I love ballparks. It's one of the unique things about baseball I love. Hockey used to have unique home ice advantages, but all that got taken away some time ago. Like for example, the ice surface at the Boston Garden was actually shorter than "regulation" because of the smaller size of the old arena. That's cool, but it's all gone now. In baseball, you can have weird demensions in ballparks for a home field advantage. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.
Like when Houston builds a stupid, gimick mound in centerfield, I don't like that. You only did that to get attention. But like, the ivy and the shape of the outfield wall of Wrigley. That's cool. It's uniquely Wrigley. Green Monster, obviously is another. I don't want to just say the weird walls are only allowed in ballparks 100 years old or older, but it's sort of just always been there that way, so that's cool to me. If there is a usefull reason for a quirky jut in the outfield fence in a ballpark, I'm okay with it. If it's there so that people will talk about the fact that it's there, that's not okay.
Like, if a team wants to make their park tough to hit in for righties, but a bandbox for lefties and then load up the roster with left-handed batters, that's a good strategy and that makes sense. You can do that in baseball, and I love it.
Also, I was trying to think of teams that really need a new ballpark, and I could really only come up with one. Oakland plays in a football stadium, and I can't wait for that era to officially be over. When the Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Mariners, Padres, Twins, Nationals, Marlins and Giants all moved out of the gigantic, cookie cutter, multiuse, soulless stadiums in the 90's and 2000's, it was just all-around better for the game of baseball. The only teams still playing in giganic stadiums like that are the Blue Jays and the A's. For some reason, I don't really have a problem with the Jays still playing in SkyDome, AKA Rogers Centre, is that dispite it being 25 years old, it still has this cutting edge, newness to it. It was the first time I'd ever heard of a retractable roof. What a marvel of engineering. Plus it's the Blue Jays, Canadians don't deserve our game up there. (signed, bitter Nashville Predators fan)
But when you look around, there are some wonderful ballparks built around baseball, and that matters a lot to me when I'm choosing what teams to watch. I don't mind watching the A's play in that football stadium, actually, despite everything I'm saying here, because I like the team. But normally, I don't like that atmosphere. So like I said, I was thinking about what teams need a new park, and there really isn't anyone besides Oakland and perhaps the Rays. Everything I hear about Tropicana Field is that it's a dump. I imagine it is, maybe that's why no one goes to Rays games? Must be. But at least it doesn't feel like there's 672 people in the stands because the building is too large for baseball crowds, like it was in Miami for Marlins games. And when the Marlins were bad (were, lol) and it was really empty, it was like watching the empty arena match between the Rock and Mankind during the halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII (I think). Just a weird atmosphere for those watching at home.
When a building is full and everyone is hanging on every play, it's so much more engaging for the person at home to watch. That's why I like watching San Francisco Giants games. That place is always packed, it's a cool, modern stadium with a throwback feel. It's great. Many teams have done the right thing in the past 10-15 years to upgrade their home ballpark experience, and I think it benefits all of baseball as a result.
I've only visited four MLB ballparks. Wrigley, Miller Park, Turner Field and Fenway, in that order. I've got 26 to go. Easiest for me to get to would be Cincinatti and St. Louis. Let's get on the road, Caleb. We've got baseball to watch.
-BJP
Like when Houston builds a stupid, gimick mound in centerfield, I don't like that. You only did that to get attention. But like, the ivy and the shape of the outfield wall of Wrigley. That's cool. It's uniquely Wrigley. Green Monster, obviously is another. I don't want to just say the weird walls are only allowed in ballparks 100 years old or older, but it's sort of just always been there that way, so that's cool to me. If there is a usefull reason for a quirky jut in the outfield fence in a ballpark, I'm okay with it. If it's there so that people will talk about the fact that it's there, that's not okay.
Like, if a team wants to make their park tough to hit in for righties, but a bandbox for lefties and then load up the roster with left-handed batters, that's a good strategy and that makes sense. You can do that in baseball, and I love it.
Also, I was trying to think of teams that really need a new ballpark, and I could really only come up with one. Oakland plays in a football stadium, and I can't wait for that era to officially be over. When the Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Mariners, Padres, Twins, Nationals, Marlins and Giants all moved out of the gigantic, cookie cutter, multiuse, soulless stadiums in the 90's and 2000's, it was just all-around better for the game of baseball. The only teams still playing in giganic stadiums like that are the Blue Jays and the A's. For some reason, I don't really have a problem with the Jays still playing in SkyDome, AKA Rogers Centre, is that dispite it being 25 years old, it still has this cutting edge, newness to it. It was the first time I'd ever heard of a retractable roof. What a marvel of engineering. Plus it's the Blue Jays, Canadians don't deserve our game up there. (signed, bitter Nashville Predators fan)
But when you look around, there are some wonderful ballparks built around baseball, and that matters a lot to me when I'm choosing what teams to watch. I don't mind watching the A's play in that football stadium, actually, despite everything I'm saying here, because I like the team. But normally, I don't like that atmosphere. So like I said, I was thinking about what teams need a new park, and there really isn't anyone besides Oakland and perhaps the Rays. Everything I hear about Tropicana Field is that it's a dump. I imagine it is, maybe that's why no one goes to Rays games? Must be. But at least it doesn't feel like there's 672 people in the stands because the building is too large for baseball crowds, like it was in Miami for Marlins games. And when the Marlins were bad (were, lol) and it was really empty, it was like watching the empty arena match between the Rock and Mankind during the halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII (I think). Just a weird atmosphere for those watching at home.
When a building is full and everyone is hanging on every play, it's so much more engaging for the person at home to watch. That's why I like watching San Francisco Giants games. That place is always packed, it's a cool, modern stadium with a throwback feel. It's great. Many teams have done the right thing in the past 10-15 years to upgrade their home ballpark experience, and I think it benefits all of baseball as a result.
I've only visited four MLB ballparks. Wrigley, Miller Park, Turner Field and Fenway, in that order. I've got 26 to go. Easiest for me to get to would be Cincinatti and St. Louis. Let's get on the road, Caleb. We've got baseball to watch.
-BJP
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