Jacob's Field

This is another park I have only been to once so far. It was during my mini-baseball tour with Marc (The Gue) over Memorial Day weekend in 2006. [For the record, I also drove past the stadium while it was under construction in 1993.] When it was new, Jacob’s Field was one of the back-to-the-future parks done by the same architects who designed Camden Yards. They followed the new trend of having straight outfield walls. By today’s standards this is a typical major league park, but when it opened, this and Camden were the crown jewels. It is still a very nice ballpark to see a game in. The lower seats in right field are closer to field level than the lower seats in left. There is no unique aspect to the park that I noticed. Not a flaw by any means.



The area around the park is pretty sparse as far as non-game activities and night life. [Or at least we didn’t see much.] When we checked into the hotel the night before Marc and I asked the hotel clerks where we could go for dinner – preferably a sports bar. They suggested the Winking Lizard. We looked at each other and said, “What other dining establishments are nearby?” The answer was none, so we went to the Lizard which turned out to be a large, crowded sports bar with good pub food. The next morning we asked about getting breakfast. They suggested the mall up the street as the only option. The mall had a food court with a fine assortment of…mall food but we weren’t really in the mood for Panda Express or Subway for breakfast. The only thing we found was the Ritz Carlton hotel restaurant. Expensive, but tasty.

Under Construction

For the game I attended we sat in the lower level in right field. We initially had field level tickets on the third base side but we traded them at customer service for shaded seats. (The ‘medical condition’ incident.) We had attended a game in Cincinnati the day before and had to move to shaded seats. It was one of those hot/sunny/humid summer days. This was a 1:05pm start with temperature in the low 80’s, 80% humidity, and not a cloud in the sky.

The Indians were mediocre that year despite having CC Sabathia. He had little help with Aaron Boone, Grady Sizemore, and Ronnie Belliard for position players and the rest of the starting rotation consisted of Paul “he’ll only be out 2 weeks” Byrd, Cliff Lee, and Jake Westbrook. They were playing the White Sox who were coming off their World Series win the year before. They would finish this season with a respectable 90-72 record which would qualify them for third place in the AL Central. They had signed Jim Thome in the off season – which drew a mixed reaction from the Cleveland fans. [He would hit two home runs this game]. The Sox had kept Scott Podsednik, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye. They also retained Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras, and Freddy Garcia. What they lost was the momentum they had in 2005. The game we saw was a blowout win for the visiting White Sox. Javier Vasquez pitched a solid start while Cliff Lee got shelled. Seven of nine starting White Sox (and three of four pinch hitters) had hits including four home runs. Conversely the Indians managed two hits the entire game.