Favorite and least Favorite
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Permalink Reply by Braves Fan In Albany Ny on
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Hey everyone! A new friend of mine on ballpark chasers recommended I ask these questions! What ballpark is everyone’s favorite and least favorite and why. Also what fans were the best fans what fans were the worst fans to watch a game with and why?
My favorite Ballpark is Fenway Park because of the atmosphere before game time around the park brings you back to old time baseball of the 20’s 30’s and 40’s. At 10:30am there is a smell of fresh smell of bbq and sausage up and down the street for a 1:05pm game. Every time I go I expect to see a neighborhood kid selling papers yelling “extra! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!” to me it’s big throw back to when baseball was a lot more innocent in a much simpler time.
My least favorite park I would have to say is The Oakland Coliseum. I wonder why anyone would care to show up to a baseball game in such a clear football stadium. When I went it was $1 hotdog night and it needless to say I never got one because most of the people there showed up with $20 and left the concession stand with an arm full of hot dogs. Aside from the park not being in the most glamorous city in the US the fans who showed up to the game seemed more into the hot dogs than the game. Quite frankly I didn’t feel the safest in the ballpark and felt really out of place.
The Worst stadium in terms of fans I found to be AT&T Park in San Francisco, Strange answer right? Well you tell me… It was early April this year (2010), the braves were in town and the season just started. I show up the standard couple hours before the game and from the minute I walk in the gate the fans felt the need to get in my face and “Booooo” the braves jersey I had on. I understand a fan or 2 during the game doing that but I couldn’t walk more than 25 feet in the entire ballpark without someone being extremely rude to me. I really didn’t understand why everyone felt the need to get in my face so much. The only thing that made me laugh about it was the fact that no one said a word to me as I walked out of the park after a Braves victory!
I do have to give the fans their due though… the 2nd game I went to I ended up on the club level where it seemed a lot more family oriented. I had minimal bother and they had great food up there too!
Finally, the Best fans…. St Louis! They win. They win going away! There are 2 reasons why I feel this way. The year I visited Busch stadium “the newest one” the Braves had several starters on the DL. The lineup that week was like triple A Richmond that year. Being a huge fan I knew I would know the players but didn’t expect anyone else to. To my surprise it seemed like everyone I talked to knew something about every brave in the lineup. The knowledge of baseball was very impressive to me!
a side story to that one was how friendly everyone there was. I, as I tend to when the game gets a little slow, decided to take a walk to see who was around the park and to get some different views in the park. The score must have been something like 13-1 and I was standing behind a 2nd level section of cards fans. I got talking to one man who told his buddies about my journey around the country and how big of a braves fan I am. Before too long I had an entire section of friends! Well as I was standing there in the top of the 9th the braves scored a couple of runs! To my surprise about 10-15 people in the section stood up and cheered for the braves. Believe it or not they were not even mocking me. They did it because they liked me and they were my friends! Now that’s what baseball is all about and that’s why I will never knock a cardinal’s fan!
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Permalink Reply by Ken Lee (30/43) on
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Favorite - Wrigley Field. No contest to me. Nothing beats a sunny afternoon at Wrigley, sitting in the bleachers with an Old Style in each hand!
Least Fav - Whatever they are calling where the Marlins play - its a FOOTBALL stadium, not a ballpark!
Fans:
Worst: I pretty much gotta agree with you about AT&T. The first time I was there in 2004 they were brutal to this kid, who was probably 16 at best. I can see some good fun ribbing, but they went way beyond that until the kid was in tears and finally escorted out of there by ushers.
Best: I agree again about St. Louis. It don't matter if it was old Busch or new Busch.. the fans there not only know the game, they love it and respect it! I have always had a great time at games in St. Louis because of this... and yes, they are so very friendly! :)
A couple notes:
The Dodgers game I went to this past August, well, I really have no clue what game the Dodger fans were watching, cause it wasn't the same one I was, that's for sure. They were also more interested in the beach balls being batted around in the stands than the game. I was quite disappointed.
Angel Stadium - dong get me started on their ushers (by far the worst in the majors) - their fans have to rank #2 as the worst and to call them #2 is just fitting in my book! This trip thru I had box seats. I dont buy box seats cause I am a big guy and I just dont fit in them well when I am with other people. I got my tickets for this game from the Angels front office, via a friend of mine, and since I had 4 and was going alone, I figured "Why Not"? Having lost almost 80# this year, I was excited that I actually fit in the seat, cramped, and wouldnt be comfy with people by me, but I did. 2 Angel fans in front of me couldnt help but look back and laugh at me. I found that not only tasteless for those 50+ year old ladies, but just classless. So much I started loudly rooting for Tampa Bay (as a Red Sox fan that made me feel scuzzy) and it really pissed them off to the point they left early :)
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Bravo! Bravo!!! Great Post! Youre The First Person to reply and i find myself enjoying reading it! great story in LAA and great move making the ladies go away! sometimes you just have to do what you can at a ballpark to make the game enjoyable for you!
you and i seem to be on the same paga about a lot of things! great post!
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Permalink Reply by Ed Ferbel on
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I think any discussing about favorites would put Fenway, Wrigley and Dodger (in any order you choose) at the top.These are the last of the great old parks. As for the "post Camden" era, PNC and AT&T are so close for me its hard to choose the best. As for the worst, my buddy and I have been to 28/30 current parks together and while we agree on best, we disagree on the worst.He says The Trop, I say Sunlight (Miami) or whatever the name is this season. See my profile for my post about my top 10 "post Camden" if you are interested
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Permalink Reply by Joseph Donaldson (17) on
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Hey Ed,
I agree with you fully. Glad you included Dodger Stadium as one of the best, seems like a lot of people leave it out. Now that Sunlight (Miami) stadium is gone, which one would you rank the worst? Do we now have full concensus on the Trop?
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Permalink Reply by Kurt Smith on
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Favorite Ballpark: Still Camden Yards I think. But it's difficult...I love so many of them. PNC in Pittsburgh, Wrigley and Fenway, Comerica in Detroit, I even love the new Yankee Stadium.
Least Favorite: Tropicana Field. Incidentally, HOK doesn't brag about their designing this one. But they do have air conditioning, I'll give them that.
Best fans: Anyone who shows up at PNC Park these days and still roots for the Pirates. That's a real fan.
Worst fans: The Yankees fans that come to Camden Yards. I wished I had a bag of tomatoes with me one night. There are a lot of nice Yankees fans out there, but there are some real jerks too.
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Glad you are still calling Camden your favorite. It's not my #1 spot but definitely top 10 and it deserves a lot of respect. Many have tried to replicate the mystique of Camden Yards, but I think they have fallen short. As far as just going to watch a ballgame it doesn't get better.
I was at a Yankees/O's game at Camden in 2010 and found it really overwhelming to see Yankees fans outnumber O's fans in their own stadium. I agree a bag of tomatoes would've been nice.
The only other place I've seen this before was at Miller Park where Cubs fans used to outnumber Brewers fans and some of the more obnoxious fans would call it "wrigley north" which I guess was kind of funny.
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Hope I'm not too late to this discussion, I enjoyed the earlier posts.
FAVORITES:
Fenway - not only my favorite ballpark but my favorite place in the world. Seems like everyone here knows why so I won't elaborate.
PNC Park - I loved every minute of the PNC Park experience: walking across Clemente bridge, the simplistic design of the baseball stadium, the lack of interfering luxury boxes (which I would never have tickets for) compared to other new stadiums, I enjoyed paying $10 to sit down low, the views of Pittsburgh, I thought the in game entertainment was fun and classy, and I enjoyed the Pittsburgh Primati Brothers Sandwich incredibly (my favorite stadium food choice in MLB). The fans were great too; the Pirates season was well over but the fans were still enthusiastic. Well done Pittsburgh.
Dodger Stadium - A great feeling came over me to be in the upper deck of classic Dodger Stadium on a beautiful Southern California night. The stadium itself might not be that fantastic but the setting is beautiful the way it is tucked into the valley. I also felt like there was a lot of focus on the game and not as many distractions as there are at other stadiums (i.e. No blaring music between every pitch and silly scoreboard gimmicks every half inning). I look forward to going back.
LEAST FAVORITE:
Of the parks I've been to I would agree Tropicana Dome is the worst place to watch a ballgame. That place is dark and dreary and has no redeeming qualities. I rarely/almost never leave games early, but when I was vacationing in Florida it felt ridiculous to be sitting there in that pit, instead of enjoying the beach, so I left early.
Less obvious choices for least favorite stadium include Washington Nationals Stadium & the Phillies Citizens Bank Park. My feeling is that if you're going to put all that effort and money into a new stadium, at least put a unique touch on it. In my opinion, those stadiums are really lacking in character when matched up against PNC Park or Camden Yards they seem incredibly bland and boring.
Finally, I think it's ridiculous that the Yankees new stadium cost $1.5 billion yet it doesn't even compare to many of the new stadiums. Even though I would say Yankee Stadium is just a mid-tier stadium in terms of best/worst stadium, I would say they got the least bang for their buck in the Bronx. Wish they just kept the old historic ballpark.
BEST FANS:
My opinion may be biased but the BREWERS have great fans. Smallest population market in the country but they draw 3 million+ (top 10 in the league) and are knowledgeable fans. The Red Sox have good fans. Maybe the Cards have good fans but I have to say I get tired of hearing about how great they are. The Pirates have excellent fans. I saw them play the Houston Astros in September 2010 in a battle for last place, but there was more energy at PNC Park for that game than you'll see for playoff games at some stadiums.
WORST FANS:
Any team that fails to sell out playoff games, that's pathetic. There were a lot of empty seats for the 2011 NLDS in Arizona for Brewers at D-backs. Lots of fans at Yankee Stadium strike me as having a lack of baseball knowledge or just a general lack of knowledge altogether.
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Totally agree about Brewers fans Joseph...every time I go to Miller I almost become one!
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Fantastic reply im glad you responded with such energy. couldnt agree with you more about the washington and philly parks... they are somehow exactly the same and bland however i did have a nicer time in DC than i ever had in Philly and like the nats park for some strange reason!
it is never to late to reply to this post. its sort of timeless! tell all your friends to comment!
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I wouldn't say that Philly and Washington's ballparks aren't unique...Philly has the Liberty Bell and Ashburn Alley which are pretty cool, and it's a great atmosphere for a game. Nationals Park has the Red Porch seats and that upper level pavilion in the outfield, and I like the exterior of Nationals Park. They didn't go with the brick like most new ones do.
I would say that both ballparks' upper levels are way too high though...between the open concourses and the suite levels you're way up there. Most new ballparks have that problem though.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Choiniere on
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Favorite: Little biased but I have to go with Fenway and Wrigley. My favorite new stadium is definitely PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
Least favorite: Definitely Oakland. Thankfully I saw the Red Sox there and Schilling threw a 1 hitter that day. Damn you Shannon Stewart.
Best Fans: Boston (again a biased answer) and agree with Milwaukee.
Worst: TB and Marlins. Been to their parks and seen very few fans...
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