I had the same feeling about Toronto. Not so much the specifics as the general opinion that for a pre-Camden park it was done really well. Safeco didn't do it for me though. I was at the same SABR2006 game in the right field seats and the sun was right in my eyes so I had a tough time watching the game. It wound up being one of the fastest games in recent memories (under 2 hours) so instead of having to deal with the sun for a couple of innings about half the game was ruined for me. Enough people have told me they enjoyed their Safeco experience to make me want to give it a second chance.

I had stopped watching baseball for a few years until the awful late 90s Twins combined with the Metrodome to make a live ballgame cheaper than a movie. I've lived near charming, beautiful stadiums before, but I've never been grateful for a park like I am for the Metrodome.

I'm beginning to suspect that I'm the only person on the planet who actually liked Olympic Stadium.

Me:

Wrigley Field
Fenway Park
Camden Yards
Dodger Stadium
New Comiskey
Milwaukee County
Arlington (the old one, not the new one)
Oakland Alameda
Your Name Here Park, Miami
Jack Murphy
Old Comiskey
Busch II
Candlestick
The Mistake by the Lake
The Trop
The Humpdome

The big red steamboat wheel in Cincy is not part of the stadium. It's part of the National Steamboat Monument, located outside the stadium on the public landing.

This 30-foot replica of the paddle wheel of the American Queen, the largest overnight passenger steamboat to be built in the last half century, rises above the river and reminds the public of Cincinnati’s heritage. Steel columns release steam and music plays when visitors pass.
Public Landing, Ohio River Shoreline, Cincinnati, Oh 45202


Now, if you want to say they were trying to hard with the smokestacks, and/or the Riverboat Deck built on top of the batter's eye building, then you have a point. However, incorporating Cincinnati's river heritage was always part of the design of the park and having purchased group outings on the Riverboat Deck I can say it is a great place to watch the game.

Not the only one, Ryan.

I was biased, of course, because of how MLB was screwing over Montreal, but even objectively, I liked the place.

Ryan, I grew up in Montreal in the 70s and it was Mecca for my brother and I. I can't say anything bad about the place I dreamed about when I was 8.

I do wish I saw a game in Jarry Park but I was just a touch too young. Everyone I know who watched the 'Spos there had a great baseball experience.

I liked Olympic. Objectively - yes, the park was terrible, but the games were in French, good seats were easy to find, and smoked meat was available.

Objectively - yes, the park was terrible, but the games were in French, good seats were easy to find, and smoked meat was available.

And poutine, and Montreal-style pizza, and giant beers that didn't cost an unreasonable amount.

Also, it was hilarious (and deafening) to hear the fans there unleash the furious volume of the seats.

"good seats were easy to find"

Bingo. And the haute Barf-o-rama associations from "Pie IX" subway station next to the stadium were somehow appropriate.

Jarry Park felt like a good Triple A venue. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Mine:

1. Kauffman Stadium (biased of course)
2. Pac Bell Park (or whatever it is called now)
3. Camden Yards
4. Comerica Park
5. Wrigley Field
6. New Busch Stadium
7. Citizens Bank Park
8. Old Yankee Stadium
9. Old Busch Stadium
10.The Metrodome
11.RFK Stadium

I haven't been to that many MLB parks so:

1. Wrigley
2. Fenway
3. Old Comiskey
4. Tiger Stadium
5. Chase One Ball Field
6. New Comiskey
7. County Stadium

I'd almost forgotten that I'd been to Tiger stadium. They apparenlty have been working on New Comiskey and I haven't been in five years, so maybe it's improved. I do remember sitting in the next to last row in the original upper deck and became offended that they charged people to sit there. It was a mile away and they were wise to get rid of those seats.

1. Fenway *
2. Coors Field
3. Nats Field
4. New Comiskey
5. Old Yankee Stadium
6. Great America
7. Wrigley *
8. Old Comiskey
9. Shea (higher for football)
10. Riverfront

* I fully recognize these rankings are biased, but it's more by age than fandom. I only visited Fenway as a wide-eyed kid, whereas I never visited until Wrigley last year and, to me, its flaws outweighed its strengths (though as Dag notes, the upper deck sightlines were quite good). If you put the 42-year-old me in Fenway after enjoying some of the new parks, I'm sure its weaknesses would become much more apparent and it would slide down the list accordingly.

Wow I can see none of you have been to PNC park much. I have only been to 8 stadiums, but PNC was by far the best.

What we really need is a tongue-in-cheek article rating various mom's basements since nobody here actually watches a real game.

What's Montreal style pizza?

Wow I can see none of you have been to PNC park much. I have only been to 8 stadiums, but PNC was by far the best.

That's kind of inherent in their absence from most lists, I'd reckon. PNC is the park I most look forward to visiting. Fortunately, my youngest son is becoming a huge baseball fan, and we're already planning summer trips to various Midwestern ballparks, so it won't be long before we get to Pittsburgh.*



* That was for Vlad.

What's Montreal style pizza?

Domino's covered in poutine and Molson...

What's Montreal style pizza?

I can't quite describe it, and I can't think of a good comparison in Toronto (which has been cursed by too many bad chains). It's close to New York style, although it's more topping-heavy, and the sauce tends to be a bit sweeter. At all the places I've ordered pizza in Montreal, it's been a melty, cheesey joy.

1. Fenway - total bias pick, I probably spend as much time at Fenway as I do at anyplace that isn't my house or my office on an annual basis. With season tix I am spared some of the bad seats (of which there are many)
2. Wrigley
3. PNC - seconded Hokieneer
4. Coors
5. Camden
6. Jacobs Field
7. Turner Field - Like Skydome it actually gains points for not being a Camden style
8. Great American
9. Skydome
10. Citizens Bank - Gets dinged for (at the time anyway) a terrible lack of anything around the ballpark
11. Shea Stadium - I went about a half dozen times, sat all over the park and never had a bad seat
12. Safeco Field
13. Busch II
14. Yankee Stadium - 1976-2008 version
15. Whatever the Hell They're calling the ballpark in Miami - Just feels too much like the football stadium it is
16. New Comiskey - I had a similar experience to Voros many years ago.
17. Tropicana Field

PNC park is the perfect baseball stadium. I fail to see how any--old,new,retro--could be better. If you have a list and PNC isn't #1, then you either haven't been there or are succumbing to home fan bias! Fenway better than PNC? NO WAY!

I had stopped watching baseball for a few years until the awful late 90s Twins combined with the Metrodome to make a live ballgame cheaper than a movie. I've lived near charming, beautiful stadiums before, but I've never been grateful for a park like I am for the Metrodome.

It was wonderful to be able to decide on a whim that you want to go to a baseball game that night, regardless of weather or opponent, show up, and get affordable tickets and a good chance to watch your team win.

Also, ranking Shea ahead of YS2 is...strange. Did you only attend Yankee games on like weekday afternoons in the Stump Merril era I'm not the biggest Yankee Stadium fan in the world, and it's my home park, but the renovated old place had a great atmosphere.

Eh, my list is pretty sparse...

1. Turner Field (30ish)
2. Dodger Stadium (3 or 4)
3. Jack Murphy Stadium (6 to 10)
4. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (1)

The numbers in parentheses are approximate number of visits.

My opinion of PNC might be a slightly skewed, as this was the 1st game I attended at the park (something that isn't shown on the retrosheet, Vinny Castilla's FO-7 to lead off the 4th was a HR robbing catch by Giles in LF. Vinny had 3 other HR on the day).

That historic baseball game aside, the park is just amazing, and the Pirates are not worthy of such a great venue.

You can tell the west coast hasn't logged on yet because there's a lot of PNC Park love (of which I'm quite confident it deserves) and no AT&T;Park or Safeco Field love yet (or even Dodger Stadium)...

Of the 8 parks I've been to, I would rank them:

1. PNC
2. Fenway (not the best place to watch the game, but the history of the park bumps it up a slot or 2)
3. Camdem
4. Coors
5. The Jake
6. GAB
7. Turner Field
8. Riverfront

Parks I want to make it to: Wrigley, Pac-Bell, Dodger Stadium, Kauffmen, and Safeco. Might have to plan a west cost trip where I could take a train or drive up from LA to Seattle while stopping in San Fran for a game.

http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com/photos/uncategorized/pncpark.jpg

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/pictures/pnc08963.jpg

http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/PNC-Park-Photofile-Photograph-C10107675.jpeg

For new stadiums, I'd rank PNC 1 and Camden Yards 2. PNC is a great park and is situated perfectly on the river and city view behind the outfield wall.

For pre-1990s stadiums, Wrigley, followed by Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park. Dodger Stadium is also a great place to watch a game, but it's traffic hell before and after games.

Shea was a pit, but it was our pit. No character, but by far better sightlines (esp. into the OF corners and bullpens) than its replacement.

Safeco didn't do it for me though. I was at the same SABR2006 game in the right field seats and the sun was right in my eyes so I had a tough time watching the game.

This is how I felt about the new Natinals park too. I also miss the incredible hotdog/sausage vendor they had at RFK. Easily the best I've had in any ballpark.

Here's my list of parks-I've-to, with criteria listed below:

(1) Small stadiums don't get bonus points for being small. In other words, that "there isn't a bad seat in the house" at Wrigley is not dispositive unless the ~40k seats at Wrigley are better than the 40k best seats at a larger stadium like Safeco or Yankee.

(2) #1 concern is maximizing seats close to the field and sightlines. Food second. Neighborhood third. Architecture/ natural setting fourth.

(3) Ticket value is a factor, to the extent that the stadium affects the price. (eg, the paucity of good seats at Fenway drives up the price for the good seats).


Anyways, the rankings:

1: Wrigley. Great seats and sightlines for an older park, especially compared to Fenway. Great neighborhood. Not as hard to get tickets as Fenway. Beautiful.

2: Pac Bell. Not tiny, but feels like a smaller park. Great food. OK neighborhood. Gorgeous setting.

3: Citizens Bank. Not tiny, but seats are close to field and great sightlines. Makes best use of the open concourses of any new stadium I've been to. Fantastic food. Terrible neighborhood.

4: Camden Yards. Decent food, decent neighborhood, great sightlines. Only downside is it feels like a mall.

5: Fenway. Great neighborhood. Beautiful. Food's not terrible anymore. Seats suck.

6: Old Yankee Stadium. Huge number of good seats with great sightlines- best "big" upper deck. Food terrible, neighborhood terrible.

7: Safeco. Big, seats far from plate, but good sightlines. Great food. Decent neighborhood, supposedly has gotten better since I was there.

8: Citifield. Upper deck far from plate. Great food, great sightlines. Crappy neighborhood.

9: Petco. Good neighborhood, but seats felt far from plate IMO. Undistinguished.

10: New Yankee Stadium. Seats far from plate. Mediocre food. Crappy neighbohood.

11: Shea. Only had charm in the "it may be a ######## but it's our ########\" way.

There are definitely bad seats in the house at Wrigley. The ones all the way at the back of the lower deck are significantly cheaper than the ones in the upper deck for a reason.

PNC wins this for me hands down.
Pac Bell, Coors, quite suitable runners-up.
Love Fenway,despite its bias against legroom.

I like many of the other new ones that I've been to, but not as much as the above:
Minute Maid, new Comiskey, Miller Park, Nationals, Camden, the Ballpark, Petco.
I like Kaufmann a lot as well, which isn't 'old' or 'new'.

If Wrigley gets some much neeeded renovation, I'd probably think more of it, though it is usually a good experience.

I miss these old ones: Comiskey, Yankee, County Stadium, Tiger (and visited each in its final season, they were all looking pretty rough at that point).
Don't miss these old ones: Kingdome, Metrodome, Cleveland Muni., Busch Stadium, Fulton County,.

1. OPACY
2. Citizens Bank
3. Citifield
4. Yankee Stadium II
5. Shea
6. Turner
7. Nationals Park
8. Fulton County
9. Veterans
10. RFK

I've been to Three Rivers too, but I was a little kid at the time and don't remember it.

I was only there one time, but there was so much I didn't like. Immediately upon entering the stadium, I wanted to walk around and get a feel for it. I felt like I was in an obstacle course. I ran into a stairway, a brief jut of concessions, some other obstacle - it was an unusually difficult walk. Modern stadiums normally have an easy Wheel of Commerce behind the seats, but that wasn't the case in this bit by the outfield gate I entered at. I got frustrated and soon stopped.

Jaffe says this in regards to New Busch, where I've never been, but I have the same complaint about Miller Park and, to a lesser extent, Great American Ballpark. Maybe I'm spoiled by the wide concourses at New Comiskey, but I like being able to walk around a park without having to navigate around concession stands and escalators; on the South Side, the concession stands are only on the outside and inside of the concourse walkway, never a booth or small building in the middle, and the ramps and escalators are all outside of the concourse.

At Miller Park, I felt like you had to double-back at times to get around. Great American is much better in the last few years; I was there the year it opened, and it took a good half hour to get from our seats to outside the park after the ninth inning. There must have been only three exits at the time!

Also, ranking Shea ahead of YS2 is...strange. Did you only attend Yankee games on like weekday afternoons in the Stump Merril era I'm not the biggest Yankee Stadium fan in the world, and it's my home park, but the renovated old place had a great atmosphere.

I attended twice, once in 1976 as a 5 year old (don't really remember it, my mother tells me the Yankee fans were very nice to me when I cried after the Red Sox lost) and once on a weekday afternoon against Seattle about 6-7 years ago. Due to my idiot girlfriend at the time getting in a car accident on the way we got there around the 3rd inning, the vendors when we got food were surly, the food itself was terrible (watered down soda, cold hot dogs) and the atmosphere was freakin' deader than dead. Plus, I found it to be rather dirty (and as I said, I spend a lot of time at Fenway so that's saying something).

Shea surprised me. I expected it to suck but I never had a bad experience there.

I love Fenway, and it'd be first on my list, but I'm really glad I was in Philadelphia during college and a few years after, for Veterans Stadium. Sure, the place was unattractive, the food was county fair stuff, and the neighborhood was composed of parking lots, but tickets were $8 (up to $12 my last year in Philly), always available walk-up, and it was on the Broad St line. I could see baseball whenever I wanted, along with anyone else who felt like seeing a game. That's the way the world ought to be.

we're already planning summer trips to various Midwestern ballparks, so it won't be long before we get to Pittsburgh.

Good plan. Once you've finished working through all the Midwestern parks, PNC is probably the closest Northeast park, so it'd make a natural next stop.

Nice to see so many people who had a good time at PNC Park. Hokieneer's game was an absolute classic, and once you consider the lineup, probably the unlikeliest seven-run rally in the history of the sport.

I don't give a rat's #### about gourmet hot dogs, stinky loos or seats for fat people. Just give me a good team, good atmosphere, a good view, a good price, and a good woman who knows how to keep score.

1. Tiger Stadium
2. Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)
3. Wrigley Field in the 70's
4. County Stadium, Milwaukee
5. Jarry Park
6. Dodger Stadium
7. Yankee Stadium I
8. Fenway Park in the 70's
9. Griffith Stadium (okay, forget the good team part)
10.Connie Mack Stadium
11.The Jake
12.Camden Yards
13.Safeco
14.Jack Murphy
15.Three Rivers
16.Busch I (the one after Sportsman's Park)
17.Yankee Stadium II
18.Riverfront
19.Candlestick
20.The Vet
21.DC Stadium / RFK (great for football, though)
22.Comiskey I
23.Municipal Stadium, Cleveland
24.The Kingdome
25.Shea

EDIT: Forgot about the Metrodome, which I'd put between DC / RFK and Comiskey I.

Have to get to PNC, The Bank, Yankee Stadium III, Kaufmann and AT&T;, to make it an even 30 [31].

Ryan, I was always fine with Olympic Stadium. Certainly I enjoyed going there more than going to Yankee Stadium or Shea. At least until you had to worry about the stadium crumbling.

And at that point they were pretty casual about improving your seats. Always a bonus.

I can't recall anything distinctive about Jarry Park other than it was pretty small.

1 Fenway
2 Safeco Field
3 O.P. @ Camden Yards
4 Yankee Stadium (1980's to 2008 version)
5 Citizens Bank Park
6 Shea Stadium
7 Anaheim Stadium (called Edison Field when I was there)
8 The Vet
9 Tropicana Catwalk Center

My two cents:

1) PNC Park - Gorgeous - can't think of anything wrong with it, or that could have been done better
2) AT&T;- right there with PNC - only flaw is it can get congested in the areas of the concourse, which is indeed a small flaw
3) Camden Yards - beautiful park, great customer service, classic in every sense
4) Wrigley Field - great park with great history and the least advertising of all the ballparks, missing some of the conveniences and amenities of the newer parks
5) Fenway Park - see Wrigley, without the advertising part
6) Citizens Bank Park - underrated, does the best job of creating ballpark neighborhoods
7) County Stadium (Milw.) - really enjoyed the games I went to there
8) Chase Field - I am not sure why I enjoy this place so much, but have really like going to ballgames here
9) Comerica Park - only been here once, and I have a feeling it is more impressive for a one time visit than it is to a regular. I would think all the gimmicks would lose their luster after a few visits
10) Miller Park - great sightlines with the best concessions, but I don't care for the glass look of it
11) Turner Field - nice all-around park
12) Progressive Field - enjoyed it, though nothing stands out.
13) Dodger Stadium - would be much nearer the top if they let you roam the stadium
14) Tiger Stadium - a great ballpark, but (ouch) those seats.
15) Petco - greatest location in baseball, beautiful weather in the gaslamp district, but why is my view of condos rather than water or the San Diego skyline
16) Coors Field - fits well into the neighborhood
17) Ameriquest - I love the centerfield look
18) Angels Stadium - great family atmosphere, unless the Red Sox are there
19) Oakland Coliseum - love the Oakland fans, level two behind home plate put you right on top of the action
20) US Cellular - get lots of bad press, but I kind of liked it. Nothing stands out, though.
21) Yankee Stadium (2001 visit) - overrated. Other than history, it didn't have much to offer.
22) Metrodome - call me crazy, but I always liked the look of the Metrodome on tv, in person not so much
23) Candlestick Park - not a great stadium, and you have to dock it for the weather (although day games were nice)
24) Veterans Stadium - even as a Phillies fan I didn't care for it
25) QualComm Stadium - nice football stadium, but baseball wasn't a fit
26) Kingdome - at least it kept the rain out in April.

Fenway is my favorite by a mile. Wrigley feels like a 100 year old park; Fenway feels like a modern park built to look 100 years old. I was amazed at how nice it was. And the beer selection is out of this world (for a ballpark).

Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami, is a decent enough park if you can get past the football sightlines that make you have to crane your neck. It's just out of the way, in baseball terms.

EDIT: Citifield rocks the casbah too.

Fenway
PNC*
Wrigley
Kaufmann Park*

I'm a little unsure whether to put Wrigley above or with Kaufmann. Its pluses are well known - location, the field, seat proximity to action, generally good sightlines. The minuses are also well known. See YouTube video of guy bodysurfing through the trough urinal for visual. PNC really is in a class by itself, and Kaufmann Park was an unexpected pleasure to visit.

Old Comiskey*/Tiger Stadium*
Renovated Old Yankee*

Like Wrigley and Fenway, these old parks have their pluses and minuses, with most of the minuses having to do with infrastructure. Renovated Old Yankee gets knocked down a notch for the sin of unskillfully applying gilt to a dowager. Let her age gracefully, idiots. The Fenway guys clearly learned something from the Yankees miscues.

New Comiskey

The lower deck is pretty great, especially with the lack of an overhang. This comes at a detriment to the upper deck. The seats are good in the first 20 or so rows. Beyond that you're in the stratosphere with speakers blasting inanities. At least the seats are cheap up there, and the management doesn't care if you move to a better empty seat.

Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)/County (Milwaukee)

Nothing fancy about them, but the atmosphere was all baseball.

Camden Yards*/Chase Field*

I don't know why these get raves. They didn't do much for me. Maybe they'll age well.

Miller Park

It is a giant heap of poured concrete, but it's close to downtown, tailgating is allowed, they've got a great little league park in front that is a mini-version of the stadium, and the food is very good.

Veterans (Philly)*/Riverfront*/Three River

Virtually indistinguishable to me, and not a great place to see a game. Philly should be ranked as my worst ballpark experience for the time I was there at the next to last game of a miserable Phillies season. There were all of 5,000 of us at the game. The usher refused to let us move from the last five rows of the upper deck to the empty front row of that deck, even when we offered him a twenty. It might have been a more Philly experience if he'd taken our twenty, and then called security on us.

Metrodome/Kingdome*/Olympic*

Yuck.

*Only watched 1 game.

Of course if I could afford the best seat in the house, Fenway would top them all by a mile.

Only five for me, though I'm planning to see the Baltimore/DC parks this May and maybe the new NYC ones.

(1) Fenway Park - I can walk there in about a half hour, I've sat all over the place, and while I've had some really crappy seats, I've also had some great ones, and the current owners have done a great job of improving it without harming its basic character.

(2) Pac Bell - Very nice, probably the only really "new" park I've ever been to.

(3) Oakland Coliseum - Saw one game there, and thought that it had the feel of a large minor league park, and that that wasn't such a bad thing.

(4) Yankee Stadium '08 - Maybe I didn't see it at its best, as a Red Sox fan there just to say I'd been there for a midsummer game with the Reds, and without time to walk around (my bus was late and I had to head straight to my seat). The sightlines weren't bad, but the constant onslaught of noise and the fans who apparently couldn't get into a close game left a bad taste in my mouth.

(5) Shea Stadium - Oakland feels like a minor league park in a good way, Shea looked like one in a bad way. It didn't help that my one visit was on a pretty dreary day.

What's Montreal style pizza?

I think that's something that has changed over the years. When I was a kid it wasn't easy to find pizza in Montreal and what was available was a thick crust with a slightly sweet, thick tomato sauce and the ingredients under a thick layer of a mixture of cheeses. The crust was good enough to eat on its own without any kind of toppings.

Jarry Park is a cool looking place now.

Unfortunately I never got to Jarry Park, either. From the old photos I've seen from when it was still a ballpark, it looked a bit like Exhibition Stadium. Would that be a fair comparison?

Goddammit, I also forgot about the Oakland Coliseum, which would be barely above Shea. It would really have had to be bad, too, since I went there only during the early 70's when the A's were great.

Hokieneer's game was an absolute classic, and once you consider the lineup, probably the unlikeliest seven-run rally in the history of the sport.

Wait till you hear the full story of the game:

A couple of my friends and I were starting a regional sports web site that summer. We're from central WV, and we were going to focus on mostly the HS and college scene from the south-east Ohio, Pittsburgh, WV area. We had already been to Cincinnati and Cleveland earlier in the year to see games and contact local businesses about advertisements. The trip to that game was one of those pseudo business trips. Our plan was to leave early, stop in Morgantown, WV and contact a few business, drive up and catch the 1st game of the DH, then take the few hours between games to sell some ad space around town, then if we were able catch the 2nd game.

We got a late start and were running behind. The game was about ready to start and we were still 20 miles or so south of Pittsburgh. In all of our haste no one had been checking the gas gauge, and we ran out of gas on I-79. By the time we had got to the nearest exit and gas station, and got back on the road, it was somewhere in the 2nd inning. Not sure how long it took us to get into the stadium, but I remember hearing the calls of the Giles HR robbing catch and Vinny's 2nd HR on the radio into town.

By the time the 9th started, the entire stadium was empty. Of the near 33,000 in attendance for the game, I say only about 4500 or so was there to witness the rally. All of us realized immediately after the game just how lucky we were to witness a historic baseball game like that. Just seeing the 9th inning in person made up for us selling 0 ads on the day and all the other crap we went through.

We grabbed a bite to eat and left town; none of us had the energy to try and sale ad space on a crappy website and stick around to see another baseball game.

No matter how gorgeous PNC might be, you're still in Pittsburgh, and you're still watching the Pirates.

My list ...

1. Wrigley
2. PNC
3. AT&T;4. New Busch
5. Coors
6. Fenway
7. Old Busch (favorite team/childhood nostalgia points)
8. Kauffman
9. Old Yankee
10. Dodger
11. Miller
12. Minute Maid
13. Comerica
14. U.S. Cellular
15. Memorial (Baltimore)
16. Skydome
17. Turner
18. Fulton County
19. Astrodome

My big regret is never making it to Tiger Stadium.

No matter how gorgeous PNC might be, you're still in Pittsburgh, and you're still watching the Pirates.

Spoken like someone who's never done it.

Jarry Park is a cool looking place now.

Unfortunately I never got to Jarry Park, either. From the old photos I've seen from when it was still a ballpark, it looked a bit like Exhibition Stadium. Would that be a fair comparison?

I never went there, but IIRC Exhibition Stadium was nothing but a converted football stadium. Whereas Jarry Park was purely baseball, and so small (under 30,000 capacity) that there weren't any really bad seats. I was only there once, in 1969 to see a Pirates game in midsummer, and the atmosphere was absolutely fabulous---large crowd, totally into the game. The most memorable moment took place when Willie Stargell hit a Ruthian home run that landed right in a filled up swimming pool, just missing one of the swimmers. I always thought that putting a swimming pool within home run distance was a nice touch. I don't think that any team's fan base has ever been more royally screwed than Montreal's, and that includes Washington's. With the right kind of ownership, the Expos could have been one of the crown jewels of the Majors, and instead they just let it rot on the vine.

I saw the Bucs play in Riverfront, back in '94.

1. PNC - Great setting, super-cheap and parking is really convenient. I sat 10 rows behind home plate and paid something like $22.
2. Wrigley - Great setting, mass transit is helpful, tickets are expensive but I sat at lower level and there were pretty good sightlines. The stadium is pretty well maintained but obviously limited because of the age.
3. Tiger Stadium (old) - crap neighborhood but tickets were cheap, parking was convenient and you felt like you were right on top of the field. I went in the late 90s, so the maintenance was already slacking but you could see and feel the history of the place.
4. Citizens Bank - what a nightmare of a setting. So many stadiums surrounded by so many parking lots. Getting out of the parking lot was awful. Great atmosphere though.
5. Camden Yards - Nice setting, sat in club level seats, but not much real atmosphere. What's weird is watching "The Wire" and seeing how Baltimore is such a dump.
6. Rangers ballpark - middle of a parking lot, but a nice "new" stadium. I was there for Phil Hughes aborted no-hitter which was pretty cool.
7. Citi Field - sat in a luxury box so obviously not a "normal" person's perspective. The stadium seemed a lot smaller than it was so it felt like you weren't too far from the field. Middle of a parking lot thing sucks, but in theory the subway would make it convenient.
8. US Cellular - Cheap tickets (considering I went to Wrigley the next day), good stadium. Didn't feel too generic, despite it being the last pre-Camden stadium. Neighborhood sucked, and parking is way too inconvenient. I liked the atmosphere.
8. Progressive Field - Neighborhood was ok but felt it was getting a little generic.
9. Nationals Stadium - Again generic, but clean and easy access to public transit.
10. Great American Ballpark - Even more generic, the "on the river" thing is sort of nice.
11. Old Yankee Stadium - I am a Yankee fan, but that place was a dump. The history thing was gone after the remodel. Seats were expensive and seeing anything from the upper deck was worthless. The RF bleachers were great seats but too many drunkards before the alcohol ban and after the ban you weren't allowed to enjoy a drink. While the subway is right there, the fact that the trains were so crowded before and after made it almost not worth it.
12. Shea Stadium - watched my first game there, don't remember much of it but other than the fact that we had really bad seats and so far away. The middle of the parking lot thing sucks too.

I think I'm going to try a swing for Angels, Dodgers and San Diego this spring/summer.

I think Pittsburgh may be the most underrated city I've been to.

Wrigley - Seats close to the field, plus a spectacular view out over Lake Michigan. Pretty much perfect on a nice day.
OPACY - Liked the open area behind the seats, plus very visually attractive.
Ballpark at Arlington - Just little less intersting than OPACY, but a great place to watch a game.
Fenway - Just a neat ballpark. Plus took a family vacation to Boston and visited on a Sox off day, but the stadium was open, and there were no gaurds, so there are pictures of me touching the Green Monster, sitting in the bullpen/dugouts, etc.
Bank One Ballpark - Weird to have a stadium with zero curved lines anywhere in it. But when they opened the blind things so you could see the desert, that was pretty breathtaking.
Kauffman - Good seats, some open space. Just a very solid, underrated ballpark.
Tiger Stadium - Felt like you were right on top of the field, even moreso than Wrigley.
Jacobs Field - Just a little better than the Nationals Park, Turner, Cit Bank trifecta, but pretty similar.
Petco - Doesn't really flow from section to section, but tried a lot of new things, and mostly succeeded.
Busch 2 - Homer pick. Pre-96, it would be about a dozen places lower.
Milwaukee County - One of the best times at a ballpark I've had. Dont remember much of the stadium, tbh.
Nationals Park - The next 3 parks are all similar. Could really have listed in any order.
Turner
Cit Bank -
Astrodome - A surprisingly fun atmosphere. Ugly seats, but they had teh best ballpark nachos I've had.
MinMaid - Overthought in a lot of places, but prett good overall.
Busch 3 - Dag hit on the poorly desgined walkways. Nice, but not visually arresting.
Skydome - Clean, neat and quiet. Really really quiet. Plus the same concessions seemed to repeat every 25 feet.
Dodger - Felt really old. Had rows of seats that were falling off.
Comerica - Just didnt do much to captivate me.
Yankee - Not as good as expecting. Was there before late 90's dynasty.
Shea - Not as bad as I was expecting.
Fulton County - Meh. Nothing real bad, but nothing real good either. Just meh
Proplayer - They try hard, but it is a football stadium through and through
USCell (circa 1993) - Just kinda boring, last of the old school stadiums
NetAss - Like PP, obv not a baseball stadium. Seats way far back from field
Metrodome - Too artificial.
Candlestick - Wasnt even cold for the game I saw, but see proplayer above
Cleveland Municipal - Just a dump. Cheap seats, but thats it
Riverfront - Boring cookie cutter. Nothing at all interesting
3 Rivers - Felt dark and dingy, and of course, utterly boring
Vet - There was no excuse for a big city like Philly to have this stadium

I saw the Bucs play in Riverfront, back in '94.

Which tells you absolutely nothing about seeing a Pirates game at PNC Park.

Oddest place I've seen game I saw was between the Expos and Rangers at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan. link. It isn't much of a stadium, but the atmosphere was amazing.

I'm not much for ordinal ranks, so I'll try it chronologically:

Yankee I
Shea
Memorial (Minnesota)
Yankee II
Jack Murhpy
Fulton
Fenway
Memorial (Baltimore)
Kingdome
Camden
Turner
Jacobs
Bithorn
RFK
GABP
Petco
Yankee III

#51, only one thing has ever spoiled a game for me and that's obnoxious (usually drunk) fans in the general area. I can't imagine not enjoying a game at PNC regardless of the teams on the field. I've seen my share of objectively lousy games (particularly the two NFL games in Toronto) and enjoyed myself.

I haven't been to that many MLB parks. My order is:

1) PNC
2) Kauffman (pre-2009 renovation)
3) Milwaukee County Stadium
4) Yankee Stadium (1976-2008 version)
5) New Comiskey (Phase VI)
6) Jacobs Field
7) RFK
8) Metrodome
9) Miller Park

Somehow I've never been to Wrigley. I'll probably try to change that this summer. I also plan on going to the renovated Kauffman, hopefully, and the Nationals and Twins new parks. Maybe Camden Yards too if the O's are in town the next time I'm in DC.

As for the ones I have been too, I admit that I rank County Stadium high based on nostalgia, but I loved that dump. I'm sure that's still where I've seen the most live games I've been to. Miller Park is awful, it looks disgusting and there is no airflow at all. I rank the Metrodome higher because even though the seats don't face the diamond, at least they have an HVAC system. Also, I like the fact that it is in the heart of the city, unlike Miller. People often mention that they like the field of parking lots around Miller but I couldn't disagree more. I don't like that out in the middle of nowhere feeling (Kauffman gets an exception because they at least have another stadium sitting next door, as well as the waterfalls to provide some visual interest). RFK reminded me of County Stadium to an extent because of its dumpy charm so I liked it more than the two horrible domes. Miller Park just got everything wrong. What I like about the Metrodome is that they didn't even try to do things right. That unpretentiousness gets points from me. Miller Park thought they were doing things right but tried to do it on a shoestring budget and in a bad (although Selig-friendly) location and failed totally. The retractable roof is more like a car's sunroof than anything else, it's practically pointless.

No matter how gorgeous PNC might be, you're still in Pittsburgh, and you're still watching the Pirates.

I've never been, but I've told by more than one person that Pittsburgh is probably the most underrated city in America and is much different than most rust-belt cities. I've been trying to find an excuse to take my wife there to see PNC Park and visit Primanti Brothers.

1. PNC - I don't know how they made Pittsburgh look so nice.
2. Old Yankee Stadium - Yeah, I know the renovation ruined it. I learned how to chant "Red Sox suck!"
3. Camden Yards - Early years.
4. Angels Field - Pretty nice surprisingly enough, even though you couldn't pay me enough to sit under the sun in the LF bleachers during a day game.
5. Turner Field - Kinda generic, but one of the better mallparks.
6. Chase Field - Minute Maid without the miniature golf feel to it. Saw the roof move to open, which was a little different.
7. Jacobs Field - Meh, only the drum guy lived up to expectations.
8. Comerica - Within the ballpark Detroit actually looked like it could support human habitation. The big cat statues are impressive.
9. Riverfront - Generic ashtray, but it had its share of history at least.
10. Busch III - It is an obstacle course to find a seat. Otherwise it's the Applebee's of MLB ballparks.
11. Wrigley - Smells like urine. Maybe it's Frank Chance's urine, which would be cool I suppose.
12. Arlington (old) - The big Texas scoreboard was different, but otherwise meh.
13. Busch II - Lacked the obstacle course of the new park, but also lacked the circulation. It was showing its age by the end.
14. Minute Maid - Pujols's homer didn't look as impressive when I saw the stadium wall behind the Crawford Boxes is about ten feet behind the baseball wall.
15. Great American - Not a pleasant smell either. Don't wear a Michigan T-shirt to a game.
16. US Cellular - Early years. Its problems were overstated, but it wasn't a nice place to see a game.
17. Candlestick - Good God, it was cold.
18. Shea - Who wants to spend three hours sitting under a flight path for LaGuardia? Probably didn't help that I was there for a Doug Sisk game.

It's easier for me to work from the bottom up.

<u>King Dome</u>: Easily the biggest pit I've ever had the misfortune to witness baseball in. It was like a gymnasium, but without all the homey atmosphere. To this day I'm shocked that they decided that that thing was fit for human habitation.

<u>Candlestick</u>: Also a pit, but at least it was an outdoor pit. Not that that was always an advantage.

<u>Skydome</U>: Baseball was not meant to be played indoors -- but then, this isn't always indoors. The hotel gives it some character.

<u>Alameda County Stadium</u>: I understand it used to be a nice place to watch a game, but by the time I got there it was all Mt Davis and empty seats, even during the playoffs. Felt like an echo chamber.

Then there's a whole mishmash of hardly distinguishable, newish HOK-style stadia that I've only been to once -- Petco, Citi, New Yankee, the remodeled Angel Stadium (actually, I've been there a lot, but it's nice in a nondescript kind of way), and I think there's another but I forget what it is.

<u>Old Yankee Stadium</u>: In most respects, also a pit -- stinky, impersonal, too big -- but it was still neat to go to the place I'd seen on television so many times, where all those great players had played, even if it wasn't the same as in the old, pre-remodel days. Also, Jon Lester threw a shutout, and I got caught in a thunderstorm.

<u>Phone Company Stadium</u>: A really glorious park, easy to get to, wonderful views of the ocean -- but the weather stinks, stinks, stinks, and there's no roof.

<u>The Fens</u>: I'm ashamed to say I've never seen a regular season game here, though I did see a bitterly cold preseason exhibition there a few years ago. It would rank higher if not for the seats that faced the Green Monster or some damn thing.

<u>Safeco</u>: Maybe I'm biased because it's the park I've been to most often, but if you sit down the left field line, it's picturesque, you can smell the salt off the sound, the food is good, the players feel very close -- I actually talked to Mike Scioscia right before a game during his rookie year as a manager with the Angels -- and the one time I was there while they closed the roof they played "Also Sprach Zarathustra", which was pretty funny.

<u>Dodger Stadium</u>, I know it's become popular to badmouth Dodger Stadium, and I haven't been there in years, but it's still the gold standard for me. The palm trees beyond the walls, the glorious weather, the visual prospect from outside. Yeah, the parking stinks and Los Angeles isn't my favorite place on Earth, but I still love Dodger Stadium.

I never went there, but IIRC Exhibition Stadium was nothing but a converted football stadium.

Exhibition Stadium was a bit of a hybrid. The left field grandstand was the main part of the old football-only stadium, while the seats around the infield were built in the 1970s for baseball. When I was looking at Jarry Park and Exhibition Stadium side-by-side, they looked roughly similar in design.

My list is fairly sparse.

1. CBP - That was a really fun evening, and though the lines were insane, it seemed like a plan well-executed.
2. Old Yankee - No particular grand things to say about it, it's just where I've been the most and it's better than the rest on the list, which are...
3. Shea - Ditto, Greenback. And how is it, in all those years, they managed to fill the surrounding area with nothing but tire shops? Can I get a restaurant? (I'm aware of the Tennis complex, but it sort of keeps to itself and sneers at its neighbor.)
4. Candlestick - I didn't even get to see Bonds play, which made me sad. But it was a night time game, and that made me cold.

It's Safeco FIELD, not Safeco Park, ya nitwit.

Watch out, "Wrigley Park" is next, right?

To me, the weirdest thing about CitiField was how it was draped in nostalgia . . . for the Dodgers.

I went to PNC at the end of an 12 day baseball roadtrip, so I don't think I really appreciated the place. It didn't help that they were playing the Nationals in front of about 10,000 people. I'm looking forward to going back and getting a Primanti Brothers sandwich.

4 star (each different, no particular order)
CBP (7 times)
Wrigley (1)
Kauffman (20)
Jacobs (1) -- I give it a bit of a boost for being in the first new wave

3 star, again no particular order
Memorial (1)
Nationals (1)
GABP (1)

2 star
Crosley (1) It was the only game my Dad took me to and I was just 7 so it gets a major nostalgia boost plus it had the terrace. And I went for a Knothole Day (no game) when I was 9 and sat right in front of Bob Purkey and got my picture in the paper.

1 star, meh and meh-er
Vet (75?) No one who wasn't there can realize just how great it seemed when it opened
Fulton County (1)
Three Rivers (3) The Phils lost a 5-game series in Aug. '79; I saw the last 3, sort of.

1 star, decrepitude
Connie Mack (10)

0 star
Shea (1) Even getting there was a 0

I had tickets to Mile High for a planned Colorado vacation back in 2001 but lost my job and we canceled the trip. I hope the Boys and Girls Club kids appreciated our seats.

Parks I would love to go to:
Fenway (My son's up in Boston through May, 2011 -- he's supposed to be looking for list price tickets but he's not much of a fan)
PNC (I'm just across the state -- I need to combine with Fallingwater. Any good breweries to tour?)
Camden Yards (a local bus company runs day trips, I need to convince my wife)

1. PNC (perfect)
2. Kauffman Stadium (best value)
3. Camden Yards (nothing wrong)
4. Coors Field (perfect location)
5. Fenway (Once a year, great. More than once, inconvenient)
6. U.S. Cellular (bias, but lower deck only)
7. Old Yankee Stadium (great atmosphere, unimpressive stadium)
8. Wrigley (see Fenway, but smells worse)
9. Skydome (Cleanest ballpark I've been to)
10. RFK (I thought it was fine, considering they put no effort into it)
11. Citizens Bank Park (did nothing for me)
12. Nationals Park (sat behind plexiglass? WTF?)
13. Miller Park (lotsa concrete)
14. Old Busch Stadium (awful sight lines)
15. Shea (Trachsel pitched)

I really liked Old Comiskey, but I was eight the last time I went there.

Jaffe says this in regards to New Busch, where I've never been, but I have the same complaint about Miller Park

I feel the same way about Petco.

Hmmm......

Wrigley Field
Dodger Stadium
OPACY
Memorial Stadium
Busch Stadium (not the new one)
Yankee Stadium (not the new one)
Oakland Coliseum (pre-Mount Davis)
Nationals Park
Turner Field
Shea Stadium
The Vet
Fulton County Stadium*

I think I'm forgetting a couple, and unfortunately my Big Between Jobs Ballpark tour two summers ago was cut short by car trouble. I missed out on Fenway, PNC, and the new Philly.

*The Diamond is Richmond was modeled after this ballpark. Um, yay?!

Ballpark at Arlington - Just little less intersting than OPACY, but a great place to watch a game.

I love that park and don't unserstand why it doesn't get more praise.

Victory Field in Indianapolis is a great park also, better than many MLB parks.

and I miss Dave's Corner too
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2584/4133024442_e7a79d5c8d.jpg

Here's my list. In my travels (Midwest > Pittsburgh > DC), I keep getting closer and closer to baseball, but further and further from quality baseball. I'll take it though, I echo every positive comment about PNC and Pittsburgh. That stadium is a peach.

1. PNC Park
2. Wrigley Field
3. Camden Yards
4. Safeco Field
5. Jacobs Field
6. Miller Park
7. Nationals Park
8. Busch III
9. Busch II
10. RFK
11. Riverfront Stadium

Victory Field in Indianapolis is a great park also, better than many MLB parks.

I was going to say that Victory Field would rank above all but the top two on my list.

My list:

1. Camden Yards - Beautiful ballpark overall.
2. Fenway Park - I got there a couple times in 2003 and thought it was great.
3. Wrigley Field
4. Tiger Stadium
5. Busch Stadium (1966-2005 version) - I was there after it was renovated. I thought it was an underrated ballpark and I wish it could've hung around for a while longer. The Cardinals did a great job converting an old cookie cutter into a real ballpark.
6. New Comiskey Park/U.S. Cellular (before renovations) - It was a bit sterile when I was there in 1995, but I liked it overall.
7. SkyDome/Rogers Centre - It's not great, but it's unique. It's not as bad as it's sometimes made out to be.
8. Comerica Park
9. Olympic Stadium - Not a great atmosphere, but not a bad place to watch a game. Concourses were narrow and cramped.
10. County Stadium - I just didn't like this place for some reason. I thought it felt like being in an old barn.
11. Exhibition Stadium
12. Metrodome - Unique building, bad sightlines.

PNC (I'm just across the state -- I need to combine with Fallingwater. Any good breweries to tour?)

In Pittsburgh, the best you'll do is probably the Penn Brewery and the Church Brew Works. If you only visit one, choose the former, as they need your business more right now. If you're a completist, they also brew Iron City at the former Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, but the move is recent enough that I don't know what's on site, and in any event Iron City is more of an inexpensive acquired taste than a hand-crafted local artisan beer.

#51, only one thing has ever spoiled a game for me and that's obnoxious (usually drunk) fans in the general area.

The fans at PNC never make a sound unless
a) the Pirates just scored a couple runs
b) the Pirates have to get one more out in order to win
c) they want the pitcher taken out because he sucks

so you should find it quite enjoyable.

*The Diamond is Richmond was modeled after this ballpark. Um, yay?!

I went to the Diamond on a lark in 2008, and I probably won't forget it.

1. It looked like it was carved from Fulton County Stadium and airlifted.
2. The big, creepy, red stalking Indian.
3. The sun was directly behind home plate, and the stadium wasn't that tall, and the first batter of the game hit a sun-blinded triple.

a Primanti Brothers sandwich.

I don't mean to hi-jack, and want to tread lightly on this, but count me as unimpressed, and uninspired by a Primanti Bros. sandwich. Dry, lacking flavor. Four of us came to Pitt for a four game series at PNC (loved it and Pittsburgh), and of course went to Primanti Bros. We visited the Mkt Sq. location on a Saturday afternoon, it was relatively busy, everything seemed to be in order at the restaurant, we ordered six different sandwiches off the menu, including the 'best sellers', and by the end of the meal we all looked at each other and asked 'what's the fuss about?'. I love slaw, fries, bread, tomatoes and what's inside, but these particular sandwiches just all seemed very bland to me.

I think Pittsburgh may be the most underrated city I've been to.

I agree. I spent two years at CMU and I thought there was a really nice vibe, with a nice mix of real neighborhoods. I remember a really strong bus system, making it easy to get from my place to downtown, the local mall, or down to Squirrel Hill for good food. I imagine it must have been horrible to live there back before environmental regulation of smoke, but you'd never know it from looking at it now.

Vlad, what was/is the name of that awesome movie theater on Forbes with the couches and stuff? Beehive?

I've never been, but I've told by more than one person that Pittsburgh is probably the most underrated city in America and is much different than most rust-belt cities. I've been trying to find an excuse to take my wife there to see PNC Park and visit Primanti Brothers.

I feel pretty objective about Pittsburgh now that I've lived in both Seattle and Montreal after growing up in Pittsburgh. It is most certainly underrated and the cost to quality-of-life ratio has got to be pretty damn high for a city in North America. If you get a nice place in Squirrel Hill or Shadyside, you're basically living an extremely good life for extremely low prices. You don't get all the advantages that one gets living in a big North American city, but you also don't get all of the disadvantages. If Pittsburgh could just sort out its public transit system, I would venture to call it one of the brightest spots for investment in US cities in the future. If there were a real local transit system plus high-speed rail east to Phil/DC/NYC and north to Cleveland/Toronto, things in Pittsburgh would get very interesting.

Vlad, what was/is the name of that awesome movie theater on Forbes with the couches and stuff? Beehive?

Yes, and it closed in, I believe, November of 2000. It was then empty for about seven years before becoming a T-Mobile dealership. Oakland is devoid of any non-campus entertainment options now, either theaters or concert venues, though all the other neighborhoods are going strong.

The sister Beehive is still active on the South Side but only as a coffee shop.

I spent two years at CMU and I thought there was a really nice vibe, with a nice mix of real neighborhoods. I remember a really strong bus system, making it easy to get from my place to downtown, the local mall, or down to Squirrel Hill for good food.

As I said, if you live in Sq Hill or Shadyside, you're living the good life (including the 61's and 67's running into and out of downtown). The real problem with Pittsburgh is the dependence on cars to get to/from the suburbs and the fact that only a single four-lane highway connects the East Side of the Metro area to the West Side. The fact that there is still no commuter rail to get from Monroeville to the Airport is embarrassing, as it's the most obvious public works project that a majority of the population would get behind.

Not to mention if more of the people in Pittsburgh were not so fat, old and/or lame, they might realize that they have some of the best natural hiking available east of the Rockies and south of the Adirondacks.

Vlad, what was/is the name of that awesome movie theater on Forbes with the couches and stuff? Beehive?

Bingo.

The Parks I've been to in no particular order, not counting ones that I've "driven by":
Camden Yards
Skydome
"Old" Yankee Stadium
Shea Stadium
PNC Park
Dodger Stadium
Tropicana Field
Petco
LA of Anaheim
Jacobs Field
Turner Field
Citizens Bank

Non-MLB parks I've been to: Silver Stadium (former Rochester), Frontier Field (current Rochester), Whatever they call the place the Buffalo Bisons play these days, Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, (Charlotte) Knights Stadium. I also was at the LLWS complex in Williamsport, and while I didn't see a game there I did visit the museum there, so I guess I "stopped" there, and didn't just drive by. I tried to go to Batavia once, but it rained out before I even got in the car.

I try to go to at least one new ballpark each year.

For me...
1) Fenway Park - pricey but worth it, had standing room tickets and wandered everywhere but the top of the monster. Watching from the 1B side on the roof was great fun.

2) Tiger Stadium - shame it is gone now. Felt magical when I walked to the field from the ugly concessions and saw the grass and players and the sun shinning - a perfect movie moment.

3) Exhibition Stadium - price of growing up in Toronto, you fall for the place you saw your first games in, caught a foul ball in, took dates to, etc. The outfield bleachers could be good if the crowd was small, but once it cracks 35k you better get there early or the game became a rumour and the RF bench seats were quite painful.

4) Olympic Stadium - seeing a 10th inning inside the park walkoff home run to win the game for the Expos just before the strike? Priceless.

5) SkyDome/Rogers Centre - It works. After last years experience with the 'customer service' when buying tickets (was stuck in the top corner where you couldn't even see the screen) I'll always use scalpers instead. Not to mention the 'service charge' they add when you buy the ticket at the (#*! stadium gate.

Yeah, I gotta get out to more parks someday.

1. PNC Park
2. Camden Yards
3. Wrigley Field
4. Old Yankees Stadium
5. Safeco Field
6. Kauffman Stadium
7. Progressive Field
7. Comiskey Park
8. RFK
9. Metrodome

[67]

Shea - Ditto, Greenback. And how is it, in all those years, they managed to fill the surrounding area with nothing but tire shops? Can I get a restaurant? (I'm aware of the Tennis complex, but it sort of keeps to itself and sneers at its neighbor.)

The whole area was originally a dumping ground. (Insert your joke here--personally I think it must be situated on an ancient burial ground and the associated curse explains a lot). I believe it's described in The Great Gatsby.

There's electrical power to the area of tire shops aka Willets Point, but IIRC no working storm sewer or much else in the way of utilities. The owners have fought eminent domain for a while now.

Another fun thread! My ranking:

1) PNC -- I'd move to Pittsburgh for this stadium.
2) Wrigley
3) Dodger Stadium
4) Yankee Stadium [post renovation, pre-2009]-- incredible atmosphere (though the fact that I was there for a weekend set against the Mariners in 2001 may have had something to do with it)
5) Safeco
6) Bank One Ballpark -- hard to distinguish from Safeco in my mind
7) Miller Park -- very similar to the above two.
8) Jacobs Field -- ranks low mostly due to our crappy seats.
9) Angels Stadium -- was only fun because we went there in 2003.
10) New Comiskey -- went there in 2001. I've heard it has improved.
11) The Kingdome -- sadly, this is where most of my baseball memories come from. I'll never forget the day in 1997 that we got luxury box seats behind home plate for $10 each outside the stadium. The worst part is that we still couldn't see the entire field at once.

The minor-league park in San Antonio, the name of which escapes me at the moment, is also a gem.

Last time I was in Pittsburgh (2006 or so), I stayed near the Pitt campus and stumbled upon a bar selling $1 pints of Iron City. I don't really love Iron City, but $1 pints??

My only complaint about Pittsburgh is that it's quite a haul to the airport from the city center. Otherwise, it's a great town.

Eastern Pennsylvania is far superior for fans of microbrewery tours. There's the Erie one up in...Erie, but near Pittsburgh we just have the Church Brew Works (which is more a restaurant than a brewery) and the Penn Brewery, which had closed down as of Oktoberfest but seems to have reopened. So my point is, visit the Penn Brewery!

My only complaint about Pittsburgh is that it's quite a haul to the airport from the city center. Otherwise, it's a great town.

I'd say the same thing about KC.

My only complaint about Pittsburgh is that it's quite a haul to the airport from the city center. Otherwise, it's a great town.


I'd say the same thing about KC.

and Denver.

I take exception to the low ranking of Miller Park; I've sat in the last row of the upper deck on the sides and the views are really pretty good. Haven't tried the Uecker seats.

Wrigley is a wonderful ballpark but you have to know where you're sitting. In the pre-Internet days when one could readily check such things I bought tickets from scalpers from which you literally could see no part of the infield.

New Comiskey is godawful in every conceivable way. No way am I ever going back to that "ballpark" Terrible views, cramped seating, shitty food, no parking. #### me.

1. Dodger Stadium
2. Safeco
3. Wrigley (back when you could just walk up on game day and buy tickets)
4. Fenway
5. Riverfront
6. Anaheim Stadium (pre-renovation)
7. Forbes Field (obstructed view - but a great game)

Which tells you absolutely nothing about seeing a Pirates game at PNC Park.

It's a *Pirates* game. I must, by definition, suck.

And Pittsburgh "the most underrated city in America" the same way Vlad Guerrero was "the most underrated hitter in baseball."

It's a *Pirates* game. I must, by definition, suck.

Just in case you utilize the edit function, this should be saved.