The Legends Suite is one reason for that hate.  The ultra-premium field level seating, divided from the rest of the lower bowl by the infamous “moat,” conspicuously separates the Wall Street crowd from the hoi polloi and sticks out on TV. With New Yankee Stadium opening in the throes of the Great Recession (2009), the Legends Suite is said to epitomize the park’s cold, sterile sense of corporate exclusivity many deride today.  

2009 prices ranged from $850 to $2,650 per seat per game (not a typo), so the Legends Suite ensnared the Yankees in broader conversation about corporate greed and excess at exactly the wrong time.  It became a full-blown P.R. disaster. 

National publications like ESPN ran pieces mocking the absurdity of such lavish luxury – think all-inclusive white table cloth dining with Scottish salmon and duck pasta; think seats with a waiter and a wine list – in a ballpark during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. 

100s of Legends Suite tickets originally went unsold.  Moreover, many ticket holders chose to watch the game inside of the opulent lounges, creating an embarrassing image of the best seats on TV being empty.  That’s still a problem today.  Most hilariously, Yankee Stadium was even spotlighted in Harvard Business Review for its “customer-relations disaster.”

Yankee Stadium became the embodiment of the worst trend in new sporting venues: pricing out the average fan and chasing corporate patrons, ultimately creating a caste system within stadiums and losing future generations of fans.  It was built by taxpayers, yet many taxpayers couldn’t afford to go.  A seat in the first row, per game, cost about one-fifth the annual per capita 2009 income of a Bronx resident!   

Removed from that context, what should we make of the Legends Suite today?  Honestly, the negative reaction seems more like a product of the time in retrospect.  The seats’ original absurd prices, which have been cut to the point that they’re lower today even with inflation, along with the Legends Suite’s extravagance, was seen as crass and insensitive in the bad economy.

Here’s something that’s gone totally unremarked upon: almost all MLB parks that have opened since the late 1990s have comparable “home plate club” seats with similar trappings and amenities.  Other than original mispricing, incompetent P.R. (see Lonn Trost), and insufferable arrogance, the Yankees’ version is just bigger and nicer.

Moreover, many parks also have similar-looking “moats” of exclusion separating the seats closest to the field down the lines from the general seating bowl, even the beloved PNC Park in Pittsburgh, which opened in 2001. 

After conceding that the Yankees overpriced their VIP club seats (and it’s still overpriced, but that’s New York), I’m not sure why Yankee Stadium should be singled out here.  I think you have to attack broader economic trends and the general gentrification of sports if you’re going to attack the Legends Suite, and that’s a topic for another day.   

I recently crossed into Yankee Stadium’s moat and experienced the vaulted Legends Suite again (if nothing’s changed, some pics may be from a prior 2022 visit).  Even after acknowledging the above, the Legends Suite is just incredible.  It has a food game unmatched by any similar MLB premium space, along with top-shelf service not often seen in a sporting venue. 

That’s the irony of populist rants against a place of exclusion like this.  Do fans approve?  No.  Would they accept season tickets here, feet away from the field?  Hell yeah.  I mean, we’re talking about a stadium club that has won awards from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences.      

I’ve now revisited every MLB park on many different occasions, so I’ve sat in the “home plate club” seats at nearly every MLB park as well.  Private entrances, exclusive lounges, all-inclusive food, in-seat service, padded seats, etc. are all par for the course, and the Legends Suite does that and more, but does it live up to its billing as the best seat in baseball? 

As someone who has seen almost all of them across MLB parks, let’s find out.

Getting Legends Suite Tickets at Yankee Stadium

The Legends Suite seating is located in the first 8 rows from the field in sections 14A to 27A, stretching in a horseshoe from just past third base to just past first base.  In response to decreased demand, the Yankees re-designated the sections farthest down each line as the “Champion Suite” in 2010, which don’t have access to the Legends Suite Club. 

Important point: the term “suite” is a misnomer, albeit it’s a clever marketing tactic I’m surprised more teams haven’t adopted.  The Legends Suite not akin to a private luxury suite.  The Legends Suite has approximately 1,350 seats, a massive amount for field level VIP seating, with access to the bi-level Legends Suite Club and two small lounges down the lines. 

Despite its reputed exclusivity, it has never been difficult to get seats in the Legends Suite if you’re willing to pay.  They are priced at $700+ for single games on the Yankees website, but they usually go for a steep discount on the secondary market.  I’ve been able to get them in the $300s on Stubhub and Vivid Seats (they are not available on SeatGeek) in the best of times, although they’ve generally held more value in 2024 for obvious reasons.    

Accessing Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite

The first perk of VIP seating at most sporting venues is private entry, usually paired with choice parking and priority access.  Fans with Legends Suite tickets enter through the Suite Entrance to the left of Gate 4 behind home plate. 

While most Yankee Stadium suite and club ticket holders can enter through here, Legends Suite ticket holders have access to their own, expedited line through the farthest left doors of the Suite Entrance filing directly into the lounge.  A private entrance within a private entrance!  It’s a fairly significant appeal of these tickets considering Yankee Stadium’s atrocious gate lines.

The Suite Entrance opens at the same time as the rest of the ballpark, generally 90 minutes before the game (not enough time, in my opinion!).  Full and 41-game season ticket holders also get complementary priority parking. 

The Legends Suite Club Design

As the luckiest fans shuffle through the corridor leading to the dining room after getting their VIP wristbands, they should first note the memorabilia lining the hallway. 

Original Yankees contracts signed by Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and yes, Babe Ruth, are framed on the walls.  There’s even a copy of the contract selling Babe Ruth to New York.  The implication is clear: this is a place for legends.

The duplex Legends Suite Club has two distinct spaces: (1) an upper-level white table cloth dining room and bar overlooking the main concourse and the field and (2) a more casual dining room and sports bar below ground directly adjacent to the Legends Suite seating.

Fans will enter the upper-level dining room after walking through the aforementioned hallway.  There’s a sleek circular bar to the right and rows and rows of candle-lit dining tables divided by a massive rectangle of buffets and action cooking stations (we’ll get to the food!) to the left.

Along with Nationals Park’s clubs (2008) a year earlier, the Legends Suite (2009) represented a new paradigm in stadium VIP club seating.  In the 1990s and most of the 2000s, these ultra-premium club areas were well-appointed but not particularly “luxurious.” 

Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite introduced true lavishness to baseball, in what resembles a Westchester country club.  Before the late 2000s, these stadium clubs had the standard of an event space at the Embassy Suites; now they have the standard of a dining room at the Four Seasons.  Both the upper and lower levels underwent a modest refresh in 2017.

What I love most about the upper dining room are the floor-to-ceiling windows sporting views of the main concourse and glimpses of the field.  Other home plate clubs can feel like dark underground bunkers, because they are behind or below field level seating.  No views at all.  The Legends Suite’s bi-level setup partially avoids that problem by having an upper level.   

Going down to the slightly smaller lower level of the Legends Suite Club, the design is similar, sans outside view.  Although, the vibe is more informal, with no white table cloths.  A long sports bar stretches almost the entire length of lower Legend Suite Club on the back end, with a similar large buffet dividing the dining areas to the left and the right.

At the front end of the lower dining level, you’ll see guarded doors flanked by large wine coolers.  That’s the JBL Lounge, exclusive to only those with Legends Suite tickets in the first row. 

That’s right, the markers of division seemingly have no bounds!  It reminds me of Tom Haverford’s End of the World party in Parks and Recreation, where the entire party is a VIP area, but there are totally superfluous double and triple VIP areas. 

The JBL Lounge is basically just a small room with sectional sofas and an open bar.  The all-inclusive alcohol, not included in the ticket price for other Legends Suite ticket holders, is the main perk.  Frustratingly, you can’t take the alcohol outside of the lounge (officially; I’ve seen this flouted), so what’s the point?  First row Legends Suite members also get personal concierge service (?), an assigned VIP parking space, and personal storage lockers.

Back to the main club areas, the sheer amount of dining space on both levels is impressive.  Generally, this isn’t one of those club spaces that gets too crowded, like the mediocre Lexus Club in Arlington, where there’s a time limit on how long you can dine, or even the fabulous 1914 Club at Wrigley Field, which seems perpetually packed.

I must say though, for all the talk about the Legends Suite’s extravagance, the actual club design and decor feels a bit austere and generic.  And the whole white table cloth vibe feels a bit passe today – the trend has shifted toward dynamic social spaces away from formal sit-down dining.  I kind of wish there was less white-table cloth dining and more places to just stand and hang out.    

Plus, some of the dining furniture is aging, especially in the lower level.  Don’t get me wrong: the Legends Suite Club is nice.  But it lacks character or warmth and can feel uptight. 

Look at how much there was to discuss when reviewing Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club, with turn-of-the-20th-century speakeasy themes and an unmatched attention to detail.  Check out Seattle’s new Diamond Club, with curated artwork, a baseball card wall, dining booths named after team stars, and a one-of-a-kind Ken Griffey Jr. display.

There are photographs of Yankees legends throughout the club along with the aforementioned memorabilia, but the Legends Suite Club feels like it could be any generic high-end restaurant.

Yes, this is a relatively minor thing.  While well-appointed, there just isn’t anything special or unique about the actual space.  Like Yankee Stadium itself, the design feels a tad too staid and conservative. 

The Legends Suite Food

Here’s a dirty little secret about all-inclusive high-end stadium buffets: the food isn’t that good.  Quality dining is difficult to do at scale.  Catering is catering.

An average home plate club may have a few buffet lines with generic higher-end American foods.  Think rudimentary charcuterie, salads, some pasta options, a couple of carving stations, classic ballpark food, deserts, etc.  The quality can be hit or miss.  It’s not something you’d pay $$$ to eat if there weren’t seats feet from the batters’ box priced in. 

The Legends Suite’s food is the exception.  Not only is the food quality worth much of the ticket price, but the variety of cuisine blows away that offered in any comparable space in MLB.  And it’s all “free,” meaning it’s included in the ticket price.

Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite seemingly has everything, with a wide variety of specialty cuisine, including partnerships with New York guest chefs rotating by game.  Whereas the standard ballpark stadium club has a few buffet lines, the Legends Suite’s rectangular buffet stations fill large areas on both levels of the duplex Legends Suite Club.   Here’s what was offered on my recent visit:

• Arthur Avenue charcuterie and assorted antipasto: includes Italian cured meats, fresh salami, prosciutto, sausage, artisanal cheeses with fresh bread, pickles, roasted and stuffed hot peppers, and olives.
• Salad: not just a standard make-your-own salad station, but a salad bar stretching the length of a buffet line with every ingredient imaginable.  Raw salad, cooked salad, composed salad.  Chopped salad, gazpacho salad, chilled soba noodle salad, you name it.  Don’t miss veggie options like Brussels sprout.
• Seafood: Alaskan king crab legs, Jonah crab claws, jumbo shrimp, lobster tails, salmon, and local fluke.  In the average stadium club, you’re lucky to have one of these, and probably not lobster.  Past visits include Beausoleil Oysters by celebrity chef Rifko Meier.
• Carved meats and protein selections that run the gamut: prime NY strip steak, steak from Lobel’s, lamb, pork baby back ribs, roasted whole chicken, skewers, maple glazed turkey, rock shrimp, smoked ham, and bacon, all offered with garlic roasted marble potatoes.  Again, you’ll be lucky to get 2 or so of these options at the usual home plate club.
• Pasta: gnocchi ala vodka, cheese ravioli, penne, etc.  
• Sushi: rolls, nigiri, sashimi.  Other MLB home plate clubs rarely have sushi, and never as a mainstay.    
• Mexican: the works
• Mediterranean: chickpea falafel, hummus, tzatziki, spicy harissa, olives, and pita chips.
• Brunch: chorizo breakfast tacos, buttermilk pancakes, and fried chicken and waffles.  Past visits included bananas foster.
• Certified Kosher Stand: salads, herb roasted rack of lamb, chicken drumsticks, hot dogs, Arabic mezze, and pastries.
• Ballpark foods: hot dogs, Italian sausages, three kinds of pizza, hand smashed sliders, chicken tenders, fries, nachos, cracker jacks, chips, popcorn, and peanuts.
• The Great Walls of Candy: A child’s dream Halloween stash that would last months.  Perfectly located at each end of the lower Legends Suite Club to grab some treats before you head to your seats.  Right out of a scene from Willy Wonka.  Ice cream bars/sandwiches are also available around here.
• Endless dessert options: cookies, cannoli, cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, eclairs, fruit tarts, brownies, petit fours, pies, tiramisu, sfogliatella, panna cotta, bombolone, sweet croissants, chocolate-covered strawberries, other assortments of pastries (including those of the gluten free and vegan variety), many flavors of ice cream, gelato, and Yankee Stadium’s famous milkshakes.

These are action cooking stations as well, not the usual lukewarm self-serve buffets sitting under a heat lamp.  It doesn’t feel like buffet food.  This was eat till’ you drop territory, where you wish you had multiple stomachs.  The only thing missing was healthy dollops of caviar.    

And that’s before getting to the grab-and-go options in the below-referenced lounges down the lines or the in-seat service menu. 

The exemplary grub is available on the upper Legends Suite Club until the 3rd inning, which closes down completely by the middle of the game.  Virtually all of the same food is available on the lower Legends Suite Club until approximately the 7th or 8th inning (desserts until 9th), depending on management’s discretion. 

What were my favorite dishes?  First, do the surf and turf combo.  Load up on steak, lobster, and crab.  Get your money’s worth.  The gnocchi was decadent.  The sushi was legitimately fresh.  The made-to-order pancakes were delish.  The hand smashed sliders were some of the best burgers I’ve ever had in a ballpark.  The desserts were decadent. But the chorizo tacos were the best!  Mouthwatering scrambled eggs, cheese, and chorizo on a fresh flour tortilla.  

Speaking from personal experience, the Legends Suite is a genuine outlier in the culinary stadium hospitality industry.  The ticket price is steep, for sure, but this is by far the best food in Major League Baseball.

Now, I wouldn’t pay to go back to any MLB home plate club based on the all-inclusive food alone.  I want to see baseball from the best seats!  Plus, I don’t want to overstate things too much — we’re still not talking Michelin-level dining here. But with the Yankees’ Legends Suite, the comparatively superior culinary experience is a significant consideration in wanting to impress family, friends, dates, and clients.   

The Legends Suite Drinks

All-inclusive drinks include bottled water, bottled/fountain soft drinks, tea, hot chocolate, and a variety of coffees from high-end expresso machines.  Unlike the majority of MLB’s all-inclusive home plate clubs, alcohol is not included in the ticket price, except if you’re in the first row with JBL Lounge access.

As is the case throughout Yankee Stadium, the beer selection is pathetic: only one IPA from Goose Island, plus the domestics, along with Corona, Heineken, and the Yankees’ Blue Point Pinstripe Pills.  Yankee Stadium is way behind the times in craft beer, and that is reflected in the ballpark’s finest space as well. 

The liquor selection is fairly extensive, although I didn’t see a cocktail menu.  Specialty cocktails (I must have missed the list) are served in souvenir shakers.  The wine list is impressive but exorbitantly overpriced, with a $425 bottle of Dom Perignon and a $750 Opus One at the head of the pack.  

On the plus side, the lower-level bar traditionally stays open until approximately 30 minutes after the game, depending on management’s discretion, although it definitely won’t close before the game ends.  7th inning alcohol cutoff rules don’t apply to the rich! 

In addition to the upper-level circular bar and the lower-level sports bar, there’s an ancillary walk-up bar adjacent to the portal leading to the seats on the right side of the lower level.

I understand the Yankees’ reasoning in not including alcohol in the ticket price – you’re the Yankees in the largest corporate market on the planet; you don’t have to sweeten the pot to get the monied to buy these tickets – but it’s a big downside.  Like in other markets, alcohol should be included at this price point! 

The Cutwater Lounge and DraftKings Sportsbook Lounge

Legends Suite ticket holders also have access to bunker lounges down the first and third base lines, dubbed the Cutwater Lounge and DraftKings Sportsbook Lounge respectively. You access them by going through the portals from the lower dining room through the moat down to the first and third base line. 

While Champions Suite ticket holders in the farthest three sections down each line also get access to whatever lounge is adjacent to their seats (027B to 029 for Cutwater, 013 to 011 for DraftKings; they don’t have access to the bi-level Legends Suite Club), Legends Suite ticket holders have “all access,” with the ability to roam the moat and enter whichever club area they choose. 

This helps reduce crowding in the Legends Suite Club.  The main perks of the Cutwater Lounge and DraftKings Sportsbook Lounge are the quick grab-and-go food options, plus private restrooms and full-service bars.

The design of both lounges is virtually identical to one another.  The small lounges are fairly nondescript, defined by a long bar and murals of Yankee legends.  The team recently added table seating against the walls.

Grub includes fruit, crudité, sushi, and classic ballpark food, all of which is pre-packaged.  Not as nice as in the past.  Similar to the Legends Suite Club, the food, bottled water, fountain drinks, and coffee are “free.”  There’s a steep downgrade in the food quality and selection in these lounges compared to that in the Legends Suite Club, so this mainly serves as a nice in-game pit stop if you’re in the Legends Suite sections around the dugouts. 

The setup worked well for us as we were seated in Legends Suite section 026 adjacent to the visitors’ dugout, so the restrooms in the DraftKings Sportsbook Lounge were nearby.

General Vibes and Other Perks

The common refrain about corporate club seats like this is, “everybody knows real fans don’t sit here.”  That’s generally not as true as you might think, but the Legends Suite does have more of a Wall Street hedge fund vibe than I’d prefer.  New York celebs and pols aren’t an uncommon sight, even in my limited personal experience. 

It can feel like a meet and greet corporate shill environment.  Just take a look at the in-club plaque inscribed with a thank you to “long-term Legends Suite licensees,” where some of the world’s largest and most prestigious financial, consulting, and law firms are listed.

Compare that to, say, Kansas City’s very nice and smaller version (Crown Club), filled with plenty of corporate patrons but also long-term individual season ticket holders.

To that point, The Legends Suite also doesn’t have the intimacy of other smaller home plate clubs with 150-300 seats.  It’s hard to describe, but the Legends Suite experience doesn’t feel personalized, even if the service is phenomenal.

At the risk of getting even more inside baseball, the Legends Suite also lacks what folks in the stadium hospitality industry would call “comfort amenities.” 

Think complementary phone chargers, sunscreen, scorecards, and gameday programs.  At similar spaces in Seattle and Minnesota, for example, the team will give out blankets/hand warmers on a cold night.  In a comically over-the-top example of pampering at a baseball game, the Nationals Park staff constantly gave out iced towels during a scorcher I was at in 2012 in its version of these seats. 

At least one other club (Colorado Rockies) will let fans on the warning track behind home plate for pregame batting practice on select dates (Fridays).  And my favorites: eight MLB ballparks have underground club spaces with views into the team batting cages.  Nationals Park’s version also has live views and sound into the post-game press conference!  As of 2024, the Legends Suite doesn’t have any miscellaneous cool freebies or other perks. 

There is a team store on the lower level, but the none of the merchandise sold is exclusive to the club, as is relatively common in similar MLB spaces. 

If you’re going to bill yourself as the “best seating experience in sports” and try to coax people to shell out $700+ per game, I have to note the small stuff, even if they are the ultimate first-world “problems.”

One significant complaint: while they’re gilded in marble and have TVs in the mirrors (because of course), the bathrooms are far too small on both levels.  Two stalls and two urinals on each level aren’t enough given the seating capacity of 1,350. 

Legends Suite Seats and the Game

Two portals by the Great Walls of Candy flank the ends of the lower club area and provide easy access to the plush Legends Suite seating.  In the walkway below the moat, there are coolers with free sodas and bottled water.

As should be obvious (although based on social media comments, I wonder), the buffets and the overall club experience are intended to be enjoyed before and after the game.  I sit here for the seats a stone’s throw away from the field and to document the experience as a ballpark nerd.

Unfortunately, the Legends Suite’s elite clientele often doesn’t get the memo, leading to embarrassing images of empty seats behind home plate.  During the game, they stay inside the club!  For whatever reason, other teams don’t have this problem to this extent. 

While Legends Suite ticket holders can go up to the main concourse by exiting the moat if they wish, access back down below the moat strictly patrolled by nothing short than the most overzealous security team in baseball.  When you go back down, security will closely inspect your wristband and check your ticket again.

Yankees fans have joked that it’s harder to sneak into the Legends Suite seating than it is to get into the Capitol Building!

As is typical with such premium seats in any ballpark, the theatre-style, high back seats are ultra-comfortable, with an abundance of width and foot room.  These used to have teak arm rests – everything about the Legends Suite was so comically excessive, luxurious, and unnecessary when it opened – but they had to be removed due to weathering in the mid-2010s.  The seats date back to when the ballpark opened in 2009, so they’re showing some signs of wear and tear as well. 

Note that you can take all of the high-end grub discussed above to your seat if you put it on paper plates provided throughout the club, something a few other MLB home plate clubs have eliminated for some reason where you have to eat the buffet food inside.

For a recent game, I bought seats just past visitors’ dugout.  Nice proximity to the field, but usually not my preferred perch given the angle.  These seats did provide a great view of Carlos Correa’s return to New York as a Minnesota Twin.  He didn’t get jeered as much as he should if fans are going to be consistent about booing Houston Astros cheaters versus just booing Houston Astros players in general, as more than 95% of the players on the team today weren’t part of the scandal. 

Legends Suite seats have in-seat service with a dedicated menu ending after the 7th inning, as is typical.  The in-seat service menu is impressive, with 20+ complementary snacks and sandwiches, plus beer, wine, and specialty cocktails for purchase. There’s something uniquely decadent about ordering sushi from your seat at a baseball game.   

After pigging out at the buffets, I actually recommend the milkshake, which has become somewhat famous in these parts.  Around the 6th inning, servers will also come up and down the aisles handing ice cream bars to fans unprompted. 

The in-seat service itself, as is the case throughout the Legends Suite, is quite diligent, with servers checking on you every inning or so.  From the ushers to the waiters and everyone in between, the staff was so customer-service oriented you almost don’t even feel like you’re at a baseball game when you’re in your seat.  Doors are opened for you.  Drinks are immediately refilled.  Etc.   

The game itself was a fairly uneventful affair, with the Yankees beating the Twins 5-2.  I got this magnificent shot of an Aaron Judge home run while walking through the aisle right behind the dugout.

Is the Legends Suite “worth it?”

Unless you have money to burn, I’d lean toward arguing that a regular season baseball game is never “worth” $700-$1000+ or even the >$350 you may sometimes find on the secondary market. 

Yes, the selection and quality of all-inclusive food here is unparalleled in a sporting facility, but I don’t think that alone can justify the price, especially when you can get seats for a fraction of the price just behind the Legends Suite.  If you want truly exceptional cuisine and a great seat in one day, you could theoretically eat at Per Se and sit one row behind the Legends Suite and save money!

The value proposition of premium stadium hospitality like the Legends Suite is not having to take out your wallet during the entire experience, something that makes sense in a corporate setting, but not so much for the average fan.  Normally, we just want to watch baseball in the best seats possible. 

But “worth it” is a highly subjective question.  I’ve oscillated between making fun of the “corporate licensees” who have tickets here and praising the extraordinary experience of the Legends Suite, but as unpopular as this may be on social media, you can like seeing baseball 50 feet from the batter and like nice things at the same time! 

Ultimately, I don’t think this is about value on an everyday basis.  As a once a year or once in a lifetime experience, the answer is an unqualified yes!

The Legends Suite is widely reputed as one of the best, if not the best, premium club seats in baseball.  It’s a bucket list item for ballpark enthusiasts and Yankees fans alike.  You may not normally want lobster and steak at a baseball game, but the Legends Suite is just something you have to try at least once.     

How does Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite compare to other MLB ballpark home plate clubs or premium seating experiences?  Is the Legends Suite the best seat in baseball?

Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite has the best premium culinary experience of any sporting venue in America, plain and simple.

Plus, all home plate club seating has almost identical proximity to the field, obviously.  After factoring in the service and seat comfort of the Legends Suite seating, what more can you ask for?

Ok, comparatively speaking, the Legends Suite doesn’t quite do as well in the following ways:

• While the Legends Suite club spaces are pretty nice, the white-table cloth concept is passe in 2024, and the fit and finish of the spaces is a tad dated and generic. 
• It doesn’t have the intimate size of other home plate club spaces.
• It’s too corporate even by today’s standards where “stadium gentrification” has been amplified to absurd proportions.
• It doesn’t have the extra “comfort amenities” commonly associated with premium stadium clubs at this price point. 
• It doesn’t have the extra perks seen in similar ultra-premium club seats, such views of indoor batting cages or in the case of the Washington Nationals, post-game press conferences.
• Finally, alcohol is not included in the exorbitant price point, which is my only substantial misgiving.

But these are mostly very minor issues.  The food, service, and seating carry the most weight.  With the food so overwhelmingly above the competition, the short answer is: near the very top.

So, is the Legends Suite the best way to watch a baseball game, period?

Maybe.  While I’ve been in them, I haven’t seen a game in two ballpark’s “best seats,” both of which happen to be the most comically extravagant and impossible-to-get seats in baseball – (1) Truist Park’s (Atlanta) intimate Truist Club, which is a super VIP club within another all-inclusive club for the first four rows behind home plate, and (2) Petco Park’s (San Diego) incredibly gorgeous and newly renovated home plate club. 

Of the rest, Seattle’s newly renovated home plate Diamond Club is in the only club seating area I’d consider putting in the top spot ahead of Legends, because of the exemplary fit and finish of the club space, the high quality of the food, and most of all, the best in-seat service in baseball, where servers will bring you 70+ varieties of grub, beer, wine, and cocktails, all gratis.  Nationals Park’s version also gets an honorable mention for its unique perks and presidential theme. Wrigley’s 1914 Club gets another mention for having an all-inclusive drink program head and shoulders above all others in sports.       

But no other MLB home plate club has the variety or quality of dining at scale of the Legends Suite, and that’s the primary differentiator here.  And none of them have the prestige, service, and aura of the Legends Suite.  The Legends Suite would easily be #1 if alcohol were included in the ticket price.

As someone who has traditionally geared this website toward more technical aspects of ballpark design and you know, watching the game, I chose to highlight the Legends Suite because of its influential legacy on the business side of ballpark operations, marking a paradigm shift that elevated premium stadium clubs to truly rarefied experiences. The Legends Suite deserves its reputation as one of the best seats in sports. 

Yankee Stadium’s Legend Suite is a top-4 in seat baseball, at worst.  

Unless noted otherwise, all images, including the featured image and images in the mini-photo galleries, are by Cole Shoemaker/Ballpark Ratings.

The post Pure Gluttony: Legends Suite at Yankee Stadium Review appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

I get mildly annoyed by the clickbait on this topic, because this is my thing.  I’m obsessed with ballparks.  I’ve not only seen games at every MLB park multiple times; I’ve seen games at every MLB park from a variety of seating areas to get the most comprehensive possible experiences.  At this point, I’ve seen almost every part of every MLB park. I go to all games as a fan (and all photos are my own unless noted otherwise), so I have never received a press pass from the team or free tickets. I outline why I do this and why I think the ballpark warrants such examination here.

In 2018 and 2019, I ranked, rated, and reviewed all MLB ballparks in a long-form piece, but a shorter (shorter, not short!) refresher is in order after revisiting them again this year and throughout the 2020s.  Some rankings have changed. 

That piece outlines the methodology and criteria extensively, but here are the five broad categories with subcategories equaling 200 points, before being divided by 2 and adjusted for a curve and possible bonus points:

1. Setting (x/20):
   – Locale (x/5), Accessibility (x/5), Neighborhood Local Scene (x/10)
2. Architecture & Aesthetics (x/65):
   – Exterior Design/Aesthetics (x/20), Interior Aesthetics/Visuals (x/40), Concourse Aesthetics (x/5)
3. Functionality & Essentials (x/50):
   – Sightlines: Field Proximity (x/15), Sightlines: Seating Geometry (x/5), Seat Comfort: (x/9), Concourse Functionality (x/15), Scoreboards/Tech: (x/6)
4. Amenities & Features (x/50):
   – Concessions: Food Variety (x/5), Concessions: Food Quality (x/5), Concessions: Craft Beer/Other Drinks (x/5), Social Spaces: Accessible Restaurants, Destination Bars, Sitting Areas, Social Gathering Areas (x/10), Premium Seating/Clubs (x/9), Historical Exhibits, Memorabilia, Art, and Other Displays (x/10), Kids Areas/Other Entertainment (x/6)  
5. Atmosphere, Vibe, & Policies (x/15):
   – Fan Support/Attendance (x/5), Ballpark Traditions/Gameday Presentation (x/5), Ballpark Policies/Staff (x/5)

I look at the totality of what the ballpark has to offer, proportioned appropriately.  Although, I am not captive to the ratings system if something doesn’t feel right, hence the bonus points.  Here’s the Coors Field’s “scorecard,” to take a broadly well-regarded and non-polarizing park, to see the ratings system in practice. 

I know, it’s a lot; it’s wonky!  All of that being said, I think there is one element that encompasses almost all of these categories.

If I could distill the answer to “what makes a ballpark great?” to one aspect, it is that a great ballpark represents its team, city, and/or region.  All ballparks should pass the, “Where Am I? test.”  From downtown views and local grub to team historical references and other regionally-inspired amenities, that sense of place is the overarching key. 

I’d also add that sightlines matter.  So much attention is given to things like pretty backdrops and food, but the baseball-watching quality of these venues is the primary concern.  Although, there’s not much differentiation between modern-day ballparks in field proximity.

In addition, I’m an urbanist at heart, so I strongly prefer ballparks integrated with the city fabric and all of the positives that come with that — namely, the vibrant surrounding pre-and post-game bar/restaurant scenes and scenic views beyond the outfield. 

Even with rigor, this is obviously still a subjective exercise.  Fans value different things.  You may not care that a ballpark serves high-quality local food.  You may be in the minority and prefer ballparks surrounded by a sea of parking in suburbia.  That’s all cool.  I in no way hold myself out as some sort of final arbiter of stadia!

This is also a comparative exercise, and with billions of dollars poured into ballparks across America since 1990, the standards are relatively high – there are only two “bad” ballparks in MLB.  Ranking in the bottom tercile is no slight.  So, I’ve grouped all 30 ballparks into different tiers within the rankings.  It’s helpful to focus on the “rating” and the general company a ballpark keeps.

Without further ado, here are my 2024 MLB ballpark rankings and ratings.

F Tier: The Two “Bad” Ballparks

These are universally regarded as MLB’s two worst parks.  I agree.  There’s no getting around the inadequacy of these structures both aesthetically and functionally, as these are the only two MLB stadiums that genuinely warrant replacement.  Although, there’s considerable daylight between #30 and #29 in degree of inadequacy.

30) Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (1966), Oakland Athletics: 43.5

I’m not going to go down dead horse boulevard and kick the old gal while she’s down.  Everyone knows Oakland’s stadium is terrible. 

But even in the 2010s when the team was trying, I never thought this ranking was a close call.  Other than being an open-air ballpark with natural grass and having tremendous accessibility via BART, baseball’s last dive bar is considerably worse than #29 in every facet. 

I will say that if you’re in Oakland, I’d encourage you to see this place before it closes.  It’s so lacking in frills almost to the point of novelty, like going back to the 1980s.  There’s nothing else like this left in the major North American sports.

29) Tropicana Field (1990), Tampa Bay Rays: 54.5

Tropicana Field’s flaws have been extensively documented.  As MLB’s only stationary dome, it takes the crown as baseball’s ugliest ballpark.  With artificial turf, a drab interior aesthetic with no natural sunlight, and exterior materials that evoke a Walmart distribution warehouse, Tropicana Field feels more mausoleum than ballpark. 

It’s not particularly functional, with fairly narrow concourses closed from the field, old seats, outdated videoboards, and of course, the infamous ceiling catwalks.  And it’s located in the wrong place, a difficult drive for fans in Tampa and most of the metro area.

All of that being said, here’s the thing about Tropicana Field: they try. 

Given the limitations of the structure, the Rays have put a lot of time and money into making the amenities and overall fan experience otherwise respectable in the last 15 years.  It was also retrofitted as baseball-only facility in 1998, so the sightlines are decent. 

Consider: (a) St. Petersburg’s Edge District makes for a vibrant pre-and post-game local scene; (b) the centerfield rotunda is neat; (c) the dome lights are cool; (d) the food and beverage department is underrated; (e) the Rays Touch Tank is a unique amenity; and (f) Rays’ history is appropriately celebrated throughout the park.  Most of all, Tropicana Field scores high in the “memorability factor,” as there is nothing else like this in MLB.

Ultimately, Tropicana Field is still far and away MLB’s second worst ballpark, but it has redeeming qualities.

D Tier: The Barely Passable Ballpark

28) Angel Stadium (1966), Los Angeles Angels: 68

After being enclosed to accommodate football and converted into a multiuse facility in the early 1980s, Angel Stadium was the only multipurpose MLB stadium to be renovated instead of replaced during the post-1990 ballpark-building boom. 

However, 1) those 1997-98 renovations that transformed Angel Stadium back to baseball-only status didn’t go far enough, with remnants of the stadium’s multipurpose existence still apparent inside and out; and 2) Angel Stadium hasn’t been properly maintained in the 25+ years since those renovations.   

Angel Stadium is a quintessential suburban stadium surrounded by parking lots, and that’s always cause for demerits.  Outside, while new parks of the era received tasteful neoclassical treatment, Angel Stadium got paint on concrete.  The grand entrance is a touched-up version of the old façade plastered with gimmicks.  Inside, you can still see the shell of the multipurpose grandstand, characterized by tired, disconnected outfield stands with a poorly integrated faux rock geyser. 

All of the cosmetic changes make it look like the Tammy Faye Baker of ballparks: instead of aging gracefully, they slapped a bunch of makeup on it, which in turn has not aged well. It looks both tacky and dated.

The mountain views beyond left and center field, however, are underrated.

Objectively, Angel Stadium falls short across the board compared to the post-1990 parks.  The sightlines have plenty of awkward viewing angles and overhang obstructions.  The concourses are generally too narrow, among other issues.  The seats are quite worn.  From the food and drinks to the social spaces and clubs, the amenities are poor across the board.  Not even a kids’ area.  Even compared to a Tropicana Field, Angel Stadium doesn’t have any extra frills.    

It all adds up to a wholly unmemorable stadium experience that’s below average in almost every facet, even if there’s nothing startlingly inadequate like at the parks in Oakland and Tampa.  I’m calling this one barely passable.

A dramatic mixed-use development project was proposed for the site in the past, and Angel Stadium will either be renovated (again) or replaced in the not-so-distant future. 

C Tier: Decent Ballparks, With Flaws

These ballparks have plenty of good qualities, but they have significant flaws that outweigh their strongpoints.  Three out of five of the below are due for renovations or replacement.  One other is multipurpose facility renovated into a ballpark.

27) Chase Field (1998), Arizona Diamondbacks: 72.5

As the first baseball-only stadium with a retractable roof, Chase Field is all function over form, geared toward pumping in air conditioning to make baseball work in the desert.  Often likened to an airplane hangar, it’s the least aesthetically attractive MLB ballpark of the post-1990 building boom, lacking much architectural intrigue.

Chase Field’s big and boxy exterior profile features terribly clashing architecture, typifying an era where inevitably modern retractable roof parks tried to be “retro.”  Inside, Chase Field feels like watching baseball in a giant gym.  Even when the roof is open, Chase Field feels bounded.  When the roof is closed, almost no natural light is emitted into the building.  And the cavernous upper deck screams outdated empty stadium.

With a dearth of significant enhancements over the years, Chase Field’s amenities have not aged well.  Think mall-like concessions, pedestrian food quality, a poor craft beer selection, minimal social gathering areas, two aging outfield restaurants (although, at least a decent burger joint now occupies one of them), tired premium spaces at field level, and a worn club level.  It all evokes an out-of-date 1990s shopping mall.

It’s also rife with behind-the-scenes technical issues. The roof can only be opened or closed when the stadium is empty due to a broken pulley (fan safety issue). The roof leaks.  It’s made the local news rounds for grease fires in the kitchens, burst pipes, faulty scoreboard lights, and other issues.

Chase Field has some bright spots.  It’s a downtown ballpark.  There’s the pool.  I love the murals in the rotunda celebrating natural Arizona landmarks.  Crucially, it’s still pretty functional for baseball viewing, with superb seating geometry and an open main concourse without interruptions in field visibility.  It’s also one of those parks where it really matters when you go: on a day game in early April with the roof open, the experience is much better.    

The Diamondbacks desire a new ballpark or a top-to-bottom renovation to Chase Field.

26) Guaranteed Rate Field (1991), Chicago White Sox: 74

Just barely missing the retro-classic trend ushered in by Camden Yards (1992), the White Sox stadium (1991) usually falls near the very bottom of ballpark rankings.  But as any ballpark enthusiast will tell you, Chicago’s South Side ballpark has gotten so much better after over 20 years of periodic renovations.

Yes, inside and out, little about GRF makes any pretense of being aesthetically attractive.  With an enclosed, ad-plastered outfield facing away from Chicago’s skyline, GRF has little character and absolutely no visual sense of place.  But compared to some busy, disjointed, and gimmicky retro parks, there is a certain coherence and simplicity about its symmetrical interior lines that just rub me the right way.

GTF’s amenities and fan-friendly features compare pretty well: (a) good food, (b) top-5 ballpark for craft beer, (c) The Craft Kave (now known as “Leinenkugel’s Craft Lodge”), one of baseball’s best social spaces, (d) multiple lounges and bars littered around the main concourse, (e) statues adorn the outfield concourse, and (f) a kids’ area focused on baseball activities.  And don’t forget the exploding scoreboard and the pinwheels, now equipped with state-of-the-art tech to match its reputation.   

However, GRF is still rife with flaws beyond the nondescript aesthetics, because there are plenty of structural issues that can’t be fixed.  The upper deck is still high, steep, and far from the action.  Cumbersome ramps are still required for vertical circulation; exploring the park is a chore.  And it’s still a “parking lot stadium,” even if accessibility is superb via the Red Line. 

Finally, while inconsistently enforced, the policy restricting upper deck ticket holders to that level, meaning they can’t access the amenities on the main concourse, is deplorable.  I didn’t see it enforced in 2024, but it appears to still be on the books.

But GTF doesn’t deserve to be associated with the two “bad” stadiums in Oakland and Tampa, which I see far too often.  The White Sox desire a new ballpark in the South Loop just south of Downtown Chicago.

25) Rogers Centre (1989), Toronto Blue Jays: 74.5

As North America’s first fully functional retractable roof stadium, the multipurpose Rogers Centre (SkyDome) was a modern marvel when it opened, but it was outdated by the 21^st century.

That all changed after $400 million in renovations in 2023 and 2024, transforming it from “stadium” to “ballpark.” 

The lower bowl was completely rebuilt to improve sightlines, with the pitch degree increased and grandstands down the lines properly oriented toward the infield.  All seats dating back to 1989 were replaced.  A state-of-the-art videoboard sits in center field.  The food and beverage game, formerly MLB’s worst, has improved.  Premium seating was added at field level, and three new premium clubs will debut later this summer. 

Most significantly, the Jays built a sprawling, multi-level “Outfield District” consisting of eight bonafide social spaces in five “neighborhoods,” with so many awesome SRO spots as well.  The outfield is redone top to bottom.  Overall, phenomenal renovations.  And SkyDome still has its urban location in one of the world’s greatest cities.  Don’t forget about the center field hotel, one of baseball’s neatest landmarks!

So why does SkyDome sit at #25?  For one, the architecture is still from another era – the exterior looks like a concrete bathtub and feels like a fortress.  Inside, no natural light is emitted when the roof is closed, in what evokes an arena, not a ballpark.  When the roof is open, the ballpark has a notably better personality with views of the CN Tower (which are incredible; the tower feels omnipresent), but the outfield is still enclosed, unlike superior retractable roof ballparks. 

Most of all, there are still too many remnants of its 1989 design from a functional standpoint.  Namely, the comically steep upper deck is too high and far from the field, housing over 10,000 of baseball’s worst seats.  Huge flaw!  In addition, ramps (no escalators/few stairs) are still required for circulation, another callback to a bygone era.  Also, in its transformation to “ballpark,” SkyDome is still missing any celebration of team history through exhibits/memorabilia/plaques/statues/anything, something seen to some degree in all 29 other parks.   

Ultimately, SkyDome now offers a respectable fan experience comparable to many mid-tier parks on this list, but there’s only so much lipstick you can put on the outdated superstructure.

24) American Family Field (2001), Milwaukee Brewers: 75

Notable for its fan-shaped retractable roof, I’ve always been particularly harsh on the artist formerly known as Miller Park, which is curious given how much fun I have here.  So much of the intangibles of a Brewers game—the awesome fans, the Milwaukee vibe, the unique ballpark traditions like the Sausage Race—are delightful.  And that counts for a lot.  But Miller Park falls short in virtually all other facets. 

The tailgating experience is fantastic, but Miller Park is surrounded by parking lots in all directions without anything of interest within walking distance, and I’m always on team downtown baseball.  I don’t like the exterior’s gargantuan profile that screams “small town trying to be prime time” or its red brick facade, out of place for the non-urban setting, city, and roof technology.  Strong Elroy Jetson’s hat/Queen Victoria’s dress vibes!  It screams Steampunk.   

Inside, the park feels dramatically overscaled.  Even when the roof is open, the park feels drab and enclosed. When the roof is closed, outfield panels let in no natural light. Although, the glass above the upper deck allows some light in.  Compared to retractable roof parks in Seattle and Houston, there is no visual sense of place here whatsoever, and it particularly lacks intimacy for only 42,000 seats.  Overall, the architecture inside and out does not reflect the city, independent of its unwieldy aesthetics.   

Miller Park isn’t a particularly functional building for watching baseball.  All modern-day ballparks have upper decks too high and pushed back, but Miller Park is the worst offender, with four decks and little overhang.  The seating geometry can be problematic.  Seats in the upper deck lack cupholders, a rarity.  The main concourse is difficult to navigate with many confusing horizontal discontinuities.  The outfield concourse is barren and narrow. 

There are some bright spots—good local food, a massive craft beer wall, the new left field brewery, and a (*checks notes*) new virtual golf zone—but the amenities are merely average overall. 

This is a comparative exercise—all modern-day baseball-only venues are enjoyable, including Miller Park—but I just don’t see how Miller Park compares well objectively speaking.  The Brewers desire $448 million in renovations.

23) Globe Life Field (2020), Texas Rangers: 76.5

Globe Life Field has plenty of redeeming qualities, but it is the most disappointing new MLB ballpark since New Comiskey in 1991, combining many of the worst trends in stadium design.  

First of all, GLF follows the Truist Park (Atlanta) mallpark model of building an almost offensively generic stadium and attaching it to manufactured mixed-use development.  Prioritizing utility over charm, dubbed “more Events Center than Ballpark,” GLF has no design goal beyond generating revenue and fabricating experiential aesthetics, with little attention paid to timeless visual aesthetics. 

The much-maligned exterior façade ranges from ugly to pedestrian, lacking any distinctive design cues.  Think warehouse attached to a suburban office park.  Even in its best spots, this could be an expansion team’s ballpark in “Anywhere, USA.” 

The interior is totally nondescript, bereft of any signature elements, interesting views, or overarching aesthetic vision. Zero personality.  The roof also only opens at the top like a sunroof, unlike Milwaukee, Miami, or Arizona which open at the top and have retractable outfield panels, or the far superior designs in Seattle and Houston where the roof retracts over the entirety of left/center field showcasing skyline views. The sole bright spot are the archways on the left field concourse, but crucially, they not visible from the seating bowl. 

Even for an aesthetically uninspired mallpark, GLF isn’t even a fun mallpark for the average fan, because most of the amenities are concentrated toward premium. 

While they have improved in the mid-2020s with Hurtado and Whataburger, the food options are middling.  The craft beer selection is below average.  The park mostly lacks destination social spaces throughout the concourses.  The team historical tributes aren’t extensive.  The Rangers point to Texas Live! outside the park, but there needs to be more within GLF’s confines.    
Perhaps most importantly, GLF has the most fan-unfriendly seating bowl design in baseball, where fans cannot access the entirety of the lower bowl and lower bowl concourse in between the foul poles without an appropriate premium ticket!  That’s even worse than Yankee Stadium, which has been much-maligned on this point.

On the plus side, GLF is functional, and I don’t mean that as an insult.  Climate control. Excellent sightlines.  Wide seats.  Not one, but two wide 360-degree concourses open to the field.  Top-of-the-line tech.  GLF’s superior functionality carriers a lot of weight, but it has no soul.

Ultimately, GLF is defined by 1) its mallpark philosophy, 2) unremarkable aesthetics inside and out, 3) mediocre amenities for regular fans, and 4) a fan-unfriendly seating structure designed to exclude regular fans from the lower bowl unlike ever before. 

Sure, fans are now out of the heat, but at what cost?  $1.2 billion, actually!  That’s a lot of money for air conditioning and a structure that has less character and is less fan-friendly than its predecessor!

B Tier: The Good Ballparks

The B and B (+) Tiers consist of parks ranked #22 to #7.  If you look at the “ratings,” there isn’t a ton of daylight between #22 to #7.  However, I’m further separating the six ballparks below within the B Tier as merely “good” ballparks versus “great” ones.  The pros outweigh the cons, but the six ballparks below have some flaw(s) that fully separate them from the great ballparks.        

22) loanDepot Park (2012), Miami Marlins: 79.5

Despite receiving positive reviews upon opening, Marlins Park is generally considered a bottom 5-10 ballpark for issues that have little to do with the actual ballpark. 

Bitterness surrounding unrelated issues—like the stadium’s dodgy financing scheme, the Marlins organization’s ineptness, and the sparse attendance—translated to antipathy toward the ballpark itself.  People conflate the Marlins franchise with Marlins Park.  That makes no sense.  

However, I’ve downgraded Marlins Park’s rating as of late for two reasons: 

1) Attendance issues are sufficiently dire to affect the essentials of the ballpark experience, with the stadium operations routinely at 1/3^rd capacity. The upper deck, for example, is only open on Opening Day. 

2) Jeter-era no-fun alterations.  Replacing the home run sculpture with a generic party deck, the pool nightclub with an overpriced lounge, and the fish tank with ads represents the new homogeneity of ballparks to a tee.

Regardless, I still think the building itself is architecturally underrated, even if it doesn’t fit in the Little Havana neighborhood (and Marlins Park’s location alone is a big drawback).  Design-wise, Marlins Park stands alone in baseball history as the only contemporary MLB ballpark in the 21^st century sense of the word. 
 
On the outside, Marlins Park conceptually captures sea merging with land, with an amalgam of deep blue glass, white stucco and steel, unadulterated concrete, and sparkling silver aluminum.  With graceful fluidity in form, it’s an abstract expression of Miami.  Marlins Park has one of my favorite exteriors, a big deal in my book as an architecture nerd. 

The refreshed interior feels modern yet subdued, highlighted by the sleek white facade and attractive greenery.  The retractable left field panels reveal surprisingly beautiful views of Brickell/Downtown Miami.  I also adore the contemporary baseball-related artwork sprinkled throughout the concourses. Overall, Marlins Park scores highest in “architecture and aesthetics” on my scorecard among retractable roof parks.   

Marlins Park is particularly functional, with a wide, open main concourse without interruptions in field visibility and excellent sightlines for a post-1990 ballpark.  The park’s amenities aren’t as fan-friendly as they should be—sparse crowds are partly to blame—but scrumptious Latin food options, a new beer hall, a new Marlins Museum, and the Bobblehead Museum are highlights. 

In sum, I agree that Marlins Park is a bottom-10 ballpark experience, mostly because a ballpark this empty just isn’t a fun one.  Attendance this poor has operational effects beyond a listless atmosphere.  But Marlins Park’s dazzling contemporary architecture and aesthetics make it worth a visit.           

21) Great American Ball Park (2003), Cincinnati Reds: 80.5

While Great American Ball Park has plenty to offer, it has received mixed reviews for a 21^st century ballpark, generally landing in the lower-mid tier to bottom 10 of most ballpark rankings. 

Equipped with a downtown riverfront setting, GABP represents the single biggest ballpark missed opportunity of our generation, because the execution was botched. I don’t want to totally put that on the architects, because other stakeholders had significant influence over the final product. 

GABP has my least favorite interior aesthetics for a ballpark without a roof.  While it was an admittedly complex and ambitious assignment given the variety of elements they tried to incorporate, how do you have the riverfront and the skyline, yet have good views of neither?    

The underlying design is disjointed and fragmented.  In the outfield, riverfront views are blocked by oversized seating, clumsy signage, a new superfluous videoboard, the tackiest gimmicks in baseball, and an ugly black batter’s eye, leaving the park with little sense of place from most vantage points other than the top of the upper decks. If you look at some early renderings, GABP was much more open to its environs in the outfield.

In the infield, “The Gap” behind home plate is a well-intentioned concept that just doesn’t work in practice, giving GABP a real “split personality.”  The Gap also got “filled” with suites and patios, diluting the architects’ original concept. It’s all just awful, with so much junk and kitschy stuff thrown in that distracts from the original concept of integrating the riverfront scenery/urban context. Ultimately, the interior is poorly integrated with Cincinnati’s urban and riverfront fabric, then tacks on a bunch of gimmicks that further limit the visual appeal.

The interior design and visuals are obviously going to comprise the bulk of any analysis, but if you’re willing to look past that (and it’s subjective, obviously), GABP has a lot of things going for it.  

The surrounding downtown local scene of bars and restaurants has greatly improved.  Crosley Terrace with statues of Reds legends in action behind home plate is awesome.  I love the art deco bas relief outside, even if the exterior architecture is a mixed bag overall. The seating geometry is excellent.  While not perfect, some of the amenities are superb: (a) local food, (b) top-10 ballpark for craft beer, (c) the Kroger Fan Zone is one of baseball’s best ballpark kids’ areas and hangout spots for all ages, and most importantly, (d) the Reds Museum and Hall of Fame connected to the park is the absolute best of its kind.

Ultimately, the fan experience is solid, but purely design-wise, GABP is probably Populous’s biggest miss.

20) Minute Maid Park (2000), Houston Astros: 81

In what used to be one of the most underrated parks in baseball, Minute Maid Park has fallen the farthest on my list in the last decade plus.  While the fundamentals are strong, I think the Astros have made a lot of changes that have actually worsened the fan experience.

To start with the positives, I still think Minute Maid Park is the model climate-controlled retractable roof park from a design standpoint.

I stress contextual appreciation of the site above all else, and the Astros took one element in the downtown community, the gorgeous red brick Union Station (old train station), and used it as the framework for the entire park.  They also incorporated Union Station into the park through adaptive reuse.  On the outside, MMP’s architecture mirrors Union Station, much like Camden Yards mirrors the B&O Warehouse.  Even the retractable roof itself evokes the faded lacy ironwork of 19th century train sheds. 

While commonly derided for its gimmicky choo-choo train and quirky dimension, the inside is even better.  In a perfect application of context and theme to function, the sliding glass retractable roof tracks ingeniously serve as a mechanism for executing the train track aesthetic.  And those gorgeous beige stone arches and the red brick Union Station, along with the Crawford Boxes and old-fashioned manual out-of-town scoreboard, tie it all together.

Most importantly, the low roof tracks allow for some of baseball’s best skyline views when the roof is open.  The roof completely retracts off the seating bowl and in the outfield.  It’s like a convertible, whereas other climate-controlled retractable roof parks are like sunroofs.  When closed, MMP is about as attractive as the inside of an enclosed ballpark could be, strategically maneuvering natural light through the world’s largest sliding glass door. 

Finally, MMP is fairly functional across the board, with some of baseball’s best SRO areas in the outfield, including a balcony extending over the field.  The local food (El Tiempo and Killen’s BBQ) and Astros Hall of Fame concourse in left field are well done.

However, MMP has made a number of changes over the years, some major (believe it or not, I’m torn on the removal of Tal’s Hill, so not that) and some subtle, that I just hate. Since I’ve downgraded MMP park so much in the last decade plus, I feel the need to elaborate on the major ones:

1) The roof is almost never open nowadays, even when the weather is mild in April.  And I mean that literally.  Unless there’s an unprecedented cold front, the roof will be open ZERO times during the 2024 regular season!  It was open ONE time each during the ’23 and ’22 regular season. I want to be clear: I’m not complaining about it being closed when it’s hot. No other retractable roof ballpark, including the one in Miami, leaves it closed with temperatures in the mid 70s! If I was super harsh, I could basically grade this as an indoor park at this point.     

2) MMP’s interior aesthetic appeal has been nullified by clutter, namely the ads littered above the beige stone archways.  It’s one thing to obscure more remote parts of the upper deck with 12 giant ads.  It’s another matter to muddle your chief interior aesthetic asset with them.  I understand the necessity of ads, but it’s too much.  Compare the before (and when the park opened) to now.

3) Team Store overkill, displacing or ruining many of the park’s best features.  A team store now occupies Union Station, formerly the “grand entrance” to MMP and MMP’s signature architectural feature.  This would be akin to turning the entirety of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field into a team store and it no longer functioning as an entrance. In addition, team stores displaced a nice sit-down bar on the main concourse behind home plate, a restaurant in center field, and the kids’ area.  It’s only one of three MLB parks to lack a kids’ area. MMP is near the bottom in amenities on my scorecard, because seemingly every space on the concourses is dedicated to selling merchandise, so there’s no room for anything else!  I imagine it’s also why MMP comparatively lacks spaces to sit down or hang out on the concourses compared to 28 or so other parks, something that drives me nuts when I grab a bite with a big group before the game. No other park comes close to having this idiosyncratic problem where team stores take up so much real estate to detract from the overall experience.

I’ll stop there for this piece. Overall, MMP is an intriguing structure, but it used to be better.    

19) Kauffman Stadium (1973), Kansas City Royals: 81.5

Praised as a 20^th century classic for its clean, modernist lines and outfield fountains, my take on Kauffman Stadium is one of the site’s more controversial ones, as longtime ballpark enthusiasts generally place The K on the periphery of the top 10. 

My rationale is twofold: 1) I didn’t like the aesthetic changes made to the outfield scene during the sweeping 2008-09 renovations, and 2) I still can’t get past the suburban setting.   

1) The central appeal of old Kauffman was not only the fountains, but the gorgeous, flowing simplicity of the grass embankments in the outfield.  It’s an aesthetic travesty that modern-day economics forced the Royals to convolute the timeless uncluttered greenery with seating and ads, because the greenery allowed the fountains to stand out.  I find the outfield appearance too muddled and busy now.

2) Kauffman Stadium is the ultimate suburban “parking lot ballpark,” with the lowest walkability score in MLB.  Like I said, my enduring persuasion is against venues not integrated with the city center or a neighborhood.  America’s venerated ballparks resonated with fans because they were part of a community, and suburban baseball can never replicate that appeal. 

Independent of the above, Kauffman Stadium gets high marks.

The fountains are still there.  The interior lines are still sharp.  The sightlines are good.  The videoboard topped with a crown is iconic.  The amenities added in 2009, while aging a bit, are spectacular: Kauffman has (a) some of baseball’s best craft beer, (b) wonderful social spaces like Craft & Draft and Rivals Bar, (c) the Royals Hall of Fame, and (d) the Outfield Experience offering baseball’s #1 family-friendly kids’ areas.  Most importantly, Kauffman Stadium finally added locally-operated BBQ through its “KCQ” program, as Chef J’s BBQ, Scott’s Kitchen, and SMOAK Craft BBQ rotate. 

Kauffman Stadium is a fine venue, but the superb “classic K” is greatly missed.  Wrigley, Fenway, and Dodger Stadium managed to incorporate 21^st century amenities without taking away so much aesthetic appeal.  The Royals desire a new ballpark in the Crossroad District in Downtown Kansas City.   

18) Yankee Stadium (2009), New York Yankees: 82

Commonly criticized for its cold, corporate revenue-generating nature, The House That Jeter Built is certainly a fashionable place to hate.  Some variation of “I’m a Yankees fan, but Yankee Stadium sucks, and I far prefer Citi Field” is a popular sentiment on social media.  “A mall with a baseball stadium in the middle.”  “It doesn’t hold a candle to the House That Ruth Built.”  I get it.

I don’t think this is a hot take given its #18 ranking, but put me in the camp that thinks this so-call characterless mausoleum gets too much hate.  Come on, it’s not that bad!

Conceived as “part Stadium, part Museum,” I think Yankee Stadium does a lot of things that only work because its Yankee Stadium.  It fits the vibe of the team. 

The exterior is fitted with imposing tones of limestone, granite, and pre-cast stone, stately and handsome for sure, but with an air of self-importance of a new courthouse.  Positively palatial.  Except for the frieze, the interior aesthetics are mostly non-descript, lacking much character or warmth, but how else would a new Yankee Stadium look?  It really wasn’t incumbent on the Yankees to build a park with striking visuals like in Pittsburgh.  It was always going to be an enclosed circular bowl reminiscent of Yankee Stadium I in the Bronx. 

Inside and out, everything is fitted in muted tones of white, grey, and blue, which would be too sterile and bland in any other park, but it works for me at Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Stadium is generally functional, with plenty of space on the open concourses when you include the Great Hall, decent seating geometry, and the most non-premium padded seats of any MLB park.  Demerits for the unacceptably narrow concourse in center field that feels like a concrete tunnel, along with the atrocious gate lines.

The amenities are well above average, but I think some of the offerings are aging as of 2024.  While the Yankees did a great job adding new social spaces around the concourses in the late 2010s, a steakhouse (NYY Steak) and a Hard Rock Café in a ballpark feels passé.  While the food variety is above average (and Lobel’s is outstanding), the craft beer is now the absolute worst in MLB.  For what it’s worth, premium services remain stellar, with the Legends Suite being the single best area for food in MLB, at an exorbinant cost of course.

Yankee Stadium’s strongest features center around team history.  Along with tasteful photographs of Yankee greats above the concessions on the main concourse, Yankee Stadium showcases: 1) Monument Park in center field, 2) the Yankees Museum, and 3) the positively monumental Great Hall. 

Some say Yankee Stadium itself feels too much like a museum, but as a sucker for ballparks with team historical exhibits, I love it.  Yankee Stadium may not reflect New York City, but it certainly reflects the New York Yankees.

While Yankee Stadium doesn’t have the charm or character of the best parks, it has plenty of solid features that emphasize fan comfort and scream Yankees baseball.

17) Citi Field (2009), New York Mets: 82.5

While Citi Field was criticized for its heavy-handed mimicry of Ebbets Field and tone deaf nods to the Brooklyn Dodgers when it opened, it’s generally seen as a park that’s “aged well,” usually landing in the top half of ballpark rankings.  It has aged well, but my lukewarm view toward Citi Field stems from two of my core preferences where the Mets’ home falls short:

1) Locations integrated with urban communities.  While I love Citi Field’s accessibility off the 7 Train, Willets Point makes for one of baseball’s worst neighborhoods, characterized by ugly repair shops and scrap yards.  At least some of that has demolished for the new soccer stadium, but there’s nothing of interest around the park.  Parking lots and ash heaps.

2) Open outfields sporting attractive visuals.  I get that the Mets are going for the enclosed, “cozy” Ebbets Field-vibe, but if I had a motto for ballparks, it would be “backdrops, not bandboxes.”  Citi Field feels too hermetic on the inside.  The Shea Bridge also feels forced, to highlight just one gimmick, and the dimensions and interior lines are contrived given the location.

Adorned with classic red brick archways and a grand rotunda, the exterior is gorgeous, but I also just don’t think retro was the right design choice here. Ebbets Field was in part so charming because it was shoehorned into a venerable neighborhood, structurally integrated with a Brooklyn community.  Citi Field has this “contrived faux-retro in a parking lot” theme park vibe, almost pretending to be in 1950s Brooklyn, and neoclassical architectural treatment had become decidedly overdone in baseball by 2009. It revels in nostalgia, incongruously out of context in a Queens parking lot. Whereas Yankee Stadium, which also opened in 2009, naturally had to go retro and emulate its first iteration, the Mets had no excuse not to build a forward-looking ballpark.

All of that being said, Citi Field somewhat overcomes this, because the fan experience, while not perfect, is objectively phenomenal.

The inside of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda makes for one of baseball’s most rousing entryways.  Citi Field is functional across the board, and the center field plaza is a fun hang out spot.  It has baseball’s largest videoboards.  It has some of baseball’s very best food, with a bountiful selection of yummy staples from around the city, only behind that in San Diego.  The premium club setup is incredibly fan friendly, with a “club access chart” that allows many more fans than usual to access to plush pregame spaces. 

And even after significant demerits for relocating the Mets Museum from the rotunda to a small room in center field (hopefully this will be fixed in the future; it’s really unacceptable), Citi Field celebrates Mets’ history fairly well, a sore spot in its early days.   

In the end, this isn’t how I would have designed a ballpark for the Mets – and I’ll never get over the lousy setting – but the ballpark operations are firing on all cylinders. 

B (+) Tier: The Great Ballparks

A minuscule 4.5 points separate #16 and #7, so don’t get too hung up on the rankings here.  While these parks may still have flaws, these are all phenomenal ballpark experiences that should be on any ballpark enthusiast’s shortlist to visit. 

16) Nationals Park (2008), Washington Nationals: 84.5

Except maybe Nationals Park, which earns its placement on this list due to its well-roundedness that should please regulars, not any memorable “wow factor” that’s likely to impress ballpark chasers.  In the face of high expectations to deliver an iconic ballpark fitting for America’s pastime in the nation’s capital, Nationals Park has received mixed reviews for its lack of distinguishing features, not to mention its lack of visuals that reflect Washington D.C.

Critics say, what’s the first thing you think of when you think of Nationals Park?  True, that’s tough!  The red seats in center field?  The distant view of D.C. landmarks, which are increasingly obstructed by development?  The left field cherry blossoms planted as an afterthought that only bloom for a week in early April?

Regardless, I still view Nationals Park more positively.  It may lack much to separate it from other MLB venues, but Nationals Park is very well rounded, with few significant flaws, and that matters.      

Nationals Park’s architecture may be a mixed bag, but the austere grey treatment fits into the D.C. landscape, which is the goal.  Its interior may lack distinctiveness, but I love how open the park feels to the urban context on the left side, with new development and rooftops overlooking the field. 

Nationals Park excels functionally, with solid sightlines, good seats, and a new videoboard for 2024.  The concourses are particularly well designed: wide, open to the field, and easy to navigate.  It’s equipped with plenty of fan-friendly amenities, namely a criminally underrated culinary scene, vibrant social spaces, and amazing premium club seats that have always been relatively affordable on Stubhub.  It even possesses a few charming local traditions, namely the now iconic President’s Race and nods to D.C. baseball history. 

Most importantly, the burgeoning Navy Yard next door is now one of baseball’s best neighborhoods, and remember, location is crucial in my ballpark ratings.  It’s hard to score too low in my rankings if you’re an urbanist ballpark. 

Yes, a ballpark is more than the sum of its parts—Nationals Park lacks that “wow factor,” which limits its “repeat value” for out-of-towners—but the sum of its parts is really damn good here, even if nothing is particularly memorable or outstanding.

15) Truist Park (2017), Atlanta Braves: 85

Truist Park has garnered a huge diversity of opinions since its opening.  Some see Truist as the bland suburban mallpark epitomized, while others view its mixed-use development and fan-friendly amenities as the model for future MLB ballparks.  For me, it’s both. 

On one hand, Truist Park is baseball’s ultimate mallpark, where almost everything is all about creating “experiences” and generating revenue, not about crafting attractive aesthetics.  Called a “watershed moment” by MLB officials, Truist Park is largely defined by the Battery Atlanta, a privately-controlled pseudo-city in suburbia trying to manufacture the organic sensibility of an urban neighborhood.  The traffic and lack of public transportation is a huge drawback.   

Even for red brick, Truist’s exterior architecture is generic, lacking any distinctive design cues or regional accents.  The interior is so lacking in any describable aesthetic it might as well have been taken from a videogame’s expansion team ballpark starter kit.  Inside and out, it looks like the Braves picked Truist Park out of a box that said “baseball stadium.”  No visual sense of place.  Lame views.  Little character.  Broadly attractive, sure, but designed to be as inoffensive as possible.  A modern-day cookie cutter. 

On the other hand, that’s all academic once you’re there, as it’s hard to deny that Truist Park is both functional and incredibly fun.  The “fan experience” at Truist Park, separate from any misgivings about the aesthetic design or general artificiality of the ballpark concept, may be the very best in Major League Baseball.  

In terms of food, drinks, social spaces, interesting seating options, historical tributes, and entertainment features (zip line!), we are seeing novel concepts entering uncharted territory. There’s something for everyone at Truist Park in every conceivable way, and that’s important for getting casual fans to the game.  Monument Garden is undoubtably Truist Park’s standout feature inside, perhaps baseball’s best celebration of team history, and for all my philosophical objections, The Battery is a blast outside.    

In the end, the fan-friendly amenities are sufficiently elaborate to offset the pedestrian structure. 

14) Progressive Field (1994), Cleveland Guardians: 85.5

While the artist formerly known as Jacobs Field received rave reviews in the 1990s, it doesn’t get a lot of love from baseball writers and ballpark enthusiasts today, making it one of the more underrated ballparks in my book. 

Opening on the heels of Camden Yards, Progressive Field’s architects understood that the Camden philosophy was about constructing something contextual that connected to the city, not red bricks or silly old-fashioned gimmicks.  Progressive Field nails that, in what is a symbolic representation of Cleveland.

The exterior architecture utilizes limestone and white steel evoking Cleveland’s industrial sensibility.  Progressive Field’s authentic urban interior aesthetics are lovely, eschewing any semblance of gimmickry and adroitly responding to the contextual forces of the city.  Those toothbrush light towers represent the town’s smokestacks. 

Much needed enhancements in the 2010s greatly improved the fan experience.  Dividing the main concourse into “districts,” Cleveland’s park now has a) one of baseball’s largest videoboards, b) some of baseball’s best local food and craft beer, c) the outstanding right field Corner Bar, d) new clubs and renovated lounges, and e) one of baseball’s largest children’s areas, among other things.  Heritage Park in center field also celebrates team history well.   

Progressive Field doesn’t have many flaws, but its few flaws are pretty significant.  Seating geometry down the lines is poor, three tiers of luxury suites isolate the upper deck, and the mezzanine is for all-inclusive premium club seats only.  The combination of these three factors means there aren’t many good seats for the average fan!  The old seats are also some of the very worst in terms of condition. 

But overall, underrated aesthetics and some of baseball’s best amenities already mean Progressive Field scores well in my book.

Moreover, Progressive Field is currently undergoing another multi-year, $202.5 million renovation project.  In 2024, new bars and social spaces were added, with some replacing the hideous shipping containers in right field.  Right now, it’s a work in progress – there are plenty of unfinished parts and having the seats half green/half blue looks weird – but 2025 will bring more social spaces and a new home plate club, and by 2026 all of the new blue seats will be installed.

I expect Progressive Field to be on the periphery of the top-10 once the renovations are completed, depending on the execution.  

13) T-Mobile Park, Seattle Mariners: 86

Heralded for saving baseball in Seattle, T-Mobile Park has historically been considered one of the best parks in baseball, receiving rave reviews upon opening for its “umbrella”-style retractable roof that doesn’t fully enclose the park and unparalleled array of modern amenities.  With a $500+ million price tag, an exorbitant amount for the late 1990s, almost no expense was spared.

Controversially, I’ve always been critical of the stadium’s architectural design.  The exterior is utterly disjointed, with the third base side wrapped in red brick and the first base side exposed in unadorned steel. 

While some parts of the upper deck sport phenomenal views, most of T-Mobile’s interior visuals lack a defining focal point other than that bulbous roof, with poor attention to the urban context and haphazardly placed outfield grandstands.  No visual sense of place from the lower bowl.

However, there’s no denying the fan-friendliness of the Mariners’ home.  The gameday experience has aged well despite relatively few enhancements over the years, because T-Mobile was way ahead of its time in offering those extra frills.  It’s also supremely functional in all facets.    

The food and craft beer are among the very best in baseball, only behind San Diego taken together. The Pen in left field is baseball’s prototypical social space, which includes baseball’s best views into, you guessed it, the bullpens.  The main concourse is open to the field without interruption, and the concourses have so many cool SRO areas.  The videoboard is one of baseball’s largest.  New social spaces like Edgar’s Cantina, the Rooftop Boardwalk, and the Trident Deck are well done. The newly renovated premium Diamond Club behind home plate, based on my experience, may be the best of its kind in baseball. The Mariners Hall of Fame and Museum is a must-see attraction.  And the “Art in the Park,” headlined by the chandelier of 1,000 translucent bates in the rotunda, remains the showstopper. 

In sum, I think T-Mobile Park’s structure and aesthetics are a tad overrated, but the rest of the fan experience is top notch.

12) Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Phillies: 86.5

For something as subjective as ballpark rankings, with all their variations based on roots and loyalties, there’s a rare consensus here: fantastic park, less-than-ideal setting. 

Philly fans will tout the logistical efficiencies, but Citizens Bank Park is almost defined by its South Philadelphia Sports Complex location, because any shortcomings are a function of that location.  Drag the park 4 miles north and witness the closer skyline views, much-needed sense of place, and vibrant local scene, and you would have a top-5 park.

Location and views are huge in my book, but CBP does almost everything else right.  Leaving the classic Dodger Stadium out of the equation which is a different animal, this is my highest ranked “parking lot stadium.”

Aesthetically, the interior sports clean lines, an engaging color scheme, a unique angular grandstand design, and one of baseball’s most beautiful batter’s eyes.  This is about as visually attractive as a parking lot stadium gets on the inside.  Functionally, CBP’s sightlines are excellent, and the concourse design may be baseball’s very best.  The concourses open to the field on all three levels, with no interruptions in visibility throughout the main concourse, numerous fan-friendly SRO areas, sitting areas feet from the bullpen, and Ashburn Alley in the outfield. It now has one of baseball’s largest videoboards as well.

Elevated by recent renovations, CBP’s amenities are impressive.  Local culinary staples like Tony Luke’s, Campo’s, and Federal Donuts remain scrumptious.  Recent enhancements added (a) a wonderful sports bar with an open-air beer garden, (b) a redesigned historical exhibit in left field, and (c) one of baseball’s premier kids’ areas, among other things.  Then throw in the passionate Philly fans, and you’re looking at a memorable experience.  

Other than lacking that all-so-important sense of place provided by a downtown location, Citizens Bank Park is one of the most fan-friendly parks in baseball.

11) Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals: 87

Busch Stadium is one of the more difficult ballparks to assess, because nearly all of its assets are derived from factors independent of the actual building that was heavily value engineered.  I see Busch Stadium as kind of the opposite of Citizens Bank Park, as with the latter, all of its strongpoints are derived from features within the confines.  In St. Louis, the park is great due to external factors.    

Baseball’s 2^nd best skyline views showcasing the Gateway Arch, a now-completed Ballpark Village in Downtown St. Louis, and the Cardinals fanbase bolster the overall Busch Stadium experience, but there aren’t many frills to elevate a fairly prosaic structure.

1) Independent of the postcard views, Busch Stadium is one of the most generic parks of its era, perhaps epitomizing the peak “retro cookie cutter.”  While other parks with skyline backdrops seem more organically interwoven with their urban context, Busch Stadium feels kind of dropped from the sky into Downtown St. Louis, with a boring outfield seating design that could be mistaken for a cookie-cutter facility.  The interior feels like a template, a generic starting point without any distinction in its own right.

Recalling local architecture, the exterior facade is admittedly beautiful (and the signature entrance pays superb homage to the Eads Bridge), but it comes across as a bit too formulaic and derivative for 2006, and I don’t think neoclassical red brick was the right design choice for the city. 

2) Independent of Ballpark Village outside of the park, the amenities inside of the park are unimpressive, with a main concourse closed to the field (highly unusual for a 21^st century park), poor to pedestrian food and craft beer quality, and a notable lack of destination social spaces within the footprint, although the new right field terrace is nice.  The Cardinals Hall of Fame in Ballpark Village is outstanding, but there’s aren’t many historical tributes that scream Cardinals baseball within Busch’s confines.

The view, the fans, and the features outside in Ballpark Village alone are outstanding enough to get Busch Stadium on the periphery of the top-10, which says a lot about how good they are (hey, how low can I rank a park with baseball’s 2^nd best skyline views?), but I take a mixed tone here, because this place should have been even better.

10) Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers: 87.5

Dodger Stadium is baseball’s most polarizing park.  I’ve seen Chavez Ravine placed in the top 5 or top 10 for its Mid-Century Modern aesthetic, but just as frequently put in the middle of the pack or even bottom half, with folks citing what a total nightmare it is to get to.

Yes, Dodger Stadium’s crippling traffic, exacerbated by the park’s lack of walkability and nonexistent rail access, may the worst part of a day at any MLB park.  A flaw that simply cannot be overstated, and the urbanist in me struggles to rank Dodger Stadium this high.  But once you get there, Dodger Stadium earns high marks across the board, especially after the 2020 renovations. 

Carved into the hillside of Chavez Ravine and without much of a traditional “façade,” the exterior is Mid-Century Modern architecture at its finest.  Inside, Dodger Stadium exudes a simple splendor, defined by the green-lined hills and San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield and the iconic pastel color scheme of the seating bowl reflecting Southern California’s natural landscape.  No gimmicks.  Just understated, authentic beauty in keeping with its context.

Just in terms of pure, serious “capital-A” architecture, I could make the argument there’s still no better ballpark in baseball inside and out.

Functionally, the sightlines are good, and the renovations made Dodger Stadium a 360-degree experience.  The exterior grounds are spotless.  The open concourses and seating bowl are immaculate.  The retro 1960s-style signage is one of a kind. 

The new outfield Plaza is fabulous, adorned with destination restaurants with views into the bullpens, proper sit-down bars, communal gathering spaces beneath suspended decorative beach balls, appropriately subtle kids play areas, a batter’s eye with pregame field views, and most importantly, well-designed field game viewing platforms. Team historical tributes/exhibits are wonderfully interwoven throughout the concourses on all levels of the park, including bobblehead displays, Legends of Dodger Baseball plaques, a Fernandomania celebration, rotating Negro League exhibits, a museum on the suite level accessible to all fans, and tons of decorative keepsakes like old signage, seats, a ticket stubs.   Overall, Dodger Stadium has decent amenities after the renovations and certainly punches above its weight in this category for a 60+ year-old stadium.

Sure, Dodger Stadium isn’t perfect even putting aside the traffic – the concession food/beer variety and quality still needs improvement and the concourses are a tad narrow – but its iconic architecture, timeless aesthetics, superb sightlines, lasting functionality, unforgettable character, and now state-of-the-art amenities stand up against any park.   

9) Coors Field, Colorado Rockies: 88

Now amazingly the 3^rd oldest ballpark in the National League behind classics Wrigley and Dodger, Coors Field has aged remarkably well.  Opening on the heels of the revolutionary Camden Yards (1992) and the well-received Progressive Field (1994), Coors Field created the template for the modern-day neotraditional ballpark in 1995.

With its open concourses and great sightlines, Coors Field fixed many of the functional flaws seen in those two predecessors, while perfecting the Camden philosophy of crafting a contextually-inspired ballpark free from contrivances or gimmicks. 

Coors Field’s famous mountain views may be overrated—the sweeping vistas are gorgeous, but they are only visible from some upper sections and are only spectacular at ideal times; the park’s interior visuals are underwhelming overall—but Denver’s park does almost everything else right. 

LoDo makes for one of baseball’s very best neighborhoods.  Coors Field features my favorite ballpark exterior design, taking retro red brick to “capital-A” architecture territory and fitting in with LoDo like a glove. There’s the rockpile geyser in center field and the purple seats in the upper deck marking one mile above sea level.  Coors Field holds up well from a functional standpoint.  The in-park brewery is fun, even if the park’s food has fallen behind the times.  And 2010s enhancements added the outstanding Rooftop party deck filled with fan-friendly social spaces and the videoboard shaped like a mountain.

Overall, Coors Field is very well-rounded, checking most of the boxes, while possessing a few exceptional features and timeless architecture.  You may not instinctively think of Coors Field when pondering which ballparks are likely to withstand the test of time into the mid-21^st century, but Denver’s ballpark has the core ingredients to do so.      

8) Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles: 88.5

Camden Yards, aptly said to be of equal significance in baseball history to the breaking of the color barrier and the development of free agency, inspired decades of “old-fashioned ballparks with modern amenities.”  The venerable sensibilities associated with generations of neotraditional “retro” ballparks—the asymmetrical dimensions, warm brick facades with exposed steel, green seats, and various historical nods—were born here.

However, the importance of Oriole Park transcends conversations about its superficial stylistic treatment.  Not only did it pioneer many subtle design elements that are commonplace today, but it ushered in a broader trend of American urban rival, reinvigorating the country’s downtown cores.    

Camden Yards’ brilliance lies not with its old-fashioned design, but with its philosophy that ballparks can be made better by abandoning templates and constructing something contextual.  Camden’s neoclassical architectural treatment was authentically inspired by its urban surroundings, not conceived of in a vacuum like some of its retro cookie cutter successors, and therein lies its ingenuity.  The building is in perfect harmony with Baltimore. 

Despite receiving few significant enhancements in its 30-year history, Camden Yards still holds up well today inside and out.  Surrounding views may happen to be better at parks in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, but one could argue Camden’s interior aesthetics have never been eclipsed. 

With the B&O Warehouse serving as a landmark on par with Wrigley’s ivy or Boston’s Green Monster, Camden’s interior design is simple, coherent, authentic, and attractive, lacking the busy distractions of the newer ballparks, while also having that organic, uncontrived “signature feature.”  The authenticity of the warehouse remains unmatched. 

A charmingly simple red brick façade, skyline views, local grub (Boog’s BBQ and Jimmy’s Famous Seafood!), Legends Park statues, Eutaw Street, and brass baseball designating every home run to land on Eutaw Street also define the park. 

Significance doesn’t equal perfection, and Camden falls short of the newer parks in a number of respects, hence its placement at #8.  Just in terms of essentials, the concourses are almost entirely closed from the field, the seating geometry down the lines can be terrible, upper deck seats lack cupholders, and the videoboard is the smallest and among the most outdated in MLB.  Cumulatively, the amenities are below average as well.

$600 million has been earmarked for renovations to Camden Yards, which I expect will catapult it to the top-5. 

7) Comerica Park, Detroit Tigers: 89

I did not create this site to generate indefensible hot takes.  Until now, not much on this list significantly diverges from conventional wisdom.  However, my take on Detroit’s ballpark is the site’s most controversial, one of the few times where I sharply deviate from the consensus.  In fact, Comerica ranks #7 after a downgrade, as this place admittedly needs some TLC, which has started in 2024 and will continue into 2025. 

Suffering by comparison to the venerated Tiger Stadium, Comerica Park generally hasn’t received the praise of other 21^st century ballparks.  Comerica is also hindered by its association with the blight of Downtown Detroit and sightline complaints, both of which are misunderstood or overblown.  Most ballpark aficionados rank Comerica in the mid to lower-mid tier (#14-#22 range).    

Assessing Comerica on its own merits in the context of its post-1990 peers and not to the all-time great Tiger Stadium, I think it’s by far the most underrated ballpark in MLB.  It could shoot up to top-5 status again with much needed renovations. Consider:     

• A downtown locale with surrounding bars and restaurants?  Check.

• Wonderful exterior architecture, defined by marvelously expansive exterior monuments in the form of Tiger sculptures creating an immediate and memorable sense of arrival? Check. 

• Understated interior aesthetics with the best ballpark skyline views outside of Pittsburgh and St. Louis, along with one of baseball’s most beautiful batter’s eyes topped with a fountain?  Check and check. 

• The lowest upper deck of the newer parks outside of Pittsburgh, making for underrated sightlines?  Check.

• A variety of new local food options for 2024 headlined by Marrow and rotating regional staples, formerly a sore spot for Comerica for a quarter century, along with tremendous Michigan craft beers?  Check and check.

• New for 2024, baseball’s second largest videoboard?  Check.  (Of course, Tiger fans somehow found a way to complain about this too).

• Wide, open concourses with tremendous SRO areas, loaded with a panoply of destination restaurants, taprooms, beer halls, and social spaces accessible to all fans?  Check and Check. 

• Historical memorabilia and statues of Tiger legends adeptly interwoven throughout the concourses, but with frivolous kids-friendly attractions like the Ferris Wheel and Carousel relegated to the outskirts?  Check and Check.

1) Above-average downtown locale, 2) Gorgeous aesthetics inside and out, 3) Supremely functional, and 4) Filled with fan-friendly amenities for fans of all ages.  Very well rounded.   

Of course, a ballpark is more than the sum of its parts, and the through line creating that necessary “wow factor” is just how elaborately Comerica represents its tenant. 

Tiger sculptures, gargoyles, and claw marks outside.  View of the Detroit Athletic Club, Downtown Detroit, and the red brick Wall of Fame inside.  A team “walking museum” in the form of “decade bats” and statues of Tiger legends throughout the concourses.  Tigers embroidered on the doors; Tiger sculptures above the bars.  Close your eyes, step almost anywhere in or outside the ballpark, open them, and you’ll see something that screams “Detroit!” or “Detroit Tigers!” 

There is a strong sense of place here, as everything shrewdly incorporates elements of the city and the franchise.       

Comerica Park is not flawless, of course.  I concede some of the above is aging.  Despite the improvements, the concession stand food could still be better.  The incline of the lower bowl is too gentle, but that’s a common problem of ballparks of this era (even if it’s a tad worst here), making it odd to see Comerica always singled out.  The outfield seating and fences need to be redone again, as the new fences moved in twice have a makeshift look. Some of the interior lounge spaces badly need a renovation in particular.  And day games are no fun in certain spots with the blinding sun, a function of Comerica’s south-ish orientation.

But overall, it seems like fans who are inclined to opine on their Comerica Park experiences downplay its many assets and seriously exaggerate its few shortcomings.  Local fans and media drive the narrative about a ballpark, and I believe Tiger fans and the Detroit media created a lasting national perception that Comerica Park is so-so, at best.  In my view, that’s largely because it replaced Tiger Stadium.  Even acknowledging Comerica’s few shortcomings, I can’t find an alternative explanation. 

If Comerica Park replaced a Three Rivers Stadium like PNC Park did in Pittsburgh, this ranking wouldn’t be controversial.

A Tier: The Two Classics

For years, I declined to rank and rate the two classics, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.  There is simply no way to properly quantify the unparalleled sense of history and authenticity of these grand cathedrals, so such comparisons to the other 28 parks are grossly unfair.  It’s like comparing the Roman Colosseum to baseball’s array of Sydney Opera Houses.  Fenway and Wrigley must be solely looked at in their historical context. 

But that’s just no fun, right? 

Some say Fenway and Wrigley are objectively dumps, should be retired into the museum of great old ballparks, and should ultimately rank toward the bottom.  That certainly doesn’t ring true, especially since both have undergone hundreds of millions in renovations in the 21^st century.

Others say as the venerated historical cathedrals of America’s national export, any ranking that doesn’t put Wrigley and Fenway #1 and #2 in some order is illegitimate.  That doesn’t strike me as right either given the quality of some 21^st century ballparks.

Here’s where I land on Wrigley and Fenway, conceding that opinions on these ballparks are highly subjective.

6) Fenway Park (1912), Boston Red Sox: 89.5

Fenway Park is in a class of its own as a bonafide historical destination.  With all of its charming quirks, timeless traditions, and historical baseball moments, the moniker “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark” fits the bill.  No park is more pure baseball than Fenway Park.

Fenway-Kenmore is still one of the best neighborhoods in baseball, with rows of sports bars surrounding the park.  Outside, Fenway Park’s approach never ceases to amaze me, as it looks like a neighborhood building.  Fenway’s iconic red brick facade looks like it hasn’t been touched since the years of the Model T.  Simply inimitable.

Inside, how many ballparks have so many interior elements with proper names?  The Green Monster and The Triangle.  Pesky’s Pole and The Long Red Seat.  The venerable shades of red and swamp-like green that define Fenway’s color scheme evoke a certain timelessness of classic baseball.  The interior as a whole is authentic, attractive, and distinctive.  Simply inimitable.

During the renovations in the early 2000s, Jersey Street (Yawkee Way) was incorporated into the ballpark, a wonderful pre-game space to congregate.  The quality and selection of Fenway’s grub is much better than an out-of-towner might think, headlined by Luke’s Lobster.  Fenway is surprisingly family-friendly, with games on the Kids Concourse in right field.  Even the premium seating is remarkably well integrated into the preexisting architecture.

The single most impressive thing about Fenway Park that you don’t see on TV or Instagram is the phenominal memorabilia throughout the concourses, including old ticket booths housing championship keepsakes and plaques noting significant parts of Fenway.  A living museum, for sure.

Fenway Park falls short, notably compared to Wrigley Field, in functionality.  Not only are Fenway’s seats and aisles comically narrow, but the bowl is rife with poorly angled seats and overhang/support column obstructions.  In particular, the seating geometry down the right field line is horrific, with 1000s of seats oriented past center field.  The main concourse is understandably narrow and confusing to navigate.   

While it’s tricky to rank given that fact, Fenway Park compensates everywhere else.  With incomparable intimacy and charm, it takes the crown as baseball’s most memorable ballpark, as it’s the only one with a “hangover effect” for me, where I’m always left in awe of the experience for the next week.

5) Wrigley Field (1914), Chicago Cubs: 90

A common refrain in the past was that even with all of the beauty and history, Wrigley Field was “a dump.”  Given that the multi-year $575 million renovation project has been completed, Wrigley Field now has a fan experience on par with the aesthetics and history.  Just objectively speaking, this sure isn’t a dump anymore.

Considered one of the best neighborhoods in professional sports, Wrigleyville not only has a vibrant pre-and-post-game bar scene, but also evokes a classic residential vibe, reminiscent of the urban neighborhoods of the early-mid 20th century, recent gentrification aside.  The park is in perfect symbiosis with the area.

Wrigley Field’s exterior design is simple but gorgeous. The now famous art deco style marquee was installed in 1934.  Renovations adding terracotta roofing awnings have enhanced the scene considerably.

Inside, Wrigley Field is godfather of the neotraditional ballpark emphasis on skyline views and integrated community aesthetics.  It was the only park from the 1910s era to continue to emphasize a connection to the local community throughout the mid-20th century, because no second deck was added in the outfield.  Even in the lower level, we see the neighborhood seep in through rooftop bleachers and distant skyscrapers.  The ivy planted on the outfield walls remains my favorite interior aesthetic feature in baseball.  The outfield bleachers remain some of baseball’s most enjoyable seats.  The manual scoreboard remains iconic.

The renovations extended the bleachers upward and added new videoboards blocking out some of the rooftops, which somewhat dilutes the interior connection to the neighborhood.  It doesn’t ruin the ballpark, but the old interior visuals were better. 

I also feel like Wrigley’s amenity enhancements were too focused on premium clubs, however plush, compared to the Fenway renovations.  The concession food and beverage game, to take one example, is still weak, and it drives me crazy how all fans can’t access the best grub (Small Cheval!) in the bleachers.  Cubs’ history is fairly well represented with plaques, the trophy room, and statues, although I would prefer to see more team memorabilia exhibits like at other parks (and Fenway) for a franchise of this age.  Gallagher Way, integrated into the park on the third base side a la Fenway’s Jersey Street, is a strongpoint of the renovations.

Wrigley Field holds the edge over Fenway in my book, because it’s remarkably functional for its age.  Namely, it’s a good place to actually watch a game!  The seats are more comfortable.  The decking structure is superior, mostly avoiding overhang issues in the lower deck compared to Fenway while also placing the upper deck closer to the field than every other MLB park.  Plus, the seating geometry is fine, unlike other parks of its era.

A Tier: The Outstanding Ballparks

These, including the S Tier, are the four 21^st century parks that truly constitute “bucket list” venues.  They are either transcendentally outstanding in one or multiple respects with few flaws, or in the case of #4, consistently great in all respects with essentially no flaws.     

4) Target Field (2010), Minnesota Twins: 91

Target Field is generally considered a top-10 ballpark.  I actually think it’s better than that, comparable to the very best parks in baseball by virtue of its nimble urbanist architecture and across-the-board excellence.

While a handful of downtown ballparks may have more captivating backdrops, Target Field has the most creative and impressive urban design in ballpark history, with plazas, concourses, and outfield seating bowls constructed above streets in right field to expand the footprint, which was originally just 8.5 acres.

Given its adaptiveness to its urban surroundings, Target Field represents a return to the best “retro” ballpark principle of adhering to contextual design, while ironically being one of the least retro parks.  With a clean outfield aesthetic free from gimmicks and an abundance of modern limestone inside and out, Target Field screams authentic Minnesota baseball.     

Target Field also benefits (1) from being extremely well rounded, as it excels in almost all respects, and (2) from the fact that the Twins have displayed an admirable dedication to continually upgrading the facility despite its young age.  As of 2024, it still looks brand new. 

While a few other ballparks may be more outstanding in some respects, Target Field does it all:

(a) downtown locale with vibrant local scene
(b) regionally-inspired limestone architecture (even the dugouts have limestone!)
(c) contextually-based interior design
(d) adroitly-integrated downtown views
(e) wide, open, easily navigable concourses on all three levels, above-average sightlines, and a new videoboard
(f) choice local food with great quality (Murray’s, Red Cow, Pizza Luce, etc.) and solid variety (Italian, Indian, Hmong cuisine, etc.), along with tremendous craft beer
(g) a truly fabulous array of social spaces, bars, and restaurants (eight total!) accessible to all fans on all three levels, most of which are climate controlled, only behind San Diego’s Petco in this category with so many places to hang out before the game
(h) generally phenomenal amenities otherwise, including one of baseball’s best mezzanine club levels.  I would like more historical tributes inside the park that all fans can see, but this was the single most difficult park to choose a biggest dislike.

At the end of the day, the Twins pad both checks all of the boxes and brings an unmistakable sense of place via unique aesthetic flourishes and locally-inspired amenities.   

3) Oracle Park (2000), San Francisco Giants: 92.5

Largely by virtue of its bayside location, splashdown home runs, and postcard views, Oracle Park is widely considered one of the best ballparks of the post-1990 building boom, often compared to its similarly acclaimed contemporary in Pittsburgh. 

Like the early 20^th century jewel box parks, Oracle Park’s quirky dimensions aren’t contrived.  They are dictated by the constraints of McCovey Cove.  Running parallel to McCovey Cove, gorgeous archways are integrated within the right field wall.  Among an unvaried scene of bleachers in left field, the vintage 1927 four-fingered baseball mitt made of steel and fiberglass looks classy.  The 80-foot coke bottle is nostalgic and attractive. 

All of this fronts the San Francisco Bay and McCovey Cove, making for arguably baseball’s best backdrop.  You also get glimpses of the Bay Bridge and Berkeley Hills.  But Oracle Park is more than a ballpark with water views.   

It’s fantastic park even not considering the view, which is fortunate because unlike in Pittsburgh, the water and city landmarks aren’t visible from the lower bowl seating.  Oracle Park’s amenities are just as good as its famous aesthetics and location. 

Consider all that makes the Giants’ park outstanding independent of its locale: (a) some of baseball’s most delectable food and craft beer, (b) unique social spaces like The Garden, (c) one-of-a-kind premium spaces like the Gotham Club, (d) family-friendly features like the Fan Lot, and (e) one of baseball’s largest videoboards.  It’s also a strong urbanist park, with excellent public transportation, a vibrant pre-and-post game bar and restaurant scene, and exterior architecture in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood’s red brick buildings.  

Just as importantly, San Francisco’s privately financed palace could be construed as the most successful ballpark of the era, generating the most enduring attendance boost of any new ballpark in modern history.          

Stemming from its tight footprint, a handful of fairly serious logistical shortcomings prevent me from ever ranking Oracle #1, namely the unacceptably narrow concourses and quirky seating geometry affecting 5,000+ seats down the left field line. 

But Oracle Park will continue to be one of America’s most magnificent ballparks for years to come. 

2) PNC Park (2001), Pittsburgh Pirates: 93.5

Widely lauded for its views of Downtown Pittsburgh and the Roberto Clemente Bridge crossing the Allegheny River, PNC Park is universally considered one of the best ballparks in baseball.  Like Oracle Park in San Francisco and Camden Yards in Baltimore, it has entered broader popular culture as a tourist destination.

Indeed, I’ve grown to see PNC Park as the most beautiful ballpark in baseball inside and out, and it isn’t particularly close.  Instead of views of just water, a bridge, or a skyline, you get all three.  Instead of views only from the upper levels, PNC’s landmarks seem omnipresent throughout the lower bowl through superior contextual integration and minimized outfield seating. 

Moving outside, PNC utilizes a refreshing assemblage of limestone and blue steel in keeping with the riverfront context, not the played out red brick.  Rugged materials from the area, including Kasota stone and ochre limestone, form the façade.  And the concourses match too.  And that approach from the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  It’s all just perfect.      

Beauty aside, PNC’s intimacy also sets it apart.  In an era of ballparks with sprawling towers of luxury suites and 3+ levels, PNC famously utilizes a “double deck” design that just feels cozier.  The period when PNC open was characterized by ballparks that just felt too “overdone” with contrivances and gimmicks.  PNC is all about baseball and the view.

PNC Park is pretty functional, with great sightlines, a new videoboard, and an open main concourse.  The amenities, formerly something of a mixed bag before renovations in 2022 and 2023, mostly get high marks.  The tremendous series of sit-down bars and social spaces are a highlight, along with the new Pirates’ historical artwork/plaques, kid-friendly areas, Primanti Bros cheesesteaks, and baseball’s coolest mezzanine club level.  The remodeled riverfront concourse is a blast. 

PNC Park isn’t quite perfect – a poor food selection, a strange lack of cupholders in the upper deck, vertical discontinuities on the main concourse, and the lack of team memorabilia outside of the premium areas (let’s build a Pirates Museum!) come to mind – but there are no major flaws here.

Coupling MLB’s only modern-day structure built on a human scale with views so unbelievably perfect they wouldn’t be plausible as background in a film set, PNC is transcendent.       

S Tier: The Best Ballpark in Baseball

My favorite park in baseball by a comfortable margin. 

1) Petco Park (2004),San Diego Padres: 97

While always defined by outstanding concepts, Petco Park looked unfinished when it opened in 2004.  Through a series of enhancements from the mid 2010s to today, San Diego’s pad has put itself right alongside PNC and Oracle in the national conversation for baseball’s best park.  As you can see by the score, I don’t think it’s particularly close.

PNC and Oracle may get more attention by virtue of their postcard views, but San Diego’s pad has sufficiently beautiful outfield visuals, while being filled with superlatives in all other categories and mostly lacking major flaws. 

Consider: 

1) Baseball’s best neighborhood.  Wrigleyville, Fenway-Kenmore, and Denver’s LoDo are in the conversation, but nothing beats San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

2) Truly Outstanding Exterior Architecture.  The sandstone and stucco mimic the cliffs of Torrey Pines in both color and texture, while the exposed steel cultivates a nautical marine motif.  The slopes and edges of the garden buildings are reminiscent of the Mayan pyramids.  

3) Some of baseball’s best skyline views, vastly improved compared to when the park opened.

4) Innovative concepts: Adaptive reuse of the Western Metal Supply Co. Building and the newly renovated Gallagher Square, a “park in the park.”

5) Groundbreaking concourse design, with the seating bowl separated from the outer “garden buildings” allowing for the main concourse to be exposed to the sky.  Adorned with hanging ivy above and cascading Bougainville and jasmine, Petco Park’s concourses are by far the most beautiful in baseball.  They sport views of the Bay as well.

6) Baseball’s best sightlines: Petco Park’s aggressive use of cantilevers and perfect seating geometry make this my favorite park to actually watch the game, on average. 

7) Baseball’s best food. It’s all high quality, varied, and local. You name it, Petco has it. And it’s served by San Diego institutions. There’s even a massive market selling fresh produce. New York (Mets) and Seattle come close, but the variety and quality offered from some of San Diego’s best eateries are undefeated. 

8) Baseball’s best craft beer and overall drink game.  Seattle comes close with craft beer, but doesn’t beat it.  No park’s overall drink game compares.  The place has a dedicated wine bar and an Aperol spritz stand for crying out loud.     

9) Baseball’s best series of sit-down restaurants, bars, and social spaces accessible to all fans, with a whopping eight bonafide “destinations” spanning four levels.  Notably, Petco Park’s terrace level, formerly classified as a private mezzanine “club level,” is open to all fans.

10) Other amenities and features: Padres Museum and Hall of Fame, player murals, other memorabilia, and a Wiffle ball field, awesome playground, dog park, pickleball courts, and a concert stage in Gallagher Square in centerfield.  For what it’s worth, the Home Plate Club at field level and the Lexus Club on the main concourse, both recently renovated, are some of baseball’s nicest premium spaces.  Cumulatively, Petco is #1 in baseball in amenities. 

Petco Park nearly hits the quartet of perfection: (1) best ballpark neighborhood, (2) best ballpark to watch the game (sightlines), (3) best ballpark to not watch the game or just pregame (amenities), and (4) top-5 ballpark for architecture and aesthetics.

If any critique could be made, it’s that Petco Park is just too much (admittedly, the concourses’ confusing navigability contributes to this, Petco’s biggest one big flaw), almost too nice for a baseball stadium.  You almost want to explore the concourses, which have some special feature or diversion at every corner, and not watch the game. We talk about ballparks good enough to draw casual fans, but this place is so incredible you could take non-baseball fans to the game, and they’d find a way to have a good time. It competes with anything you could do in an afternoon in one of the country’s greatest cities. Operationally, Petco Park is just on a different planet, more akin to a mini city itself than a sporting venue. 

Ultimately, Petco Park is the total package of perfect location, aesthetic beauty, technical excellence, extraordinary amenities, and now that the Padres are contenders, vibrant atmosphere. I’m absolutely obsessed with the place and can’t imagine it being topped for the foreseeable future.

____

That’s a wrap, folks! For a refresher, here are the rankings in Tier Maker and listed:

S Tier
1) Petco Park (San Diego Padres): 97
A Tier
2) PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates): 93.5
3) Oracle Park (San Francisco Giants): 92.5
4) Target Field (Minnesota Twins): 91
A Tier – The Classics
5) Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs): 90
6) Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox): 89.5
B (+) Tier
7) Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers): 89
8) Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles): 88.5
9) Coors Field (Colorado Rockies): 88
10) Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers): 87.5
11) Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals): 87
12) Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies): 86.5
13) T-Mobile Park (Seattle Mariners): 86
14) Progressive Field (Cleveland Guardians): 85.5
15) Truist Park (Atlanta Braves): 85
16) Nationals Park (Washington Nationals): 84.5
B Tier
17) Citi Field (New York Mets): 82.5
18) Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees): 82
19) Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals): 81.5
20) Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros): 81
21) Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds): 80.5
22) loanDepot Park (Miami Marlins): 79.5
C Tier
23) Globe Life Field (Texas Rangers): 76.5
24) Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers): 75
25) Rogers Centre (Toronto Blue Jays): 74.5
26) Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox): 74
27) Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks): 72.5
D Tier
28) Angel Stadium (Los Angeles Angels): 68
F Tier
29) Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays): 54.5
30) Oakland Coliseum (Oakland Athletics): 43.5

The post Ranking and Rating All 30 MLB Ballparks, 2024 Edition appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

With all-inclusive food and beverage, various perks, and access to well-adorned club spaces in addition to your padded seat less than 60 feet from the batter, getting a “home plate club” ticket is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for baseball fans across the country. 

However, despite their reputed exclusivity, home plate club seats aren’t hard to find on the secondary market at your typical ballpark.  And if your timing’s right, they often sell at a loss, despite season tickets facing at new car prices.  Single game good deals aren’t uncommon. 

Which has made it mildly annoying that my home park’s version has historically been a stark exception. 

Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club is one of the most exclusive and expensive seats in baseball.  As one of the first ballparks (2000) with ultra-premium seating behind home plate, the Diamond Club is a truly rarified experience.  For many Astros fans, it’s the mysterious white stag of tickets.  Despite working steps from Minute Maid Park, I’ve had trouble getting in here, despite being able to buy equivalent seats with relative ease at road ballparks. 

That is, until this year, where a single seat has been popping up on SeatGeek at deeply discounted prices.  I had the pleasure of sitting here on April 1 and May 15, 2024.  While I have sat here in the past as a guest, this is my first time buying in for the purpose of reviewing it.

As Astros fans know when they saw “April 1,” I’m burying the lede: that’s Ronel Blanco’s no-hitter, certainly the most improbable in franchise history.  I’m nearing the 1000 mark of MLB games attended in my short life, and this was my first regular season no-hitter!

This will be one of my typical home plate club reviews, but I’ll also detail the no-hitter (with some unique on-field photos) below.  I understand this piece splits different cross-sections of fans, so if you don’t care about the Diamond Club, scroll to the bottom section for the no-hitter.

I’ve seen games in home plate club “TV seats” in all but four MLB ballparks.  Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club has all of the expected amenities, but how does it compare to similar seats across baseball?  Is it worth the price?  Let’s find out.

Getting Diamond Club Tickets at Minute Maid Park

In the immortal words of George Carlin, it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.  Except the Diamond Club is a small club, and even if you have unlimited sums of money and status, you still ain’t in it.

The Diamond Club consists of the first nine rows in five sections behind home plate, plus the first three rows in two new sections behind home plate nearest to the dugouts on each side, adding up to just 343 seats.  The actual club is located underground below the seats.  The Astros do not sell single game tickets directly, so you’ll have to go to the secondary market.  There is a long waitlist just to get the opportunity to purchase Diamond Club season tickets. 

Longtime Astrodome season ticket holders, both corporations and obscenely wealthy individuals, got priority when Minute Maid Park opened, and many have held on to them for generations.  Even during the rebuilding years of the early 2010s, the Astros never had to go too far down that waiting list to find willing buyers.

And just how much do those willing buyers pay these days?  The Astros are tight-lipped on Diamond Club prices, but it came out that each seat starts at $49,000 per year in 2022.  That’s approximately $605 per seat, per game!  And we don’t know how much the front rows go for.  And that’s pre-second World Series, before more inflation, so they certainly go for more now. 

That’s the most expensive starting home plate club ticket price of any MLB team outside of New York and Los Angeles, with front row home plate club ticket prices something of black box.

In early years, if you weren’t one of these lucky few, the short answer on getting Diamond Club tickets was: you couldn’t.  Even with the advent of online secondary ticket markets, tickets rarely pop up, and when they do, they actually hold their value: throughout the last 10 years, I’ve occasionally seen them go for $500-$1,000, sometimes less once in a blue moon.

Even in New York and Los Angeles, similar tickets can be bought for a discount on the secondary market.

I have some theories as to why Diamond Club tickets have traditionally been so difficult to obtain for a reasonable price compared to those in other markets. 

For one, Minute Maid Park is the rare venue that seems to have underestimated the demand for premium tickets in its market.  Houston, America’s fourth largest city, actually has the second most Fortune 500 companies in America, so the corporations take up a larger proportion of a relatively small amount of Diamond Club tickets.  Similar versions in New York, L.A., Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta have 1,350 to 700 seats.  The corporations who disproportionately own the 343 Diamond Club seats are less likely to sell them on the secondary market. 

Second, corporate or not, Houston’s elite are both rather cliquish and parochial, another reason why you don’t see these resold.  Finally, rumor has it that the Astros used to heavily restrict a ticketholder’s ability to resell on the secondary market, so it just couldn’t be done.  This was partially because George H.W. Bush, along with other Important People, sat here semi-regularly in the early days.

Anyway, I pounced on the opportunity to buy a single ticket for $300 (before fees and taxes) for April 1 in Section D, Row 5, Seat 6 on SeatGeek.  That was about as cheap as I’ve seen them until that date.  Then I saw the identical seat available for $149 for May 15, which is an insane value.  Why this single seat is repeatedly being sold at the most discounted price I’ve seen in Diamond Club history is a mystery.

If you’re an Astros fan (or ballpark aficionado) who’s always wanted Minute Maid Park’s “TV seats,” such opportunities are scarce. 

Accessing Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club

Choice, VIP parking is nothing out of the ordinary for seats of this caliber, but Minute Maid Park’s setup is particularly seamless.  The Diamond Lot, exclusive to Diamond Club ticketholders, sits steps away from the Premium Entrance used to access the Diamond Club.  A nice perk, for sure.

Note that while Diamond Club season tickets come with the Diamond Lot parking pass, the parking pass may or may not come with your Diamond Club ticket if you buy the ticket off the secondary market.  It’s in the discretion of the season ticket holder to sell the parking pass with the ticket.

A private entrance is also typical for ultra-premium club seats at any sports venue, and Minute Maid Park uses the Premium Entrance located directly behind home plate next to the Clocktower. 

The Premium Entrance is also accessible to those in the mezzanine club level, which sits around 5,000 fans, so the Premium Entrance isn’t particularly exclusive and may still have lines, for what it’s worth.

Once inside the Clocktower Lobby, you’ll make a left and encounter a new Lexus RX and elevator doors gilded with Breitling Watch advertisements.  Just in case you need a reminder of the type of space you’re about to enter!

Take the elevators down, and you’ll encounter another plush lobby that sets the scene by highlighting the spaciousness of the Diamond Club.  Some neat 2017 and 2022 World Series memorabilia is to the right, including the official scorecard from the no-hitter in Game 4 of the 2022 Series.  The doors to the Diamond Club are at the end of this lobby to the left. 

One odd thing I noticed compared to similar ballpark/stadium VIP experiences: they don’t scan your ticket twice once you reach the club. 

This is done almost universally across the industry, as unscrupulous fans can use one ticket to get in the building, then present another fraudulent ticket (which would go undetected without a second scan) to get into an all-inclusive premium area.  I know we have the Ballpark App now, but double scanning is still generally done.  I guess they think no one would dare try and sneak in here!  Anyway, not my concern, but that is unusual.

The Diamond Club opens at the same time as other Minute Maid Park gates, two hours before gametime.

The Diamond Club Design

Ultra-premium clubs in sporting venues have to strike a difficult balance.  They should feel upscale, but not so upscale like a stuffy country club dining room or a casino VIP area.  You still want to feel like you’re at a baseball game.  Otherwise, you lose your sense of place.

They should be comfortable and casual, but not so casual as to not be properly differentiated from an ordinary sports bar or ballpark restaurant.  You’re paying a huge premium for a memorable experience, after all.  They should be fresh and modern, but not too polished as to come off as a brand-new generic hotel restaurant.  You want some character and charm too.

Despite last being renovated in 2013, Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club walks that line wonderfully well.  It’s casually elegant, combining the excitement of a sports setting with the comfort and refinement of a high-end dining experience. 

When the Diamond Club 1.0 opened in 2000, it already felt like an outdated space from the 1990s.  It was dark like a bunker.  It was cramped, sometimes unable to accommodate dining for all ticketholders.  Its design was already passe, with brown wood tables and red table cloths. 

The 2013 renovation made the new space totally unrecognizable from the old, adding 7,000 square feet by knocking down walls, elevating the ceilings, and consolidating unused areas like a smoking lounge and fax machine room, an ode to the 1990s idea that serious businessmen come to ballgames to conduct serious business (like I said, already outdated even in 2000). 

It’s remarkable that the Diamond Club 2.0 is now over a decade old; it’s held up incredibly well.

Walking into the club, you’ll be greeted by a candy table, signaling this is a fun space with a touch of sophistication, not a staid dining room. 

Dark wood tables and cushioned chairs dot the center of the space.  The muted gray fabric feels stylish.  A swank bar sits to the left of the club, while a wine display wall and the primary buffet area sit to the right.  The Diamond Club features an open-hearth pizza oven at the back end of the club.  There’s also a private dining room to the left at the front end of the club.

A few more observations on the space.  Unlike other stadium bunker clubs, the Diamond Club feels bright and airy.  Recessed ceiling lights liven up the entire space, while modern pendant lights hang over the bar area, creating a warm and welcoming vibe.  Brick columns add a rustic and textured element to the otherwise sleek décor.  It feels balanced, cozy, and grounded.

With over 17,000 square feet total, the club feels so spacious as well.  It can hold 400-500 people despite a ticketed capacity of 343.  Many comparable MLB spaces feel overcrowded and occasionally run into the problem of not being able to serve all ticketholders.

At the back end of the club to the right, there is a separate lounge area with couches and chairs.  I love this feature.  If you’re done eating and don’t want to go to your seat right away before game time, it’s nice to have a standalone social space to sit down and “hang out” other than at the bar.  I don’t see this emulated in other premium spaces in MLB.

The Diamond Club’s restrooms are notable.  Not only do they look like something fitting in a hotel lobby, there’s a restroom attendant handing out paper towels, along with frivolous amenities like hairspray and moisturizer.  Haven’t seen that in a ballpark before!  There’s a second, similarly well-appointed restroom in the left side tunnel leading to the seats.

But the Diamond Club’s best design feature, one also not found in any other home plate club in MLB, is the massive video display. 

It’s not a TV broadcast, but a camera projection that gives those in the club the feeling of standing behind home plate and watching the game.  Three projectors, connected to cameras set up above the field, beam live images of the game on the wall above the dining area.

This counterweights the primary downside of these underground home plate clubs.  You by definition cannot view the field from inside the actual club.  While the club is obviously intended to be enjoyed before and after the game, it’s nice to see the field while dining.  And not just on a broadcast, but as if you were actually viewing the field raw in real time. 

It’s the one element that makes this space feel like “baseball” versus a nice generic restaurant.  To that point though, I do wish the Diamond Club had more Astros memorabilia/Astros references, or just explicit baseball references, which is my only real critique of the design.  There are a few, but not enough.  No boutique team store in the Diamond Club either, something you see in quite a few of these across baseball.

Overall, Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club is just gorgeous.  A sophisticated blend of casual comfort and upscale elegance, creating an inviting yet exclusive atmosphere.  Warm and welcoming and lively and engaging, yet also with an appropriate amount of luxury and exclusivity.    

It might not equal the extravagance of Seattle and San Diego’s newly renovated home plate clubs, or the unique speakeasy 1914 Club at Wrigley Field, but I’d put its design up against most other home plate club spaces in MLB.

The Diamond Club Food

If something even peripherally touches a minor aspect of the ballpark experience, I’ll analyze it. Hence, my esoteric discussion a premium stadium club’s décor!  And hey, I’ve done something equally obscure that impacts all fans, like say, seating cantilevers, but I digress.

But at the end of the day, people are paying for (a) a seat behind home plate feet from the batter, and (b) gourmet all-inclusive grub.  The fit and finish of the club is secondary.    

The typical all-inclusive stadium club food isn’t particularly good.  Catering is catering, and quality dining is difficult to do at scale.  But I was pleasantly surprised, at times bordering on shocked, at the quality of the Diamond Club’s food.  I don’t even like buffets, much less stadium buffets, but everything was delicious. 

Yankee Stadium’s Legends Suite is a different beast – the best premium food in sports, period – but I’d also put the quality of Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club’s food against most others.  The variety is average. 

Apparently, the Astros revamped their menu in 2022 under the guidance of new head chef Kris Kumthub, and it shows. 

I talked about striking the right balance with the design, but the Astros do the same with the premium food.  I don’t want vegetable medley, barley salad, wild rice, and dry chicken at a baseball game, to single out the White Sox, where basically nothing was edible (which is ironic, because the concession stand food there is great).  I also want more than hot dogs and burgers, or even high-end small bites, at this ticket price.

I’d describe the Diamond Club food as a typical high-end buffet food mixed with elevated comfort options. 

Most of the main buffet items in the right-hand corner rotate each game, along with the rotating action station adjacent to the buffet.    

On April 1, meats included (1) beef coulotte steak, (2) skillet pork chops, (3) pan-seared halibut topped with blue crab, (4) bay scallops with gnocchi, and (5) grilled shrimp skewers.  Carb and veggie options included poached asparagus, mashed potatoes, pesto rice, and roasted cauliflower.  The “action station” served freshly prepared Maine-style lobster rolls.

On May 15, meats included (1) Dijon roasted teres major steak, (2) southern smother pork chops, (3) flounder with crabmeat, and (4) pesto grilled chicken.  Carb and veggie options included haricots vents almondine, mashed potatoes, ratatouille rice, vegetable baked parmesan, and something that should be required at every buffet, lobster mac & cheese.  The “action station” served shrimp roasted cream corn risotto with peppercorn bacon.

Tastes in food are subject to the individual’s moods and whims, so who knows, but I could not believe the quality of this food. 

I can get into full “ballpark mood” and love standard ballpark food, but when it comes to nice grub like this, I’m quite picky.  Don’t screw it up.  Instead of the usual prime rib with 50% fat served at a typical stadium buffet, the Diamond Club serves steak, properly cooked.  The halibut, scallops with gnocchi, lobster rolls, and pork chops were also standouts. 

But while everything above was fabulous, but I’ll single out the shrimp risotto, which was legitimately high-end restaurant quality. 

Burgers, hot dogs, and the Diamond Club’s famous fried chicken (apparently one guy makes the fried chicken, and if he’s out, everyone notices the chicken’s different) are the only mainstays at the buffet.  Outside of the main buffet and the action station, the Diamond Club serves a variety of freshly made breads at various stations, a nacho bar with real queso and fajita steak/chicken, a salad bar, and a fresh fruit tray next to fruit-infused water stations, and charcuterie.

The Diamond Club’s pizza game is about as good as it gets, serving six varieties of pizza, including Hawaiian and Bluefin Tuna, at the open-hearth oven in the back of the club.  You’ll also find flatbreads and composed salads here.  All of the buffets are open until around the 7th inning, depending on management’s discretion. 

The desert selection is average, but delicious nonetheless.  The ice cream bar has four varieties, plus three kinds of gelato.  Coke and root beer floats are favorites.  Other deserts include cupcakes, cookies, strawberry cheesecake cups, mini cannoli, key lime pie, and cake balls.  “Candy Walls” have become a staple in these premium clubs across sports, and the Diamond Club’s aforementioned candy table is a crowd-pleaser.

Overall, the Diamond Club’s all-inclusive food greatly exceeded my expectations.  This can obviously vary not just by year, but by game, but based on my experiences, I’d put the grub around the top-5 of MLB ballpark premium food.  The variety isn’t too dissimilar between ballparks here, but the quality I experienced was genuinely notable for a stadium buffet.        

The Diamond Club Drinks

Let’s just say drinks aren’t the Diamond Club’s strong suit, and it has nothing to do with the staff. 

Out of MLB’s 22 all-inclusive home plate clubs (5 have non-all-inclusive clubs, 3 have no home plate premium seating), 14 include beer and wine in the ticket price, with 12 including all alcohol in the ticket price.  Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club does not include any alcohol in the ticket price. 

Bottled water, soft drinks, and basic coffee (although not anything special, and you have to ask) are included.  I understand the Astros’ rationale here, but having to pay for alcohol with a $600+ ticket is a big strike against the Diamond Club compared to other MLB premium spaces. 

You can see the menu here, but the selection of alcoholic drinks isn’t notable.  The Diamond Club’s excellent bartender, Bilal, will make you anything you want, but there’s no specialty cocktail menu, also fairly unusual. 

Maven, a new venture by the Houston Astros’ starting barista Lance McCullers, serves expresso martinis and carajillos for $23.

On the plus side, the Diamond Club’s bar is open until 45 minutes after the game, depending on activity and management’s discretion.  A handful of premium clubs do this, but that’s certainly a nice perk when you’re waiting for the traffic to die down or want to celebrate a big W.    

Diamond Club Seats and the Game

Two tunnels flank the back end of the Diamond Club leading directly to the seats.  Within the tunnels, there are grab and go stands with bottled water, popcorn, peanuts, and cotton candy, along with a friendly lady handing out paper scorecards free of charge.  The left side tunnel is adjacent to the team clubhouse and press conference room.

A small “moat” separates the Diamond Club seats from the rest of the seating bowl, and unlike similar spaces in MLB, there’s no aisle to access the club seats from the rest of the seating bowl.  It’s only accessible from inside the club. 

Fully padded, wide, theatre-style seats are common in these parts in other ballparks, but the Diamond Club seats are as plush as they come.  Brand new for 2024, the high back, extra cushioned seats have ample legroom and cupholders in the armrests.   

In-seat wait service is perhaps the most appearing part of stadium club seats, with the idea that you shouldn’t have to miss a pitch to get food and beverages.  That’s not quite true in the Astros’ Diamond Club. 

While the in-seat service staff is diligent (shout out to Rick!) – they come up and down the aisle every inning or sooner, so this isn’t on them – there’s no in-seat service menu where you can order food from your seat.  Other MLB home plate clubs have menus where you can order plates, snacks, and desserts from your seat. 

In the Diamond Club, you can only order drinks at your seat (no menu, but whatever you want, for the same cost as inside), although the servers will occasionally come by to hand out complimentary peanuts, cracker jacks, and bottled water, which you can also grab in the tunnels.

I took my seat about 15 minutes before game time, just to the right behind home plate 6 rows from the field.  Perfect timing and positioning to get a wave from Orbit and his crew!  During the game, Orbit will swing by and walk down the aisle for personal photo opts with each fan – a really cool perk I’ve seen in a few other home plate clubs as well. 

The Diamond Club is known for its people watching, with some of Houston’s most notable residents sitting here, including Tilman Fertitta and Lynn Wyatt.  Astros’ owner Jim Crane also frequents these seats, often even preferring it to his private luxury suite.  Craig Biggio was sitting a few sections to the right of me – he makes a reappearance below.     

Coming off a sweep by the Yankees to start the season 0-4, the Astros came back big.  Ronel Blanco, who just got told he made the rotation on the day of his daughter’s birth less than a week earlier, had his off-speed stuff going early.  The Jays apparently didn’t have his changeup well scouted, and it was noticeable up close.  He actually opened the game with a walk, but it was smooth sailing from there. 

The Astros bats finally came alive with a barrage of home runs.  Kyle Tucker hit a two-run shot in the first, followed by a solo round tripper from Yainer Diaz.  That was followed by Jeremy Pena’s solo blast in the second inning, along with a second two-run homer by Tucker and second solo shot by Diaz in the seventh inning.   

By the top of the eighth inning, it was 10-0 Astros.

At that point, there was a vibe in the building that Something Big is happening.  Some of the Diamond Club’s corporate crowd – corporate even by corporate seat standards – who were mingling inside of the club with no interest in the game began to scamper to their seats.

After walking George Springer to start the game, Ronel Blanco retired 24 straight Blue Jays entering the top of the ninth.  His journey to the big leagues included working part-time at a car wash in the D.R. to help his mother after getting signed by the Astros at age 22 – exceptionally late by foreign player standards – and he was three outs away from a no-hitter in his 8th career start at age 30.   

Following a two-out ninth inning walk to Springer, Blanco induced a weak ground ball to second for one of the more improbable no-hitters in recent MLB history.  Joe Espada also became the first manager in MLB history to have his first career managerial win come as a no-hitter.

Blanco induced lots of soft contact and swings and misses on his changeup – including all seven of his strikeouts.  All told he threw 36 changeups, 34 sliders, 31 fastballs and four curveballs. He forced 59 swings in the game, including 20 misses – half of which came on his changeup.

As you can see by the video, right after the final out I scurried down to the first row.  A bit later, that’s where I saw Craig Biggio escorting Ronel Blanco’s mother to the field! 

Biggio’s title with the Astros is “Special Advisor, Baseball Operations & Community Outreach Executive,” but you’ll see him doing nice things like this all of the time, which may or may not be in the scope of his position.  After the game, he spent time chatting it up with fans.

So, there it is – my first no-hitter, at my home park, in the park’s best seats that I’ve been trying to get for a decade.  I’ve had some near misses recently – Marcus Stroman’s Memorial Day one-hitter at Wrigley Field and Domingo Germán’s perfect game in Oakland (I almost attended) last year, for example – which makes it all the more special.

Given the circumstances, I’d stack up this game with any I have seen, including All-Star Games, post-season walkoffs, World Baseball Classic finals, and World Series’ classics.

Is Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club “worth it?”

Hell yeah, when you see a once-in-a-lifetime game and get the deal I did!  But real talk, is it ordinarily worth it at typical prices for average games? 

I gave a more detailed answer to this in my Yankee Stadium Legends Suite review, but essentially, “worth it” is a highly subjective question.  On the one hand, unlike some other home plate club experiences at lower prices with alcohol included, you’re not getting much objective value here.  You could save hundreds of dollars by eating at the best restaurant in Houston before the game and then just buying seats in the first row behind the Diamond Club.  No matter how many shrimp risotto dishes you eat, it’s difficult to justify $600+.

But ultimately, I don’t think this is about value on an everyday basis.  For season ticket holders, it’s about being in an elite group.  For the rest of us, I think it’s something you should try to experience at least once!

Overall, how does Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club compare to other MLB ballpark home plate clubs or premium seating experiences?

Pretty well.  On the plus side, the bright and airy Diamond Club space still looks immaculate despite being over 10 years old, with a timeless casual elegance and unique projector screen that makes it feel like you’re at a baseball game, not a generic restaurant.  The all-inclusive food is delicious, and the service is thoughtful. 

The food, service, club space, and seats (not much differentiation between ballparks here, obviously) are all elite, even in the highly competitive space of premium stadium hospitality.

On the downside, in this comparative exercise, the Diamond Club is at a disadvantage compared to the dozen plus MLB home plate clubs that include alcohol in the ticket price.  For $600+, that’s a fairly significant misgiving.  In addition, there’s no option to order food at your seat, another differentiator from most comparable seats in baseball.

Ultimately, Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club is at least on the periphery of the top-10 for MLB stadium home plate seats, which is no slight.  It’s a bucket list experience for Astros fans and stadium enthusiasts alike.          

The post Review: Minute Maid Park’s Diamond Club (and an Astros’ No-Hitter!) appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

The Trop’s flaws have been extensively documented.  As MLB’s only stationary dome, it takes the crown as baseball’s ugliest ballpark.  With artificial turf, a drab interior aesthetic with no natural sunlight, and exterior materials that evoke a Walmart distribution warehouse, Tropicana Field feels more mausoleum than ballpark.  It’s not particularly functional, with fairly narrow concourses closed from the field, old seats, outdated videoboards, and of course, the infamous ceiling catwalks.  And it’s located in the wrong place, a difficult drive for fans in Tampa and most of the metro area.

All of that being said, here’s the thing about Tropicana Field: they try. 

Given the limitations of the structure, the Rays have put a lot of time and money into making the amenities and overall fan experience otherwise respectable in the last 15 years.  It was also retrofitted as baseball-only facility in 1998, so the sightlines are decent. 

Now, it’s true this piece would have resonated a bit more a few years ago – the wonderful Ted Williams Museum has shuttered and closing the upper deck is a net negative, among other things. But compared to the multipurpose Oakland Coliseum, Tropicana Field has substantive redeeming qualities that make it worth a visit.  Here are some of my favorite qualities of Tropicana Field:

Vibrant Local Scene

Getting to Tropicana Field is a pain.  For the vast majority of Tampa Bay residents, it’s far too remotely situated in St. Petersburg, exacerbated by the excruciating traffic across the bridges.  But once you’re there, the Trop’s surrounding neighborhood is loaded with fun bars, restaurants, and other attractions. 

This isn’t apparent at first glance, as Tropicana Field was conceived of as a classic “parking lot stadium.”  But once you go beyond those parking lots a minute walk to the Northeast, St. Petersburg’s emerging Edge District down Central Avenue is one of baseball’s better local scenes.  Berg’s Sports Bar is the staple, but you have a little bit of everything from dive bars and trendy cocktail lounges to cafes and artisan shops.  The lack of a solid hotel nearby option is my only qualm.

The similarly charming Downtown St. Petersburg is about a 12-minute walk away, notable for the Salvador Dalí Museum. Note the sidewalk plaques celebrating St. Petersburg’s spring training history throughout the Edge District and Downtown as well.

Centerfield Rotunda

Transitioning from the Florida sunshine to the dreary Tropicana Field in the spring should come with a sudden onset depression warning.  Aesthetically, it’s that bad.  But the light and airy rotunda in center field – Tropicana Field’s “front door” – helps ease that transition.

Added during the 1998 renovations, the eight-story rotunda topped with transparent glass was inspired by Ebbets Field’s rotunda.  A baseball diamond is painted on the floor, and the walls are adorned with posters of Rays’ legends.  It’s the only design feature on this list.     

Roof Lights

Hey, if you have a dark, enclosed stationary dome with no natural light inside, and LED dome light feature is certainly a nice touch. Upgraded before the 2019 season, Tropicana Field’s LED light installation can emit a variety of hues, most notably orange and blue. The roof lights are turned on at times before and after games, as well as sometimes between innings and to celebrate home runs. Nothing else like it in MLB.

Solid Food Selection and Quality

Tropicana Field’s food is quite underrated.  I can’t vouch for the quality of everything, but the variety of grub offered is in the top half of MLB parks.  Local restaurants and food trucks (note the pre-game free samples) have good representation at the concession stands, usually a sign of decent quality. 

Mostly concentrated in the large food courts on the first and third base sides, along with the center field street, notable specialty grub or yummy items include: gyros from Little Greek, Italian wraps from Impasto, Italian sandwiches from Fiamma, seafood from Crabby’s Beachside Bites, sushi from Pacific Counter, Cuban sandwiches from Cubanos, Central Burger sliders, specialty salads, and short rib grilled cheese.

On the downside, the local craft beer selection isn’t as good as I remember.

Rays Touch Tank

The first of its kind in a sports venue, the Rays Touch Tank is certainly Tropicana Field’s coolest amenity. 

In a partnership with the Florida Aquarium, the 35-foot, 10,000-gallon tank is filled with cownose and southern stingrays from the waters of Tampa Bay.  Fans can touch the stingrays (and sometimes, feed them), which is not only novel but significantly less frightening than a comparable space the Detroit Tigers’ ballpark.  A nearby staff member provides educational information.  Always a thrill for the kids.

Celebration of Tampa Bay Rays’ History

The vast majority of MLB ballparks honor the team’s history through museums or dedicated memorabilia displays.  Think Monument Park in New York, Monument Garden in Atlanta, the decade bats in Detroit, and dedicated team museums in Cincinnati, Kansas City, and others.

Given the team’s short history and the Trop’s impending closure, the Rays could have phoned it in here.  Yet they don’t. Throughout the left field concourse, four enclaves showcase Rays’ memorabilia. The following are the exhibits:

1) “Chasing Pennants” showcases the American League Championship years, recounting the 2008 team that went from “worst-to-first.”  Plus, stuff from 2020 like Randy Arozarena’s game-used bat.  

2) “Hello, Big Leagues” presents the original Devil Rays uniforms and equipment, narrating the franchise’s transformation in appearance.  It also features items from the inaugural game and season.

3) “Rays Cave” celebrates Joe Maddon, Don Zimmer, Ben Zobrist, David Price, and others by showcasing their awards, All-Star Game uniforms, and road trip attire.  

4) “Hall of Fame Alcove” commemorates the Hall of Fame class inducted during the Rays’ 25th anniversary season, including Wade Boggs, Don Zimmer, and Carl Crawford.  Their lockers display some of their most iconic memorabilia.

It doesn’t compare to the best MLB ballpark historical displays, but I really appreciate the effort. 

Last year, the Rays also added statues of Evan Longoria celebrating his iconic walk-off home run in Game 162 of the 2011 season, along with Akinori Iwamura recording the final out in the 2008 ALCS to win the pennant.  Also note the 162 Landing party area celebrating Longoria’s walk-off on the most historic final regular season day in MLB history.

Ballpark and Rec

In-park restaurants, bars, and social gathering areas that allow fans to “hang out” before the game are a crucial element of the 21st century stadium experience, and Tropicana Field has a pretty nice one.

Replacing both an old cigar bar (RIP!) and a worn eatery, the massive, bi-level Ballpark and Rec is the place to be before a Rays game. 

The lower level off the center field concourse offers a full-service bar and restaurant with live pre-game music.  The upper level features a unique indoor/outdoor experience.  Inside, we have another full-service bar, pre-game drink specials, arcade games, and lounge areas.  Outside, you will find additional lounge areas and yard games like cornhole, pong, and jumbo-sized Jenga. Ballpark and Rec is also open after the game.

Perhaps MLB’s Best Gameday Staff

This is anecdotal, but I’ve found the ballpark staff to be absolutely fantastic across multiple revisits over the years.  I have some theories.  For one, maybe they’re just not used to folks like myself taking so many photos of their unsightly facility.  Seeing someone take interest in the actual park is unusual.

But from talking to the higher ups, I’ve learned that everyone is trained to go above and beyond, because the team knows Tropicana Field sucks, so they want to make the experience as nice as possible.  These are some of my favorite people in MLB.

It’s Unique

Very little about Tropicana Field is pretty.  But it’s one of a kind, the good and the bad.

Between the surreal design elements and the just plain weird aspects of the fan experience, consider:

• The slanted roof, designed to reduce the interior volume to reduce cooling costs and better protect the stadium from hurricanes. 
• The aforementioned roof lights.
• The catwalks.
• The outfield concrete walls peppered with luminating advertisements, including the gaudy Tropicana orange fruit. 
• The bright blue concourse aesthetic. 
• The random picnic party areas on the field. 
• The hidden concourse areas that look like a hospital wing. Or an abandoned subway terminal.
• That bizarre half-a-player statue protruding from the wall (here’s another angle!)
• The random entertainment like the arcade games and the juggler on the centerfield concourse

It’s all kind of charming.  The retro-classic parks of the 90s and 2000s largely imitated Camden Yards, which itself was an emulation of the early-20^th-century jewel box ballparks.  While not indistinguishable from each other like the cookie cutters, the retro ballparks ended up being somewhat formulaic.  They all have quirks in the spirit of the jewel box parks, but those quirks are contrived. 

Tropicana Field’s oddities and awkward design elements, in their own way, have an endearing quality, because they’re real, not a product of the P.R. department in an artificial attempt to be quirky.  The retro parks also became kind of forgettable in their similarity.  There’s nothing else like Tropicana Field.

It’s Cheap (at least on the secondary market)

Since the Rays closed the upper deck, artificial scarcity has driven up face value ticket prices.  But on the secondary market, some of baseball’s best deals can be found.

Tickets in the $30 range can be found around the infield, including those behind the dugouts.  Mezzanine tickets, usually the domain of “club levels,” are priced in the $10s and $20s.  Rays Club tickets at the top of the lower bowl on the first base side, which include an all-inclusive buffet, beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks, drop into the $70s, where you can easily eat and drink your ticket price! 

Overall, I always enjoy revisiting Tropicana Field.  It’s situated in a fun neighborhood, has decent concession options, has a few unique fan-friendly amenities, and is one of a kind.

Tropicana Field is still one of MLB’s two “bad” ballparks. Indeed, I rank it #29/30. But it’s not that bad, as I’d separate it from the Oakland Coliseum which has traditionally had almost no redeeming qualities.  Yes, the current Tropicana Field experience is lipstick on a pig, but the Oakland Coliseum is just a pig. 

Unless noted otherwise, all images, including the featured image and images in the mini-photo galleries, are by Cole Shoemaker/Ballpark Ratings.

The post Tropicana Field: It’s Not That Bad! appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

The Commissioner’s Trophy has become the lasting symbol of a World Series victory. While a World Series trophy is not without precedent in Major League Baseball, the Commissioner’s Trophy was actually first awarded in 1967, when the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox.  The current trophy design was created by Tiffany & Co. in 2000, composed of sterling silver and featuring 30 gold-plated flags for each MLB team.

55 Commissioner’s Trophies have been awarded to 23 different MLB teams.  That got me thinking: where are they?

Throughout my quest to see all areas of every MLB park on multiple occasions, including as many revisits as possible each year, I’ve noted most clubs display their Commissioner’s Trophies or World Series trophy replicas (see explanation below) in their ballparks.  I’ve seen four general methods of displaying the Trophy in MLB ballparks: (1) in common areas on the main concourse, (2) in a team museum on site, (3) in a private club or club level in the ballpark, accessible to only certain ticket holders or those on ballpark tours, and (4) in team offices, not accessible to fans at all.    

53 of the 55 Commissioner’s Trophies are still owned by the team awarded the Trophy.  The Braves’ original 1995 Commissioner’s Trophy was kept by Ted Turner.  The 1971 Trophy awarded to the Pittsburgh Pirates now mysteriously lies outside the team’s hands.  More on that later. 

One complicated but important housekeeping issue: before the Commissioner’s Trophy was redesigned in 2000, MLB awarded teams an official Commissioner’s Trophy when they won, but it didn’t have the team named engraved in it.  So, all clubs would later receive a team-engraved World Series trophy.  This means teams that won the World Series before 2000 actually have two versions: an official Commissioner’s Trophy and a team-engraved World Series trophy. 

For example, regarding the aforementioned 1995 title, you can see Bobby Cox holding the official version, which reads “World Championship Trophy, Presented by the Commissioner of Baseball.”  But the team-engraved version created shortly after the 1995 victory, which reads “Atlanta Braves, World Champions, 1995,” is now displayed at Truist Park. 

This is common, and for the purposes of this exercise, I’m counting both as legitimate World Series trophies, with the “type” specified below.  It makes sense: why would you display a trophy without your name on it?  Most teams do what the Braves do, even if the original happens to no longer be in their possession.  Interestingly, only the Minnesota Twins display both versions of both of their pre-2000 trophies in their ballpark.      

I’m a sucker for ballparks with team historical exhibits housing neat pieces of memorabilia, so I’ve been itching to write this piece for a while.  Through my own observations and correspondences with MLB teams, below is a full accounting of the location of every World Series trophy. 

2022, 2017: Houston Astros – Minute Maid Park

Current Location: Union Station Team Store

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, both titles.

The Astros have the most bizarre and fan-unfriendly setup for displaying their World Series trophies, even counting teams that stash them in private stadium clubs.

Both the 2022 and 2017 Commissioner’s Trophies flank the corners of the ballpark’s primary team store in fairly obscure and unmarked areas.  Not only that, but they’re located at the end of the team store, so the team forces fans to walk through the store before seeing them.  In other words, you have to go shopping before seeing the trophies!  Moreover, they aren’t really accessible unless you ask.  Aren’t the Astros supposedly, um, quite proud of their titles?

It reflects the ballpark’s new organizing philosophy of turning everything that was formerly interesting about the place into a point of sale.  And this is my home park, by the way, so I’ll bash it all I want.   

2021, 1995: Atlanta Braves – Truist Park

Current Location: Main concourse behind home plate opposite Monument Garden

Type: 2021 official Commissioner’s Trophy; 1995 team-engraved World Champions trophy

The Braves do a phenomenal job of celebrating the club’s illustrious history at Truist Park, and their World Series trophy displays are no exception. 

Adjacent to Monument Garden behind home plate, my personal favorite historical area in any MLB park, the World Series trophies sit in glass display cases for all fans to see from the main concourse. The 1995 trophy displayed is of the team-engraved variety, as the original Commissioner’s Trophy was kept by Ted Turner. The 1995 Commissioner’s Trophy has been displayed at the University of George Special Collections Libraries.

2020, 1988, 1981: Los Angeles Dodgers – Dodger Stadium

Current Location: Memorabilia-lined hallway behind the Dugout Club on service level

Type: 2020 official Commissioner’s Trophy; 1981 and 1988 team-engraved World Champions trophy

Here’s another fan-unfriendly setup.  All three Dodgers’ World Series trophies sit in a hallway backing the ultra-premium Dugout Club accessible to only 500 fans behind home plate, where season tickets go for $49k to $94k per seat. 

I give the Dodgers some leniency here, because it’s implied these are primarily intended to be seen on ballpark tours.  And Dodger Stadium offers some of the best ballpark tours anyway, so that makes sense.

The two 1980s trophies are the secondary versions with the team name, with the Commissioner’s Trophies from those years located in team offices.

2019: Washington Nationals – Nationals Park

Current Location: Champions Club (mezzanine club level) lounge, first base side

Type: 2019 official Commissioner’s Trophy

As far as World Series trophy displays in private clubs go – obviously my least preferred method – I think this is by far the coolest setup. 

For 2022, the Nationals renovated their entire mezzanine club level not just to commemorate Washington baseball history, but to heavily honor the 2019 team specifically. 

The 2019 Commissioner’s Trophy anchors a massive display of memorabilia from the 2019 run, including individual awards, jerseys, hats, bases, rings, the National League Trophy, the World Series MVP Trophy, and even all seven official scorecards from the 2019 World Series.  It’s not just the Commissioner’s Trophy.

Moreover, Champions Club tickets are affordable on the secondary market – around $30 to $50 per game (yes, not 50 thousand like above!).    

2018, 2013, 2007, 2004: Boston Red Sox –

Fenway Park

Current Location: Dell Technologies Club

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, all 4 trophies

Fenway Park is bursting with charming historical nods throughout its footprint, with seemingly some sort of awesome knickknack or venerable tribute everywhere you look on the main concourse, but this ain’t it.

The Dell Technologies Club on the mezzanine behind home plate, literally billed as a “fine dining experience” by the Red Sox, is Fenway Park’s most exclusive space, with season ticket prices unknown but routinely going for $300-$500 per game on the secondary market.  Moreover, at least when I toured the park in 2010 and 2021, this wasn’t a stop.  You’ll have to pony up to see these babies.

All four Commissioner’s Trophies are located in display cases by to the club’s entrance to the left and the right.

2016: Chicago Cubs – Wrigley Field

Current Location: Wrigley Field Trophy Room

Type: 2016 official Commissioner’s Trophy

Now for some teams that get it.  In 2023, the Cubs created the “Trophy Room” inside the Marquee Gate entrance accessible to all fans on game days. 

It’s a well-adorned room with nothing else but the 2016 Commissioner’s Trophy, a fitting display given the importance of the Cubs’ first World Series in 108 years.

2015: Kansas City Royals – Kauffman Stadium

Current Location: Royals Museum and Hall of Fame

Type: 2015 official Commissioner’s Trophy, 1985 team-engraved World Champions Trophy

Of the many ballparks with team museums inside the footprint, the Royals Museum and Hall of Fame is the best of the bunch.  Located on the main concourse in left field, the two-story complex houses too many exhibits to name, highlighting the history of Kansas City Royals baseball.  The museum is accessible to all fans free of any additional charge. 

The 2015 Commissioner’s Trophy and the 1985 team-engraved World Series trophy are featured prominently in the museum and are backed by looping videos of the respective clinching plays.  The 1985 Commissioner’s Trophy is in the Royals’ possession in an unknown location.  

2014, 2012, 2010: San Francisco Giants –

Oracle Park

Current Location: Main Concourse behind home plate

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, all 3 trophies

This is my absolute favorite World Series Championship exhibit in Major League Baseball, simply because of its prominent presence. 

Instead of putting the trophies in a museum or a room, where most fans will not enter, or a private club, where most fans cannot enter, the Giants display their Commissioner’s Trophies in a bold, brash display case on the main concourse behind home plate that can’t be missed!

I mean, just look at the thing.  Plus, World Series rings back the display case.

2011, 2006, 1982, 1967: St. Louis Cardinals –

Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum

Current Location: Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum in Ballpark Village

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, all 4 titles

The Cardinals have never done a good job of honoring the history of the National League’s preeminent franchise inside Busch Stadium, instead relying on the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum in Ballpark Village beyond left field.  Adult tickets to the museum cost $12.

All four Trophies are displayed throughout the museum in areas honoring each respective era.  Interestingly, the pre-2000 trophies are the real McCoys. 

World Series trophies are also displayed (or used to be displayed) in Busch Stadium’s Champions Club on the mezzanine down the left field line, but according to the museum, they must be replicas. 

2009, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1978, 1977:

New York Yankees – Yankee Stadium

Current Location: New York Yankees Museum

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, all 7 titles

Located in the right field corner of Yankee Stadium on the mezzanine, the New York Yankees Museum isn’t the biggest ballpark historical display area, but it might have the highest quality of memorabilia in MLB, no surprise considering the franchise’s history.  Think priceless Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle showpieces.

All seven official Commissioner’s Trophies are displayed throughout the small museum.  The museum is accessible to all fans.

2008, 1980: Philadelphia Phillies

– Citizens Bank Park

Current Location: Team offices, not accessible to fans

Type: N/A

Citizens Bank Park is a fantastic place, so it’s strange that the Phillies don’t showcase their World Series trophies to fans, especially in light of recent success.  They are not even accessible on ballpark tours.  I believe they used to be displayed in the premium club lobby behind home plate, but both World Series trophies are currently located in the team offices or storage. The Phillies will bring them out to special events on occasion.    

For what it’s worth, the 2022 National League Trophy was featured this year.

2005: Chicago White Sox – Guaranteed Rate Field

Current Location: Ballpark Lobby Behind Home Plate by Gate 4

Type: 2005 official Commissioner’s Trophy

For a ballpark reputed to not be fan friendly, fairly or not, perhaps it’s no surprise that the Commissioner’s Trophy from the White Sox first title since 1917 can’t be seen by the vast majority of fans.  And the White Sox don’t give ballpark tours.

However, if you ask a supervisor nicely (and perhaps have a blog dedicated to your obsession with ballparks), they’ll let you in the team lobby behind home plate, which is also utilized as an entrance by some luxury suite ticket holders.  Located on the left side of the lobby, the 2005 Commissioner’s Trophy sits with a 2005 team photo, the American League Trophy, World Series rings, and a 2011 Commissioner’s Award for Philanthropic Excellence.

2003, 1997: Miami Marlins – loanDepot Park

Current Location: Marlins Museum

Type: 2003 official Commissioner’s Trophy; 1997 team-engraved World Champions trophy

Even compared to other “recent” expansion franchises, the Miami Marlins had been derelict in honoring their team’s history in their ballpark.  Marlins Park’s cutting-edge contemporary architecture had little in it that reflected its tenant.

That all changed in 2023 with the introduction of the Marlins Museum.  Located in an enclave off the main concourse in left field formerly occupied by the Taste of Miami food court (which had been dormant for the last few years), the Marlins Museum houses both trophies toward the end of the small historical exhibit. 

The 1997 official version, seen here being hoisted by Devon White and Bobby Bonilla, is in the Marlins possession in an unknown location.  

2002: Los Angeles Angels – Angel Stadium

Current Location: Main concourse behind home plate

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy

A tribute to the Angels’ sole World Series title sits behind home plate on the main concourse, which is accessible to all fans.  The can’t-miss “2002 WORLD CHAMPIONS” display is anchored by the Commissioner’s Trophy, but it also holds other memorabilia related to the team.  

2001: Arizona Diamondbacks – Chase Field

Current Location: Arizona Diamondbacks History and Championship Exhibit (Museum)

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy

Another park, another museum.  If the Diamondbacks and Marlins have one, why can’t your team?  Located off the main concourse in center field, the Diamondbacks’ 2001 Commissioner’s Trophy anchors a display honoring the team.  Similar to Anaheim and Washington, jerseys, bats, bases, balls, newspaper articles, and the official scorecards from all seven 2021 World Series games surround the trophy.

1993, 1992: Toronto Blue Jays – Rogers Centre

Current Location: Ticketmaster Lounge

Type: Official Commissioner’s Trophy, both trophies

On the scale of memorabilia and World Series trophies in private stadium clubs, this is my least favorite, because tickets in the tiny and ultra-exclusive Ticketmaster Lounge are rarely available on the primary (including Ticketmaster; this might be the biggest naming rights misnomer of all time) or secondary market.  It’s essentially a big private suite on the mezzanine suite level.

Both Commissioner’s Trophies are located just inside the club’s door adjacent to the “concierge desk.”  Yeah.

This is just one example of why the Blue Jays are dead last on my scorecard for honoring team history in an MLB ballpark, something that is hopefully being fixed with the renovation.

1991, 1987: Minnesota Twins – Target Field

Current Location: Truly on Deck (right field restaurant and bar) and Champions Club

Type: Both for both!  Official Commissioner’s Trophy for 1991 and 1987 in Truly on Deck; team-engraved World Champions Trophy for 1991 and 1987 in Champions Club

Not the best setup, but huge kudos for displaying all versions of your World Series trophies.

The team-engraved trophies are displayed in the ultra-exclusive ground level home plate club, dubbed the Champions Club, which is similar to the Dodgers’ Dugout Club.  Tickets in here usually go for about $200-$400 per game on the secondary market.  Target Field debuted with this setup, and surprisingly, many fans voiced their complaints, as the Metrodome apparently displayed these babies in public.

This may be why the Twins are the only team with pre-2000 World Series Championships to showcase both versions.  In 2018, the Twins opened a restaurant on the right field mezzanine accessible to all fans.  Both Commissioner’s Trophies sit within glass cases in the restaurant.

1990, 1976, 1975: Cincinnati Reds –

Reds Museum and Hall of Fame

Current Location: Reds Museum and Hall of Fame

Type: Team-engraved World Champions Trophy, all 3 trophies 

Similar to the Cardinals, the Reds have a massive Museum and Hall of Fame adjacent to the ballpark.  This one is my favorite team museum in all of baseball, even if it’s not technically inside the park.

All three trophies are displayed in a row on the top floor of the museum.  Coolest of all, this is the only park I’ve seen with trophies honoring World Series Championships from the pre-1967 Commissioner’s Trophy era, with 1919 and 1940 “tribute trophies” created after the fact.  In 2019, the Reds Hall of Fame commissioned the creation of 1919 and 1940 trophies inspired by the Commissioner’s Trophy design.

1989, 1972, 1973, 1974: Oakland Athletics

Current Location: Oakland Athletics’ Offices in Howard Terminal, ironically

Type: N/A

Where do the A’s keep their World Series trophies, you ask?  This is a team that just refused to pay for its mascot to fly to the All-Star Game.  This is a team that just gifted Miguel Cabrera, who famously does not drink, a $90 bottle of wine on his farewell tour. 

Let’s just say carelessness and frugality go hand in hand in answering this question.  For all we know, they could be in John Fisher’s basement awaiting to be sold for their value in gold.

In all seriousness, the A’s have never had a permanent fan display for their trophies, but the 1989 trophy has made ad hoc appearances for photo ops in Championship Plaza in better years.  In 2020, all four trophies sat in the A’s office in Howard Terminal, the site of what was once hoped to be their future home.  No sign of their existence at the Oakland Coliseum in 2023, although they are still in the team’s possession.

With the move to Las Vegas, will they ever be displayed again?    

1986, 1969: New York Mets – Citi Field

Current Location: Mets Hall of Fame and Museum

Type: 1986 Team-Engraved World Series Champions trophy; 1969 official Commissioner’s Trophy

Citi Field was roundly criticized for its overemphasis on Brooklyn Dodgers history and its lack of nods to the Mets upon opening in 2009, but that’s largely been rectified in recent years.  In 2010, Citi Field opened the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum on the right side of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

Tributes to the two Mets’ titles sit side by side in the center of the museum.  Interestingly, the 1986 trophy is the unofficial team-engraved one, while the 1969 display case has the official Commissioner’s Trophy.  I wonder if this was just done for the sake of variety?  Both versions of both World Series trophies are in the Mets’ possession.   

My favorite thing about the 1969 Trophy? It’s by definition the only one with a Seattle Pilots flag!

1984, 1969: Detroit Tigers – Comerica Park

Current Location: Champions Club

Type: Team-engraved World Champions Trophy, both trophies

Similar to the Toronto Blue Jays’ setup at Rogers Centre, I’m particularly not a fan of stashing trophies and memorabilia in these tiny clubs.  Located on the suite level in left field, at least Comerica Park’s Champions Club is a pretty cool space that’s reasonably affordable on the secondary market.  The original official Commissioner’s Trophies are located in team offices on site.     

1983, 1970: Baltimore Orioles

– Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Current Location: Club Level (mezzanine) behind home plate

Type: 1983 team-engraved World Series Champions Trophy; 1970 official Commissioner’s Trophy

The long-suffering Orioles house their two World Series trophies on the mezzanine club level behind home plate.  Note that tickets in this area are plentiful and reasonably priced, as this isn’t so much a small insular club, but an entire mezzanine club level spanning the ballpark.

Both trophies face the concourse behind home plate on this level.

1979, 1971: Pittsburgh Pirates

Current Location: Team Administrative Lobby of PNC Park, usually not accessible to fans (1979); and unknown, probably the Darby House on the Galbreath Estate in Galloway, Ohio (1971)

Type: 1979 official Commissioner’s Trophy

This last one took quite a bit of digging.  It may not have been obvious until now, but technically, World Series trophies are awarded to team owners to do with as they please.  Pirates owner Dan Galbreath did not exactly keep it in the family. 

Before he died in 1995, Galbreath donated the 1979 Commissioner’s Trophy to the Alleghany Club, a private independent restaurant at Three Rivers Stadium that housed a considerable amount of memorabilia.  The Alleghany Club put it up for auction in 2005.  Ultimately, the Pirates contested ownership over the Trophy and reacquired shortly thereafter.

The 1979 Commissioner’s Trophy usually sits in the Pirates’ administrative lobby.  It has been accessible on tours in the past, but I have not seen it recently.  The 1979 replica team-engraved version remains with the Galbreath family.  A replica of the Commissioner’s Trophy also sits in a sports museum in Columbus, Ohio.   

As for the 1971 Commissioner’s Trophy, Galbreath just kept it!  Officially, that’s all I know. Apparently, it’s just sitting in the house of the Galbreath family on an Ohio horse farm.  I did a bit of sleuthing, and here’s a photo from Flickr in 2012, with the trophy just sitting on the mantle at Darby House in Ohio, the estate of the Galbreath family.        

The post Tracking Down Every World Series Commissioner’s Trophy in Existence appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

In fact, it’s almost transcended sports and earned a place in broader popular culture as a Bay Area destination, similar to Chicago’s Wrigley or Boston’s Fenway.  Could previous generations have imagined a sporting facility with postcard views rivalling any in America or the simple splendor of a splashdown homerun?

Today, there’s a strong consensus placing Oracle alongside PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Petco Park in San Diego as the three best modern-day MLB venues, in varying orders.  There’s a lot of groupthink on social media, but it’s a consensus that I (spoiler alert) wholeheartedly to sign on to. 

However, the story of the Giants’ beloved pad stretches beyond water views. 

I’ve made the argument that San Diego’s venue is now MLB’s best ballpark, as the quality of the fan experience is just operating in a totally different universe, considering the neighborhood, architectural prowess, aesthetic beauty, charming features, technical excellence, and truly off-the-charts food and beverage game.  Wrigley and Fenway are the most historic.  Baltimore’s Camden Yards, which spawned a generation of retro ballparks, is the most influential. Oracle is close, but I give Pittsburgh’s ballpark the slightest of edges for most beautiful.     

But San Francisco’s Oracle Park takes the crown in something much more meaningful: it’s the most successful ballpark in modern history, constructed with private financing and generating the longest lasting attendance boost of any team in 21^st century. 

Sports owners often bill new venues as “saving the team,” but Oracle Park did more than that.  It transformed the perception of the San Francisco Giants. 

From the 1970s to the mid 1990s, the Oakland Athletics were seen as the Bay Area’s team, with the Giants having comparatively little success since moving to San Francisco.  Heck, Oakland even mercifully gave their little brother the San Jose territorial rights on a silver platter to help them stay when the Giants were considering a park in the South Bay in the early 90s.  That didn’t stop Giants’ owner Bob Lurie from agreeing to sell the team to a group of investors who would have moved the team to Tampa Bay, only to be blocked by N.L. owners.    

Fast forward a quarter century after Oracle Park’s waterfront site was secured, and the Giants are the fifth most valuable franchise in baseball.  Dot-com boom.  Barry Bonds.  Three World Series championships.  And a new ballpark honeymoon period that lasted 18 years compared to the usual 1-3 years. 

The Giants sold out nearly every game from 2000-2007, and again from 2011-2017, with only a modest dip in the lean post-Bonds, pre-World Series years, but never going below an average of 35,000 per game in that timespan.  That’s without compare looking at new ballpark attendance booms.

It’s one reason why Oracle Park has been a revenue generator beyond even what the most optimistic investors imagined, something that was very much in question when the stadium was being financed.    

Second of all, I think Oracle Park is outstanding independent of McCovey Cove and its famed water views. 

Oracle Park’s integration with the urban fabric on the outside is magnificent.  The neighborhood local scene is still strong.  The food and craft beer department is still in the top 5.  Unique social spaces like The Garden stand out.  Historical touches are everywhere you look, from the quotes painted throughout the concourses to the wall of fame and statues outside.  Family-friendly features like the Fan Lot are one of a kind.  The videoboard is baseball’s fourth largest.

If I had a tagline for Oracle Park, it would be “More Than a Ballpark by the Bay.” 

True, Oracle Park has never been quite perfect – some sightlines quirks down the left field line and in particular some of baseball’s narrowest concourses hold it back from the #1 spot – but I was thoroughly impressed once again during my recent revisit for the Giants’ last homestand in October 2022.  I’ll note anything that’s changed based on seeing it again in 2023 (virtually nothing).

However, I did feel that Oracle Park was beginning to show its age, perhaps even more so than its less highly acclaimed late 90s/early 2000s contemporaries. 

The concourses felt dark and dingy, and the signage in particular is woefully passé.  The seats are surely due for replacement.  Some premium areas and the club level in general felt like an ode to another era in stadium design.  Relatively minor stuff, but expect to see enhancements in the mid 2020s.   

This is another iteration of my “ballpark revisits” series, where I outline my latest ballpark experiences in a pithier, informal manner versus a long-form methodical and formulaic ballpark review where I “rate” the park (here is Oracle’s ratings “scorecard” if you’re curious; note the review in that link is currently outdated).  Below is pretty lengthy but by no means exhaustive.

Check out my photo gallery if you’re interested in seeing 1000s of my photos of this place (everything, inside and out, is captured).

This latest revisit brought my Oracle Park game count up to six, so while there weren’t many surprises, the bottom line is it once again met my high expectations.  Let’s dive in! 

Getting There, Location, and Local Scene

What do almost all of the highly regarded ballparks have in common?  Those in San Diego, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minnesota, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, etc.?  They are unabashedly urbanist ballparks, and that’s certainly true of San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

Situated at the southeast edge of SoMa (South of Market Street) in what’s known as China Basin, it’s hard to imagine a more picturesque locale for a ballpark.  Oracle Park faces the water with glimpses of the Bay Bridge and Berkeley Hills, but its façade is nestled in with the red brick warehouse buildings of the area.

Oracle Park’s accessibility is impressive.  While San Francisco’s traffic and parking headaches (to say the least) are a drawback, Oracle is located in an inimitably walkable neighborhood.  Most importantly, Oracle Park offers excellent public and alternative modes of transportation.

This is a particularly bike-friendly park, with many paths and even a bike valet within the Arcade in right field.  Oracle has its own ferry stop, with routes to/from Oakland, Vallejo, and Larkspur.  While BART’s Montgomery Station is a 20-minute walk away, the MUNI street car stops right in front of the home plate entrance.  Give me walkability and public transportation over driving any day of the week!

Like many urban retro parks of the era, Oracle Park was built well off the center of downtown, placed in an originally dilapidated area ripe of rejuvenation.  With a 20-minute walk to Market Street to the northwest, conventional tourist attractions like Chinatown are quite a hike.  The Financial District is a good mile away. 

Unlike locations of some other retro parks of the era, however, Oracle Park has been extremely successful in revitalizing the area.  China Basin was historically characterized by rows of abandoned industrial warehouse buildings.  It’s been transformed into a destination with sports bars, clubs, shops, and restaurants. 

San Francisco’s homelessness problem notwithstanding, I have this as a top-10 neighborhood local scene, with bars and restaurants of all stripes that should appeal to a wide swath of fans.  In what’s said, not inaccurately, to be a city facing decline in the post-pandemic period, I found the area directly around the park to be free of blight.    

There are plenty of candidates for best neighborhood establishment – the New Belgium Brewing Taproom and 21st Amendment are classic picks – but MoMo’s right across from the left field entrance on King and 2nd is my favorite.  The scenic outdoor patio is a keeper. 

Walking toward the water, note the marina beyond center field too. 

Beyond McCovey Cove in right field, Giants fans have grown accustom to seeing construction in the last few years.  That’s Mission Rock, one of those trendy mixed-use development projects a la The Battery Atlanta or Ballpark Village in St. Louis.  It will be a massive revenue stream for the Giants who own the property, and it’s one of the prime reasons why the Giants are as financially well positioned as any team in the post-pandemic period.  

Mission Rock will include all of the expected excess – Visa’s global headquarters will even take root in one of the office buildings — plus a waterfront park overlooking McCovey Cove.  Developers have been cagey on aspects of the timeline, but the first residential building opened in the summer of 2023, and many parts of the project will debut in 2024.     

Oracle Park’s gorgeous location, convenient accessibility (although preferences may vary), and above-average pre-and-post game bar and restaurant scene add up to a top-5 ballpark setting on my scorecard.   

The Exterior Architecture

Some of the best neotraditional ballparks showcase skyline views as the focal point of the interior aesthetic.  But that often means the exterior façade wrapping around the infield doesn’t feel integrated with the urban core.  The urban core is beyond the outfield.  The tidy retro-classic architecture itself isn’t nestled in with the surrounding venerable buildings.  

If you look at all MLB ballparks, exceptions include Wrigley and Fenway, where urban surroundings have arisen around all corners of the structure over a century.  Of the neotraditional, Denver’s Coors Field probably does it best, with an exterior façade totally harmonized with the neighborhood red brick buildings of LoDo. 

But Oracle Park may have the best of all worlds, a beautiful, compact structure facing the water inside and a façade matching the surrounding warehouse buildings of SoMa outside.  Like Wrigley, Fenway, and Coors, Oracle Park’s architecture is in keeping in style of the neighborhood.  Brick panels and square glass windows mimic the area perfectly.  Very urbanist feel here.

While Oracle’s exterior gets the highest of marks for contextual connection, I give the façade itself a merely above-average grade overall.    

The urbane red brick cloak lacks the presence and accents seen in other MLB park facades, except one nice subtle touch, however ham-handed: the vertical array of black bricks in between the dual sets of windows, meant to represent the stitching on a baseball.  But mostly, this feels like an ordinary red brick façade.

The neighborhood context makes retro a defensible stylistic choice, but the architecture nerd in me says a neotraditional copycat a la Camden Yards was too conservative of a call considering the eclectic cornucopia of famous historic and modern architecture of the San Francisco.

Additionally, because the field is at street level (thus, not sunk in like other ballparks), the structure isn’t as intimate as others.  The upper deck rows seem to disproportionately tower over the buildings below.  The facade may be in keeping with the neighborhood’s style, but not so much its proportions. 

On the other hand, the Willie Mays Plaza behind home plate is one of the most iconic entrances in MLB.  Anchored by a statue of the Say Hey Kid and 24 palm trees, a nod to Mays’ number, it’s an impressive piece of urban design.

Oracle Park has an abundance of neat historical touches on the outside.  The Willie Mays Gate is adorned with commemorations honoring recent championships, along with Willie Mays and Willie McCovey plaques.  The San Francisco Giants Wall of Fame fronts the base of the façade on the third base side, in what is the team’s de facto Hall of Fame display. 

Rather dull statues of Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry sit outside of the 2nd Street Gate in the left field corner.  But the statue of Juan Marichal on the first base side is an absolute showstopper, capturing his high leg kick in motion.  Note the murals celebrating the Giants pennants and championships from both New York and San Francisco, along with friezes honoring team Rookies of the Year, MVPs, Gold Glove winners, etc.  

Finally, don’t forget to check out the cream-colored archways adjacent to McCovey Cove beyond right field.  More historical pieces here, including plaques celebrating some of Barry Bonds’ most notable splash down home runs.

A statue of a seal sits outside center field, which is sentimentally my favorite statue of the bunch!  A classic example of a nod to the locale and city spirit (and former PLC team) that gives the park that essential sense of place.

Overall, Oracle Park has a perfectly handsome exterior design with a wonderful flair or two, but it falls just short of some other MLB exterior architecture and the splendor of the inside.  A+ for connection to the neighborhood and some standout elements like the Willie Mays Plaza, B+ for overall stylistic choice and architectural treatment.     

Exploring the Main Seating Bowl

Oracle Park’s seating bowl is perfectly typical of the era: large ∼40-row lower deck, ∼10-row club level, suite level, ∼25-row upper deck.  In fact, this identical formula was utilized by a handful of ballparks that opened in the late 90s and early 2000s.  If you just compared the cross sections, even the average ballpark aficionado may have difficulty telling them apart. 

Like almost every one of its contemporaries – possibly save Petco in San Diego and PNC in Pittsburgh, although I have issues with the latter as well – the upper levels are simply pushed too far back from the field compared to the classic jewel box parks.  Mediocre use of cantilevers, although the upper levels here are slightly lower compared to others.  Not unusual, but not good. 

Oracle Park has two notable imperfections, and here’s one of them:

Some seats down the left field line are not properly oriented toward the infield.  Yes, all seats are angled to some degree, but on all four levels, the seats in the few sections furthest down the line on the left side before the seating itself gets reoriented aren’t angled enough.

Roughly 5,000 seats across these levels have less than ideal sightlines, where you’ll have to churn your head a good 50-75 degrees to the right.  That’s a far more noteworthy blemish than an obstructed view or two.  More issues in the upper deck outlined below. I wouldn’t call it a disqualifying flaw or anything, but it’s a notable imperfection.  

Aesthetically, however, Oracle Park is a gem on the inside.  The simple interior treatment is based on two design principles, one of them being complete adherence to the site constraints.  Like how the uniqueness of the early 20^th century jewel box parks were dictated by urban land limitations, Oracle Park is a product of its context.     

The quirky dimensions aren’t contrived, but dictated by the restraints of McCovey Cove, with the dimensions of the field congruent with the lines of China Basin.  While other cutesy retro parks with asymmetrical dimension feel fabricated, Oracle Park feels authentic.  

Running parallel to McCovey Cove, gorgeous archways are integrated within the right field wall, one of the few neotraditional ballparks to incorporate this time-honored architectural feature on the inside.  The arched promenade is subtle reference to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.  It’s the park’s best design feature.

Integration of the San Francisco Bay is Oracle Park’s second design aim, and as you can see, you actually can’t view the water from the lower bowl.  Because the field is at water level, I don’t know how you could correct for this, but at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, the lower-level seating offers views of the skyline, Roberto Clemente bridge, and a glimpse of the water down the middle. Oracle Park’s shadows are also fierce before a night game.

Here’s something subtle you’ll never notice if you haven’t been: like most parks of the era, Oracle Park has a “moat” separating the first 20 or so rows of Field Club seats from the rest of the lower bowl from dugout to dugout.  The Giants are just better at hiding it with thin fencing.  Yankee Stadium gets so much flack for this, but it’s relatively common.  More on Oracle’s premium clubs later.

One of baseball’s last manual out-of-town scoreboards is lodged within the right field archways, along with some interesting amenities added over the years.  The Gotham Club bar and dining room sits behind the scoreboard.  Gotham Club members are also allowed on the field for batting practice, seen below. 

The Loft at McCovey Cove sits within the archways on the far right side.  “Rusty the Mechanical Man,” a short-lived, two-dimensional, 14-foot-tall robotic baseball player, was housed here when the ballpark opened and would spring out of the wall to entertain fans.  He was, um, poorly received.  Ask longtime Giants fans about this ballpark feature, and they’ll quip, “We don’t talk about Rusty.”  An all-time ballpark oddity that deserves a separate piece.    

Arguably Oracle Park’s coolest seats aren’t seats at all, but bleachers in the Arcade section above the right field wall.  Situated a mere 309 feet from home plate, the Arcade bleachers are Oracle’s answer to Fenway’s Green Monster seats or Minute Maid Park’s Crawford Boxes. 

After the 2019 season, Oracle Park finally moved in its center and right-center field fence.  Bullpens that were originally situated down the lines on the field were moved beyond the center field fence, although only Gotham Club members and 415 Members (a pretty affordable fan membership group) get access to the bullpen terraces.

Unlike some ballpark dimension alterations, this one is a win-win for players, fans, and aesthetics.  Oracle Park’s unique, contextually-inspired dimensions are maintained (just moved in, and more slightly than people realize), while bullpens are appropriately out of play and new fan-friendly features are added.

Indeed, it was always strange that Oracle Park was the only post-1990 baseball-only park with bullpens in play.  Felt a bit cheap, no?  Some say it was because Peter Magowan was overly invested in old-timey ballpark quirks, but it largely stimmed from the aforementioned site constraints.

That’s finally been corrected, but with Oracle’s charming aesthetic intact.   

Seats styled after bleachers fill up the rest of the outfield seating.  Oracle Park has an unusual number of outfield bleacher seating, perhaps more than any other post-1990 MLB park save Yankee Stadium and Chase Field.  I don’t view this as a positive or a negative. There’s some fan preference for bleachers in the outfield.

I explore more elements of the interior design including the views when traversing the upper deck.

Exploring the Main Concourses and Amenities

When entering the park, fans take escalators, elevators, stairs, or ramps to access the 360-degree main concourse covered here (dubbed “Prominade Level”), as San Francisco’s aforementioned water table doesn’t allow for the main concourse to be at street level like most parks. 

There are four main entrances accessible to all fans.  The primary one is the Willie Mays Gate behind home plate.  Oracle Park does a wonderful job of decorating its concourses with historical touches, both subtle and conspicuous, and don’t miss the massive Willie Mays historical display case upon entry here.

Oracle Park only has two significant flaws among its numerous assets.  We’ve discussed the sightline issues.  But the biggest one is immediately apparent upon entry, and I’m amazed as to why this doesn’t bother folks as much as me.

The concourses are far too narrow.  20 or so feet short of the standard width for stadium concourses of the era, not to mention today, fans experience constant bottlenecks in circulation.  Below is an average look at the main concourse down the third base line.  With capacity crowds, navigating it is a true pain.  Just wait until we get to the outfield.

I also noticed the signage is beginning to feel a bit dated.  Hot dog stands look like something out of a 1990s movie theatre, and seating section signage feels unclear and poorly articulated.  A refresh is certainty needed here. 

On the plus side, the 360-degree main concourse is technically open to the field, except when it’s blocked by the press box behind home plate, although visibility isn’t great given the earthquake-resident columns.  In recent years, the Giants added an adroitly-positioned standing room-only spot down the first base line, in correspondence with broader ballpark trends of the 2010s. 

Walking further down the right field line on the main concourse, fans will notice a food court enclave off to the right side.  Take the stairs down to ground level where the right field entrance is located, and you’ll see a set of unmarked doors below a sign that reads, “Seals Stadium,” a reference to San Francisco’s old PLC team for some reason. 

This used to be home to The Vault, the Giants team museum.  I was told the museum was closed for expansion in 2022, but it hasn’t returned in 2023.  If this wonderful space is permanently shelved, I’ll be very disappointed.

Continue on the main concourse beyond right field, and fans will encounter the Arcade.  It may be tight and crowded – basically a narrow passageway compared to a typical right field concourse – but boy is it special to stand 10 feet from the outfield fence on one side and overlook the water on the other. 

The area to the right of the yellow line nearest to the bay has drinks rails and is a scenic spot to enjoy a cold one before the game. 

The main concourse has plenty of attractions in the outfield.  Don’t miss the Cable Car or the old Candlestick Park seats at the end of the Arcade in right-center field. 

Once you hit this spot, you’ll see stairs down to the Bullpen Boardwalk, an additional area of refuge for fans in the bleachers.  In addition to games such as speed pitch, batting cages, skee ball, and corn hole, an interactive garden sits below the center field batter’s eye.

That’s right, a 4,320-square-foot edible garden sits below the center field scoreboard.  Featuring two bistros, a sit-down bar, tables, benches, and fire pits to go with health fare with freshly picked fruits and vegetables, it’s a prime example of how Oracle Park stands out in providing over-the-top amenities despite the site constraints.  Very San Francisco. 

Bullpens terraces are accessible from the Boardwalk, but frustratingly require a special ticket as outlined above.

Back up to the main concourse, Oracle Park has a nice little food court and bar below suspended lights behind the center field scoreboard.  Here’s where you’ll find some of the ballpark’s best food.  More on that later. The Giants have also added some nice bars and social spaces to the right and left of the batter’s eye adjacent to the food court on the main concourse. 

Peet’s Coffee sits adjacent to the center field food court on the left.  Inside, fans will find a hidden bobblehead museum.  Oracle Park has so many understated diversions to check out before the game. 

One thing that’s not understated, however, is the 80-foot-long Coca-Cola Bottle and glove above left field.  The coke bottle isn’t just an aesthetically pleasing design element that generates ad revenue.  It also houses four 60-foot slides for the kids.  To my mild amusement, after a handful of injuries, the Giants no longer allow anyone (read: adults) to go down the slides.  Kids only!

A 50-by-50-foot kids’ wiffle ball field modeled after Oracle Park sits in the left field corner.  A relatively new aquarium with live fish sits within the mini-archways of mini-Oracle Park.  I’m rarely greeted by something unexpected on a ballpark revisit given how much I monitor MLB ballpark updates, but this fish tank was a delightful surprise. 

The wiffle ball field, the coke bottle, and the glove collectively form what is known as the Fan Lot. 

The Giants expanded the outfield concourse in the left field corner ever so slightly mid-2010s, but it still feels ridiculously tight as well, to the point where you may not have patience to explore the park and take in all of these wonderful features before the game.  It takes a good 5 minutes to just get through here.

I know I’m beating a dead horse.  Is it foolish to focus on tight concourses considering these site constraints are dictated by the bay and the urban landscape, both of which make Oracle so charming?  Maybe.  But space matters, and the concourses are so narrow that getting around Oracle Park is genuinely a chore.  I can’t overlook a problem of that magnitude.

The main concourse does widen a bit behind home plate.  But above is what it looks like 45 minutes before game time.  On the last game of the season, October 2022.  Giants out of contention.  Ballpark half empty.  And yet, you still can’t move.  45 minutes before the game.

One of Oracle Park’s most unique historical flourishes are the quotes by baseball legends inscribed seemingly everywhere, including on the walls inside ramps, on support beams, inside club lounges, within elevator lobbies, and throughout the main concourse.  Phenomenal. 

Finally, I absolutely love how the Giants showcase their three World Series Commissioner’s Trophies behind home plate.  Prominently displayed for all to see, it’s a nice contrast from the usual set up of stashing World Series Trophies in club areas or standalone museums.  Rings back the display case. 

Overall, when traversing Oracle Park’s main concourse, you can’t help but be impressed by all the fun they pack into such a limited area.  Give it a D for functionality and an A for amenities, and that’s before getting to all of the food.   

Exploring the Upper Deck

Now here’s what you came to see!  When you combine Oracle Park’s transcendentally beautiful bay views with its solid array of amenities, remarkable food and beverage game, pristine vibes, and a vibrant crowd, you’re going to have a top 5 park.

Similar to Camden Yards, the upper deck down the right field line is truncated, in this case to allow for views of McCovey Cove.  Note how close the right field wall is to McCovey Cove. From the right side, fans are presented with postcard views of the Bay Bridge. 

I love that the outfield seating structure is rather monotonous and simple, especially the bleachers in left field.  Oracle Park is technically the only MLB park with no second seating deck whatsoever in the outfield, a necessity to capture the best views possible.   

This perch also offers good shots of the Coca-Cola Bottle and the giant glove.  I’m usually not a fan of gimmicks spread across an outfield scene, however common it is across MLB.  But the coke bottle and the glove just feel right.

Among an unvaried scene of bleachers, a touch of whimsy is just what the doctor ordered.  The vintage 1927 four-fingered baseball mitt made of steel and fiberglass looks classy.  The 80-foot coke bottle is nostalgic and attractive.  It was hotly debated in the park’s planning stages (too commercialized, some said), but I think it ultimately enhances the poetic vibe.

And crucially, these features don’t detract from the bay views or the game.

I actually think Oracle Park’s best upper deck seats for views are smack dab in the middle behind home plate.  While sitting in left field offers views of McCovey Cove (and construction), and sitting in right field offers views of the Bay Bridge, you get the whole picture here. Note that the water views are more than just water. In person, the Berkeley Hills are pretty impactful as well.

You’ll also be gawking at baseball’s fourth largest videoboard, a massive upgrade added following the 2019 season.   

On the downside, the upper deck seating in the farthest corners of left field is terribly awkward.  The architects had to maneuver all of the upper-level outfield seats in foul territory in order to preserve bay views, so the seats in sections 335 to 336 are oriented behind home plate. This also means half of the left field is cut off.

Like the classic jewel box parks, quirks come with the territory of the site constraints, but it’s those very site constraints that birthed the creativity and ingenuity that make Oracle, just like Fenway and Wrigley, so beloved.  That fact makes the sightline issues and narrow concourses somewhat forgivable. 

There isn’t much notable throughout the upper deck concourse.  In contrast to some of the newest venues across sports, where teams are intent on adding amenities to upper-level spaces comparable to those down low, Oracle Park’s upper deck concourse is…just a concourse.  And that’s fine.  As was standard before 2004, the upper deck concourse is also not open to the field. 

A few items of note, here.  Historical nods continue throughout the upper deck, as enlarged photographs of notable moments in Giants’ history adorn the facades. 

The concourse is similarly narrow up top, although it expands behind home plate, where you’ll find the park’s only gyro stand.  There’s a marvelous Madison Bumgarner Lego statue on the third base side, along with enlarged retired numbers of Barry Bonds and Will Clark.

Finally, you get some beautiful city views from up here.

Public House

Located at ground level on the right side of the Willie Mays Plaza, Public House is Oracle Park’s only full-service restaurant and bar accessible to all fans. 

While many clubs are doing away with standalone restaurants in favor of more dynamic social spaces – the thought being, who wants to sit down at a restaurant or a bar before or during a game once inside the park? – I think they still have their place at sporting venues.

Fans can access Public House at the bottom of the ramps adjacent to the Willie Mays Gate or enter Public House directly from outside the park (must have a game ticket on a gameday). 

Pro Tip: you can enter the ballpark through Public House (or the adjacent team store) when the gates open to avoid gate lines even if you’re not dining here, and you head on to the ramps and can access the rest of the park.  Only caveat: you won’t get a giveaway if it’s giveaway day.

Public House has a pretty standard pub menu, but the craft beer list is impressive, at times rivaling any in the city.  Note you can go to the bar and take a drink back to your seat, so Public House automatically makes Oracle Park’s craft beer game elite. 

It’s just a bit of a pain to get to from the main concourses, as the ground level restaurant is only accessible by ramps, assuming the one escalator is going up.

The Food

Oracle Park was traditionally been considered the king of ballpark food, and while it’s been surpassed by San Diego, Seattle, New York (Mets), the quality and variety of grub still holds up quite well.  Pre-covid, I ranked Oracle Park #2 in ballpark food, and that’s still not far off.

I’ll save most of this for a separate piece, but here’s the rundown:

• Crazy Crab’z Sandwich, Oracle Park’s signature food item.  Dungeness crab is piled on buttery sourdough bread with tomato and lemon.  A smashing combination. 
• Orlando’s Caribbean BBQ.  The Cha-Cha Bowl, another signature dish, features black beans, seasoned rice, and jerk chicken topped with pineapple-zucchini salsa.  Healthy and delicious.
• Pier 44 Chowder House – clam chowder bread bowls, calamari, and fish and chips.  It doesn’t get any more San Francisco than clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.

• Lumpia – Filipino cuisine including egg rolls.
• Authentic (really) Hawaiian-style poke at Da Poke Man.
• Burgess Brothers Bar B Que serving local brisket.
• Barchetta – porchetta sandwiches and garlic fries
• Other interesting items include fish tacos, cheesesteaks, gyros, carved tri tip sandwiches, Mexican food at Mission Street Taqueria, and healthy grub at The Organic Coup
• Super Duper Burgers – some of baseball’s best burgers
• Slice House by Tony Gemignani – some of baseball’s best pizza.  Imported from famed North Beach establishment Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. 
• Ghirardelli – some of baseball’s best chocolate and ice cream.  Mind-blowing hot fudge sundaes.
• And of course, Gilroy Garlic Fries!

The Giants execute the classics perfectly while importing some interesting high-quality Bay Area staples. Everything we sampled above struck the right tone. 

I was particularly impressed with the Tony Gemignani’s pizza.  Stadium outposts don’t always equal their original locations, but I thought this one did.  The Crazy Crab’z Sandwich remains perhaps my favorite food in MLB.

I will say Oracle Park didn’t quite have the variety of previous years.  For example, small food courts on the third base side used to serve Italian cuisine and Irish cuisine.  Now, the Taste of North Beach stand just has pizza, and Murphs Irish Pub just has beer and Irish coffee.  The famed Chinese grub at Edsel Ford Fong’s is now only available in the Field Club.  Also gone are the Argentinian empanadas/alfajores from Javi’s Cooking and the Mediterranean fare.

Overall though, still an elite food game. 

The Drinks

Oracle Park is also a top ballpark for craft beer, although Public House is now pulling most of the weight.  There used to be better distribution.  But the standard stuff around the concourses is still solid – Lagunitas, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, and Stone.  Plenty of more local breweries represented as well, including Mad River, Russian River, and Henhouse.

But if you’re a craft beer enthusiast, head down to Public House.  Here’s a sample menu from when we were there. Here’s another pro tip: they’re not as fairly-priced as they used to be, but the quality beers here are cheaper than in the rest of the park! And again, you can grab one and take it back to your seat.

It’s San Francisco, so there are plenty of wine bars scattered around the concourses, including Vintage ’58 Wine Bar behind home plate.  There are a handful of coffee stands as well.  

Lower Premium Seating

Oracle Park was something of a pioneer in generating revenue through “field club” seats in MLB, something commonplace today.  Throughout most of the 1990s, premium seats were limited to luxury suites and mezzanine club levels. 

As a key private financing component, the Giants sold personal seat licenses for its 15,000 Field Club seats ranging from dugout to dugout in the first 20 or so rows behind home plate.

I’ll save most of this (and the below) for a separate post, but while Oracle Park’s premium clubs have some neat qualities, they don’t compare well to others in MLB.  Fans with Blue Shield Field Club seats have a private entrance adjacent to the Willie Mays Gate directly accessing the Field Club Lounge, but that “lounge” is basically a generic food court. 

It is not all-inclusive, although there was a one-time promotional complimentary wine tasting when we were there.  Unique food options include Zach’s Deli with a trio of high-quality sliders that couldn’t be beat anywhere else in the park: carved turkey, beef brisket, and pastrami on rye.     

One really cool feature: when transitioning from the lounge to the Field Club seats, fans have access to the service tunnel.  The Giants’ clubhouse is on the left side of the tunnel, so you can often greet Giants players when they go from the clubhouse to the dugout.  Check out this dude with a message for Joc Peterson:

Oracle Park’s Lexus Dugout Club is its true VIP premium experience more in line with other MLB park home plate clubs – these are the 100 or so black seats in the first three rows behind home plate below the Field Club.  Think of this as a club within a club.

Lexus Dugout Club ticket holders have access to the Lexus Lounge, a space added after the 2019 season in place of an umpire’s lounge.  The lounge is small and not especially swank compared to others in MLB, although the umpire themed memorabilia is pretty cool.  Regular ballpark items, a very limited buffet (only Caesar salad and some terrible beer battered cod when I was here), candy, desserts, soft drinks, and water are included in the ticket price.  There’s a small cash bar. 

For what it’s worth, the Lexus Dugout Club just doesn’t compare to other MLB home plate clubs for the price point ($350+).  The all-inclusive food is so limited and poor you’ll be opting to pay and eat at one of the many high-qualities stands throughout the park or in the Field Club. 

The sightlines from the seats are unique, but not my cup of tea.  You’re actually positioned below field level behind home plate like in an actual dugout, with your eye level at the ground.

Lou Seal comes down here to take pictures with fans, and I think he’s a criminally underrated mascot.  He embodies the team’s cool aesthetic and relates to the team’s locale.  And look at the three World Series rings in his paw! 

The coolest part were the small replay monitors.  It’s so awesome to be able to see a pitch 45 feet from home plate then see it again on the 5 second tape delay.  Ripe opportunities for umpire heckling! You can call the umpire out on a missed strike call with certainty seconds after it happened!

The Club Level

Like all but one MLB park that opened in the 90s and 2000s, Oracle Park features a mezzanine club level, this one wrapping from foul pole to foul pole.  Fans have access to a climate-controlled concourse, a big selling point on a chilly night, along with enhanced food and beverage options. 

Oracle Park’s Alaska Airlines Club Level is perfectly nice but was definitely beginning to show its age.  In addition, there is no in-seat service, and seats are not padded, both of which are standard features for such seats. 

The memorabilia on the concourse behind home plate is the main reason to check out the club level, in my opinion.  A trip down Giants’ memory lane brim with memorabilia.   

Display cases honor the Giants’ recent three championships, Matt Cain’s perfect game, the 2002 World Series team, the Giants staying in San Francisco, Will Clark, Willie Mays, the team’s 25^th anniversary in San Francisco in 1982, and 1962 World Series, and much more from the New York Giants.  Most notably, the OG Crazy Crab mascot costume is on display! 

Don’t miss the statues of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy, a nod to the fact that Peanuts creator Charles Schultz was a huge Giants fan. 

The entirety of the display cases forms a veritable Giants museum, despite not being billed as such, nor having any sort of name.  If The Vault is no more, hopefully the Giants will advertise this area better.

Although, I would prefer it if most of the memorabilia was accessible to all fans, and that’s not the case unless The Vault comes back. 

The Gotham Club

This is baseball’s most exclusive private membership club, and the only fan space (not counting private group suites, obviously) in MLB I cannot access. 

And you can’t either unless you’re a member or personally know someone who is a member.  Unlike other areas in baseball, where you can pay $$$$ for seats/access, non-members can’t get passes on the secondary market. 

The Gotham Club has three components: (1) The Clubhouse, a restaurant and bar behind the out-of-town scoreboard in right field, (2) The Game Room, a secret lounge on the suite level inspired by John McGraw’s famous pool hall, and (3) The Bullpen, a private outdoor space underneath The Clubhouse that provides on-field access for batting practice and a bullpen terrace overlooking the Giants’ bullpen.

Judging by its array of amenities, stories I’ve heard, and pictures, there isn’t any ballpark club like this in MLB.  I hope to see it one day. 

General Vibes

It’s true that Oracle Park benefits from something of a “halo effect,” where I think a lot of people think, most beautiful ballpark = best ballpark.  But it does have a certain gen e say qua, independent of the bay views or anything major, that make for a phenomenal experience.  Here are some things about the ambiance that stand out for me:

• It has traditionally been a full ballpark, and that matters.  The comparable PNC Park in Pittsburgh, endowed with similar beauty, is half empty at best.  Of course, Giants’ attendance has suffered more than other clubs in the post-pandemic period – they now draw in the middle of the pack – but the vibe provided by the Giants fans really enhances the experience.

• Oracle Park has one of baseball’s best P.A. announcers, Renel Brooks-Moon.  Her serene voice and composed enthusiasm are a perfect fit for the Bay Area backdrop.

• This is a matter of taste, but I think Oracle Park’s music selection is the most inspired in MLB.  From pulling out super obscure 1960s bands (they blew my mind by playing West Coast Pop Art Experiential Band one time in 2007) to ending a loss on Waterfalls by TLCs, there are times when I hear a tune and just chuckle at the cleverness.  Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” playing after a win is more commonly cited.

• The foghorn along with the water feature beyond right field are always cool.

• As you have read, I sometimes focus on ballpark features that take you away from the seating bowl, because they’re meant to be enjoyed before the game.  However, I dislike the Wave, which is an annoying distraction that pops up in the crowd in later innings, often at the most inopportune times.  As part of their lore, Giants fans generally don’t do the wave.  Or at least it’s less common.  Thank God. 

It all adds up to a distinctly San Francisco vibe.  

I think it’s also notable that Oracle Park is the only MLB ballpark in an internationally significant city that both visually represents that city and is integrated with that city’s urban core. For whatever reason, ballparks in smaller markets (Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, etc.) usually do this better. For all the pros and cons of New York’s two newish venues, nothing about them screams “New York,” nor are they in locales you’d go out of your way to visit as a tourist. Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium are obviously classics, but both are products of their time, with one in a venerable neighborhood outside of the city center and the other in a parking lot. Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field? Ha! You might as well be in Peoria. Rogers Centre is located in Toronto’s urban core and has become somewhat of an icon of the city, but that multipurpose venue doesn’t architecturally or visually echo the spirit of the city.

San Francisco’s Oracle Park is pure San Francisco inside and out, perfectly representing a city that frequently lands on postcards everywhere ranging from Berlin to Brisbane and is a must-see for tourists as a staple of America’s national pastime.

How does San Francisco’s Oracle Park compare to other MLB ballparks?

Over 20 years after opening, Oracle Park is still one of baseball’s best ballparks.

First off, it’s a strong urbanist park, with excellent public accessibility, a vibrant pre-and-post game bar and restaurant scene, and a design in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood’s red brick buildings. 

Oracle Park is outstanding independent of its locale.  Think some of baseball’s most delectable food and craft beer, unique social spaces like The Garden, one-of-a-kind premium spaces like the Gotham Club, historical tributes scattered inside and out, family-friendly features like the Fan Lot, and baseball’s fourth largest video board.

Oh yeah, and it may have the best interior aesthetics of any venue in sports.  Oracle Park’s two big functional flaws are a product of the very site constraints that make it such a unique building, so they are somewhat forgivable. 

Nothing beats Petco Park for my #1 spot.  For the #2 spot, I’ve vacillated back and forth between Oracle and PNC.  Both have phenomenal settings with unparalleled exterior and interior beauty, though I give PNC the slight edge there, while PNC is generally more functional as well, but Oracle has better amenities and a way better fan-generated atmosphere.

In light of PNC’s 2022 enhancements and the fact that I found some parts of Oracle a bit dated, I now rank the Giants’ home at #3/30 in Major League Baseball.  Regardless of where it falls in my pecking order from year to year, it holds a vaulted place in baseball history, as an all-time, era-defining park in league with PNC, Camden, Wrigley, and Fenway.

Unless noted otherwise, all images, including the featured image and images in the mini-photo galleries, are by Cole Shoemaker/Ballpark Ratings.

The post Ballpark Revisit: San Francisco’s Oracle Park appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

While they are a massive source of stadium revenue, easily bringing in eight figures per year in not only ticket receipts but also sponsorship dollars, such ultra-premium seats have been criticized as an afront to the egalitarian spirit of the game.

Which made it all the more jarring to see The Friendly Confines introduce 700 of these seats in the first seven rows directly behind home plate in 2018, along with three other VIP clubs in 2019. 

Traditionally, Wrigley Field had been billed as one of the last sports venues where you could see a stockbroker enjoy a dog and a cold one next to a steelworker.  It’s the last place you’d expect such a heavily-gilded space. But “stadium gentrification,” for better or for worse, is inevitable. 

However, the Cubs managed to make their home plate club experience, dubbed the 1914 Club after the year Wrigley opened, incredibly unique and unmistakably fun.  Each element, from the architecture to the drinks, has a story that connects Chicago, Wrigley Field, and the year 1914.    

For one, the underground club itself doesn’t look like a staid Four Seasons dining room, but an early 20th century speakeasy with astonishing attention to detail.  With a design inspired by the inaugural year of one of baseball’s most famous ballparks, hanging out in the club (only having one of the 700 aforementioned seats gets you access) feels like being transported into another world.  

Moreover, there’s no “moat” separating the 1914 Club seats from the rest of the lower box seats, so the actual seating is in keeping with Wrigley’s classic design. 

I’ve now revisited almost every MLB park many times, so I’ve gotten to see a game in almost all of these home plate clubs across baseball.  The 1914 Club has all of the expected amenities – think all-inclusive food, beer, wine, and liquor with seats in the first rows behind home plate – but with a charm and pizzaz lacking in the comparable spaces at newer parks. 

Given the dollars businesses and a few obscenely rich baseball fans spend on these VIP club seats across the country, I think it’s fun to compare them from ballpark to ballpark. 

These aren’t quite the best club seats in baseball for reasons I outline, but they are in my opinion the coolest.  Let’s dive in. 

Getting 1914 Club Tickets at Wrigley Field

1914 Club seats are sold as season tickets only, reportedly at $400-$695 per game in 2018 (so, as much as $56,295 per season, and they may go for more now!).  So, you’re not going to be able to get these for a single game on the Cubs’ website.  And why would you?

I’ll let you in on a little secret.  For the vast majority of games, ultra-premium tickets sell at a loss on the secondary market across MLB, particularly if you’re willing to wait until the last minute.  That’s especially true of Wrigley Field’s club seats.  The market has rebounded a bit since the Cubs 2021 fire sale, so you’re not getting a huge discount, but you can get 1914 Club seats in the $300s if you look long enough.  That’s worth it as a once-in-a-lifetime splurge. 

This isn’t an affiliate link plug – although frankly, I should probably get into that if I keep buying seats like this – but in checking Stubhub and Vivid Seats diligently, I got these in these in the low $300s off Stubhub. 

Your electronic ticket should say “CD Peacock Premier Entrance” and “American Airlines 1914 Club.”

Accessing Wrigley’s 1914 Club

The first perk of ultra-premium club seats at any sports venue is a private, expedited entry, often coupled with choice parking (occasionally even valet!) and early access. Fans with Wrigley Field “Premier Seating,” as the Cubs call it, enter through the glassed Premier Entrance slightly to the left of the red marquee (don’t mistake it for the long line under the marquee). 

Ticket holders get early access two hours before the first pitch, although as a Saturday game, all fans did for this one.  To my knowledge, this is the rare stadium club without any special parking, because, you know, Wrigleyville, and I’m fine with that.  I’ve never understood why parking holds any appeal given the all-inclusive alcohol anyway.

Premier Seating encompasses (1) the W Club (field level down the third base line), (2) the Maker Mark Barrel Room (first base line), (3) the Catalina Club (upper deck behind home plate), (4) the suite level club on the third base side, (5) individual luxury suites, and of course, (6) our fabulous 1914 Club behind home plate. 

Some venues take the gentrification even further, offering a separate private entrance for the $$$ home plate club seats and a regular private entrance for the more “affordable” clubs.  Wrigley doesn’t do that, but I’m okay with it in this case, because the Premier Seating inventory is pretty small and similarly priced regardless.

After entry, fans are greeted to a well-appointed lobby with classic murals and an infused water station.  I love the manual green cards showing the game matchup.

From here, 1914 Club ticket holders don’t go up the stairs, but through the forward doors onto the main concourse to the 1914 Club entrance, where they get their ticket scanned a second time and are given a special wristband.  No sneaking your way in here!

The 1914 Club doors, which look like they were cribbed from the promos of Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 cinematic remake of The Great Gatsby, immediately set the scene for the speakeasy vibe. 

Much like that film, the 1914 Club isn’t an accurate facsimile of what Wrigley Field is really about, but it’s just fun.     

1914 Club Design

Getting 1914 Club tickets had been something of a white whale for me on my ballpark revisits. 

Whoever I was with, they would say something to the effect of, “I just want a Chicago Dog and an Old Style,” “let’s sit in the bleachers again,” “it’s not Wrigley,” etc.  I totally get that, and I don’t care.  The 1914 Club lives up to the hype with an unparalleled attention to detail, as something that must be experienced at least once.

Upon entering the 1914 Club doors, fans go down a small tunnel only to feast their eyes on what is nothing short of one of the most magnificent spaces in professional sports.  The design is inspired by the Louis Sullivan architectural time period and its relationship to the original design of Wrigley Field.

It’s technically a bi-level club, and you’ll first walk through the second-floor balcony dining area, which overlooks the main club area with larger dining spaces and a swank bar.  Overlooking the main club area, you can see how spacious it feels.  High ceilings do the trick. 

After taking the stairs down to the main club area, you’ll be greeted by a friendly host who will offer you a table, along with a complementary scorecard, Cubs-themed pencil, and gameday program. 

The main club area is anchored by a massive bar, fronted by walk-up marble tables with dining tables further to the left in the below picture under the second-floor balcony.  The bar’s warm light fixtures, antique-finished mirrors, and chic display bottles make for immaculate vibes and the place to be before the game. 

The dark wood paneling, lighter wood floors, gold trim affixtures, rich mahogany chairs, and marble finishes are sublime, all evoking an era around the roaring 20s.  Buffet stations and additional dining areas with rich blue chairs flank the bar on each side by stairwells leading up to the seating bowl. 

You may ask, what was in this giant space before 2018?  Well, essentially nothing.  If you’ve ever been to Wrigley, I’m sure you’ve noticed that some of the portals from the main concourse to the seating bowl are very long, like almost 60 feet.  Everything underground adjacent to those portals lied dormant. 

The Cubs reconstructed the entire seating bowl, digging up 12,000 square feet of dirt to add this massive underground bunker club between the main concourse and the bowl.  To that latter point, the 1914 Club is your standard bunker club in that sense.  No views of the game from the actual club.   

The 1914 Club also has six bunker suites down the corridors in the corners underneath the stairwells.  Buying a bunker suite gives you access to the very best 1914 Club seats, eight seats in rows 1 and/or 2.   

Further attention to detail stands out throughout the space.  Note the brickwork throughout the club.  The darker bricks within the brick walls aren’t just regular old bricks, but bricks saved from the original bleacher walls when part of the original Wrigley Field structure was demolished.  Way cool!   

Art deco themes are imbued in the signage pointing to the seating sections, the gold stair bannisters, the decorative brass railing, and even the light fixtures.  Note the gold awnings above the buffet stations.  Even the “stairs” and “exit” signs have an old-fashion vibe, like something out of the signage from the Titanic, going by movie visuals again. 

Cubs’ logos are painted on the aforementioned brick in the stairwells leading to the seating.    Note the vintage airline photos and posters peppered throughout the walls of the dining area under the second-floor balcony and in the back corridors, a homage to the club’s naming rights sponsor. 

One quibble: why not more Chicago Cubs memorabilia?  That’s something you see more of in other team’s club spaces.

When the Cubs conducted focus groups and fan surveys gaging interest in such club spaces, restrooms were the biggest topic that came up, understandably given the trough urinal situation throughout the rest of the park. 

As you’d expect, the restrooms are impeccable with the similar theming.  And of course, they have a story connected to 1914.  Sloan’s first flush fountains and faucets were patented in 1914, and the Cubs were able to recreate the design and the finishes.

On décor and attention to detail alone, this is one of the three or so nicest spaces in Major League Baseball.  This isn’t the all-too-common stadium club design that looks like the Marriott lobby with no personality.     

1914 Club Food

Of the 27 MLB parks that have some sort of premium seating directly behind home plate, 21 have food included in the ticket price.

Comparatively speaking, the all-inclusive grub in the 1914 Club was average.  Not at the level of Yankee Stadium’s Legend Suite crab legs and lobster or Seattle’s Diamond Club scallops and specialty cuisine.  But they’re all pretty good; there’s a lot of competition here. I’m not one to complain about all-inclusive food!    

On my Memorial Day weekend Saturday – surely a time to bring out the best – the Cubs offered salsa verde striploin, ancho rubbed turkey breast, chicken drumsticks, roasted mushrooms, roasted carrots, Brussels sprout, potato skins, a variety of salads, and fresh fruit.  I didn’t see any nice pasta or carb options or charcuterie, a common offering in these clubs. 

Regular ballpark food included cheeseburger sliders, pretzel twists with nacho cheese, loaded waffle fries, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, three types of Pizza (not Chicago style, I say good), cheddar-style brats, and of course, hot dogs, including a stand dedicated to Chicago-style dogs. 

Grab and go stations included pre-packaged wraps and sandwiches, along with ballpark mainstays like peanuts, cracker jacks, and Garrett popcorn.  Desserts were solid enough.  Specialty ice cream station, cake pops, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc.  Regular coffee is available.      

The main food buffets stay open until around the fifth inning, and the dessert stations stay open until the middle of the eighth, both depending on the game and management’s discretion (just ask).

Watermelon and mint infused water stations are at the bar, and bottled water is available at the grab and go stations.  Some clubs skimp on bottle water – someone’s paying $$$ to sit here, and you only offer tap water at the bar? (see the South Side’s Scouts Club) – so I’m glad 1914 doesn’t do that. 

I sampled most of the grub, and I’ve had worse, but nothing wowed me.  The striploin was a tad tough too.  Obligatory caveat that club food can vary a lot by game.  But overall, this isn’t one of those clubs with gourmet food worth getting excited about, and I’ve heard that from other folks too.  It’s merely okay.  You’re paying for the great seats, the immaculate vibes, and the drinks.

1914 Club Drinks, Other Perks, and General Vibes

Drinks are where Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club blows every other MLB park club area out of the water.  Of MLB’s 21 all-inclusive home plate clubs, 13 include beer and wine in the ticket price (10 including the 1914 Club include beer, wine, and liquor).  If liquor is included, it’s usually mostly just mixed drinks.  A few include an ordinary all-inclusive cocktail menu (White Sox Scouts Club does have this). 

Only Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club has its own specialty curated craft cocktail menu with handmade drinks, and they’re specifically inspired by one of the world’s first cocktail recipe books from 1914!  And it’s all included in the ticket price! 

Just take the “1914 Pendennis Club Old Fashion.”  In 1914, Jacques Straub of The Pendennis Club in Louisville and the Blackstone in Chicago published “Drinks,” the cocktail recipe book that was perhaps the first in recorded history.  It was in “Drinks” where the “Old Fashion” cocktail was formally introduced to the world. 

Now, some of you by now are like, who cares?  But come on, how freaking cool is that?  1914.  Wrigley Field is born.  The Old Fashioned is ostensibly first documented.  Both in Chicago.  And you can have the original Old Fashioned in the 1914 Club at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. 

In fact, the genesis of the entire club’s design was partially inspired by this fact.  For a while, the Cubs had the recipe book on display.   

Maybe it’s just the ballpark business nerd in me that loves this, but regardless of how true the Old Fashioned origin story is, that kind of attention to detail is just phenomenal in any food and beverage program, certainly that of a sports stadium.  And I’m not even a fan of the Old Fashioned generally.

The rest of the specialty cocktail menu – you can view it here – was also inspired by Straub’s “Drinks.”  And baseball of course.  They vary by season, but “The Grapefruit League”, “The Cactus League”, and “The Chaperone” (my fav) were phenomenal.  I sampled them all for, um, research. These are handmade cocktails.  Real mixology.  Think egg whites. Also note the “Out of Left Field,” an idiom that legend has it started from fans hearing people at a mental institution beyond left field at the Cubs’ West Side Park. 

Every little detail, from the design to the drinks, has a story and a purpose!

Anyway, it’s no overstatement to say Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club has changed the game for cocktails in American sporting venues. Of course, you can ask the bartenders to make you any mixed drink or cocktail, and that’s included in the ticket price as well.   

The all-inclusive beer and wine are decent as well (not just house wine and ordinary suds are included, like some clubs).  Super high-end alcohol, including $875 Glenfiddich 4Q Scotch and a $1,050 Napa Valley Bordeaux, are available for purchase just in case you feel like spending more money.

There are also two ancillary bars serving craft beer and wine at the each end of the club by the stairs. I love this setup, because it allows fans to grab a drink quickly and head back to their seats without going to the crowded main bar.

Going from the most positive aspect of the 1914 Club to the most negative, the club may look spacious initially, but it gets way too crowded, to the point where there aren’t nearly enough chairs and tables for 700 fans.  Not even 400.  This shot was taken an hour before the game.    

That comes with the territory of dealing with limited pre-existing infrastructure dating back a century, but it’s something that negatively separates the 1914 Club from even the most unimaginative ultra-premium stadium clubs.    

However, that crowding engenders more of a free-wheeling social environment than a boring sit-down dining room and bar.  The marble free standing tables adjacent to the big bar are great places to meet and chat in large groups.    

This was one of my solo ballpark revisits, and I met some nice ladies here who won their tickets in a company raffle.  Coincidentally, they were seated two rows in front of me, and we had a great time.  The social aspect of the 1914 Club really cultivates an atmosphere where strangers meet and mingle. 

And that goes to my next point about the ambiance of Wrigley’s 1914 Club: the crowd isn’t stuffy.  It doesn’t have an investment banker vibe like premium spaces in New York, for example.  Plenty of Cubs jerseys.  Plenty of families.  Contrary to popular belief, corporations give out many of these tickets out as gifts, so it’s not like only rich people sit here. 

Also note that whether you’re seated or standing at a table like us, drink servers roam throughout the club to take your order.  From the bartenders to the in-seat vendors, the service throughout the club was phenomenal, and that’s not always a given by the way. Tips well deserved!  

1914 Club amenities and perks aren’t only limited to food, drinks, vibes, and great seats.  There’s a merchandise store selling exclusive Cubs gear that can only be found in the 1914 Club.  1914 Club-branded items (wine glasses, koozies, cardigans, etc.) can also be found here, although that seems kind of douchey.

If you buy some exclusive retail products, you don’t have to carry them around.  Fans have access to private lockers with custom brass-finished key tags.  The lockers are reminiscent of early 20th century post office boxes. 

Now, this isn’t unprecedented in MLB home plate clubs, but they’re usually season ticket-only, i.e. not for ordinary folks like me who buy the tickets on Stubhub.  Not here.  The lockers are first come, first serve, so as someone notorious for having misadventures with bobblehead giveaways, it was nice to be able to store Billy Williams safe and sound.  Plus, the lockers have built-in phone chargers!

No batting cage views from the 1914 Club, something featured in a small handful of other home plate clubs.  That’s saved for the Barrel Room and W Club down the first and third base line respectively.     

Let’s discuss the baseball aspect of all this.  Obviously, this space is meant to be enjoyed before and after the game only (or when the weather goes south), and the design reflects that. 

The team deliberately put only a handful of small TV monitors throughout the club, in contrast to the ginormous video displays in similar clubs across MLB.  The TV monitors give periodic reminders about when the game is going to start, even 30 minutes out, asking fans to “Please” head to their seats and cheer on the Cubs.  So, it doesn’t feel like a sports bar.

The team was obviously looking to avoid a Yankees-style P.R. disaster, where the club is so nice behind home plate, fans (inexplicably in my view) just watch the game on TV from the club and the seats look empty on TV.  Nice touch by the Cubs.   

So, without further ado, let’s head to the seats.           

1914 Club Seats and the Game

There are two stairways on each side of the club leading to the 1914 Club seating area.  The doors exit onto the aforementioned portal walkways on left and right side around sections 13 and 22 respectively, then you go through the portals and find your seats.  When going back and forth from your seats to the club, you’ll use one of these doors in the portals, not the one pictured above on the main concourse.

Compared to other MLB parks’ “TV seats,” notice anything unique about these?

They’re essentially regular ballpark seats with padded bottoms and wooden armrests.  As to not clash with Wrigley’s underlying aesthetic, they didn’t install the usual large “theatre-style” seats seen in every other ballpark home plate club.  They also won’t stand out on TV.  Another wise call.

The obvious downside is the seats aren’t nearly as comfortable as they should be for this $400-$695 price point.  Beyond the frivolous, many fans have complained that the 1914 Club seats are too tight, independent of the lack of extra comfort. I didn’t have a problem with mine, but that’s a big flaw.

One more fairly significant nitpick, and yes, nitpicks are fair at this price point: there’s no in-seat service beyond dedicated beer vendors.  That may be a first for a ballpark home plate club.  In others, there is an in-seat menu where you can order a variety of food and other drinks delivered to your seat.  That would go a long way to getting fans out of the club and into their seats.

The Cubs said snack vendors occasionally go up and down the aisle offering basic ballpark grub, but I must have missed it.  Still, no way to order food/drinks from your seat.

The dedicated beer vendors are solid, though.  They go up and down the aisle every inning or so offering fans not just the regular suds, but some decent craft beers as well.  Also free of any additional charge before tips.

Another nice touch is the extensive branding throughout the club.  “1914 Club” is embroidered on everything from the seats and cupholders to napkins and cups and even restroom hand towels.

I loved my seats in particular for this game.  Section AA21 on the right adjacent to the dugout, row 6 (far away enough so the netting doesn’t encumber views/photos), seat 11 one away from the aisle.  The 1914 club seats have 12-16 so seats per row, so you’re never too far from the aisle. 

As a relatively rare Wrigley Saturday evening game at 6:15, it was nice seeing the park at twilight too. 

The game itself wasn’t particularly memorable.  This was before Reds phenom Elly de la Cruz got called up, so I wasn’t yearning to see anyone in either lineup.  Both starting pitchers got beat up pretty badly in the early innings.  The Reds went up 5-4 on a three-run home run by 2021 N.L. Rookie of the Year Jonathan India in the fifth inning off reliever and forgotten former Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, who got heckled badly by one fan in particular (see hilarious video below).    

If you needed evidence that “real fans” sit here too, there you go!  It was a two-homer game for India, as he hit another in the seventh inning to put the Reds on top for good 8-5. 

This was my first glance at the Reds lights-out closer Alexis Diaz.  His stuff is dazzling up close.  I also got to see Cubs’ reliever Brandon Hughes pitch, who I met in the Zachary Hotel elevator (where I was staying) earlier that day.  As a recent callup, I wonder if he was living at the hotel short term? 

To add to the awesomeness, the 1914 Club stays open after the game.  And yes, the bar continues to serve free booze after the game!  The Cubs say it’s open one hour after the final pitch, but in actuality, it’s about 30-45 minutes, but that’s fine.  

Anyway, when you see 50-75 baseball games a year like me between my home (Houston) and road ballparks, sometimes going to a game is more about the “experience,” and that’s certainly the case with Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club. 

Are Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club seats “worth it?” 

This is obviously a highly subjective question, but for my and most people’s money, a ticket to a regular season baseball game is almost never worth $300-$800, whatever deal in that range you get on the secondary market. 

And that’s despite the fact that you’re getting a lot of value here.  Not only do you get Wrigley’s best seats and free food, but an open bar for 5+ hours. 

Depending on your predilections, that goes a long way in value, but that’s still not $300-$800 worth of value, in my opinion.  Unless you’re literally double fisting at the bar, I guess.  Now some clubs like those in Miami, D.C., and Pittsburgh that routinely bottom out in the $100-$200s?  For sure.  Maybe the 1914 Club will dip back into that range.      

But this isn’t really about value.  Is Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club worth it as a once-in-a-lifetime or a once-a-year experience?  Absolutely!  It’s one of the most memorable vibes in Major League Baseball.  A must-do for Cubs fans and ballpark aficionados alike.    

How does Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club compare to other MLB ballpark home plate clubs or premium seating experiences?

Very well.  I did a full accounting, and I’ve seen every home plate club, and I’ve had seats in every home plate club except those in Colorado, San Diego, and one of the two in Atlanta (yes, they have two, a super exclusive club within a regular exclusive club…this exercise can get ridiculous).  And I’ve also done Wrigley’s other clubs except the Maker Mark Barrel Room. 

On the plus side, the 1914 Club design is immaculate and memorable, something uniquely crafted to reflect Chicago and Wrigley Field, not something out of a generic first-class airport lounge.  There’s an almost comical level of attention to detail here, with an unmistakable “wow factor” and an atmosphere particularly conducive to hanging out and socializing before and after the game, not stuffy formal dining.

The drink game is the best of any all-inclusive space in MLB, with not just beer, wine, and liquor included, but a cocktail list with handmade drinks included bespoke to Wrigley Field.  The buzzword “bespoke” is thrown out a lot in hospitality, but in fact, the entire 1914 Club experience feels bespoke.

On the down side, the food selection and quality are pedestrian, relatively speaking of course.  The club is especially prone to crowding.  You’re not getting a table with seats unless you arrive more than 1 hour before the game.  And there’s no dedicated in-seat service other than beer vendors (and perhaps sometimes snack vendors), very unusual at this price point.     

The latter two are pretty significant flaws, but for me, the “wow factor” and vibes win the day. 

There just isn’t anything like the feel of this place in MLB.  It felt like a big Gatsby pre-and post-game party!  I rank and rate everything at Ballpark Ratings, and I’d put this on the periphery of the top-5 in ranking “best seats in Major League Baseball.”

So, Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club isn’t quite “the best” seat in MLB, but it is the coolest all things considered.  An opulent speakeasy emblematic of the era in which Wrigley Field opened.  These are Marlins Man seats worth splurging on, if I may say so as perhaps the person most qualified other than Marlins Man to compare.   

Full stop, taking the actual games out of the equation, this is perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had at a ballpark.      

The post The Coolest Seats in Baseball? 1914 Club at Wrigley Field Review appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

So naturally, it made perfect sense to finally revisit T-Mobile for the last homestand (June 30-July 2) before it hosts the 2023 All-Star Game events, with the anticipation of reviewing certain aspects of the park before and during the Midsummer Classic.  Everything was in tip-top shape for the national spotlight.

T-Mobile Park has historically been considered one of the best parks in baseball, receiving rave reviews upon opening for its “umbrella”-style retractable roof that doesn’t enclose the park and unparalleled array of modern amenities.  With a $500+ million price tag, an exorbitant amount for the late 1990s, almost no expense was spared.

By the late 2010s, it seemed like T-Mobile Park had faded from the limelight as a “must see” baseball cathedral, perhaps largely because of the Mariners decades-long irrelevance coupled with geographic isolation.  Hopefully the Mariners’ recent success and the All-Star Game bring it the attention it deserves!

Now, I have some issues with the stadium’s underlying design.  For just one example, the exterior architecture is utterly disjointed, with the third base side wrapped in red brick and the first base side exposed in unadorned steel, to say nothing of the clashing of the jet-black retractable roof/red brick. 

But T-Mobile is undoubtably a gem.  And in the spirit of the occasion, this will be a totally positive piece. Here are 12 things you must experience at the Seattle Mariners’ T-Mobile Park, besides the game, of course!

“The Pen”

“The Pen” is a social gathering area adjacent to both bullpens at field level in left field.  While many parks have crowd-pleasing setups allowing views into bullpens, The Pen allows fans to watch pitchers warm up mere feet away unobstructed by any visual barriers.  It’s on the shortlist of most fan-friendly spaces in MLB.

The Pen also features lounge areas, the Bullpen Bar, live music, and a center field patio where fans can walk up right against the fence.  It’s absolutely the first place to check out when visiting T-Mobile Park.

I briefly discuss T-Mobile Park’s delectable grub below, but it’s also where you’ll find some of the stadium’s best food. 

Local eateries in The Pen have varied widely since the concept debuted — in the past, the Mariners have mingled Mexican tortas stands and Parisian crepe kiosks, offered lobster rolls and local BBQ — but the restaurant-caliber quality has consistently been the very best of the best.

This year there’s Din Tai Fung, Lil’ Woody’s (best burgers), Ballard Pizza Co., along with Edgar’s Cantina.

The Rotunda, Including the Chandelier of Spiraling Bats

Many post-1990 “retro” MLB parks attempted to emulate Ebbets Field’s famous home plate rotunda — as many as six depending on your definition — but Seattle’s version is second in quality only to Citi Field’s Jackie Robinson Rotunda. 

Inside, fans are greeted by a bedlam of 1000 translucent bat replicas forming a massive swirling chandelier (called, “The Tempest”), serving as the focal point of the rotunda’s interior.  The bats are molded of resin and mounted on brushed aluminum spiraling forms. Lit with flickering incandescent lights, the piece conveys the power and movement of the swing of the bat.

Pay attention to the floors and ceilings as well.  The ground at street level consists of hues of seam foam greens and blues evoking the ocean, while the brown staircase represents the sands of the Pacific Coast.  The sun penetrates the rotunda’s open windows to highlight these concepts, as do the suspended blue light bulbs.  

Here’s the closeup. It’s one of baseball’s most rousing entryways and a prime example of T-Mobile Park’s attention to detail and qualities that go above and beyond what you would expect from a sports facility.

The Rest of the “Art in the Park”

Seattle’s T-Mobile Park is known for its phenomenal “Art in the Park.”  In fact, the Mariners’ pad has one of the most comprehensive public art displays in all of sports.  It’s one of many features that cultivated T-Mobile Park’s reputation as one of the best parks in MLB.

While The Tempest bat chandelier is the park’s signature piece, there are many other displays of note.  My other favorite is the 27-foot diameter terrazzo compass rose that sits on the main concourse behind home plate facing the rotunda, very much part of the rotunda’s appeal. 

A timeless icon of sea navigation and keystone of the Mariners’ logo, thirty-two mirrored cast glass rings, embedded within the terrazzo, surround stainless steel disks etched with the signatures of the inaugural team, thus providing a time capsule of the moment the ballpark officially opened on July 15, 1999.

Other iconic artistic flourishes include (a) “The Crowd,” a colorful 24-foot-long porcelain enamel showcasing fans and players, (b) Baseball “Quilts,” with recycled materials creating logos of all MLB teams, (c) “The Defining Moment,” capturing the Mariners’ win over the Yankees in the ’95 Division Series, and (d) “Positions on the Field,” murals in the upper deck concourse portraying legends representing the nine positions of the field.

That just scratches the surface.  Also don’t miss “The MITT” outside of the left field gate, a popular space to meet before and after the game.

Postcard Views from the Upper Deck in Right Field

Now for something a bit more accessible!  T-Mobile Park’s most scenic seats are down the first base line in the upper deck.  You can see the Downtown skyline, the Space Needle, and even the Seattle Great Wheel (Ferris wheel) at Pier 57.

Move further into the right field upper deck, and you can catch glimpses of Elliott Bay and distant views of the Olympic Mountain ranges. 

Even if you have seats down low, it’s absolutely worth your time to walk the upper deck for 15 minutes of so, especially because these panoramic views can’t be seen from the lower bowl.

The Food

T-Mobile Park has some of MLB’s very best food, with only San Diego’s Petco Park and New York’s Citi Field in the conversation for the #1 spot. 

I’m rolling out a full food guide shortly, but highlights include:

1. Seafood from Seattle institution Ivar’s and Wayback Crab Shack
2. Chinese cuisine from Din Tai Fung
3. Sushi and Poke from Just Poke
4. Hawaiian grub from Marination
5. Outstanding Pizza from both Ethan Stowell icon Ballard Pizza Co. and Detroit-style Moto Pizza (with a Filipino sensibility)
6. Burgers from Li’l Woody’s
7. Oaxacan cuisine from Edgar’s Cantina
8. Mac n’ Cheese by Beechers
9. Choice desserts from Salt & Straw, and
10. Healthy fare like acai bowls and avocado toast.

If you have to pick one, go with a pie from Moto Pizza.  Eater called it Seattle’s buzziest pizza, because there is a month’s long wait to get it the city’s main location. Naturally, another local publication declared that T-Mobile Park is essentially the only place to get a pie right now.

The Craft Beer (if you’re inclined to imbibe)

T-Mobile Park also has some of baseball’s best craft beer, with only the Padres’ aforementioned pad in the conversation for #1 here.

First of all, the distribution is nearly unmatched. Other parks may have dedicated areas/social spaces/restaurants that offer more beer in one place (see San Francisco’s Oracle’s Public House or White Sox park’s Craft Kave), but it seems like every stand in Seattle’s park has high-quality local craft beer, even in the upper deck.

They also utilize cutting-edge grab and go technology in their “Walk Up Markets” with tons of choice cans.  Just put in your card before entering the market, and you’re set. The systems can tell what you took from the market upon exiting, so you don’t have to check out.

Notable offerings include Pacific Northwest icons like Fremont Brewing, Reuben’s Brews, Georgetown Brewing, Bale Breaker, Black Raven Brewing, Ecliptic Brewing, Ninkasi Brewing. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is a craft beer lovers haven.

The Statues

The Ken Griffey Jr. statue outside the home plate rotunda entrance and the adjacent Edgar Martinez statue are popular meeting spots before the game.

Outside of the entrance to the kid’s playground in center field, the Children’s Hospital Wishing Well features a young child with a baseball bat preparing to swing for the fences.  The Wishing Well also features waterspouts around the statue for a fountain effect, which is supposed to be activated each time a Mariners player hits a home run.  Not sure if they still do this.

The statue of broadcaster Dave Niehaus on the center field concourse is the best of the bunch.  Many subtle touches with this one, including a tie from Dave’s collection (hand-picked by wife Marilyn and daughter Greta) and a scorebook open to Game 5 of the American League Division Series game against the Yankees (with Dave’s actual notes from the game). This may be the most detailed statue in all of baseball!

Edgar’s Cantina

Edgar’s Cantina is technically part of The Pen, but it can be easy to miss in the left field corner, so I’m including it separately.

The full-service eatery and bar is adorned with memorabilia from Edgar Martinez’ career and offers great standing room views from tables against the left field fence below the manual scoreboard.  A food menu, specialty cocktails, and full waiter service is available at Edgar’s too.

This also used to be the home of T-Mobile Park’s infamous chapulines, which translates to, wait for it, toasted grasshoppers!  However, there is an issue with their supplier in Mexico, so I was told it’s unknown (August was speculated) when they will come back.  But they are on the menu for this year.  Maybe back for the All-Star Game as a surprise?

The Mariners Hall of Fame and Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest

Like many ballparks, Seattle’s T-Mobile Park features a dedicated historical exhibit. In this case, it’s the Mariners Hall of Fame and Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest.

Integrated with the Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest, the Hall of Fame features displays and bronze plaques of the 10 inducted members, Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Dave Niehaus, Randy Johnson, Lou Pinella, Ichiro, Alvin Davis, Dan Wilson (for some reason), and Jaime Moyer.

Each dedication briefly describes their achievements and includes TV highlights of their careers. The area also includes player memorabilia and a picture cut out of each player.

The Pacific Northwest exhibition is particularly interesting, featuring displays regarding the Pilots, memorabilia from Sicks Stadium, Seattle All-Star games, and the history of Seattle stadiums. There’s also a bust of Emil Sicks (“the man who saved baseball in Seattle”), Gold Glove displays, the original Kingdome dugout bench, and the bats first used at the Kingdome and Safeco Field.

The coolest concept is the replica outfield wall, where kids can pretend to be outfielders robbing home runs. There’s also a timeline of the history of the Mariners, plus an exact replica of Ken Griffey Jr.’s locker stall!

To top it all off, the museum includes its own bar with outstandingly valued ($6) 12-ounce high quality craft beers.

The Railroad Tracks

Some ballpark enthusiasts find this annoying (trains whistling by beyond right field during the game), but I find it cool.  A series of railroad tracks sit below the retractable roof beyond right field.

Worth a gander from the upper deck concourse in right field or the center field bleachers. 

The Trident Deck, Rooftop Boardwalk, and Corresponding Views

T-Mobile Park added a nice series of social spaces in the upper deck in the late 2010s/early 2020s.  Located in the left field corner, the Trident Deck showcases great views of the field and Seattle landmarks, including the skyline.  This is also the only space with a full-service bar in the upper deck.  It’s sometimes closed for private parties, however. 

Seattle’s pad has always been known for great views of Elliott Bay and greater Puget Sound from the upper deck concourse, and that concept was enhanced by the addition of the Rooftop Boardwalk.

Located above the rotunda, the Boardwalk features elevated viewing areas with drink rails, tables, and coolest of all, tower viewers allowing fans to see even Washington’s most distant natural features.

The Diamond Club (if you can afford it or have connections)

All but three MLB parks feature some sort of ultra-premium seating in the first rows behind home plate, and most of those include access to all-inclusive VIP clubs like this one.  So, I only choose to highlight Seattle’s version because it’s one of the very best.

Newly renovated for the 2023 season, the Diamond Club consists of the first eight rows of the theatre style seats behind home plate and includes access to a gorgeous club with everything included in the ticket price.  A gourmet buffet, action cooking stations, ballpark food, beer, wine, liquor, handmade cocktails.  The works.

That all isn’t too unusual, but naturally for being brand new, this club is notable for its fit and finish, incomparable design, and attention to detail. 

A 20-foot wide 4k television above the bespoke bar.  An expresso bar.  A candy wall and a creamery.  Dining booths are named after Mariners’ legends.  Outside of the club’s entrance at the service level, there’s a giant mural of Ken Griffey Jr. blowing bubble gum, light feature included.  Inside, there’s the massive “My Oh My” baseball card wall with 1000s of cards showcasing the full spectrum of Mariners’ history.  And plenty of artwork inside of the club. 

Plus, the in-seat service is particularly outstanding, where servers will bring you not just ballpark items, beer, and wine, but essentially anything, including craft cocktails from the bar.

I don’t always recommend these VIP home plate clubs (at $500+ per game, is it worth the cost?), but this one is special.  If you’re a diehard Mariners’ fan or a ballpark enthusiast, save up and do this once in your lifetime. Full review of this experience coming soon.    

The post 12 Things You Must See at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

For my MLB ballpark revisits—my game count for the average stadium is now approaching the mid-high single digits—I’ve been trying to make a habit of returning for prime series.  Less random weekday games, more holiday weekends and playoff games. 

I’ve been to every ballpark enough to know what I think of it.  Now, I want see ballparks at their best.  Just from an operational perspective, to say nothing of the energy in the stadium, it makes a world of difference.

Nowhere is that more apparent than at loanDepot Park (Marlins Park), which goes from operating at 1/3^rd capacity during Marlins games to the center of the baseball universe every four years during the World Baseball Classic. 

So, here’s the rub on Marlins Park: it routinely ranks in the bottom 5-10 of MLB venues for reasons that, in my opinion, probably have little to do with the building itself.  Even after the Jeter-era alternations removed much of what made Marlins Park distinctive on the inside, it’s still an architecturally marvelous structure. 

But the mere mention of “Marlins Park” congers up contentious political issues surrounding its financing, an incompetent franchise with two widely maligned ownership groups during its short existence, and most of all, sparse crowds.

And unlike other persistently empty parks – think the universally acclaimed PNC Park in Pittsburgh – the attendance issues lead to large areas of the ballpark being shut down. 

Marlins Park’s upper deck essentially hasn’t been used for all but one year of its existence, save Opening Days.  Major amenities lie dormant.  Concession stands are closed.  For that reason, it’s hard to separate the poor attendance from the actual ballpark here, so a bottom-10 ranking is warranted.

If I could sum up Marlins Park in one sentence, I’d go with “it’s too bad no one comes here.”

The 2023 World Baseball Classic was a reminder of what this ballpark could be, a packed house firing on all cylinders if Miami could field a respectable franchise. 

Regardless, I’ve always had a soft spot for Marlins Park.  I attended the second game ever here and almost caught the first home run ball ever hit in the park.  I’ve coincidentally sat by celebrities and politicians, and I’ve sat in the stands with Jose Fernandez and Christian Yelich when they were top prospects in 2012, which was just about the most fluky thing ever. I’ve attended an Opening Day here and have now seen 10 packed WBC games.

But this latest trip made me see the park in a whole new light.  Now, will it change my ranking of the place?  No.  Again, this is a once in every four years thing.  I’ve now been to Marlins Park 21 times, so I have a pretty good sense of the usual experience.   

But this five-game World Baseball Classic QF/SF/Championship Game stretch was arguably the most fun I’ve ever had at a ballpark!

This is my first post in a series of “ballpark revisits,” where I will outline my experience at a stadium in a pithier (or try to!), informal manner in the order in which I saw everything versus a long-form methodical and formulaic ballpark review where I “rate” the park.

If you want to see how I “rate” and “rank” the park, see the scorecard in the full, in-depth review (the ratings are up to date, although the actual review is not).

The vast majority of my blog posts will be quickly digestible, and while the “ballpark revisits” will be longer, this one is especially long considering the significance of the event and that it’s no longer opportune to roll this out in multiple posts.  So, pardon the length.

These ballpark revisits will include details about the games, which I do in brief below.  However, since the World Baseball Classic is such a unique affair, that deserves its own post at a time when the WBC is newsworthy again.  I’m positively obsessed with the WBC, having been to games in each iteration (‘06, ‘09, ‘13, ‘17, and now ‘23), so I’ll have to expound about that in more detail another time!

Below is a deep dive into my gameday experience at Marlins Park during the 2023 World Baseball Classic Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Championship Game.

Getting There, Location, and Local Scene

One of Marlins Park’s biggest flaws is its location in sleepy Little Havana, separated from the vibrancy of Brickell, where the park’s architecture would have fit in smashingly. 

It looks like a 1950s dystopian film out of Cuba where a modern American space ship crashed into a neighborhood of unassuming Havana houses. 

On the scale of ballpark locations, this was in the “just get this place built wherever we can” category, as this setting on the site of the old Orange Bowl was the Marlins’ last choice.  

Accessibility is poor.  (1) It’s not particularly drivable, and for big events, you’ll be fighting the brutal Miami traffic.  Although for Marlins games, this obviously isn’t a big issue.  The parking garages adjacent to the park are always available, because season-ticket parking never lived up to expectations, so say the least. 

(2) Public transit isn’t easy, requiring multiple stops and modes of transportation, without any rail going directly to the park.  And (3) Little Havana isn’t walkable from any points of interest, although Calle Oche is one mile south.  The triple whammy of poor accessibility. 

Moreover, the local scene is one of the worst in MLB, without many restaurants and bars in the vicinity for pre and post-gaming.  With the Batting Cage Sports Bar & Lounge now closed, all you’ll note in the area is a Wendy’s.  This may not be a suburban “parking lot stadium,” and that’s a plus, but it’s still very much an “in and out ballpark.”

To that former point though, there is something unique and charming about Marlins Park’s Little Havana location.     

Since the dawn of the post-1990 ballpark-building boom, 22 new ballparks have opened (we won’t count the two already defunct ballparks in Atlanta and Arlington).  17 are surrounded by varying densities and qualities of bars and restaurants in downtown or some kind of mixed-use development.  Only 4 sit in isolated parking lots. 

Marlins Park is the only one that’s located in a residential neighborhood, much like, just in terms of the residential aspect, Wrigley Field.  Now sure, that doesn’t offer much for the fans experience, but I find it cool.  Let’s make one final thing clear: Little Havana isn’t the ghetto, but more of a typical lower-middle class community.

But taking the suboptimal locale, inconvenient accessibility, and barren pre-and-post game bar and restaurant scene all together, Marlins Park has one of MLB’s worst settings.  

The Architecture

While it doesn’t fit in with the Little Havana neighborhood, my favorite aspect of Marlins Park is its abstract neomodern contemporary architecture, which will probably be the park’s long-term legacy.

I’ll save a full architectural analysis for another piece, but just look at other MLB parks.

We have the jewel-box classics (Wrigley and Fenway), mid-century modern (Dodger), modernist (Kauffman), brutalist (Oakland), utilitarian (Tropicana), retro-classic (too many to name), retro-modern (too many to name), and a few others I’ll just call “confused.”

Marlins Park is the only MLB park in baseball history with a contemporary style in the 21st century sense of the word.

Not one brick. Not one stone. No exposed steel. No Ebbets Field rotunda. This is indeed the starkest stylistic departure since Camden Yards, as 24 other ballparks since 1990 (including three renovated ones) feature at least one of these elements.  In a crowned landscape of retro and faux-retro venues, Marlins Park stands alone.

The structure consists of an amalgam of deep blue glass, white stucco and steel, unadulterated concrete, and sparkling silver aluminum. With its graceful forms, Marlins Park conceptually captures sea merging with land, spiritually akin to Brickell and Biscayne Bay downtown. It’s an abstract expression of Miami.

Marlins Park’s lines and curves are dazzling, continually clashing then flowing in various rhythms, just like the Atlantic Ocean. Through it all, the fluidity of form is the main theme. It does perfectly reflect the contemporary nature of a city that never really embraced nostalgia in the 21st century.

It’s all absolutely gorgeous, in what is “all about art, architecture, and Miami.” Marlins Park’s emphasis on visual aesthetics instead of money-grabbing “experiences” with afterthought architecture is so refreshing in the age of the mallpark.

The infamous home run sculpture, Homer, now sits outside.

The West Plaza

After exploring the site and admiring the exterior, you’ll want to enter Marlins Park’s West Plaza.  You’ll have to pass through security, but you can access this area without a game ticket. 

The West Plaza was originally envisioned as fun-filled communal gathering space to counterbalance the paucity of pre-game options in Little Havana, but it often isn’t properly activated during Marlins games.

The WBC showed what this space could look like with a competitive team. 

The plaza had plenty of popup bars, live music on a concert stage, batting cages, and some neat street art.  After Japan won the WBC, the fun continued post-game with more live music.

Exploring the Main Seating Bowl and U.S.-Venezuela Quarterfinal Game

Marlins Park’s seating bowl is pretty standard, with some interesting variations.  Starting in the lower bowl, Marlins Park features the typical 40+ lower level backed by an open main concourse.  Like most MLB venues that opened in the 21st century, there is a “moat” separating the prime dugout box seats and the home plate club from the rest of the lower bowl.

Yankee Stadium gets regularly dragged for this, but it’s actually a pretty common design.

Starting in the left field corner, you’ll note Marlins Park features a curvilinear seating design down the lines, as opposed to the usual angular seating formula with seats down the lines angled toward home plate.  However, the seating geometry down the lines is still excellent, with all seats in effect oriented toward the infield.

The mezzanine utilizes fairly aggressive cantilevers pushing it roughly 15 rows above the lower bowl.  Not too unusual, but a big plus.  Moreover, with no separate suite level above the mezzanine and the upper deck cantilevered far over the mezzanine, nosebleed seats here aren’t too bad. 

All post-1990 parks push the common fan sitting in the upper levels too far from the action, but Marlins Park is one of the better ones, just comparatively speaking.     

If you haven’t been to Marlins Park in a while, you’ll note the interior aesthetic was dramatically toned down under the Jeter-era ownership.  Under the influence of former owner Jeffrey Loria, an art dealer, Marlins Park was conceptualized as an art gallery inspired by Spanish surrealist Joan Miro. See the before version here.

Gone are the gaudy lime green walls out of a Rainforest Café and splashes of color throughout the seating facades.  Gone is the concourse design divided into four color-coded sections, each tone based on Miro’s palatte.  Gone is the fish tank behind home plate.  And of course, gone is the, um, lurid home run sculpture!

As John Oliver once said, Marlins Park looks like it was originally designed by “a coked-up Willy Wonka.”

It has become extremely fashionable to mock these features (particularly the home run sculpture), but overall, I kind of liked the old setup.  It fit Miami!  And it was one of a kind! 

Plus, in an era of both neoclassical parks too derivative of Camden Yards and a newer generation of generic mallparks that look like they were picked out of a box that said “baseball stadium,” the sculpture and color scheme made Marlins Park one of the most unique parks in baseball, however idiosyncratic.

That being said, I like the new look too.  It’s more subdued but undoubtably more aesthetically pleasing, highlighted by the sleek white party deck matching the exterior aesthetic and the faux shrubbery throughout the outfield.  Sure, the new design is a bit generic, but it looks clean and still has the strong architectural forms and curvature of the outside. 

So, I’m probably in the extreme minority who have positive things to say about both the before and the after!  The former appearance was divisive and didn’t fit traditional notions of baseball, while the current look is more pleasant but conservative.

I think the transition in styles is best characterized by the change in first impressions when entering the park behind home plate.  Originally, you were greeted by a dazzling Joan Miro mural, which was incredibly memorable but had a strong “wtf factor” for a ballpark.  Now, you are greeted by a team banner.  Only Miami could get by with the former; a team in any city could do the latter. 

In terms of the fundamentals of the retractable roof design, I think the Marlins should have emulated Minute Maid Park (Houston), where the entirety of the left side opens when the roof is open. 

In Miami, the roof just opens at the top, like a sunroof, and the left field panels retract to the side. In Houston, the roof line extents much lower, exposing the entirety of left field and part of center field to the elements.  In other words, when open, Marlins Park is like a coupe with the sunroof open and the windows down, similar to parks in Milwaukee and Arizona.  Minute Maid Park is like a retracted convertible.

Of course, that rarely matters because both of these parks open their roof for 1-3 games a year now (yes, it’s that bad).  And to my dismay, despite some wonderful weather, Marlins Park’s roof was closed throughout the WBC to keep the conditions uniform, something the park hadn’t done in 2013 or 2017. 

That’s a shame because Marlins Park has an unexpectedly captivating view of Downtown Miami and Brickell when the panels are open, which you can kind of see below through the closed panels.

Anyway, more on the interior when I explore some upper deck views.  Despite my quibble above, I think Marlins Park’s interior aesthetics are fairly strong for an oft-enclosed retractable roof park, however low that bar may be. 

My bud and I had phenomenal seats for the U.S.-Venezuela quarterfinal game.  Second row behind the home plate club (PNC Club) portal, about 15 rows from home plate.

This was a back-and-forth affair, with the U.S. jumping out to a 3-0 first inning lead, only to be down 7-5 going into the eighth inning. 

In the midst of his now-legendary WBC hot streak, Trea Turner proceeded to hit a top of the eighth grand slam on a 0-2 pitch to put the U.S. ahead 9-7 for good, advancing his country to the WBC semifinals.

This game was also notable for the 2 home runs hit by contact hitter Luis Arraez (3 home runs total and a .392 batting average in 2023 as of the date of this post!) and for Jose Altuve being hit by Daniel Bard, which placed him on the IL for two months.  

These seats were great for people watching, so I got a glimpse of the infamous Marlins Man coming up from his seats behind home plate.  During my regular season ballpark revisits across MLB, I always try to see one game in these home plate clubs, so I coincidentally sat right across the aisle from him behind home plate in Kansas City in 2018.  Seemed like a nice guy. 

Field Level Seating and Puerto Rico-Mexico Quarterfinal Game  

2023 was the year common baseball fans caught on to unadulterated joy that is the World Baseball Classic. 

All-Star Game talent without All-Star Game prices.  World Series importance without World Series prices.  Growing the game internationally.  An influx of different baseball cultures.  One-of-a-kind teammate pairings.  One-of-a-kind matchups (Ohtani v. Trout!  See below).  Ideal underdog stories.  And just the right amount of passion, where fans from other countries are all-in, but not at Brazil-in-the-World Cup levels, thank God, so it’s fun no matter what.      

Fans appear to have really caught on to the former two points, as this WBC was significantly more expensive than past years.  At the 2013 and 2017 WBC, I was able to get those “Marlins Man seats” at ridiculously discounted prices. 

I even had seats in the first row behind home plate for one big game in 2017, where I took this video of Jose Bautista’s throw that saved the D.R. from instant elimination, which I have to say, is one of my best!  You want to see passion of the WBC in one clip, that’s it.     

Anyway, tickets in the PNC Club behind home plate were going for $1000s this time around, so hard pass on that!  But I did get a good deal in the low $100s in the Third Base Dugout Club (now dubbed the “Humana Cabana”) on the field down the line for Puerto Rico-Mexico.

Perks here include a private entrance, padded theatre-style seats, in-seat service, and access to a fairly pedestrian private lounge.  There is a nearly identical setup down the first base line, although the lounge has a different design, one that dates back to when the ballpark opened in 2012. 

Pro tip: anyone with a Clubhouse Box ticket, i.e. behind the dugout below the “moat,” has access these lounges, not just Dugout Club ticket holders.  That’s not advertised. 

Anyway, this game was a lot of fun.  In my experience, this is the area where Billy the Marlin is often hanging out for some reason and also where the team takes many fan videos to put on the big screen.

This was another comeback, but this time it was a fairly big upset.  Puerto Rico went ahead 4-0 in the first inning led by back-to-back homers by Javier Baez and Eddie Rosario.  Mexico chipped away with runs in the second and the fifth, before putting up a three spot in the bottom of the seventh to put it ahead 5-4 for good. 

Mexico’s Randy Arozarena was the MVP of this one for his multiple herculean defensive plays, including a leaping game-saving catch in the bottom of the 8th to preserve Mexico’s lead.

Our seats were on the Mexico team side, so I had a number of memorable interactions with team players and fans, including a selfie with Mexican second baseman and Rays prospect Jonathan Aranda.

Exploring the Main Concourse and Amenities

Back to the ballpark!  Scenes from the Semifinals and Championship Game to come.

After checking out the West Plaza, fans take escalators, stairs, and ramps up to the main concourse, as Miami’s water table doesn’t allow the field to be sunken for the main concourse to be at street level, as is the case with the most parks.

Functionally, the main concourse (dubbed “Prominade Level”) is state-of-the-art.  The latest in an iteration of many parks to take a page from Denver’s Coors Field (1995), the main concourse is completely open to the field across the 360-degree system.  Unlike newer parks, there aren’t suites or clubs on the main concourse blocking views at any point.

It’s ample in size, especially for Marlins games, but also for capacity crowds like these ones. It also doesn’t have any annoying horizontal encumbrances (see Milwaukee, for example) or vertical discontinuities when transitioning from infield to outfield (see San Diego or Pittsburgh, for example).

Everything is welcomingly navigable, wide, and open.  Boring topic, and it seems simple, but many parks manage to screw this up in various subtle ways. 

The concourse color scheme was changed to more conversative blue hues in recent years, a departure from the idea of visually dividing the park into four quadrants monochromatically marked with bright shades of yellow, green, red, blue inspired by Spanish artist Joan Miro. Kind of like the outfield aesthetic, the new look is more attractive, but the old design was more distinctive and such a neat concept.

Transitioning to left field, the concourse narrows a bit if the panel is closed, but fans are treated to a close up of Marlins Park’s retractable roof mechanisms and smashing views of the cityscape.  When the roof and panel is open, this area widens considerably into an outdoor patio the Marlins call the Skyline Terrace.

The Budweiser Bar and new party deck in left field are fun places to hang out and watch batting practice before the game.  And they serve as some of baseball’s best standing-room only areas for the rare capacity crowds like these.

There are a handful of interesting attractions throughout the main concourse to check out before the game, although Marlins Park’s amenities generally don’t compare to those of the best parks.

Once you reach center field, don’t miss the Bobblehead Museum.  Now, “museum” is a bit of a misnomer, but the glassed-in, 360-degree display case showcases 609 bobbleheads that have a vibrating mechanism so that the heads are always in motion.

It’s the largest permanent and public display of bobbleheads in the big leagues and features not just baseball players, but also mascots and broadcasters.

Adjacent to the Bobblehead Museum is the much more underwhelming Billy’s Boathouse.  All but two MLB parks have kids’ entertainment zones (only Wrigley, and inexplicitly, Houston’s Minute Maid Park lack them), but this sad little area is one of the worst.  It looked closed and looks merely decorative anyway. 

Located in an enclave behind home plate off the main concourse, the new Biscayne Bay Brew Hall was our group’s go-to area to hang out before the game.  The beer selection is a huge disappointment, but the space itself is pretty well-appointed, with a long bar with bar stools, communal tables, a performance stage, and a large video display.

Marlins Park formerly lacked the “social spaces” that have become all the rage across MLB, so this is a nice addition.

On beautiful spring evenings like these, I also love Marlins Park’s scenic outdoor patios with tables and chairs, and the one outside the Brew Hall overlooking the West Plaza is the best of the bunch.  It’s where you’ll find me before a Marlins game!

The Food and Drinks

While they pulled out all of stops for the WBC, Marlins Park excels in offering a tremendous quality and variety of Latin cuisine.  Almost all of the below is available during Marlins games as well.

Over the course of the five-game stretch, we sampled all of it.  Pan Con Bistec and Cuban sandwiches, Magic City BBQ, Miami’s Best Pizza (surprisingly good!), rice bowls, ceviche, tequeños, arepas, croquetas, empanadas, and sushi are the highlights.

I sample a lot of ballpark food, and I think the Marlins generally hit it out of the park here.  Only the cheesesteaks are terrible, unpopular opinion.

The craft beer selection, on the other hand, is one of the worst in MLB and a travesty given that this is in Miami.  It was actually worse than I expected this time around.  The hope was the aforementioned Biscayne Bay Brew Hall would enliven the scene, but they only had three decent beers on tap (the best from Mahou, a Spanish brewery) and the standard cuds in cans.  Nice space, but doesn’t really function as a beer hall!  There’s little craft beer of note throughout the rest of the stadium. 

I generally avoid stadium pre-game frozen drinks, but the piña coladas were tasty, seemingly on par with what we had by the pool at the Kimpton downtown, so pretty good!

Exploring the Upper Deck and U.S.-Cuba Semifinal Game  

I can’t get over the fact that since the first year after opening (2013), the entirety of Marlins Park’s upper deck has been dormant save the occasional big game, Opening Days, the WBC.  So, this was a rare opportunity!

The upper deck seating bowl design is definitely a strange one, with weird breaks in the structure and gaps necessitated by the columns supporting the retractable roof.

Looking down the middle into the outfield behind home plate, plenty of natural light is emitted not only through the left field panel, but also the glass above the right field Home Run Porch.

Putting aside the fact that the roof is never open, I think the outfield aesthetics are strong for a retractable roof park.  Simple, clean, free-flowing lines without gimmicks.  A comparative lack of tacky ads (take note Houston!).  The new greenery does a lot of work.

Seattle’s T-Mobile Park has a roof that doesn’t enclose the park, in what is basically a glorified umbrella, so that’s a different animal. But comparing the climate-controlled retractable roof parks, I think Marlins Park has the most aesthetically pleasing interior scene.  And as outlined above, it the strongest exterior design by an overwhelming margin.

Marlins Park scores the highest on my cumulative “architecture and aesthetics” scorecard for any retractable roof ballpark.  Again, it’s too bad no one comes here!

Heading over to the left side of the upper deck, you can catch a beautiful glimpse of the impressive left field architecture.

Given that it’s so rarely in use, the upper deck concourse is almost totally bereft of amenities or interesting features, to the point where only basic ballpark food items are served.  This doesn’t jive with new ballpark trends, where architects are putting amenities up top comparable to those below.  Nothing to see here.

We sat in the lower part of the upper deck below the cross aisle for the U.S.-Cuba semifinal game, which was a 14-2 U.S. blowout on the field, but quite eventful otherwise. 

This was the first time the Cuban national team played in Miami since early in Fidel Castro’s reign, so protects were rife inside and out of the stadium.  Some Cuban-Americans in Miami see the Cuban national team as a proxy for the regime. 

A majority of Cubans in the park were rooting for the Cuban team, but Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert, the two active MLB players who chose to play for the Cuban national team, were roundly booed.  Different protesters stormed the field on two or three occasions, most notably when Moncada batted in the fifth inning. 

Once the blowout was underway in the fifth, chants of “Libertad” and “Patria y Vida” became more frequent. 

The Recess Sports Lounge

Others chose to party in the Recess Sports Lounge, which became quite raucous once the game became uncompetitive. 

Marlins Park was known for its left field pool area (The Clevelander), but that closed before the 2020 season.  The Recess Sports Lounge that took its place is basically the same concept, sans pool.

While there’s the absurd policy of requiring $150 per person in food/alcohol spending to “reserve” a table overlooking the field, the rest of the area/tables are accessible to all fans with a ticket.  They’ll give you a wristband upon entry, and you can spend as much time here as you want.

Anchored by suspended faux cherry blossoms, it is a beautiful space, notable for its specialty cocktail menus, high-end (but ridiculously overpriced, like Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills overpriced!) food options, bullpen views, and outdoor patio with foosball and other games.  By the middle of the game, it turns into a full-blown nightclub.

An actual nightclub with live music in a ballpark is something, but placing it feet from the field?  That’s something you’ll only see in Miami! 

Given its positioning in left field, I spotted Padres general manager A.J. Preller scouting Japanese start starter Rōki Sasaki during his warm up tosses before the Japan-Mexico semifinal game.  If the Padres sign him a few years from now, you heard it here first!

The Legends Level and Japan-Mexico Semifinal Game

Marlins Park’s “Legends Level” is its de-facto mezzanine club level, something present in all but one MLB park that opened from 1991 (New Comiskey Park) to 2012 (Marlins Park).  Somehow, Marlins Park’s version is probably the weakest of the bunch!

The concourse isn’t enclosed or spruced up, like you usually see.  No concourse lounges.  No enhanced food or drink selection.  In fact, there are few concession stands at all.  No in-seat service.  The signature right field bar lies dormant, even for these sold-out games.  Some restrooms were even out of order.

In fact, the amenities are better almost across the board on the main concourse.  Perhaps the highlight from an aesthetic point of view are these shimmering oblong bars (which had, *checks notes* no beers on tap).  Although, the seats are fully padded, theatre style, which is unusual for an entire mezzanine club level.

The suites are indeed spiffy, and the some come with their own private concourse within the already restricted Legends Level concourse!

Seriously though, I’ve sat here on a handful of occasions over the years because I prefer watching the game in a slightly elevated position, but I think twice about sitting here considering the facilities are better on the main concourse in my opinion, which is just crazy.

The game was a classic, however.  Scoreless through the third, Luis Urias hit a three-run bomb to give Mexico a 3-0 lead.  Randy Arozarena made yet another spectacular defense play in the bottom of the fifth, robbing Kazuma Okamoto of a home run.  The Red Sox Masataka Yoshida answered with a three-run blast of his own for the foul pole to tie the game 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh

Mexico entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead, but Munetaka Murakami hit a game winning double off Cardinals’ star closer Giovanny Gallegos to send Japan to the WBC finals for the third time in five tournaments.   

The Art in the Park

Marlins Park has maintained most of its cool artwork inside and out from its original “gallery inspired” design.

I’ll keep this to a minimum in this space, but notable pieces include that gaudy home run sculpture “Homer” now sitting outside the park in the left field corner, Kenny Scharf’s “Playball” spanning multiple floors behind home plate, a reprint of Roy Lichtenstein’s “Baseball Manager” on the main concourse, and Orange Bowl letters integrated into the concrete outside the left field gate as if they had fallen from the sky.

Love it!

Notice Anything Missing?

If you’ve been to other MLB parks, the paucity of team historical references/exhibits/memorabilia/etc. inside and out of Marlins Park sticks out.  The park has some lame posters at ground level outside of the Recess Sports Lounge and two newly added championship banners in the upper left field corner.  That’s it.

Depending on definitions, roughly 8 MLB parks have museums.  Another 15 or so have some sort of dedicated team historical exhibit(s) or memorabilia dispersed throughout the concourses in some creative fashion.  Almost all remaining stadiums do something to explicitly honor the team’s history. 

Only Marlins Park and the consensus three worst MLB venues, Oakland Coliseum (A’s), Tropicana Field (Rays), and Rogers Centre (Blue Jays), lack a statue.  And where are the two Marlins’ World Series trophies?  Other teams display their World Series trophies somewhere in the park. 

This is a conspicuous oversight for a modern-day MLB ballpark.

You may be saying, the Marlins are a relatively young franchise, so this is understandable.  Yet the Diamondbacks and Rays, both born in 1998, from dedicated memorabilia exhibits.  Are the Marlins trying to make fans forget they won two World Series titles?

The WBC Championship Game

Compared to past WBC Championships, the 2023 matchup attracted considerable attention.  The U.S. lineup was awash with superstars up and down the lineup, and this was the first Japan-U.S. Championship matchup.   

If there was one downside, it’s that a final with the D.R., Venezuela, or Puerto Rico would have brought much more energy in Miami.  Despite the hype, tickets on the secondary market dropped after all three were eliminated. 

In the second inning, Trea Turner hit a solo home run off Japan starting pitcher Shōta Imanaga, matching Lee Seung-yuop’s record from the 2006 tournament for the most home runs in a single WBC tournament.

Shortly after, Munetaka Murakami tied the game with a solo home run off U.S. starting pitcher Merrill Kelly.  Japan loaded the basis with singles from Kazuma Okamoto and Sosuke Genda, along with a walk to Yuhei Nakamura. Aaron Loup replaced Kelly, and Lars Nootbaar’s RBI ground out put Japan in the lead. In the fourth inning, Kazuma Okamoto added another run with a solo home run off Kyle Freeland to put Japan up 3-1.  Kyle Schwarber hit a solo home run off Yu Darvish to bring the United States closer at 3-2 in the eighth inning.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, something close to the storybook ending of baseball’s two best players facing each other materialized.  Shohei Ohtani was brought in to close the game.  Ohtani struck out his Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout to clinch the tournament victory for Japan.  Only Trout hitting a game winning home run off Ohtani would have topped this.  

Ohtani’s outstanding performance throughout the WBC earned him the most valuable player award, boasting a .435 batting average and a pitching earned run average of 1.86

Leaving

The one thing that put a damper on the entire WBC experience was what a pain it was to catch an Uber after the game.  The Marlins have never really had to figure this out during the regular season due to sparse attendance, and it showed.  The Marlins geofenced the area around the ballpark, directing fans to walk around 15 minutes to the Uber area, which was poorly marked and incredibly congested. 

On average, we were back in Downtown Miami, roughly two miles from the stadium, two hours after the game.  It would have been easier to walk two miles, but the route from Marlins Park to Downtown Miami isn’t at all walkable.  Such a frustrating location.      

How Does Marlins Park Rank and Compare to Other MLB Ballparks?

While one of MLB’s worst settings holds it back, Marlins Park has unquestionable curb appeal as one of the only venues in baseball with “Capital A” architecture.

The interior aesthetic is sleek and handsome.  The retractable left field panels reveal surprisingly beautiful views of Brickell/Downtown Miami.  I adore the contemporary baseball-related artwork sprinkled throughout the concourses.   

The park is supremely functional, with a wide, open main concourse without interruptions in field visibility and excellent sightlines.  There are significant omissions/blemishes, but the park has some decent amenities, namely scrumptious Latin food options, the new Beer Hall, the Recess Sports Lounge, the Bobblehead Museum, and one of baseball’s best home plate clubs.

And yet, it still ranks #22 out of 30 MLB parks in my book, as you can see by my updated ratings scorecard.  For a Marlins game, a ballpark this empty just isn’t a fun one.  Attendance this poor has operational effects beyond a listless atmosphere. 

What if a WBC atmosphere was present for Marlins games?  Marlins Park would probably land somewhere more toward the middle of the pack, and with 26 or so good venues in MLB, middle of the pack is strong. 

But regardless of who is playing, Marlins Park’s dazzling contemporary architecture and aesthetics make it a must visit for stadium enthusiasts.              

The post Ballpark Revisit: Miami’s LoanDepot Park for the 2023 World Baseball Classic appeared first on Ballpark Ratings.

This site was launched years ago as a fun little exercise in ranking and “rating” MLB ballparks.  Given my exposure baseball and travel at a young age, I found (and find) it an intriguing project after seeing all 30 MLB parks on many occasions. 

But Ballparkratings.com certainly felt stuck in Web 1.0 for too long, without a centralized platform to create a rapid stream of more pithy content, to say nothing of a lack of big social media presence beyond Facebook.  We basically had static pages of long-form ballpark reviews rating the parks, with occasional feature articles and posts. 

This long overdue redesign should allow me to post more interesting and frequent content.  I won’t drone on too much about me or the website in detail and why I bother doing this in this space, but I like to highlight is that this is a passion project, not a business.  I simply love ballparks and see this as a vehicle to voice my opinions and share my photos.  No sponsored content.  No affiliate links.  No crowdfunding solicitation.  Etc., Etc.  Every topic posted reflects my genuine interest in it.   

Here’s a guide of what’s new and what’s to come on Ballparkratings.com.

Weekly New Content in Blog Posts. 

I understand it’s ironic that I’m now finally doing this, about 10 years too late, as popular content has moved to streaming social media platforms, but being a Youtuber or Tiktoker or whatever just isn’t my style.  Plus, this website has always been pretty ultra-niche, not geared toward a popular audience, but more for the hardcore ballpark chaser or industry official. 

New weekly blog posts will be the lifeblood of the site.

First off, given that I traditionally revisit 10-12 MLB ballparks every year, a “ballpark revisits” series will allow me to review new experiences in a more stream-of-consciousness matter, versus one-time long-form in-depth reviews. 

I’ll also cover anything and everything that’s related to ballparks.  Think stadium news, architectural reviews, seating guides, food guides, travel guides, favorite/least favorite parts of a certain ballpark, ballpark history, ballpark memorabilia, ballpark tours, and other creative topics. 

Here’s a flavor of the types of posts you’ll see in the coming days/weeks/months:

• Ballpark Revisit: Miami’s loanDepot Park During the World Baseball Classic. 
  • More in-depth “ballpark revisits” documenting repeat experiences at Busch Stadium (St. Louis), Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia), Camden Yards (Baltimore), Oracle Park (San Francisco), Chase Field (Arizona), American Family Field (Milwaukee), Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago), and more I plan to see during the rest of the 2023
• Why You Shouldn’t Miss Ballpark Tours as a Ballpark Chaser
• The Best Seats in Baseball?  A Review of Wrigley Field’s 1914 Club.  (You’ll see plenty of reviews of specific MLB ballpark seating areas)
• Which MLB Venues Qualify as “Bucket List” Ballparks?
• Ballparks Celebrating History: My Favorite Historical Exhibits at MLB Venues
• Ranking MLB’s Retractable Roof Ballparks (I’ll have coincidentally hit them all in a 12-month span, so it seems like an appropriate topic)
• Also think fun niche topics you’d discuss on Twitter or Reddit, like, say, Ranking Ballpark Batter’s Eyes
• I’ll also do plenty of practical guides, like for example, A Guide to the Best Food at Oracle Park or seating guides for a particular park, but that may be more suitable for the beginning of a season  
• Travels guides for ballpark chasers!
• Ranking All MLB Ballparks by Neighborhood is another good one I’ve had in the works for some time.
• Reviews of all these ballpark-themed hotels adjacent to the park will be fun.  Think the Zachary Hotel (named after the original architect) overlooking Wrigley Field, where I stayed this Memorial Day weekend.

That only scratches the surface. Also, I’ll be seeing Seattle’s T-Mobile Park on June 30-July 2 for the first time since 2011, and with the All-Star Game there on July 11, you’ll see a ton of T-Mobile Park content in early July (timing of visit intentional here!)

This website can be…a lot….but if you love baseball and ballparks, I promise you’ll find some new content that interests you throughout the 2023 baseball season. 

In-Depth Reviews with Comprehensive Ratings.

The meat and potatoes of the site, the in-depth reviews and ratings, have been redesigned.

Exhaustive long-form MLB stadium reviews go through the ballpark’s (1) setting, (2) architecture and aesthetics, (3) functionality and essentials, (4) amenities and features, and (5) vibe, atmosphere, and policies. 

Given that I wrote many of these long-form reviews years ago, it’s honestly been daunting updating much of this 10,000+ word written content, as these are and were intended to be the “living pages” of the site.  Updating the written content of the long-form reviews is a work in progress, and many are frankly outdated as of today.  

I’ll use one that is up-to-date as an example: Coors Field, the splendid home of the Colorado Rockies. 

These landing pages should now be more user-friendly, with a mini-galleries of photos at the top and the “ratings scorecard” to the right on a desktop. 

As if it were possible for me to nerd out even more, I fined-tuned my MLB ballpark ratings system when I was bored during the pandemic in 2020.  The ratings on each ballpark page are up-to-date for 2023.

That’s followed by the long-form review, but with a sidebar to the right (or leading on the top on mobile devises).  This basically outlines my take on the park in a nutshell, starting with a short Summary of the piece.  Then, the sidebar goes into the park’s “Defining Features,” “Biggest Hit,” “Biggest Miss,” “Other Hits,” “Best Ofs,” “Pro Tips,” “Bet You Didn’t Know,” and “Future Outlook.”

Finally, if you want the Reddit-style TL;DR summary, you can get it in various bits in these sidebars.

Massive Photo Galleries

I know the idea of a website “photo gallery” is a bit passe in 2023, but I still think it’s cool to be able to find images of every part of a stadium all in one place! 

Located within the ballpark review pages, here is the photo gallery of Milwaukee’s American Family Field (Miller Park!), where I was a few weeks ago. 

Think many hundreds of photos of everything.  Not only shots of the interior seating bowl from all sections, but pictures of the neighborhood, exterior, concourses, concessions, food, clubs, suites, historical memorabilia, statues, etc., all things that are somehow not too easy to find even online in 2023.   

Even I don’t do this on every revisit.  Roughly every 5 years or so.  Again, something that probably doesn’t have a lot of popular appeal, but I think it will hold significant historical value 50 years from now for the future ballpark nerds (can you imagine such an extensive repository of an Ebbets Field today?).

We’ve had some technical issues with some new photo galleries getting spontaneously deleted, but they will be re-added for each park in the coming weeks. 

What’s On Tap for the 2023 Season?

I saw loanDepot Park (Miami Marlins) for the sensational 2023 WBC quarter/semifinals and final.  I revisited Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks) in early April.  For Memorial Day weekend, I hit Milwaukee and Chicago (3 games at Wrigley and 1 at the White Sox park, with a double header on Memorial Day)

I’ll see 3 games each in Seattle and San Diego for the period around the Fourth of July, and hit New York (Mets), Anaheim, Oakland, Arlington, and Tampa throughout the rest of this year, and probably some others.  

Obligatory Social Media Plug

I’m not big on this, but if you have anything to say, it’s impossible to do so without going through social media.  I’m loath to create a Twitter account, but will in early July.  Ditto with Instagram.

For now, like us on our existing Facebook page.

Anyway, if you are fascinated by all aspects of stadium design – the architecture, the connection to the city, the sightlines, the food, other nerdy logistics, etc. – you’ll love this site!  I hope you’ll enjoy it with me for years to come.   

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