Half Way There!

With a visit to Great American Ballpark this past weekend I am officially at 15 current parks and halfway to 30. I even saw my first AAA game in Columbus on Thursday night.

I guess I was a chaser even before I knew that's what it is. Living in Chicago made it easy to get the first two but drives to Cincinnati (Riverfront), Toronto (SkyDome) and Pittsburgh (Three Rivers) really ignited the passion. I even convinced my wife to take in a Giants game at Candlestick as part of our honeymoon.

With all the new parks in the last twenty years it was getting tough to get to halfway because so many of the parks I'd seen were being replaced. I think this one should be good for awhile.

Here's my list:

Current

1 Busch Stadium
2 Camden Yards
3 Citizens Bank Ballpark
4 Comerica Park
5 Coors Field
6 Fenway Park
7 Great American Ballpark
8 Jacobs Field/Progressive Field
9 Kauffman Stadium
10 Miller Park
11 PNC Park
12 SkyDome/Rogers Centre
13 Target Field
14 U.S. Cellular Field
15 Wrigley Field

Defunct

1 Busch Stadium
2 Candlestick Park
3 Comiskey Park
4 Metrodome
5 Milwaukee County Stadium
6 Riverfront Stadium
7 Shea Stadium
8 Three Rivers Stadium
9 Tigers Stadium
10 Veterans Stadium
11 Yankee Stadium

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Comment by John (20 current MLB/11 old MLB) on August 23, 2012 at 8:51am: I will definitely be looking to see more minor league stadiums now, especially because the number of drivable baseball trips from Chicago is dwindling.

I have seen the Kane County Cougars - then the A's class A affiliate (and supposedly next year's Cubs class A team) and the defunct Schaumburg Flyers (now Schaumburg Boomers). I have enjoyed the minor league ball that I have seen. And...is it bad to say that I find the ticket prices, concession prices and proximity to the field a nice change of pace?

Unfortunately, I don't think there are many affiliated minor league teams close to Chicago, although the independent Frontier League has a significant presence here in Illinois. I liked the AAA game in Columbus because I had actually heard of some of the players. (And we missed Evan Longoria’s Durham Bulls rehab stint by just a week.)

Too bad the closest AAA teams to me are at least 3 hours away in Indy and 5 hours away in Des Moines or Louisville. The Peoria Chiefs are the Cubs current single A team and I’d like to get down there to see a game there.

As for the Frontier League, I guess I should be ashamed for not yet checking out the Windy City Thunderbolts who play about 20 minutes from my house and the Joliet team which is less than 40 minutes!

Comment by Mark (53) on August 22, 2012 at 2:49pm: John, Good luck with your chase! With your visit to Columbus, do you think you will try to do more minor league stadiums?