{"id":4688,"date":"2011-08-31T11:58:15","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T16:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=4688"},"modified":"2011-08-31T11:58:15","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T16:58:15","slug":"come-on-out-to-the-ballpark-with-us-part-ii-one-fan%e2%80%99s-top-five-mlb-venues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/4688","title":{"rendered":"Come on out to the ballpark with us, Part II: One fan\u2019s top five MLB venues"},"content":{"rendered":"

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5. Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Anaheim, CA)<\/p>\n

Angel Stadium, despite being the fourth-oldest ballpark in the Majors today, is definitely an interesting ballpark and a fun place to watch a ballgame.\u00a0 One of its notable features is the rockpile in left center field.\u00a0 Scattered with a few palm trees and set against a background of hundreds of parked cars beyond the outfield gates, the rockpile gives Angel Stadium a unique feel.\u00a0 A couple of blocks away in the parking lot, a huge Angels logo known as \u201cThe Big A\u201d lights up after all Angels victories.\u00a0 But perhaps my favorite feature of Angel Stadium is the famous Rally Monkey, who of course earned national prominence in the 2002 World Series.\u00a0 Late in the game, with the Angels down a run against the lowly Indians, a playoff berth well out of reach, southern California\u2019s favorite primate made a dramatic appearance on the video board, shown saving the world from Armageddon much to the delight of the hometown crowd.\u00a0 The Angels went quietly in the ninth and lost the game 3-2, but the Rally Monkey no doubt made for some excitement in the late innings, even during a lost season for the Halos.<\/p>\n

4. Busch Stadium (St. Louis, MO)<\/p>\n

Busch Stadium may have been placed unfairly high on this list due to the fact that my most memorable game there was the Cardinals\u2019 2006 Series-clinching win over the Tigers in Game 5, enjoyed in the comfort of the exclusive Redbird Club.\u00a0 Every part of the ballpark was state-of-the-art, including the gourmet pizzas served in the Redbird Club.\u00a0 Still, the downtown location of the five-year-old ballpark and the rabid St. Louis fans also helped make this ballpark special.\u00a0 Despite boasting football and hockey teams, St. Louis is and always has been a baseball town, and the fans there love their Cardinals.\u00a0 Of course, having stars like Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter around certainly doesn\u2019t hurt, but I quickly got the feeling that that fans would fill Busch Stadium night after night even to see a seventy-win team.\u00a0 And since the Golden Sombrero\u2019s base of operations is still located in the St. Louis area, I know one day I\u2019ll be back at Busch Stadium, and I certainly look forward to that day.<\/p>\n

3. Yankee Stadium (Bronx, NY)<\/p>\n

Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009, is the newest ballpark I have visited, and it obviously has several features that set it apart from other venues.\u00a0 Among the most notable of these are the legendary \u201cBleacher Creatures\u201d in right field.\u00a0 The Creatures are known chiefly for their \u201croll call\u201d in the top of the first inning, when they chant the names of each Yankee infielder and outfielder until they offer their acknowledgment.\u00a0 The creatures are also known to mercilessly heckle opposing teams, fans and (especially) right fielders.\u00a0 Fortunately for Eric Young Jr., <\/strong>the Rockies do not inspire too much venom in opposing fans, because his bumbling performance the last time I was there left much to be heckled.<\/p>\n

I think the mere words \u201cYankee Stadium\u201d raised my expectations to the point where I was somehow expecting the hallowed grounds of Ruth, Gehrig and so many others to be something more than just a nice place to watch a ballgame.\u00a0 Make no mistake\u2014it\u2019s a very nice ballpark, and the Yankee Museum inside the ballpark (which I had time to visit while the Bombers were crushing a hapless Aaron Cook) is also a very cool feature of the park.\u00a0 Watching Mariano Rivera nail down a save to clinch the AL East title (on their way to a world championship) over the Red Sox was certainly one of the more memorable events in baseball that I\u2019ve witnessed in person.\u00a0 Yankee Stadium misses the #1 slot not for any shortcoming in its own right, but merely because as a non-Yankee fan, I suppose I never felt its \u201cYankee mystique\u201d that I assumed would touch every fan to pass through its gates.<\/p>\n

2. Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore, MD)<\/p>\n

Camden Yards ushered in a new era of ballparks when it opened in 1992.\u00a0 Just two years later, Jacobs Field opened in Cleveland, mercifully shutting the doors on Cleveland Municipal Stadium.\u00a0 Coors Field opened the following year, and others such as PETCO and AT&T Park quickly sprang up before the decade was out.\u00a0 Located in Baltimore\u2019s beautiful Inner Harbor neighborhood, by far the nicest area of the city, Camden is truly a choice destination for any night on the town.\u00a0 It\u2019s also easily accessible from Washington via a quick trip on the Camden line of a local commuter rail.\u00a0 Although fans are very casual about the game and largely treat it as more of an event, much like in PETCO Park or Dodger Stadium, the actual ballpark itself is very well-constructed and there\u2019s hardly a bad seat in the house.\u00a0 With Eutaw Street fronting a red brick building in the background, it has a true baseball feel, even though it was built in an era when many facilities were used for baseball and football.\u00a0 The ballpark has never hosted a World Series game, and has only been home to two playoff teams in its twenty-year history, but is still a fun place to enjoy a ballgame.<\/p>\n

1. Coors Field (Denver, CO)<\/p>\n

Coors Field, home of my beloved Rockies, has truly set the standard for me as to what the ideal ballpark experience should be like.\u00a0 Aside from one game in the old Mile High Stadium when I was six years old, Coors Field was the first major league park I ever visited, and the other nine ballparks I\u2019ve visited (some newer, some with more tradition, some with more features to keep fans entertained) simply have failed to top the experience of watching a ballgame at Coors Field.\u00a0 The ballpark is located in the heart of downtown Denver on 20th<\/sup> and Blake Street, surrounded by bars, restaurants and entertainment as far as the eye can see.\u00a0 $15 will buy you a spot in a parking lot just a five-minute stroll from the home-plate gate.\u00a0 And once inside the ballpark, nothing can get me ready for baseball like the PA announcer\u2019s booming voice proclaiming, \u201cThis is Coors Field\u2014home of the Colorado Rockies!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rockies have struggled as a franchise for many years.\u00a0 Outside of a strike-shortened 1995 season, the second half of September 2007 and a few months of the 2009 season, the team has been mediocre at best.\u00a0 And without a rich, tradition-filled history, it can sometimes be tough to get people excited at the ballpark, especially when the home team falls behind early.\u00a0 Not so at Coors Field.\u00a0 From the Blake Street Bombers era of 1995 (which saw the Rockies routinely pound out double-digit runs and cobble together game-winning rallies in the late innings) to the more mainstream brand of baseball today, the game is simply never over at Coors Field.\u00a0 Fans know this too, and it\u2019s why you won\u2019t see anyone head for the exits trying to beat the Denver traffic with the Rockies down three in the bottom of the ninth.\u00a0 It is this element of Coors Field that I like most of all\u2014the fact that, humidor or no, Rockies fans have simply been trained never to give up on their team, and they enthusiastically support the hometown nine until the final out is recorded–or, in more cases than rival NL West teams would care to count, not <\/em>recorded.<\/p>\n

Coors Field certainly isn\u2019t the newest ballpark I\u2019ve ever visited.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have the best concession-stand food, nicest bathrooms or most comfortable seats.\u00a0 And it definitely doesn\u2019t sport an array of pennants along the outfield wall marking World Series titles of long ago.\u00a0 But there is simply nothing like the experience of watching a game at Coors Field.\u00a0 So come on out to the ballpark with us\u2014and let\u2019s go Rockies.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5. Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Anaheim, CA) Angel Stadium, despite being the fourth-oldest ballpark in the Majors today, is definitely an interesting ballpark and a fun place to watch a ballgame.\u00a0 One of its notable features is the rockpile in left center field.\u00a0 Scattered with a few palm trees and set against a background of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1300,18,6,11,13,14],"tags":[2662,624,2663,1907,428,2664,653,71,510,2665,425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4688"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4693,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688\/revisions\/4693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}