12/18/24
May 23, 2003
The ballparks with the ten best views.: And the two that tie for first are both minor league. Check out the photos, there's some amazing stuff on there. Elsewhere on this site, you can find ballpark oddities and Gone but Not Forgotten parks.
posted by Ufez Jones to baseball at 12:11 PM - 13 comments
I guess they've never seen the view from the Monster or the Boston skyline from the left field roof boxes at Fenway. I've been meaning to do a first person perspective post about the Monster Seats as espn and I think the Washington Post have recently covered it and I sat up there in April, but I've been too busy.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:44 PM on May 23, 2003
I personally think the massive CN Tower hovering over the crowd at Skydome is pretty impressive. But that Franklin Covey park is unreal.
posted by grum@work at 01:17 PM on May 23, 2003
The mountain parks are unreal. I love minor league baseball. Nothing spectacular about my hometown stadium, but it is the fourth oldest minor league stadium still in use, too bad it's going to be ditched for a new $15 million downtown stadium.
posted by corpse at 02:15 PM on May 23, 2003
"Wahconah Park is a real one-of-a-kind place." If anyone else has taken in a Pittsfield Met's game it is suffice to say that unique does not always equal good (I sand in the grand stands in the foreground). Personally I'll stick to my favorite park in my kind of town. Thanks for the links Ufez Jones.
posted by Bag Man at 02:17 PM on May 23, 2003
(I sand in (I sat in...
posted by Bag Man at 02:22 PM on May 23, 2003
#7, John O'Donnell Stadium in Davenport, Iowa, is pretty cool by day, but it's really best at night.
posted by jason streed at 02:30 PM on May 23, 2003
While I have only been in two baseball venues I would have to agree with grum on the Skydome. When it is closed - bah, who cares. But as a representative of the dome/stadium bowl species where the best you can hope for is a blue sky at least in the Skydome there is something in that sky to see. And you can watch elevators go up and down the tower. How many of the top 20 let you watch elevators in addition to baseball!?
posted by gspm at 03:22 PM on May 23, 2003
for general sports parks reference there is ballparks.com. Unfortunately the index page for the site seems to be screwed but a path into the content can be found here. I will point out that their (working) coverage of stadiums excludes the topic at hand (baseball) - the football/hockey/basketball/racing/soccer coverage seems to be working while the baseball does not. Dunno if I visited at the exact wrong time or if it is a general long-term problem but I have always found the site to be a great reference for stadiums.
posted by gspm at 03:33 PM on May 23, 2003
I love stadium posts! The CN tower is cool but you don't exactly get a panorama view at Skydome since it's all enclosed. But yes, something other than sky in a cookie cutter park is nice. Plus it's kind of cool to watch as the roof closes :) I've been to PacBell in the absolute perfect place for this, top row, on the very end, of the right field upper deck. Of course when we went up there for photos we feared being blown over the side since the windscreen created a nice little gust off the end... Coors is pretty nice too, though in the spirit of Red Rocks (one of my favorite places in the US - this and the Gorge are far and away the best places to see a concert. Oh, and the mountain winery in Saratoga, CA) I want to see someone build a park right into a damn mountain range! :) Natural amphitheaters can happen, so can natural stadiums! OK, maybe I ask too much. I can't say as though I'm impressed by the Detroit Skyline... Pittsburgh is one of those really nice ones that you don't hear too much about (there is an awesome overhead night shot of the 3 river meeting in the last USA Weekend newspaper insert, for those of you who get that), but Detroits skyline is pretty ordinary if you ask me. Can you imagine those 2 #1s as a major league park without the ads all over the walls, how great that would be? Not that it's bad now...
posted by Bernreuther at 05:02 PM on May 23, 2003
My favourite day of any year used to be the annual Glamorgan cricket match at Abergavenny. It is a tiny ground that nestles in the shadow of the Skirrid, and is simply beautiful. They don't play there any more and it is a great pity. It was a 3 day festival of booze and debauchery, so good that following one memorable days play, after seeing Graham Hick score 200 not out, my brother took 9 full hours to travel the 7 miles home, he then fell out of bed and broke his wrist. Of course I got the blame. The view of the actual game was probably the worst at any ground, anywhere in the world, but the view generally, and the ambience could not be bettered. Cricket lost it's soul when it restructured and the playing of first class games in quaint outposts became economically unviable. 
posted by Fat Buddha at 05:36 PM on May 23, 2003
When I lived in North Carolina I saw a couple of games at the Durham Bulls' original downtown stadium (they've since moved to a nice-but-generic park outside town). It was great, like you were walking into Bull Durham. I've also seen a game at Pfitzner Stadium, which is mentioned on the Ballpark Oddities page. I don't remember having any trouble finding my seat, but I did see a guy get an inside-the-park home run.
posted by kirkaracha at 09:53 AM on May 24, 2003
Franklin Covey is pretty sweet. Damn I miss the Rocky Mtns.