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My 5 favorite Major League ballparks:
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Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Baltimore Orioles
Look, you can debate whether the Beatles were better than Elvis, but without Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Beatles. Similarly, no ballpark that came after Camden Yards could be as good, simply because Camden Yards inspired it. Even so, it's still the best place to see a ballgame. It's modern without being flashy or pretentious. It's just there, everything it needs to be.
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PNC Park
Pittsburgh Pirates
PNC Park is so magnificent that I almost had to violate my rule in #1. Beautiful inside and out, wonderful atmosphere, great location along the river, and the Roberto Clemente Bridge provides the greatest ballpark backdrop of all.
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Wrigley Field
Chicago Cubs
I prefer Wrigley to Fenway, even if Fenway has more historic value, because The Friendly Confines is overall a better venue. More leg room. A day game at Wrigley is just pure baseball, lots of proud fans, and a great atmosphere outside of the park, with more vendors and bars than I've ever seen anywhere.
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Comerica Park
Detroit Tigers
A lot of people mourned the loss of Tiger Stadium, but I was blown away by Comerica. This joint has the greatest front gate of all of them, with giant (and I mean GIANT) statues of tigers, bats and baseballs. Plus inside the scoreboard is gorgeous and there's a nice view of the city.
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Rangers Ballpark
Texas Rangers
I love that the designers of this park were aware that there wasn't anything to see beyond, so they enclosed it and made it look like a castle from the outside. This is another place that doesn't have any flash or pretention (even PNC has a little bit of it), it's just a pure, steel and green seat home for baseball.
Kurt Smith lives in Turnersville, NJ, from where he researches about big league ballparks, and specifically on tips and tricks that will save you money and aggravation when you attend one. He presents what he has learned about select major league parks, both from his research and personal visits, at BallparkEGuides.com, where you can purchase that information, for just $5, in an e-guide format. Kurt has been to 29 MLB parks (20 active, 9 defunct) in his life, but has yet to make it out to the West Coast, so his list is decidedly East Coast biased out of necessity. |
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