I was legit disappointed when I found out that both teams were on the road.
I even let out a audible “Seriously?”.
I haven’t been to either stadium and I am dying to go.
Seeing a baseball stadium for the first time is so much fun.
I love how every stadium has its own identity and personality.
You have real opinions about each place.
Here’s my rankings of stadiums I’ve been to.
A few of these places no longer exist.
There are obviously a bunch I need to see.
There were things to actually celebrate!
Forcing a baseball team to play in such an obvious football stadium was a disaster.
To make it even worse, you have barely any shade in the middle of the summer in Miami.
Olympic Stadium (Montreal Expos)
I kinda miss this place.
Before I turned 21, I was living in New Hampshire.
This place was ugly as sin but it still had a charm.
The little plastic seats were funny and not that uncomfortable.
The hot dogs had a unique (and kind of great) little kick to them.
They had vinegar right next to the ketchup for your french fries.
It feels like less of a destination and more of an obligation.
It’s not bad and it’s a perfectly fine place to watch a game.
It also feels like an office park.
Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)
Fenway Park is an awesome place to go…once.
The wall is majestic.
The green of the grass somehow pops more here than anywhere else…especially for a night game.
The history is everywhere.
The seats have no leg room and half of them face the Green Monster instead of home plate.
There might not be a seat worse in baseball than the right field grandstands.
The concourse feels like a gross basement.
It should have been torn down a long time ago.
But it remains because it’s more of a tourist attraction than a ballpark at this point.
John Henry went the cheap route and made improvements rather than build something new.
The team on the field was great so people still came.
But Fenway is less and less romantic if the team plays worse and worse.
Progressive Field (Cleveland Guardians)
Downtown Cleveland is pretty awesome.
It’s wildly underrated.
I’ve been to Cleveland a few times and the people are among the nicest I’ve ever met.
It’s not a forced kindness either.
It’s a genuine decency.
The stadium is in a great spot too.
The definition of average which no newer stadium should be.
New Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees)
Everything here feels cold and forced.
It feels like a tomb and so much of the history didn’t happen here so it feels off.
Don’t get me wrong.
Monument Park and the Yankee Museum all works really well too.
Despite all of that, there was a cool and almost spooky feeling every time you walked in there.
This goes back to the Fenway Park debate.
Should we keep these old parks around?
I almost always lean go with a new park (with a retractable roof).
But maybe for Yankee Stadium, you make the exception.
Shea Stadium (New York Mets)
I liked this place far more than I should have.
I loved the view from way up top.
You could see everything.
They did the right thing building a new stadium.
- loanDepot Park (Miami Marlins)
I must say the difference between 5 and 6 is gigantic.
Frank and I did a full video review of loanDepot Park last year.
I like this park quite a bit.
I love how modern it feels and how unique it is.
Citi Field (New York Mets)
It’s tough to rank your regular ballpark.
Citi Field has the best food of any ballpark I’ve been to.
But I don’t appreciate that enough and instead bitch about certain sightlines.
I’m pissed they moved the museum to a broom closet.
It gets way too windy there.
I do love coming here though.
It’s where I’ve had some of my favorite memories since it opened in 2009.
I’ve seen two no-hitters here, three World Series games and an All-Star Game here.
I do love Citi Field even if it does drive me crazy sometimes.
Citizens Bank Ballpark
No park that I’ve been to does history better than The Bank.
I love Ashburn’s Alley.
The way it honors past All-Stars is fantastic.
I wrote a blog last year about much I love this park.
PNC Park
I’m so glad that Pirates fans have this.
There also might be no better backdrop in the MLB.
Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)
It’s nearly perfect.
The first one of these retro ballparks managed to be the best.
The warehouse sitting out there is ideal.
Eutaw Street with the shops and little baseballs to mark each home run hit out there is fan nirvana.
There is so much care in every nook and cranny of the park.
My only complaint is the food stinks.
I think Boog’s BBQ is OK but wildly overrated.
The rest of the stuff there isn’t good.
This is a very fixable issue.
Maybe the new ownership will fix this.
I’ll update this list in July after I’ve seen Wrigley, New Comiskey and Coors Field.
Hopefully one of those cracks the Top 5.
