While I make my home slightly outside of Atlanta and have been blessed to see Braves games at Turner Field and actually State Mutual Stadium up in Rome (if you ever are around the Atlanta area, give it a check), I called Birmingham home for almost 3 years. I was able to head to numerous Barons games from 1992-1994. The manager during that time was Terry Francona and the two minor leaguers I still remember watching play were Ray Durham and a great basketball player named Michael Jordan. Too bad he was not a great baseball player (but I did get to see him hit a home run and charge the mound).

I was a teenager during that time and I spent most of my times at the ballpark sliding along the right field/left field corners on those hot dog/cup holders using them as sleds on the grassy hills or the times I actually tried to flirt with girls my age as well. Normally the latter didn't work so I did the former. But my parents loved going to the games and sat behind the Barons bullpen as most of them were very casual with my parents. My parents loved going to the games, but since I thought Minor League ball was below me (after all I spent most of my childhood at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, so good reasoning) I never paid CLOSE attention to the games. The few things I did remember about the park was sliding on the hills, the park was very clean, and more importantly the place was packed (even before Jordan came to Birmingham) and were into the games.

After seeing 6 other Minor League parks since, I hoped to return to Birmingham to see if it had that great Minor League feel like it did and how it stood out. I knew in terms of the architecture as it was built in the 80's it wouldn't hold up to the likes of the parks of Rome, Greenville, and Savannah, but you got baseball. But the stadium that was once called "Hoover Metropolitan Stadium" (AKA the Met back in the day), I have to say it felt like the park was forgotten since 1994.

The park looked very run down with faded paint (once it had a blue concourse as it looked fairly gray, ad signs on the wall looked like they were about to peel off, murals of teams who won league championships were hard to see due to the oxidization (sp?) of being out for so long, the floors all around (in the concourse, by the seats, and of course the bathrooms-and the restrooms were almost a biohazard when I went in there) were dirty, the team shop was small and it looked like it was having a "going-out-of-business" feel to it.

There were a few bright spots to the park though: prices were actually cheap for t-shirts, caps, and other souvenirs (compared to other places-an authentic ball cap, which goes for $30 in most parks went for $20-maybe they were having a going-out-of-business) and most foods were under $4.00 like dogs, sandwiches, and other things. The only "expensive" iterms were healthy wraps that went for $5 or $6. However after having a brat for $4 there is probably a good reason why they were that low. And I didn't see anybody eat a wrap at the park. The sightlines inside the park were excellent throughout and you had good spacing of leg room. No cupholders by the seats, which stunk, but my dad and I grabbed a few general admission bleacher tickets so we really didn't care to begin with. They had numerous contests and fun things to do between innings (a ball throw after the game from the stands to the field, Harry Potter Night, beat Babe Ruff-the Barons Mascot, around the bases, etc.) and the scoreboard was a high-definition scoreboard (first one I've seen in a Minor League park, the Birmingham media throwing out free tshirts) so that was good. Too bad the scoreboard was misused as it only showed the inning-by-inning scores and no stats of the players at all and they would not tell you who was at the plate for the visiting team as you had to guess who it was by looking at the number. Along the concourse there was a really nice display of Barons memorabilia of Rickwood Field programs, bobbleheads of former Barons players who went made it big (Terry Francona, Joe Crede, Magglio Ordonez, etc.) as well as some magazines showing the White Sox winning the World Series in 2005 (guessing most of them went through Birmingham too; and most probably were on the Barons last league championship team in 2002).

The fans did not come out. The attendance was around 4,000 but my dad and I thought the place looked to be more of 2,000 at the highest (it did rain in the area before gametime), and there was little noise during the game. You still had diehards in the crowd, but nothing to really show they were into it (minus a few deep fly balls some Barons hit, it just seemed like a lifeless crowd. The biggest bummer was I am guessing the Barons ownership did not like the teens playing on the hill, probably because of safety and maybe the lack of interest they had for the game so they closed it off (though they still have the hills in the corners, but they made sure you can't slide down it with chain link fences right at the top of the hill and on the middle part where the sidewalk is located).

For me, maybe because I had a few friends come see me and caught up on old time, I found myself having a hard time staying with the game (how things stay the same). It was neat to see them again so I had that going for me during the ballgame. I did pay attention for the most part but the Barons did play flat and lost 7-1 so maybe the lack of good play did not help matters either.

Stadium-wise, Regions Park, probably because of the poor condition it is in now, I rank at the bottom of my Minor League stadium trips. I mean in its heyday I probably would like it better than what Chattanooga currently has or even Gwinnett and it still has a Minor League charm that I once remembered. I am guessing the Barons ownership, they have not really invested much in terms of upgrading it (though the city of Hoover has, and has been a spot for high school football games, beach volleyball tournaments, and the SEC Baseball championship) and it has gone to waste for the mere reason that they have agreed to play in a new stadium back in downtown Birmingham for the 2012 season. However, they have not found a location for the new park and no construction has started. This actually reminds me of how RFK was not properly maintained in its last season of baseball in 2007 with the Nationals. If you're a diehard Minor League ballpark chaser or have a history with the park, it is worth the trip. If you're a casual, it might be better if you wait until the new park is up OR you end up getting tickets to the Rickwood Classic they have every year in early June. That is something I do want to try if my work schedule can ever cooperate with it.