Capitol between the garages. This may become a moot point as this area goes through re-development. This was a warehouse district before the stadium and has a lot of potential to become a very trendy/hip neighborhood. For now it’s a bit sparse. If you’re looking to have dinner before the game, grab something downtown then travel to the ballpark. On the opposite side of the stadium is the first base entrance. Here is where the stadium structure rises up along the Anacostia River. There is also a walkway with years imprinted along the way. Each year has significance to Washington baseball and a small statue to the side explains the importance of that year. This entrance is hardly used in comparison to the OF entrance.
 

Once inside, you realize you’re in a nice ballpark. There are some statues right by the OF entrance. They look a little weird as the artist went for an effect of showing the people in motion. As a result, Walter Johnson has three arms. To the artists credit, he did show Johnson’s side arm pitching style. Along the vending area above the field level seats, the columns have large pictures of hall of fame players. What I found interesting was the choice to use all baseball HOF players as opposed to pictures of famous Washington players. [Please keep your chuckling to a minimum.] The scoreboard is huge and has great resolution. The New Yankee Stadium scoreboard may be bigger but Washington has nothing to be ashamed of. There is great variability in ticket prices. [add lower-level ticket prices here] The Nats also sell some upper deck tickets on day of game for $5 each. Otherwise the cheapest tickets are around $10. If you’re catching a day game in mid-summer, I suggest finding seats in the shade.

The food is standard ballpark fare, but they do have a few Ben’s Chili Bowl booths. Ben’s is a DC icon. [I highly recommend the original location downtown.] It’s not nearly as famous as Pat’s and Geno’s in Philadelphia, but the food is a lot better and the staff much friendlier. They also have a few gelato carts. I’m not much of an ice cream fan, but this is good stuff.  

Inaugural season, second home game

I went to the second regular season game ever held at this park. It was right after the 2008 BRBL draft and in keeping with the other two games I saw that weekend in Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was f-ing cold. I understand the first game was a sellout. The park was almost empty on this night. Partially due to the cold, partially due to the final four championship game being on. Since moving to the area, I have attended a number of games. I expect to be a season ticket holder within the next few years. The Nationals have been terrible the past two seasons. [>100 losses each year] They seem to have some good hitting with bad pitching. During this past season, they signed highly touted prospect Steven Strasburg. They held a ‘Welcome Steve’ press conference before a game I attended. I wasn’t able to get to the press conference but during a rain delay I saw Scott Boros leaving the stadium. On another night, I had my first experience with the umpires calling a rain delay and putting the tarp on the field…and it wasn’t raining. It did start raining about 25 minutes later – and it did get to be heavier rain within 45 minutes, but they could have continued play. Are players becoming so spoiled that they can’t get rained on? 

 

If you’re in the DC area and have the opportunity, go see a game here. Get the full DC experience and Metro to the game. Be aware, this crowd is not ‘baseball mature’ yet. In other words, when you see a game in New York or Los Angeles, the crowd knows to stand up and/or make noise when the home team has 2 strikes on an opposing batter [especially when there’s 2 outs]. You’re lucky to get a handful of people to stand with 2 strikes with 2 outs in the top of the 9th with a lead. Just like the surrounding area, it’s under development.

One final comment. The park features a President’s Race before the bottom of the fourth inning. This is somewhat stylized after the sausage race featured in Milwaukee. The difference is the President’s Race is a complete farce and should be stopped completely in its current form. The sausages actually race. It’s not a difficult concept. Let the people in the giant heads try to win the race. The four Presidents depicted are Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt – from Mount Rushmore. [That would be Teddy, not FDR – which would be horribly inappropriate for a race.] The shtick for the race is Teddy never wins. With this race, the fans never win either.

Update August 2010: I was invited to the August 26 Nationals game against the Cardinals by my friend Wilson [who spent many years in St. Louis]. While the game itself was an impressive 13 inning back and forth battle, the most impressive event of the evening was Albert Pujols hitting career home run #400.

 Albert rounding 3rd after career HR #400.

Oriole Park at Camden Yard

This is a significant ballpark to the evolving history of baseball stadia. This was the first of the ‘back to the future’ parks. This ended the trend for massive concrete dual-purpose stadiums. From 1960 to 1991 twenty stadiums were built that MLB teams used. Of these 20, only 2 [Dodger Stadium & Kaufman Stadium] were baseball only. Camden Yard was the start of ‘baseball only’ parks movement.

This is a great ballpark. Easily one of my top five favorites. From the outside, there is lots of brick. They matched the color to an existing warehouse adjacent to the stadium. This is one of two ballparks to use an existing structure into the design of the stadium. [The other being Petco Park and the Western Metal building.] The warehouse is not physically connected to the stadium, but the space between them is used as a wide boardwalk for food and other vendors. Along this boardwalk is a SRO area above right field. When the park first opened they made a certain number of SRO tickets available day-of-game only. This park was relatively inexpensive to build by today’s standards, which keeps ticket prices very reasonable. [By comparison, the new Yankee Stadium cost more than 8.5 times what Camden Yard cost after adjusting for inflation.] There is great access to the park from the surrounding freeways and a mix of stadium lots and private parking.

I have had a positive experience every time I have attended a game here. I attended three games here the third year after the park opened. This was part of my 1994 ballpark tour. We were scheduled to attend two games here. The night before we went to Baltimore, we were in Pittsburgh and saw the Orioles had been rained out. They rescheduled the missed game as a double-header. For our first game, we sat in the lower level in left field [the DH] against the Indians. It was still raining off & on and there was a rain delay. I ate ribs between games from the Babe Ruth BBQ sitting in the stairwell as it rained. To this day, it’s still some of the best ballpark food I’ve eaten. We stayed at a hotel fairly close to the park and had the morning and early afternoon to walk around the harbor. I took the tour of the ballpark. Some of the guys in the tour group [the baseball tour group, not the Camden Yard tour group] scalped better tickets for the second night and offered me one. We sat field level just past first base against the Blue Jays.

Oriole Park is also on my top 5 coldest games I have ever attended. After the 2008 BRBL draft we drove to Baltimore for a game. I sat next to BoCJ’s future wife Yulia. I have attended two games with Yulia, I froze at both, hence the Yulia Curse. [For more on the Yulia Curse, see the ‘new Yankee Stadium’ entry.] There was a big gap in attendance for this stadium, but now that I live in the DC area, I expect to attend more games at this park. Some of the home team players I saw on the first trip in 1994 included Cal Ripken, Rafael Palmeiro, Mike Mussina, and Jack Morris in his last season. For the visiting teams I saw Kenny Lofton, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Sandy Alomar Jr., Roberto Alomar, Devon White, and Joe Carter.

One my best ballpark experiences happened here in 2009. Try to follow the twisted trail! I was working at NIDA. My boss used to work in St. Louis. One of his former co-workers, and good friend, has a brother-in-law who is a physical therapist. One of the PT’s clients is Luke Scott. Through this connection I am invited to a game. Wilson [now ex-boss but current friend] and I drive to the game. We were running a little late and we met the PT at the entrance behind home plate. We get inside and are in the seats during the first batter of the night. We were in the player’s wives section. Right behind home plate about 20 rows up. It was a fantastic game. The O’s won a 5-4 decision. But that’s not the best part. As we were walking into the park, the PT says he needs to stop at the customer service desk. He gets these blue tags that look like over-sized luggage tags. They are passes to go under the stadium after the game! So we take the elevator to the basement but we’re not allowed into the locker room. There are a few benches in the hall for people to wait for players to come out. As we’re sitting there, Luke sticks his head out the door and sees his friend the PT. He says, “Let me see if it’s OK for you to come into the weight room.” He comes back a few seconds later and invites the three of us inside. Luke and two other players are doing a post-game workout while the Yankee game was on TV. We sat in the team trainer’s office, talking with him, and watching the end of the Yankee game. Since it was a ‘school night’ Wilson and I had to leave to drive back to Bethesda. Luke Scott may never make the HOF and there is a 99.99% chance has no recollection of meeting me, but Thanks Luke! That was an awesome experience for a regular fan of the game. [Big thanks to Wilson and the PT too!] 

 

Dodger Stadium

I lived in San Diego for 15 years. From where I lived, Dodger Stadium was ‘just up the road’. In more practical terms, it was about a 3-hour drive if you left before rush hour. I did not attend many games at Dodger. San Diego had an NL club and the Angels were half the drive it was to Chavez Ravine. Additionally, there are a handful of minor league parks that are just as easy to get to. Once every-other year, some friends and I would do the day/night double header with LA and Anaheim. The schedules overlap like this about once per year. I have only been able to accomplish the day/night DH at a few combinations: Dodger/Anaheim, Oakland-Alameda/Candlestick, Comiskey/Miller Park, and Jacobs Field/PNC Park. At the time of writing this, Dodger Stadium is the third oldest active major league park. After Wrigley and Fenway, the next three oldest active MLB parks are all in California [Dodger, Oakland-Alameda, and Anaheim].

Architecturally, the stadium is fairly unremarkable and utilitarian. It seems like the entire park is surrounded by parking lot and a number of car entrances. This makes it relatively easy to drive to and from games, which is impressive as the park is near the intersection of two major freeways. An issue with the surrounding parking lot is the ease with which you can forget where you parked. Not to worry! Since it’s Los Angeles, most fans leave by the 7th inning. From the outside, the stadium is bland and depending on where you park, below you. On the inside, it has a great open feel that you won’t find in any new park. When you sit in the good seats, it’s a great park to watch a game. However, the cheap seats are way out there.

Despite not attending a lot of games at Dodger, one of my fondest baseball memories happened there. It was the end of the 1996 season. The Padres had been in first place for much of the year, but the surging Dodgers had taken first place with a few weeks remaining. It was crunch-time. The Pads were three games behind the Dodgers. They had to sweep the series to win the division. They won the first two games! I had tickets to the final game. About three months earlier I had asked some friends if they wanted to go to see the Padres on the last game of the season. We were in the upper deck on the first base side. This game was superbly played by both sides. The game was a 0-0 tie through nine innings and would be decided in the 11th. Bob Tewksbury got the start for the Padres. Ramon Martinez started for the Dodgers but left after the first inning. Perdo Astacio came in and pitched 6.1 strong innings. Gwynn got the RBI single in the top of the inning off Chan Ho Park to give the Padres the lead. Not Tony Gwynn…Chris Gwynn! Trevor Hoffman came in to close out the Dodgers in order and the amazing come-back was complete. As a group of San Diegans, we were pretty vocal about the win. This was especially sweet since the Dodgers usually beat up on the Padres and there is never a shortage of obnoxious Dodger fans when LA plays in SD. As if that wasn’t enough, the Chargers were playing the Chiefs that afternoon. We brought a portable TV with us and watched the Bolts win just a few minutes after the Pads.

One other memorable game I’d like to mention briefly. An old roommate knew someone associated with the Colorado Rockies. Through this vague connection we got tickets in the visiting player’s wives section for three games [single game first day, double header second day]. Good seats behind home plate in the loge level. During one of the games there was a woman with two children sitting one row in front and a few seats over from us. The section was mostly empty which was nice for her since one of the kids was a toddler and the other must have been 5 or 6 years old. On the field, Vinny Castilla gets on first base. On the next pitch he takes off for second! The 5 [or 6] year old yells, “Run Daddy!” The mother was apparently concerned that people would know that these were Castilla’s children and she told her son to be quiet. The movie ‘The Fan’ with DeNiro and Snipes was still in theaters and I was tempted to lean forward and ask her if she had seen it yet. But I resisted.

August 1996

Over the years I was able to see a number of good players at Dodger. For the home team Brett Butler, Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi, Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield, Devon White, Kevin Brown, Shawn Green, and Eric Gagne. For visiting teams, I saw Tony Gwynn, Steve Finley, Ken Caminiti [as a Padre and an Astro], Randy Johnson [in a complete game 12K outing], Tony Womack, Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Barry Larkin, Sean Casey, Adam Dunn, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Bagwell.

August 2014

A quick note about the food: a Dodger Dog is just a hot dog. Nothing special about it. Dodger has standard ballpark fare, but Los Angeles has great food. If you’re visiting from out of town, I highly recommend any of the drive-thru Mexican restaurants. Doesn’t matter which one, the menus are all the same, and the food is cheap and tasty! Get yourself a burrito and some rolled tacos and eat them in the parking lot. In Southern California you know the weather’s going to be nice outside!

Update 07/08/2011: I attended SABR 41 this year and was able to catch a Dodger and Angels game. For this season, neither team is expected to contend for the division title. LA is a mess with the owners going through a messy divorce. But this is the Padres against the Dodgers. This was a great game to watch for a baseball fan. Both starting pitchers had fantastic starts. Mat Latos for the Pads went 7-1/3 giving up7 hits & walks and 1 run in the 8th. Chad Billingsly was a little better going 8 innings, 9 hits and walks, and no runs. After the lone run scored in the 8th for LA, they brought in Javy Guerra who gives up a leadoff double to Cameron Maybin, and hits the next two batters on consecutive pitches. Mattingly visits the mound and decides to leave Guerra in the game. He responds by striking out the next two batters and getting the final out on a line drive to center. 

Citizens Bank Park

This is a great ballpark. The overall design including the steel and red brick exterior as well as the interior sight lines and look is outstanding. Left and right field are straight lines as opposed to the traditional curved configuration. There are a lot of similarities in how the field looks compared to Coors Field, another very nice park. The space behind the seats is open and easy to navigate. There are some nice statues of famous Phillies around the park too. The ballpark is in the ‘stadium district’ in Philadelphia. It’s surrounded by the Spectrum [until they knock it down], Lincoln Financial Field, and the Wachovia Center which used to be the First Union Center. Whoever put that name together clearly wasn’t hooked on phonics. There’s always plenty of parking on days when the other stadia are dark and there’s a convenient subway line nearby. If you are one of those people with a super-strong sense of smell, you may want to take a cab rather than the subway.

I’ve been to a few games here. When my friend Marc buys tickets, he prefers the upper deck in straight-away right. It’s a long way to home plate from there! I also saw a game with John and Bob right before the 2008 BRBL draft. We sat field level past third base towards the foul pole. Now for my shameful Citizens Bank Park secret…I’ve seen three games…three different years…all against the Washington Nationals. The Phillies have had much better teams but are 1-2 in the games I saw. The Phillies have had some great talent in Ryan Howard, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Jim Thome, and Chase Utley. For pitching they have had Brett Myers, Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and Brad Lidge. The Nats have had Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Zimmerman, and Nick Johnson. The games were fairly uneventful. I saw Abreu and Burrell home runs and some decent starting pitching from Myers and Hamels.

For my first game here, Marc, CJ, Grace, and I attended the second home game of the 2005 season right before we went to London for the BRBL draft. As we went to the game, Marc was complaining that he didn’t feel well and he just wanted to sit still and watch the game – no alcohol. We had upper upper deck seats but sat in the back row of the lower upper deck seats. From this vantage point some of Marc’s former students saw him and had a mini reunion. Marc was feeling better after a few beers! One of the former students said, “This is the greatest day of my life!” Overall, this is a great park to see a game. [Spend the money and sit in the lower level seats.]

UPDATE 08/24/2012: I was able to get to another game at this stadium. Two major differences from the other games I attended here. First, I was with Marc and his new wife and second, we sat in good seats. For this game we were behind the plate shading a little towards first base. Marc's wife [Sandi] gets tickets from her father who apparently has been a Phillies season ticket holder since the 1970's. However, my fourth time at this park, and still the only opposing team I have seen here is the Nationals. Until this season, Philadelphia had been dominating this division but this year the Nats had a 7 game lead in first place [when this game was played] and the Phils just had a fire sale getting rid of Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence. The pitching match up was two very mediocre starters and they pitched up to expectations. The seats, and the company, made for a pretty good game experience. One disappointment was the ushers. They gave us a hard time about not being in our exact seats even though there were plenty of open seats around us. Also they harassed some guy sitting behind us because he didn't wait for the current at bat to end before he walked down to his seat. It was a slow game and other people were doing the same thing. One final note on this game, Marc was pretty sick [probably from food poisoning] and at one point went to the first aid station. I offered to leave early because he wasn't feeling well and he said, "I learned my lesson in Pittsburgh. We'll stay to the end of the game."

New Comiskey/US Cellular Field

I have been twice to the new Comiskey Park. The first time was 1993 during its’ third season of play. This was the last of the concrete donuts. The locals were calling it the Comiskey Mall. On the plus side, they recreated the fireworks things over the scoreboard. That about does it for the plusses. The competition in terms of other new ballparks was Camden Yard in Baltimore – the first of the back-to-the-future designs – and Jacob’s Field under construction in Cleveland. In comparison, the new Comiskey was a dump. An additional problem was the height of the upper deck seats. This may not have been the newest design, but they did make sure to include luxury suites. The end effect is the upper seats (where I have attended both games) are really high up there. 

The first game I saw was a great matchup. The Sox played the Blue Jays and both teams would win their divisions. The Jays had won the World Series the previous year and would win again this year. The White Sox had Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, George Bell, and Tim Raines. For pitching they had Jack McDowell, Bobby Thigpen, and Jason Bere in his rookie season. The Jays had Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Tony Fernandez, Paul Molitor, John Olerud, and Devon White. Pitchers included Juan Guzman, Dave Stewart, Jack Morris, and Pat Hentgen. If it seems like the offense was better that the pitching, this game bore that out. Dave Stewart gave up 14 H&W, 7 ER and still got the win. Every starting player except one had at least one hit in this game. Molitor went 4 for 5. Olerud, Thomas, Ventura, and Bell had home runs. [Don Denkinger was the home plate umpire.]

The second game I saw was in 2007 as part of the Butthead Ballpark Tour. This happened to be the Cross-Town Classic against the Cubs. A tough ticket to get. We were in the last row of the upper deck around first base. The Sox had won the World Series two years ago but would finish second to last this year. They had Jim Thome and Paul Konerko. The Cubs were the better team and would win their division that year. The Cubs had Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez. The Cubs would win a close game. Javier Vasquez had a strong start only giving up a lead-off HR to Soriano. The Cubs pitchers were equal to the task and Bob Howry got the save. 

This is not that nice of a park. To draw an analogy, the new Comiskey is like a well constructed sailing vessel designed for shipping cargo. The problem is they built it at the beginning of the steam powered revolution. It was outdated before its’ time. If you’re heading to Chicago, go see a game at Wrigley.

UPDATE 05/25/2012: I was in Chicago for a conference and my friend Melissa and I went to a Sox game against the Indians. It was early in the season but last year the Tigers ran away with the division so expectations were tempered. Neither club had any substantial star power unless you want to include Paul Konerko or Shin-Soo Choo. The game was a blow-out for the home team with 4 home runs total between both clubs. The good news is we had really nice seats in left, 3rd row.

PacBell/AT&T

AT&T Park was originally PacBell Park. I’ve been to a handful of games there and this is easily one of my favorite parks. I have sat in upper deck first base side, field level by third base, club level first base, and field level in shallow left field. They’re all good seats. The view from the upper deck is spectacular. You can see the top of the SF skyline, McCovey Cove and the SF bay, and Oakland. Outside the park along McCovey Cove you can see into the stadium from under the stands in right field. They also have a great Willie Mays statue by the home plate entrance. If I had to complain about something, the only drawback is they didn’t angle the seats towards the infield.

Original and updated front gate

The first season the park was open, tickets were hard to get. I was able to see two games that first year with my friend Tom and his son. The unpredictable thing with baseball in San Francisco is the weather. To be safe, attend every game with shorts & t-shirt and a heavy winter parka. Another cool feature of the stadium is one of the kids play areas. They have a mini stadium where they can play. There’s even a JumboTron with a camera person showing live footage.

It turns out the three seasons I attended games here the Giants made the post season [2000, 2002, & 2003]. The Giants obviously had some pretty good talent over these years. They had Barry Bonds through this stretch. Say what you will about his steroid use, the dude could hit the ball. Other Giants included Jeff Kent, Rich Aurilia, and Marquis Grissom. For pitching they had mediocre starters having the best years of their careers and Robb Nen as the closer. For opponents I saw the Expos, Pirates, and Padres at their home opener in 2003. For one of the Expo games, I saw ‘the fat pussy toad’ Hideki Irabu out pitch Russ Ortiz. This Expo team featured Vlad Guererro – who was 0 for 6 in two games. I also saw Kirk Rueter have a great outing with a Nen save. For the Pirates game the next year, I saw Rueter again. He had a decent start but ended with a no-decision as did Kris Benson. The Pirates also had Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, and Jack Wilson. The Pittsburgh bullpen gave up 5 in the seventh inning for the home team victory. For the Padre game Jason Schmidt had a good outing but the bullpen handed him a no-decision. The Pads had no one of note on the roster. They had guys like Mark Kotsay, Ryan Klesko, Xavier Nady, and Jake Peavy in his first full season. [To hear how much of a dick Peavy is, see the Petco Park entry.]

A funny thing happened on the way to the park for the home opener in 2003. This game was right after the BRBL draft in San Francisco [obviously]. I attended the game with John, CJ, BoCJ, and my girlfriend. John and I used to work together in a drug abuse treatment program. Over the years we saw a lot of people with severe psychiatric illness beyond their addiction. One particular patient had chronic paranoid schizophrenia in addition to his drug abuse problem. He was consistently homeless and would show up into our clinic sporadically – usually every 4 to 5 months. As we’re walking from our car to the stadium, I see this guy walking towards us and say to John, “Hey…that’s Joe Smith” [The patients’ name isn’t really Joe Smith. I’m protecting his real name.] John says, “what?” and I repeat myself. So John calls him over. ‘Joe’ comes over and says hello like he expected to see us.

This is a fantastic ballpark. If you’re travelling to the bay area, do your best to see a game here.

Busch Stadium

The new Busch stadium is one of the parks I have only attended once so far. I didn’t make it to the old Busch stadium so I can’t make any direct comparisons. However, I did attend games at the Vet in Philadelphia and Three Rivers in Pittsburgh. If it was anything like those two parks, good riddance. The saving grace for the old park was their decision to replace the artificial turf with real grass. But I digress…

This is an impressive park. The exterior is red brick. Once inside, the walkways behind the seats are spacious and easy to orient yourself to where you are in the park. The game I saw was the first game in the 2007 Butthead Ballpark Tour. We were sitting in the cheap seats for this game – upper deck right field by the foul pole. There is an impressive view of downtown St. Louis from our seats. One of the most impressive sights was the Cardinal fan base. You expect to see fans wearing the home team gear, but this was over the top. I would venture that over 90% of the people in attendance had on at least one item.

The Cards were mediocre this year and would finish under .500. The previous year they lost to Boston in the World Series and still had much of the talent on offense. They had Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, and Rick Ankiel. They had questionable pitching. Chris Carpenter was out for the year. In contrast they were playing the Philadelphia Phillies who were a year away from winning the World Series. They had Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Pat Burrell. They had Adam Eaton and Cole Hamels. This was the year they experimented with Brett Myers as the closer. The game I saw was an easy win for Philadelphia on a good Jamie Moyer outing. 

The three of us [Marc, John and I] flew in to St, Louis from our respective home cities that afternoon. We ate lunch at a bar near the arch which also happened to be near the park and the hotel we were staying in. At the bar, Marc somehow finds out from the waitress that there is a gay pride march scheduled for the next day. [I’m still not sure how that came up in conversation.] We checked into the hotel and walked over to the ballpark. As we were watching the game, these two guys sat next to Marc. Both with lots of gang tattoos. Marc turns to them and says, “My friend Dave is here for the gay pride march tomorrow.” They didn’t laugh. Thanks Marc.

Citi Field

I have attended one game at Citi Field so far. I happened to see this game on Memorial Day – right after going to my first two games at the new Yankee Stadium. Perhaps it was a difference in expectations, but as disappointing as Yankee was, Citi was really impressive. From the outside the park is OK. A friend described one side as looking like the outside of a NASCAR track. The rotunda entrance behind home plate is fairly impressive. I attended this game with my friend Joe and we decided to enter through the rotunda. As we were walking in, people are talking about the Jackie Robinson statue. Robinson got his start in New York and he’s the only player to have his number retired by all major league clubs. All around there are pictures of Robinson on the interior walls. As we make it past the turnstiles I walk to the back of the rotunda and there is a giant 42. WTF! I figured this was in addition to the Robinson statue. Sadly this was the Robinson statue. This was disappointing. We made our way to the seats. We bought club-level tickets and sat close to home plate.

 
The inside of the park is nice. They seemed to go to a great deal to make the retro feel and pulled it off. One of the interesting things was putting the out of town scores above the upper deck in left field. The tendency for most new parks is to put the other scores near field level. The stadium staff were friendly and so were the fans. I should mention my friend Joe is more of a Met fan than a Yankee fan. The food was also pretty good.

The game I saw was against the Nationals. The Mets were considering contending for the division but they eventually finished fourth in the division. New York looked better on paper than in reality. They had good offense in David Wright and Carlos Beltran. For pitching they had Johan Santana and the newly signed Francisco Rodriguez. The Mets also had Jose Reyes who was injured a few days before the game I saw. He would miss the rest of the season. They were playing the Nationals who had the worst record in the majors last year and would have the worst record this year too. The Nats had pretty good offense but terrible pitching. They had Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman. For the first half of the season they had Nick Johnson and towards the end they picked up Nyjer Morgan. Not surprisingly, this game went to the Mets. Of note for this game, the 40yo Gary Sheffield had a home run and FRod got the save.
 

One of the things that impressed me the most was the waterless urinals in the men’s rooms. If you consider how many men attend a Mets game over the season. Presume they use the restroom once per game at one gallon per use and that’s an impressive amount of water saved. It’s not as though the men’s room was going to smell any worse.

If you’re in New York and you can only see one game, I’d recommend Citi much more than the new Yankee stadium. 

UPDATE 09/24/2012: I was in NYC for a business trip and had the chance to catch a game with my friends CJ and Grace. It was the last home stand for the Mets who had been eliminated from the post-season for a while. The Mets were playing against the Pirates who had been eliminated from the playoffs even earlier. The result was an empty ballpark. Attendance was announced as 22,000. I think they were including ballpark employees, the Pirates staff, and people who happened to drive too close to the stadium. We sat in the lower level just past 3rd base in good seats. The good news about empty parks is no lines for anything. We entered the stadium through the rotunda [behind home plate] and walked around to left-center field looking for food. CJ mentioned that Citi was known for having really good food. The stadium does have a wide selection of offerings. I settled for hot pastrami on rye with a knish. I was impressed. For ballpark food this was really good…a little better than the game itself. This match-up featured two September call-ups pitching against each other. Perhaps one day I can say, "I saw Kyle McPherson pitch against Jenrry Mejia” as they battle each other for the Cy Young but I’m guessing not. The highlight of the game? With no fans in the park, the Mets teamed up with a local drug store for the “Get $2 off detergent if the Mets hit 2 home runs in the game” promotion. Thanks to Ike Davis I was a winner that night!

(new) Yankee Stadium

I attended two games during the inaugural season for this new park. It is the most expensive park built to date. As you approach from the outside, the imposing limestone and granite façade has a post-world war II/Berlin wall feel to it. As we passed the turnstiles we entered a cavernous atrium which included a JumboTron. This very clearly was a ballpark that cost a lot of money and wanted you to know that. For my first game there, we had upper deck seats behind the plate for the ‘bargain’ price of $85 per ticket. Once you left the atrium, the park was mediocre at best. The seats were basic and cramped. The food was bland. There was nothing to say “Yankees” in the seating area. Disappointed is not a strong enough word. This park is designed for people to be in luxury suites. I think the only reason they included regular seating was so the people in the ‘less desirable’ suites had people to look down on. The Yankees were certainly not going for a fan friendly approach with those ticket prices. I attended a second game the following day in the front row of the loge section past first base. [Only $140/ticket!] Same problem as the upper deck. No charm.

One of the unique features of the park is the massive hi-def JumboTron. Big, but not so big as to dwarf the other newer stadiums. If someone didn’t mention it was the biggest, you probably wouldn’t have noticed. We were misinformed before the game that the new statue garden in center would be open for viewing during play. Not true. However, they do have a free Yankee museum on the second level by first base. It’s a single large room, but they have a ton of autographed baseballs on display along with some older uniforms. It’s not a nice as some other stadium museums, but it’s free and on really hot days, it’s air conditioned. The ushers and vendors were generally very friendly – except for customer service. [The baby stroller incident.] The ‘old’ Yankee stadium is next door to the new one. Many fans were complaining that the old stadium was a better venue and the upper level seats still gave the impression you were right over the field. You definitely don’t get that sense in this park.

As was typical for the Yankees, they had a ton of talent and would win the World Series this year. They had Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Mark Texiera, Alex Rodriguez, and Hideki Matsui. Their starting rotation included CC Sabathia, Andy Pettite, AJ Burnett, and Joba Chamberlain. [Joba was a starter at the insistence of ownership over the managers. He would finish the season with 9 wins – one less that middle reliever Alfredo Aceves.] The Yankee closer was Mariano Rivera. The two games I saw were against the Phillies who were the reigning world champs and would go on to play the Yankees in the series this year. The Phils had Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Jason Werth. Their rotation included Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, JA Happ, and Joe Blanton with a struggling Brad Lidge as the closer. In the first game we saw JA Happ against Andy Pettite. Happ had the better outing but neither starter got a decision as Lidge blew the save and gave up the win. Jeter and A-Rod had home runs. The second game was Hamels vs. Sabathia. CC had a good outing in a no decision. Lidge blew another save in the 9^th [ironically both blown saves were facing Melky Cabrera.] This blown save didn’t cost the Phillies the game and they rallied for the win in the 11^th inning. All things being equal, these were two great games to attend this season.

One thing I’d like to mention about the first game. The Yulia Curse. This is the second game I attended with Yulia, who is married to BoCJ and is a wonderful and pleasant person. Our first game was in Baltimore after the BRBL Philadelphia draft. Easily one of the coldest games I have ever attended. But that was opening day and this was Memorial Day. It’s been hot every day for the past two weeks. We were sweating walking into the park! But the Yulia Curse kicked in and we froze our asses off. At the end of May! The next day was hot – especially in the sun. The seats a few rows behind us were shaded. I predicted we’d be in the shade by the third inning. I might as well have predicted the iPhone would never be successful. We didn’t get shade until the end of the game. But I did take some time to visit the museum.