Rank the Ballparks You Have Been To

[redssince75]

Inspired by a comment in another thread, and now that I have been to GABP last year (found it very sterile and concrete-y), I feel qualified to comment on this board. These are all the stadia I've ever been to in my entire life. This takes into account primarily architecture/beauty, but also food & ambience & history & just the "vibe". Of course 9-11 were basically the same stadium, along with old Three Rivers in Pittsburgh (that I never made it to). The names are not necessarily correct, but did my best without resorting to google. I guess basically, GAPB is better than all the 60s-era stadia that were replaced, but the worst of the new generation that I have been to.

1. New Busch, St. Louis
2. Camden Yards, Baltimore
3. Royals Stadium, KC
4. Wrigley, Chicago
5. Diamondsbacks, Phoenix
6. Old Yankee Stadium, NY
7. New Pirates Stadium, Pittsburgh
8. GABP, Cincy
9. Riverfront, Cincy
10. Old Busch, St. Louis
11. Old Veterans, Philly
12. Shea Stadium, NY
13. Old Comiskey, Chicago
14. RFK/Nationals, DC
15. Astrodome, Houston

[double21d]

I haven't been to many stadiums. GABP is definitely my favorite. I loved CitiField. Although Shea Stadium was a dump it was the dump I grew up going to so I miss it. Yankees Stadium was awesome.
By far the worst stadium I went to was RFK Stadium in Washington.

[bounty37h]

Have to think about 2 through last and come back to rank them. I would say my fav is Fenway and Camden least fav by far (including minor league parks too).

[RadfordVA]

1. Camden Yards
2. GABP

haha Just getting started in making our rounds of the stadiums now that my boys are 6 and 7. I feel they can truly remember them and enjoy them now. Plan on adding Atlanta, DC and Pittsburgh to the list this summer. I truly have enjoyed both the stadiums on my list. I give the slight edge to camden due to a more historic feel. I love the city skyline and river at GABP though.

[brm7675]

Wow..tough..

No. 1 - Old Tiger Stadium
No. 2 - Wrigley field
No. 3 - Fenway Park
No. 4 - Camden Yards
No. 5 - Miller Park
No. 6 - PNC Park (pirates)
No. 7 - Jacobs Field
No. 8 - New Tiger Stadium
No. 9 - Old Comiskey
No. 10 - Old Yankee Stadium
No. 11 - GABP
No. 12 - New refubirshed Comiskey
No. 13 - County Stadium (brewers)
No. 14 - Old Busch Stadium
No. 15 - Fulton County Stadium (braves)
No. 16 - Riverfront
No. 17 - Shea
No. 18 - Three Rivers
No. 19 - Veterans Stadium
No. 20 - Tropicana Stadium

[HitByPitch]

Here is my list. I plan to do an eastern trip next year.

1. PacBell - SanFrancisco Giants
2. PetCo - San Diego Padres
3. Wrigley - Chicago Cubs
4. Chase - Az DBacks
5. SafeCo - Seattle Mariners
6. Sicks Stadium - Seattle Pilots
7. Kingdome - Seattle Mariners

[Simon Rhymon]

Old Yankee Stadium
Fenway - for the atmosphere, not the comfort
Camden Yards
Chavez Ravine
Memorial Stadium - Balt
Anaheim
Shea Stadium
Riverfront
Three Rivers

[arkimadee]

1 PNC Park
2 (tie) GABP, ballpark in Arlington
4 Riverfront

[BuckeyeRed27]

1. Petco
2. Fenway
3. Old Yankee Stadium
4. GABP
5. Angels Stadium
5. Whatever the Sky Dome is called now
6. Dodger Stadium
7. Whatever the A's stadium is called now
8. Riverfront

[Redlegs_87]

1. GABP
2. fifth third field (Dayton Dragons)
3. Riverfront

[mroby85]

Busch Stadium
GABP
Riverfront

[mlh1981]

Dodger Stadium
PNC Park
Fenway Park
Wrigley Field
Petco Park
Citi Field
Progressive Field
Citizens Bank Park
U.S. Cellular Field

In that order.

Older stadiums get a lot of love from me. I LOVE the Dodger Stadium setting. Sitting in the upper deck and looking out.....what an impressive sight.

Honestly, I like every stadium I've been to. They all have their unique aspects, and on this list, there truly isn't a bad park.

[brm7675]

Dodger Stadium
PNC Park
Fenway Park
Wrigley Field
Petco Park
Citi Field
Progressive Field
Citizens Bank Park
U.S. Cellular Field

In that order.

Older stadiums get a lot of love from me. I LOVE the Dodger Stadium setting. Sitting in the upper deck and looking out.....what an impressive sight.

Honestly, I like every stadium I've been to. They all have their unique aspects, and on this list, there truly isn't a bad park.

my biggest gripe is the names....

[will5979]

I've only been to 8 different ballparks...

1. GABP-not just because I'm biased either
2. Riverfront-3 World Series titles in 15 years makes you really miss that stadium!
3 Wrigley Field-even though I hate the Cubs
4. Tigers Stadium-Comerica I think?
5. Shea Stadium
6. Nationals Park
7. Joe Robbie Stadium
8. PNC Park-Nice park but I hate the city of Pittsburgh

[BPhillips4]

1. Riverfront
2.Jacob's Field
3. GABP

I need to make it to a lot more parks before I die.

[BAKER12]

New Busch is not that fan friendly or at least if your wearing Reds gear;)
GABP perfect blend of traditional feel and modern needs
Wrigley smells bad, looks bad and has crappy sight lines, otherwise a real nice place
Never have been, but want to go to Dodger Stadium
Have been to 20 MLB parks in my lifetime
1st game ever, 4 months old, Campy Campaneris played all 9 positions for KC A's

[BluegrassRedleg]

* My greatest memories of my sports lifetime came at Riverfront Stadium, so I'm not ranking it. I couldn't stand to put the old cereal bowl low on the list. :)

1. Fenway Park
2. Old Tiger Stadium
3. Wrigley Field
4. Safeco Field (best of the new breed I've seen)
5. PNC (close 2nd of the new ones - crying shame Bucs are so bad)
6. Camden Yards
7. Old Yankee Stadium (for history alone, otherwise pretty subpar)
8. Great American Ballpark
9. Comerica Park
10. Turner Field
11. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
12. Cleveland Municipal (Total dump... was one of about 2K people there back in the 80s watching Nolan Ryan duel Greg Swindell from the front row. Always laugh about that now.)


* I'm trying to get my way to LA and SF. I've heard SF is amazing. I just can't stand the thought of seeing one of the Reds' classic fubar West Coast trips in person. :p

[Reds]

Worst I have been to are RFK stadium (price) and Turner Field (horrible parking, boring).

[brm7675]

New Busch is not that fan friendly or at least if your wearing Reds gear;)
GABP perfect blend of traditional feel and modern needs
Wrigley smells bad, looks bad and has crappy sight lines, otherwise a real nice place
Never have been, but want to go to Dodger Stadium
Have been to 20 MLB parks in my lifetime
1st game ever, 4 months old, Campy Campaneris played all 9 positions for KC A's

How was new busch not fan friendly?

[bounty37h]

Going to visit my buddy in Rhode Island next month, just got seats a few rows off the dugout against the Pads for a day game.

[Simon Rhymon]

1st game ever, 4 months old, Campy Campaneris played all 9 positions for KC A's

I bet that memory is stamped in your mind for a lifetime. :D

[mu4103]

1. Wrigley Field
2. Camden Yards (Orioles)
3. Old Yankee Stadium
4. New Yankee Stadium
5. Minute Maid (Astros)
6. Coors Field (Rockies)

Worst:
Veterans Stadium (Old Phillies Stadium)

[mu4103]

my biggest gripe is the names....
I couldn't agree more - I once had a goal of seeing every major league ball park. Now, I think, the names take a little bit more of the lure away from the stadiums. The best stadiums still seem to have the best names, though.

[RedCanuck]

1] AT&T Park, San Francisco
2] Safeco Field, Seattle
3] GABP, Cincinnati
4] Old Yankee Stadium, New York
5] Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
6] Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
7] Busch Stadium 3, St. Louis
8[ Anaheim Stadium
9] Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City
10] Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego
11] Candlestick Park, San Francisco
12] Oakland-Alameda Stadium
13] Kingdome, Seattle
14] Exhibition Stadium, Toronto
15} Olympic Stadium, Montreal

[brm7675]

1] AT&T Park, San Francisco
2] Safeco Field, Seattle
3] GABP, Cincinnati
4] Old Yankee Stadium, New York
5] Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
6] Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
7] Busch Stadium 3, St. Louis
8[ Anaheim Stadium
9] Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City
10] Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego
11] Candlestick Park, San Francisco
12] Oakland-Alameda Stadium
13] Kingdome, Seattle
14] Exhibition Stadium, Toronto
15} Olympic Stadium, Montreal

I am jelous...great list...

[RedCanuck]

I am jelous...great list...

Thanks; I think it just means I'm old......

[CelticFC]

The one's I've been too;

Kaufman Stadium is great after the remodel, there's lots to do if you get there early.
GABP is great.
I liked Riverfront a lot as well.
The Kingdome was cool, I always loved going there as a Kid.

Then like Matt Vasgersian and Brandon Phillips, I hate St.Louis. My visit to old Busch stadium saw the Reds get killed in a dirty nasty stadium, with sticky seats and it took us like an hour to get out of the parking garage. It was the night before Junior hit 500 too.

[WestSideBomber]

Fenway Park - Red Sox have preserved the history while also keeping things modern
Great American Ballpark - I'll admit, a little biased here.
Wrigley Field - If Cub's ownership had taken care of Wrigley like the Red Sox have done with Fenway Wrigley would be much better.
Kauffman Stadium - Beautiful simple stadium that, like PNC park, deserves a better team.

[Simon Rhymon]

Could folks who have been to the new Busch Stadium explain why it is so well thought of, for the most part. On TV, it seems extremely bland and lacking character.

[GOBCU33]

Too tough so I'll separate into tiers

PNC Park is far and away my favorite
-
Camden Yards
Washington Nationals Stadium
GABP
Old Yankee Stadium
New Phillies
Progressive Field
Fenway
-
Diamondbacks
Wrigley
PacBell
-
Citi Field
Comiskey
New Yankee Stadium
-
Dodger Stadium
Shea
Oakland A's
Montreal Expos Stadium
Old Phillies

[Redlegs20]

The newer parks that I like and have visited:
PNC in Pittsburg
Pac Bell in SF
Camden Yards in Baltimore
Petco in San Diego
Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati
Jacob's Field in Cleveland is interesting in that the middle section (levels) look like a Holiday Inn.
Chase Field (BoB when I was there) in Phoenix


Great older parks, they had character due to street size restaints
Crosley Field in Cincy
Wrigley Field in Chicago
Tiger Stadium in Detroit
Fenway Park in Boston
Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia
Cominsky Park in Chicago
Memorial Stadium in Cleveland (man, was it huge)

The parks of the 70's and newer that were similar and not overly exciting
Fulton County in Atlanta
Murphy Stadium in San Diego
Riverfront in Cincy
Busch in St. Louis
Veterans in Philly
Sky Dome in Toronto
New Cominsky in Chicago
Three Rivers in Pittsburgh

I would love see a Reds game at Dodger Stadium. I miss the days of knowing the names of ballparks and not the corporate sponsor of the month club.

[BAKER12]

I bet that memory is stamped in your mind for a lifetime. :D

LOL- The boxscore and picture of me at the game are somewhere in my archives....

1st game I really remember going to was 1969 Royals and Twins 1st game in Royals history, beat Twins in extra innings, ate at a KC institution Arthur Bryant's BBQ

[jhc2010]

Progressive Field sucks.

We sat in the upper deck for Oakland @ Cleveland on a Sunday afternoon two years ago and payed like $25 a ticket so sit with practically no one except for sea gulls. (Reds upper deck tickets range from $5 to $14)

From where they put us in the front row of the upper deck, you could not see a quarter of the outfield due to the steep angle. We missed two or three catches and just assumed they were caught. I have never seen anything like it. Also the front row has these massive supports which supposedly are to keep you from falling over the edge. They also do a great job of blocking your view of the game.

The scoreboard as of 2010 is still in SD and does not put up nearly enough information as the Reds scoreboards do.

The one good thing about the downtown area is that there are at least a few things to do before/after a game unlike Cincinnati is right now.

[mlh1981]

I may be returning to Dodger Stadium this Summer when the Reds are there (I last went 11 years ago for a game that didn't even involve the Reds).

In light of recent news, is it a bad idea to go decked out in my Reds gear, or should I go for a more subtle look? I don't consider myself to be a paranoid person, but is the crowd there as bad as they say? (I don't remember much from my prior experience)

[jwmann2]

I have only been to Riverfront and Great American. I would love to see al 30 and would have loved to have seen the old Tiger Stadium. I hear Minute Maid in Houston and PNC in Pittsburgh are a sight to see. What I plan on doing in the future is finding weekends that the Padres/Dodgers/Angels, Cubs/Brewers/WhiteSox, all play at home. Going to games is just so expensive and so is air travel.

[Joseph Hanna]

I may be returning to Dodger Stadium this Summer when the Reds are there (I last went 11 years ago for a game that didn't even involve the Reds).

In light of recent news, is it a bad idea to go decked out in my Reds gear, or should I go for a more subtle look? I don't consider myself to be a paranoid person, but is the crowd there as bad as they say? (I don't remember much from my prior experience)

The parking lot "can" be tough and there's no doubt some nights Dodger Stadium feels a bit thuggish. It's still one of the best parks in the league if not the country. That said wearing a Reds cap/jersey is not in and of itself likely to stir up a problem. Most of those thugs are looking for more than the casual fan and I've never personally felt threatened although some nights I do feel saddened by the general neighborhood at least compared to what it once was..

If you're in L.A. and you can make it down to OC I continue to maintain how VERY nice the whole Angel franchise handles itself. A very fan friendly, comfortable place to see a ballgame!

Mind your own business and b-line it to the car...you'll be fine :)

[CrosleyField]

Great American and Nationals Park are very similar. Some of the ushers at Nationals Park are not very friendly. I think the seats are smaller in Nationals Park also.

Great American has tremendous views of river traffic. Overall, with bias, my favorite.

Old Yankees Stadium was tight in the concourse areas. But the seats weren't bad. The vendors circled around like sharks every 3 seconds more than any other stadium I have ever visited.

RFK was in disrepair by the time the Nationals played there.

Camden Yards is okay.

I have very mixed emotions on Turner Field. Not bad, Not great. Too many people wanting 5 dollars right in front of the stadium.

[RedCanuck]

I have only been to Riverfront and Great American. I would love to see al 30 and would have loved to have seen the old Tiger Stadium. I hear Minute Maid in Houston and PNC in Pittsburgh are a sight to see. What I plan on doing in the future is finding weekends that the Padres/Dodgers/Angels, Cubs/Brewers/WhiteSox, all play at home. Going to games is just so expensive and so is air travel.

The Reds play the Cubs Sept. 5 -7, the Brewer host the Phillies and the White Sox host the Indians Sept. 8 - 11. Apparently the Amtrak from Chicago to Milwaukee takes an hour and a half and sets you back $22 one way. If you plan it right you could hit all three in three days.

While in Milwakee you could go to the Harley Davidson Museum or perhaps a Jeffery Dahmer / Aurther Bremer tour if they offer one; depends on one's personal taste. ;)

[Hey Meat]

1. Kaufmann-Royals Stadium
2. Minute Maid-Houston
3. The Ballpark at Arlington
4. Wrigley
5. Jacobs Field
6. GABP
7. Coors Field
8. Riverfront
9. Tropicana Field
10. The old Angel's stadium-Anaheim went there in 85, not sure of the name at the time.
11. The old Busch.
12. Municipal Stadium-Cleveland

Hope to go to many more as I get older.

[krm1580]

1. Tiger Stadium
2. PNC Park
3. Old Yankee Stadium
4. Fenway Park
5. Camden Yards
6. Coors Field
7. Nationals Park
8. Citizens Bank Park
9. Great American Ball Park
10. Progressive Field
11. Riverfront Stadium
12. Veterans Stadium
13. US Cellular Field
14. County Stadium
15. Shea Stadium

What set Old Tiger Stadium apart for me in addition to the old school ambiance was views you would get in the second deck that were just very unique. The first game I went to there I sat in the 2nd row of the upper deck in dead center field. In all stadiums now the batters eye is in dead center and they don't put seats there which is a shame because it is a really awesome view.

The second time I went there I was in row 1 of the right field upper deck which actually hung out over the playing field. Again just really unique.

[brm7675]

1. Tiger Stadium
2. PNC Park
3. Old Yankee Stadium
4. Fenway Park
5. Camden Yards
6. Coors Field
7. Nationals Park
8. Citizens Bank Park
9. Great American Ball Park
10. Progressive Field
11. Riverfront Stadium
12. Veterans Stadium
13. US Cellular Field
14. County Stadium
15. Shea Stadium

What set Old Tiger Stadium apart for me in addition to the old school ambiance was views you would get in the second deck that were just very unique. The first game I went to there I sat in the 2nd row of the upper deck in dead center field. In all stadiums now the batters eye is in dead center and they don't put seats there which is a shame because it is a really awesome view.

The second time I went there I was in row 1 of the right field upper deck which actually hung out over the playing field. Again just really unique.

What got me about old tiger stadium was the feeling like you were right on top of the action. You felt like you could reach out and touch the field from any seat...