Stadium Preview #4

Stadium: Rogers Centre
Date Opened: June 3, 1989
Date of Visit: June 15th
Game: Chicago Cubs @ Toronto Blue Jays

At first, I was going to say that Rogers Centre was simply another boring park and the only reason we were going was because it's in a different country. Then, as I started to research the Centre, I found out that although it looks bland on TV, it could be very fun and entertaining in person.

First of all, there will not be that many fans there (most likely, I could be wrong since it's interleague and the Cubs) so we can move down from our original seats to some that are closer to the action. This is a nice perk which will make the experience that much more fun. Also, there is a Hard Rock Cafe inside the stadium, which is pretty cool. Random sports tidbit: I remember when Frank Thomas hit a homerun off one of the windows one time.

Second, if the roof is open (i really hope it is) then you have a pretty cool view of the CN Tower, the trademark building of Toronto. I had no idea that the building was that close to the stadium.

The downside of this stadium is the actual playing field itself. The Blue Jays had stuck with the AstroTurf from it's first game all the way to 2004, but finally they switched in 2005 to....FieldTurf. In my opinion, they should have gone to grass, because baseball needs to be played on a natural surface. It is a big injury risk to play baseball on turf. Sure, football does it, but that's a different sport. Also, they do not have a real infield, just little patches of dirt around each base, which frankly is quite dumb. I don't like watching baseball games without the teams playing on a real baseball field.

The teams playing in the game will make it interesting, though. Both are teams who could either be really good or underachieve greatly. It should be interesting to see which team shows up. The Blue Jay fans are not the loudest by any means, but with the Cubbies in town that could change for this series.

The field is not the best, but going to Toronto should be fun and seeing this stadium will be an experience. It might be one of the worst we go to, but it will still be fun, eh? (A little Canada reference there in case you didn't notice)

Last Schedule Update

Well, we've finally got tickets for all the Major League games, and with only a month or so to go, we're getting everything finalized. For Christmas and our birthdays, we've been getting a lot of helpful giftcards, which is awesome. It's nice to know that a bunch of our meals are already taken care of, and we've got some money to spend at Academy for sunglasses, coolers, or whatever we think we need. Kyle and Jason also got some baseball statistics books (2008 Baseball Prospectus and 2008 Bill James Handbook) so we will be able to know a little something about the teams that we're seeing but don't know too well.

Here's the final schedule:

6/11 - Nashville Sounds [Milwaukee AAA] at Oklahoma Redhawks [Rangers AAA]
6/12 - Texas Rangers at Kansas City Royals - Outfield Plaza next to the Rangers' bullpen
6/13 - Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals - LF Upper Deck
6/14 - Los Angeles Dodgers at Detroit Tigers - 3B side, 5 rows behind the dugout
6/15 - Chicago Cubs at Toronto Blue Jays - Upper Deck, 1B side
6/16 - Baseball Hall of Fame
6/17 - Houston Astros at Baltimore Orioles - Upper Deck, behind home plate
6/18 - off-day in New York City
6/19 - San Diego Padres at New York Yankees - RF Upper Deck
6/20 - St. Louis Cardinals at Boston Red Sox - RF Rooftop Box
6/21 - Texas Rangers at Washington Nationals - LF Outfield next to the Rangers' bullpen
6/22 - Toronto Blue Jays at Pittsburgh Pirates - 3B side, infield
6/23 - off-day in Pittsburgh
6/24 - San Francisco Giants at Cleveland Indians - OF bleachers
6/25 - Baltimore Orioles at Chicago Cubs - LF Upper Deck
6/26 - Beloit Snappers [Twins low-A] at Clinton Lumberkings [Rangers low-A]
6/27 - Frisco RoughRiders [Rangers AA] at Springfield Cardinals [Cardinals AA]
6/28 - wedding in Louisville, KY
6/29 - Philadelphia Phillies at Texas Rangers - Unknown, but Jason gets free tickets from working at the ballpark

Stadium Preview #3

Stadium: Comerica Park
Date Opened: April 11, 2000
Date of Visit: June 14th
Game: Los Angeles Dodgers @ Detroit Tigers


After spending almost 80 years in the classic Tiger Stadium, the Tigers decided to build a new state of the art stadium to please their loyal fans. They delivered, in my mind, an average stadium at best.

Comerica Park is located in the heart of Detroit, MI, Right next to Ford Field. When you first glance at a photo of the park, you think "Oh that's a pretty nice stadium," but nothing really catches your eye. That is my whole problem with this stadium, is that it is somewhat bland. The outfield dimensions are ones you could find in MLB 2K5 as the standard setting. The only thing that catches my eye at first glance is the huge scoreboard in left field,which is quite bland and really is more of an ad space than a scoreboard.

It is not all bad in Comerica Park, though. Some nice features can be seen when walking through the park. There is an area with statues of all the players who have their jerseys retired with the Tigers. Even Ty Cobb is included, even though he never wore a number for the Tigers, as is Ernie Harwell, long time announcer for Detroit. This is a nice touch to remember and honor past Tiger greats.

Originally, the flag pole in left field was in play, just as it was in old Tiger Stadium. Unfortunately, the Tigers chose to move the left field wall in (and they later added the bullpens in that empty space) and the flag pole is no longer in play. I see no reason why the Tigers did not simply move the flag pole along with the wall to keep that nostalgic element in play.

Although I said earlier that the outfield dimensions are terribly bland, they do provide a 'triple alley' in right field. If a ball gets in between the center and right fielders, a semi fast person can easily reach third base. This can provide some exciting baseball, especially in the later innings if there is a close play at third base.

When we travel to Detroit, we'll be meeting up with our aunt, uncle, and cousins, so the game should be a blast. Even if the park isn't the best ever made, baseball is still baseball, and that is the main focus of this stadium. They take away all the hoopla you see now days in stadiums around the league, which is nice, and they pay homage to past Tiger greats.

Schedule Update

Well, as we're getting closer to the summer, the schedule's firming up more. We're missing the Phillies/Boston game and spending an extra day in NYC, and we're extending the trip by a day to make a wedding in Kentucky on the way back. We're also still working on getting a couple of the tickets. Getting reasonably priced seats at Fenway has proved difficult, as they're going on eBay for about $300 for 4 seats. I keep waiting for a good deal, but sooner or later I'll just have to give in. We're also not buying the tickets to the minor league games in advance to avoid the "convenience fees" they charge for buying it online. I don't think we'll have much trouble getting good seats for a low-A game in Clinton, IA on a Thursday night...

Here's the updated schedule with purchases in bold:

6/11 - Nashville Sounds [Milwaukee AAA] at Oklahoma Redhawks [Rangers AAA]
6/12 - Texas Rangers at Kansas City Royals - Outfield Plaza next to the Rangers' bullpen
6/13 - Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals - LF Upper Deck
6/14 - Los Angeles Dodgers at Detroit Tigers - not sure, but my uncle got them from someone who got them from Mike Illitch (the Tigers' owner), so they're probably pretty good
6/15 - Chicago Cubs at Toronto Blue Jays - Upper Deck, 1B side
6/16 - Baseball Hall of Fame
6/17 - Houston Astros at Baltimore Orioles - Upper Deck, behind home plate
6/18 - off-day in New York City
6/19 - San Diego Padres at New York Yankees - RF Upper Deck
6/20 - St. Louis Cardinals at Boston Red Sox
6/21 - Texas Rangers at Washington Nationals - LF Outfield next to the Rangers' bullpen
6/22 - Toronto Blue Jays at Pittsburgh Pirates
6/23 - off-day in Pittsburgh
6/24 - San Francisco Giants at Cleveland Indians - OF bleachers
6/25 - Baltimore Orioles at Chicago Cubs
6/26 - Beloit Snappers [Twins low-A] at Clinton Lumberkings [Rangers low-A]
6/27 - Frisco RoughRiders [Rangers AA] at Springfield Cardinals [Cardinals AA]
6/28 - wedding in Louisville, KY
6/29 - Philadelphia Phillies at Texas Rangers - Unknown, but Jason gets free tickets from working at the ballpark

Stadium Preview #2

Stadium: New Busch Stadium
Opened: April 4, 2006
Date of Visit: June 13, 2008
Game: Philadelphia Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals

New Busch Stadium is one of the newer and nicer stadiums in the MLB. Cardinals fans were sad to see the original Busch Stadium be demolished, but most were happier to see this state of the art stadium be built in its place.

One great thing about this stadium is that nearly every seat in foul territory has a picturesque view of the St. Louis skyline, including the famed Gateway Arch. The outside of the stadium is pretty picturesque too. It follows the sucessful mold of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in that is composed of red brick and high arching doorways. Also, there looks to be a good choice of food including Hardee's, The Plaza Grill, Broadway BBQ and Ballpark Favorites.

A bad thing about this park is the lack of things to do beside the game. This may sound like a comment from a non-baseball fan, but when I am at a game, I want to be entertained. The game could be boring, so other attractions are a must.

Overall, this game should be pretty fun because it is a good matchup (Phillies vs. Cardinals) and because the park is a new one. However, there are definitely better stadiums than this one.

Stadium Preview #1

Stadium: Kauffman Stadium
Date Opened: April 10, 1973
Date of Visit: June 12th
Game: Texas Rangers @ Kansas City Royals

Kauffman Stadium, aka the K, is half of the Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, with the other half being Arrowhead Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs play. As you can see by the picture, Kauffman is a unique looking stadium. With its curvy exterior and personalized scoreboard (which is receiving a makeover this offseason), this stadium is instantly recognizable. It's age might show in some points, but the city of Kansas City is looking to fix that. Starting this offseason, Kauffman is undergoing major renovations. Upgrades include a HD scoreboard, a kids' area, a right field restaurant, wider concourses, left field hall of fame, and better vertical circulation of the stadium for all levels. Some of these renovations may be completed when we arrive on June 12th, but I'm betting most will not be finished. We might have to see Kauffman in a state of construction, which is disappointing.

Still, Kauffman will be a fun stadium to visit not only because we will be able to sit a little bit closer to the field, (cheaper seats) but also because it is quite picturesque. In center field, there is the iconic scoreboard, which hopefully will still look the same with the new HD scoreboard. On either side of the scoreboard are fountains, because Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains.

Since there are no outfield seats, Kauffman has a bit of a minor league feel to it, but I'm sure that this stadium will be a good place to spend 3 to 4 hours of our wonderful trip!

-Kyle

Update

We've bought our first tickets (SD@NYY, 6/19), but we've also had our first cancellation. Unfortunately, because we're going during interleague play, a lot of these games are in demand. And the Phillies decided that, rather than selling tickets to their Red Sox series first come, first serve, they're raffling off the chance to buy them in a drawing in a few weeks. It's not even a weekend series, but they've deemed it important enough to do this whole raffle thing. So, unless we find some good deal on eBay, or we get something out of this raffle, or we get some substantial funding, we're not going to the Red Sox @ Phillies game on the 18th. But, I suppose it'll be good to have a break, and we can spend some extra time in Baltimore or NYC. Also, we'll divert those funds earmarked for the Phillies game towards buying tickets for Fenway, which are also going to be more difficult to get than originally hoped.

Look for more updates from my brothers regarding previews of the stadiums we'll be visiting.