What I look for in a Baseball Park

After weeks of a lockout that looked like it could delay or even cancel the season, Opening Day came last Thursday, kicking off a full 162 game schedule.  

That means it’s time to go to a ballpark.  

Every year there are surveys where they rate the parks from best to worst.  From which is the best overall to which has the best food to which one has the vest overall value for going to a game.  I enjoy reading these surveys, especially now that I can compare my experience with whatever is said about a growing number of these parks.  As of the writing of this blog post I have been to 28 professional baseball stadiums.  Fourteen in the MLB.  Eleven in Japan’s NPB.  And three minor league parks.  

I’ve thought of writing my own such survey of the parks I’ve been to.  My own problem would be ranking them.  Calling any baseball park “bad” is difficult for me.  As an example, I visited Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum four years ago (now going by the name RingCentral Coliseum).  The home of the Oakland A’s is routinely near the bottom of most of the surveys I’ve read.  While driving with some friends to get to our game I was bracing myself for what I was going to find.  

I loved it!

Yeah, the park was old.  There was a warehouse sort of feel to the place as I walked the concourse.  But there were lunch trucks lined up at the entrance selling a variety of food you couldn’t normally get at a baseball game, which you could bring inside with you.  Our seats were good.  The fans enthusiastic.  The game was entertaining (unless you were a Rangers fan, who got clobbered that day).  

It made me realize that, for me anyway, no stadium could be that bad as long as baseball was played there.  

In lieu of a survey ranking them, I can write about what I think impacts the impression one gets from a baseball park.  So here I go…

The View of the Game

This is the most important quality of a park.  You want to ensure that the fans have a good view of the action no matter where they seat.  Older parks can have a problem due to the construction methods of when they were built.  At Wrigley Field in Chicago, there large poles supporting the levels above in the middle of the seats.  The one nearest me ran right behind my view of the pitchers’ mound.  A few more seats to the left, and I would have missed seeing the pitchers wind-up and any throw out at first.  Dodger Stadium, has the best sight lines of any stadium I’ve been in so far.  I’ve sat in the “nosebleeds” and along the line, and in the outfield, and at every spot I could see the game clearly without obstruction.

The Neighborhood

This is something I’ve become more aware of as I’ve traveled to see games in other parks, and how the area around and its atmosphere can impact the experience.  

This is the one area where Dodger Stadium gets low marks.  It’s surrounded by a big parking lot.  And by freeways that seemed designed to make you late if you don’t take the day off from work or leave hours early to get to your seats.  Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City is the same.  The fun of having watched a game dissipates as you struggle through traffic to leave.  

Stadiums situated in neighborhoods have it better.  Petco Park in San Diego is right next to San Diego’s Gaslamp District, with lots of place to go to eat and drink.  There wasn’t much of a baseball vibe there, though.  Wrigley Field has a lot of local establishments around that look like they had fans coming to after games since the stadium was built.  Truist Park in Atlanta has a stage in front of a mini baseball field outside the entrance where they gather and have DJs and music before and after a game.  And at Oracle Park, in San Francisco, after a game King Street is awash with fans that are shouting, cheering and making their way to the nearest bar or eatery.  The roof top bar at my hotel was packed by the time I crossed the street to make my way there.

But far and away the best stadium environment was at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  They close off streets around the park and turn the area into a giant baseball block party.  I could hear the music start up in my hotel room two blocks away two hours before the game.  Definitely a baseball town!

Food and Drink

There are several surveys about which park has the best food, widest variety of things to eat, or the “One Thing” you need to eat if you go there.  My biggest concerns, though, are prices and how long the lines are at the concession stands once the game starts.  I tend to buy what I’m going to eat or drink to last me the first three innings of the game.  After that, if I have time to go get something and get back to my seat before the action starts between innings, I might get something more.  If not, then I might go if one side has a really huge lead, or just wait until the game is over.  

Truist Park in Atlanta had some of the shortest lines I’ve side at a baseball game so far.  I had no problem running up to stand to get something and get back before the next pitch.  At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, they had a system, for at least one stand, where you could place your order with your cell phone and then go pick it up when it was ready.  I thought that was pretty neat.  

Overall, though, the best food and drink experience at a baseball stadium is to be found in Japan.  First, they don’t gouge you with the prices.  Most items are priced about what you’d expect to find at a restaurant or convenience store outside the stadium.  

The food they offer is really good.  You won’t find a lot of traditional western baseball fare.  No peanuts.  No cracker jack.  And the one hot dog I’ve tried at a Japanese baseball stadium, at the Koshien, the oldest baseball park in Japan, was…  Odd.  I’ll leave it at that.  BUT, you can get yakisoba, grilled soba noodles often served with chicken, or karage, Japanese style friend chicken, with french fries.  The best thing I’ve had was kalbi don, at Mazada “Zoom Zoom” Stadium in Hiroshima.  It’s Korean style grilled rib meat on a bed of rice and vegetables.  Really yummy. 

And then there are the drink girls roaming the seats.  At every park you’ll find an army of young woman, running up and down the stairs between the seats, with these kegs on their backs, dispensing a variety of beer and chuhai, a Japanese version of a highball, made with shoju instead of whiskey.  A twelve ounce cup will cost you between about five to seven dollars after you figure the exchange rate.  A lot better than the $12 for a tall can of beer I’ve paid at some stadiums.

Of course, nothing says, “baseball is back” better than a Dodger Dog, in my humble opinion.  

Funky Factor

These are things that are hard to quantify or compare, but which make the parks that have them more interesting.  Something that sets them apart from the rest.  

Oracle Park in San Francisco has a garden behind the center field seats where they grow the vegetables used by some of the food places there.  Also, on the McCovey Cove side of the park along the walkway going around the pier, they have an opening where passerbys can stand and watch the game for up to three innings before they have to make room for someone else.  And, during the seventh inning break, they send someone around to collect any recyclables to make sure they don’t get thrown away.  Very Californian.  This is something they do at several stadiums in Japan as well.

The retractable dome at T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field) is impressive.  I remember feeling a drop of a coming rain hitting my face and wondered when they would close the roof.  I looked up to see the doom was just closing up.  Something that huge moving that quietly was amazing.  

Another doomed stadium worth mentioning is Seibu Dome in Saitama, Japan (the current official name is Belluna Dome, having changed this year from Metlife Dome, after being changed from Seibu Prince Dome, and so on…).  The dome itself was a retrofit, placed over the stadium, which is built into the side of a hill.  The dome sits like a giant umbrella over the stadium, with natural air flowing in from all sides.  As a result of this construction, it is possible, and has happened, for home runs to be hit out of the park.  The only domed stadium (that I know of) where that can happen. 

And Sapporo Dome, in Sapporo, Japan, looks like a giant alien mothership that has landed on Earth.  The impression remains when you go inside, with vaulted concourses and bridges crossing overhead to get to your seats.  

I’m hoping to find more interesting funkiness in the parks I visit this season.