Showing posts with label baseball stadium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball stadium. Show all posts

10.01.2006

StL

Another baseball trip in the books. This time Geer and I were joined by Jen (a historic first female appearance for our trips) and Hobber to check out St Louis new park. Hobber just moved down to StLouis a month or so ago for work so we had a great excuse to head down for a couple games - a night on the town - and a visit to check out his new pad.

We really liked St Louis new version of Busch stadium - giving it much higher reviews than the stadiums we saw on our earlier trip this year. They did a great job of keeping some of the theme of the old stadium while really updating it. I am a big fan of several decks stacked (vs. a couple very deep decks). The look is nice and (I think) it makes for some better seats with fewer people missing out on every fly ball because they're staring up at the seats above them.



The fans in St Louis were very into the games. Of course, that could be because they needed to win to clinch a playoff berth (which they did in both games we saw). A few observations on St Louis fans that I think are truly unique to this stadium:

1. We saw no other Brewers fans. I think at the Friday night game we literally saw one other Brewers fan. Saturday we saw a few more but still: way under what you would expect to see just about anywhere else.

2. An incredibly high percentage of St Louis fans were wearing Cardinals gear - or at least red. In other words: there weren't a lot of people that just decided to head to the game in the clothes that they had worn to work that day.

3. For a crowd that is SO into baseball (and they are)... they really chose strange times to do the wave. Basically, they sat there and intently watched each pitch intently. Then, when a really big moment came: they ignored the game and started the wave. It was truly strange. I'm pretty anti-wave, but totally understand that most people find baseball really boring and the wave helpsm so... go for it. but it just doesn't make sense to only do it when the game is at it's highest point.

7.25.2006

Cincinnati and DC

This is a pretty late report but better late than never, right?

In the most recent installment of baseball trips, (Tom) Geer and I took a 3 day jaunt to see the new stadium in Cincinnati + the new team in Washington DC (formerly the Montreal Expos).

The trip got off to a rocky start when a pretty nice day in Cincy turned gloomy. A pretty good downpour delayed the game for a couple hours but eventually they did get it started.



Maybe it would have been better as a rainout though as the Brewers blew yet another late lead and went down to the Reds.

The stadium was less than impressive. Tom and I had seen Cincy's old stadium years ago and it was an old hunk of cement. The new stadium is... a new hunk of cement. Not a terrible place to see a game by any means - and the ticket prices were awesome - but for a brand new stadium... it was lacking.

We were then off for a drive through the night to pick up an afternoon game in the nations capital. We arrived in time to take a 2 hour walking tour of the National Malls highlights before heading over to RFK stadium to see the Nationals take on the Cubs. This one had a better result than the night before as the Nationals took the Cubs down.



This stadium was also lacking but it has an excuse... it's a football field. Construction will start soon on a baseball stadium that should put this one to shame.

and there are a few more photos out here - including their version of the brat race (featuring former presidents)...

Anyway, another great trip. Next up: St Louis for the final series of the year against the Crew!

9.01.2005

Sports Illustrated "Fan Value" baseball statdium ratings

Wow! Sports Illustrated has recently published their "Fan Value Index" for each MLB team and guess who come in at #1? You guessed it... or actually, you probably didn't: The Milwaukee Brewers!

I don't think I can provide a solid "value" list, but here's my ordering. So, it's pretty arbitrary but here you go...

I've been to home games for every team in MLB but three (San Diego, Washington, and Cincinatti) have new facilities since I saw them. I'll leave those three out.

1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Milwaukee Brewers
5. Chicago Cubs
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. St.Louis Cardinals
8. Atlanta Braves
9. Toronto Blue Jays
10. Los Angeles Dodgers
11. Seattle Mariners
12. Arizona Diamondbacks
13. Texas Rangers
14. Florida Marlines
15. Pittsburgh Pirates
16. Baltimore Orioles
17. Detroit Tigers
18. Colorado Rockies
19. Oakland Athletics
20. Philadelphia Phillies
21. Chicago White Sox
22. Houston Astros
23. New York Mets
24. Minnesota Twins
25. Kansas City Royals
26. Cleveland Indians
27. Tampa Bay Devil Rays