Dolphins Stadium

This is another stadium I have attended one game. This place is a dump and unless I’m in Miami for some other reason, I won’t be back to see a game at this facility. This is not meant to be insulting to the Marlins. They’re playing in Dolphins Stadium – a football stadium that happens to accommodate a baseball field. Fortunately the team is getting a new baseball only park. I’ll be down to see that when it opens. One positive note about the park, the food was pretty good. I had chicken empanadas that were very tasty. Later I had trouble keeping them down as the Manatees dance troupe performed on the field. The Manatees are Marlins management’s idea of how to attract fans since they’re not spending any money on getting good pitching. It’s a group of fat guys in uncoordinated uniforms dancing with even less coordination. Let’s hope they don’t transition to the new park.


As you walk into the park, nothing about the structure says baseball. Having an inflatable giant baseball player near one entrance made it look like a car dealership. There were a ton of empty seats for the game I saw. What’s wrong with that? It was opening day! I was attending with John, CJ, BoCJ, and Grace in what remains of the live attendees of the BRBL draft. The Marlins were playing the Nationals. While the Marlins had finished above .500 the previous year, they did not seriously contend for a playoff spot. This season they’re flirting with a spot but will likely fall short again. The Marlins had Hanley Ramirez, Jorge Cantu, and Dan Uggla. The Nationals had lost 102 games the previous year and manager Manny Acta was excited about the prospects this season would bring with Nick Johnson (who would be a Marlin by the end of the season), Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, and Ryan Zimmerman. This game belonged to the Marlins in every sense of the word. Florida had four home runs including a Ramirez grand slam and rookie Emilio Bonafacio’s inside the park home run. The Marlins demonstrated to the league that if you want to look like an All Star team, play the Nats.

Miller Park

I have been to Milwaukee twice in my life. On two different occasions for a combined total of less than 24 hours. During these two trips I have seen three baseball games. (For the first trip/game see County Stadium Milwaukee.) 

[Update July 2010: Make that three times in Milwaukee, four baseball games, and maybe still under 24 total hours in the city.]

A recent trip was part of the Butthead Midwest Baseball Tour of 2007. As John, Gue, and I were planning the trip we had the opportunity to make the day/night double header in Chicago and Milwaukee on Saturday. John and I were for the DH, Gue was against. We made both games.

Gue before the trip: “Why would I want to spend an extra night in Milwaukee?”
Gue after the trip: “That is the best stadium…EVER!”


Miller Park is one of the newer parks that opened in 2001. It has a unique retractable roof that opens 90 degrees from a pivot point behind home plate. The park is nice. This may not be the best park, but it is one of the greatest ballpark experiences you can hope to have. This is in large part due to the Milwaukee fans. For the Saturday night game we sat in the right field bleachers. The fans were friendly and knowledgeable. They understood the game and paid attention. For the Sunday game we sat in the loge section between home and first base. Same friendly atmosphere. Milwaukee also has pretty good ballpark food, especially if you’re in the mood for a brat or polish sausage.


This was interleague weekend and we saw the Brewers play the Royals. Milwaukee had a good team and would contend for the division title. They fell two games short of the Cubs. The consolation prize was taking the last two games of the year from the Padres to remove them from the wild card slot. The Brewers had Prince Fielder, Bill Hall, and Ben Sheets. They also had Tony Gwynn Jr. They were playing a Royals team that would finish last in their division and tied for the third worst record in baseball that year. They had Mark Grudzielanek, Odalis Perez, and Zack Grienke who was coming of a poor 2006 where he only pitched 6.1 innings.

Saturday night was a blowout win for the Brewers on a strong Dave Bush outing. Hall had a home run and Corey Hart had a stolen base. Sunday was a close win for the Royals in extra innings. We saw the prospect Yovani Gallardo pitch a good game with no decision. Grienke also pitched two innings of relief (no decision).

One of the unique aspects of this park is the sausage race. There’s nothing like watching adults in giant sausage costumes racing around the park. What makes it great is that the contestants try to win. This is very different than the farce of the president’s race in DC. They also kept the yellow slide in the outfield for Bernie Brewer to slide down after home runs, but he no longer slides into the mug of beer.


One final note about the park. After the game Saturday night we decided that we needed to tailgate before the Sunday afternoon game. Problem – we don’t have a grill and we don’t know anyone in Milwaukee. The next morning we got up and went to the store and as we were buying burgers and Brats we ran into some guys wearing Brewers jerseys. They said we could tailgate with them. When people get to Miller Park to tailgate, they don’t spread out. They fill every stall then begin the next row. This is important because they fill the aisle with grills, seats, and that bean bag game (corn hole). I haven’t been to Kansas City yet, but you’d be hard pressed to find a group that tailgates better than Milwaukee fans. We were hanging out with the guys we met and some other people around the grill. I asked how they knew each other and they said they didn’t. It’s that friendly.

Metrodome

This is one of the parks I have attended only one game at. It was the last game of the 2007 Midwest tour I did with John and Gue. To put it mildly, it’s a dump. There’s talk about making a new park in Minneapolis, one without a dome. At first I thought, “why no dome in Minnesota?” After seeing the Metrodome, any park is an improvement. First, baseball is not meant to be played indoors…unless it’s snowing or perhaps 115 degrees outside. But I do believe the retractable dome technology has been perfected! Please see Houston, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Seattle. Even Toronto has a dome…but I digress. Second, the seats are not only uncomfortable, but the seat back in front jams into your shins. Also, the seats folded into right field are ugly.


The Twins would finish just below .500 this year and would not threaten for the division title. They had Torii Hunter, Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, and Joe Nathan. The Blue Jays were in a similar place except they finished above .500 while not contending for the division title. The Jays had Troy Glaus, Alex Rios, Frank Thomas, AJ Burnett, and Roy Halladay. Not an exciting matchup. But this was the end of a fantastic baseball road trip and it was potential history in the making! Frank Thomas hit home run #499 two nights ago and the Jays were going against a guy with an ERA over 6.50. The stars were aligned!


We didn’t see history that night. In four at bats, Frank was 0-4 with two strikeouts. We did see a great game. Two no-name pitchers went 7.0 and 8.0 innings each giving up only one run. The game would be decided in the 12th with a win for the home team.

Great American Ballpark

Between living in San Diego and the DC area, I spent four years in Lexington Kentucky. The closest major league park to me was Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, about a 1.5 hour drive. I attended a handful of games from 2004 to 2007. This is a nice park. When you’re inside, you get the sense that all seats are on top of the action. It’s easy to get in and out with parking with good freeway access. Just outside of the park is a Reds Hall of Fame [and gift shop]. As you might notice with this blog, I take pictures of the parks I visit. One day I’m comparing 2006 and 2007 pictures and see that they added this outfield deck with a river boat theme. It’s a nice addition, but not so spectacular that I noticed the change in person.

During this time the Reds were a mediocre team, never finishing above .500. They had pretty good offense including Ken Griffey, Adam Dunn, Sean Casey, Austin Kearns, and Rich Aurilia. Reds starting pitching included Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Harang, Paul Wilson, and Matt Belisle. Some of the better opposing players I got to see in Cincinnati were Derrek Lee and Prince Fielder. I saw home runs from Lee, Dunn, and Griffey and a Trevor Hoffman save.

One frustrating thing about this park was opening day. As I mentioned, the Reds never finished above .500 during the four years I lived there and never drew a large crowd – except opening day. This was the toughest ticket to get and were not available for sale online. You could get them with season tickets. The ones for sale on ebay were more than I cared to spend on a game, which says a lot for someone who has attended at least one opening day game for the previous decade [excluding the 1995 boycott]. One final thought about this park, you want to avoid talking about how Pete Rose should not be in the [real] Hall of Fame. In Cincinnati he is 100% innocent. Even after he admitted to wrong-doing.

Center field before the steam boat addition.

 
Update April 2016: After a 10 year hiatus I was able to get back to GAB for a pair of games. The Rockies were in town. Despite being early in the season expectations for the Reds this season are extremely low. Joey Votto is still on the team and there are other pretty good offensive players. The issue is pitching. During the first game Jumbo Diaz pitched so poorly that he was sent to AAA and his replacement Robert Stephenson got the start that evening. The Rockies were not loaded with star power either. Trevor Story was off to a hot start with 7 HRs in the first 3 weeks. He hit #8 during one of the games I attended.

Petco Park

After living in San Diego for 15 years, I happened to move less than a month before Petco opened. I would have had opening day tickets too. It was on a return visit that I was able to attend my only two games at this park [so far]. This is a great place to see a game. Some of the things that the Padres did right, using a downtown location [right near the convention center, gaslamp district, and a trolley line], incorporating one of the original buildings into the park [Western Metal], and having a large open park in the outfield for people to watch the game on blankets/beach chairs. If I was forced to complain about something, it would be the emphasis they placed on luxury suites which pushes the upper deck seats a little higher.
The games I happened to attend were in the park’s inaugural season against the Giants. I went with my friend AJ who had season tickets along third base in shallow left field. These seats are angled towards the pitcher’s mound which meant that our seats at the end of the row were de facto front row to the outfield. The Giants and Padres would finish second and third in the NL West – both above .500 and both just out of the playoffs. The Pads had Ryan Klesko, Phil Nevin, Brian Giles, and Khalil Greene. The Padre starting rotation was Brian Lawrence, Adam Eaton, Jake Peavey, Ishmael Valdez, and David Wells with Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. The Giants had Barry Bonds, JT Snow, Marquis Grissom, and Jason Schmidt.
The Pads won the first game on an OK Peavy start [didn’t get the win] and a Trevor Hoffman save. Bonds had a non-steroid related stolen base. The Giants won the second game with Schmidt getting the win over Wells.
 

Before the second game, my friend AJ received an early entry pass for us as a season ticket holder benefit. We arrived at the park and they let us in an hour before the general gates opened. Normally the Padres are finished with batting practice but the extra hour let us see the home team BP. Presumably, we were also let in early so we could get autographs. As we made our way down to the field on the first base side Jake Peavy was signing for everyone…well almost everyone. As he made his way down the line he got to AJ, looked at him without signing the ball, and went on to the next person. No explanation. Another fan who witnessed the snub took AJ’s ball and had Jake sign it. The fan was great. Peavy was a dick. Too bad AJ wasted a clean baseball on his signature.

AJ [in the grey jersey] Getting snubbed by Peavy

Update 09/06/2013: I am in town for some fantasy football drafts and get to attend 2 Padre games. In the second game I am sitting in the right field bleachers - front row just above a "party deck". Bottom of the first, lead off hitter Will Venable hits a 2-1 fastball that bounces off the lower wall, and hits me in the face. It broke my glasses; the right lens popped out - over the wall into the party deck. Fortunately someone found it and gave it back to me. It took 5 minutes to pop the lens back in. Here is the ball - and my shameful moment.