Best. Baseball. Tailgate. Party. EVER!!!!!!

RFK – first game ever 1968 – Frank Howard was always worth the price of admission.
Petco – Gagne’s streak ended at Dodger Stadium while I was watching my first game at Petco.
Angel Stadium – all incarnations – most memorable – leaving early during the playoffs of the famous 1986 Dave Henderson game – Missed the home run
ATT&T – saw the Futures game that Kershaw pitched in and Chin Ling Hu was the MVP of.

Someday I’ll make a summer trip and see as many as I can.

1) Fenway Park- Don’t even like the Red Sox and I was simply awe-struck by the park. Absolutly stunning.

2) Wrigley Field- Wrigley was the nicest park I had ever been to until two weeks later when I went to Fenway. Saw the game when Mark Prior was hit in the arm by a line drive.

3) Yankee Stadium- Saw a great game here. The year the Tigers went to the World Series I saw Craig Monroe hit a homerun in the top of the 9th which would give the Tigers the lead (they were losing I believe) and the result held up.

4) Safeco Field- Lived in Portland during college and a few of us would drive up to Seattle to catch a ballgame. Remember very little about any of the actual games, but we always had a blast.

5) SBC Park- A seemingly perfect ballpark. Beautiful atmosphere, right in the city, a great place to see a game.

6) Petco Park- Pretty much what I’m hoping the Dodgers will do one day by moving out of the Ravine and into a more central location (more on that in a moment)

7) Camden Yards- Nice enough park. I went to a game when I was there on business and there were hardly anyone in the stands. A meaningless game sort of sucked the fun out of it.

8) Shea Stadium- Nothing to write home about. Only beats out Dodger Stadium because of the accesibility.

9) Dodger Stadium- Ya, I’m one of those guys who doesn’t like Dodger Stadium at all and always jump in on the conversation when people air their (usually unpopular) opinion that the park should be torn down. I don’t like that it sits on top of a mountain and the only way in and out is via automobile. I’d rather they build a ballpark near the Colliseum in the old warehouses (exactly like they did in San Diego) adjacent to the stop for the new Expo Line.

10) Turner Field- No atmosphere, park wasn’t in the middle of any neighborhoods, and it just wasn’t a fun place to watch a game.

Wonder if Doug Davis makes his start against us this weekend, or if his waiver claim will bump him to Milwaukee.
vr, Xei

I saw a Yankee game last year. I’ve also been to a minor-league game at Lancaster. I did walk around Shea Stadium, if that counts for anything.

1. Dodger Stadium – many times
2. Angel Stadium – went there more back when they were the California Angels.
3. Pac Bell Park (that’s what it was called when I went there), saw Bonds break McGwire’s record but Dodgers still won.
4. Coors Field
5. Petco
6. (Old) Yankee Stadium

I really need to do that midwest trip to see a lot of ballparks.

Cactus League Parks
1. Wherever Oakland calls home.
2. Camelback Ranch

hopefully in the future i’ll get to visit some ballparks
especially the historic ones wrigley / fenway

besides those here are parks i want to visit someday if im lucky:
1. PNC park
2. Yankee Stadium
3. Camden Yards
4. new Busch stadium
5. Safeco Field
6. AT&T park
7. Citizens bank ballpark
8. Petco Park
9. Angel stadium

Ranked in order of what i thought of the experience:

1. Mecca (numerous times. I think McCourt doesn’t get enough credit for improving this gem. This may be sacriligeous in this crowd, but I would like to see him torch the Pavillion <along w/the people there> for an Anaheim-like outfield, without the stupid waterfall.)
2. Camden Yards (twice; my first “retro-park” visit; truly fell in love with it.)
3. Wrigley Field (a few times; first time was on a rooftop outside of the park, and I was pissed I wasn’t inside. Love the atmosphere surrounding the park more than the park itself)
4. AT&T Park (3 times; hate the team but love the park and the fact it’s in the city)
5. Coors Field (Twice, including the play-in game two years ago. I have a thing for the retro parks)
6. Fenway Park (twice; love the history of the place but now that I’ve been there they should tear the place down. Drunk fans were numerous)
7. Angel Stadium of Anaheim/Los Angeles/Orange County (multiple; close to my house and I think they did a great job when they redid it several years ago. But lose the waterfall.)
8. BOB (4 times; mainly loved the food. It’s kind of weird being indoors given the odd shape of the building)
9. Ballpark @ Arlington (twice; love the food and the people but damn is it hot during a day game!)
10. Petco Park (multiple; much better than Jack Murphy, tremendous location and great food but it’s overpriced and the look isn’t as good as the 3 retro parks above)
11. New Comiskey Park (3 times; way too antiseptic for me; not much character. Except if you walk one block in either direction, then there is character a’plenty and you better be ready to run.)
12. Oakland Alameda Colliseum (once; lousy park, took forever to get out of the place. Surprisingly friendly fans, even with 2 of my kids wearing Angel shirts vs. the Angels)
13. Metrodome (once; thankfully they are blowing this up soon. Very friendly ushers and fans, and it was a great walk 8 blocks from my hotel on a Sunday afternoon)
14. Tropicana Dome (once, and that was more than enough. The only saving grace was i saw the Dodgers in interleague play. 12K announced crowd, i counted less than 6K so i could sit where i wanted. had a conversation from the front row w /coach T-Bone Shelby prior to the game as he was loosening up)

Lastly, I would like to defend my decision to leave early as noted above. It was Cleveland/Angels for crying out loud. My other brother and I were of legal drinking age and had decided it was time to lose the deadwood so we took his rear end home! :)

I’ve been to are Riverfront Stadium and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, but none of the games were against the Dodgers (though I’ve seen the A’s, Giants, and Brew Crew). Whenever I plan to see the Dodgers when they go to Cincy, it always seems to just fall through at the last minute. I get the bad feeling it’s going to fall through for the series in a couple of weeks, but hopefully not.

I’d love to get around to some other parks. Been to Jacobs Field and Old Yankees Stadium, but wasn’t able to take in games. Wrigley tops the list in my “available without flying out to LA” Midwest.

Phone park is the easy winner, though their organization makes it impossible to be a fan.

Dodger stadium’s total inaccessibility to pedestrians and public transportation is truly shameful, especially with all the money recently spent on the gold line (though entirely appropriate for LA).

Angels/Anaheim Stadium – Growing up in the 80s, I went to a lot of Angels games because my dad got tickets through work. I still like the Angels to this day, but head-to-head, I prefer the Dodgers. Anyway, my favorite memory is when I was about six, and it was the first time I got to see Brian Downing, my all-time favorite Angel, hit a home run while I was at a game. I was the happiest little girl, cheering as loud as I could, but what I remember was looking right at my dad, and above all the cheering, I remember him telling me, “Did you see that? He hit that just for you because he knew you were here today.”

Wrigley Field – My brother-in-law lives in Chicago, and my husband and I went to visit him last summer and were able to take in a game. Nice place, good atmosphere, and bars and pubs as far as the eye can see.

Miller Park – My husband was born in Milwaukee and we went to Wisconsin for his cousin’s wedding, and were able to go to a game the day before. Not a bad place and the Sausage Race is good fun (I’m sorry, I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff). What I will always remember about that game is Brewer Bingo. I don’t know if they still do it today, but at certain Brewer games, you could play bingo with certain plays, and if you made bingo, the first 50 or 100 people to claim would get two free tickets to a future game. Anyway, some of these plays were really rare, and one of them was catcher’s interference, which my now-brother-in-law commented he had never seen. Well, somewhere about the 5th inning, my brother-in-law decided he needed to get a beer, and they called catcher’s interference, so he missed it.

Dodger Stadium
Anaheim Stadium, after it was remodeled for the Rams, pre-Disney – one game, with my friend the Twins fan.

I have seen, up close, but not attended a game at: the Phone Booth, the Oakland Hellhole, Coors Field (nicely gentrified area around it), new Busch Stadium, Petco (also good surroundings) and the Murph, Fenway.

i went to a dodger game vs the cards back in 03 at dodger stadium
rickey henderson had a stint with the club right before he retired
in that game he was 2 for 4 with a home run in the 3rd
it turned out it was the 2nd to last home run he would ever hit…
i know hes best known for his steals and stuff
but thats pretty cool…

Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Canlestick, Kingdome, Coors Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Ball Park, Yankee Stadium, New Yankee Stadium, Shea, Citi Field.

Seen the Dodgers play at each of these aside from Kingdome, Camden and Yankee Stadiums. Did see The Unit throw 19 k’s against the White Sox at the Kingdome though.

Current Parks:
1. Dodger Stadium – only been once on a family vacation when I was 5 (1977). But that is where my life-long love affair with the Dodgers began. My father was a Cardinals fan (grew up in Oklahoma, closest team at the time) and so we went to see the Dodgers / Cardinals series. My older brother cheered for the Cardinals so I instantly became a Dodger fan. :)
2. Minute Maid – live in Houston so have been here often. Horrible compared to the new ballparks from this era. Houston fans also stink. Every time I go to a Dodger game I get comments from some obnoxious fan because of my Dodger gear. They even booed Ozzie Smith his last year through with the Cardinals.
3. Coors Field – one game Rockies vs. Dodgers in 2006. Kemp hit two bombs (rookie year). Don’t remember the score but we won and it is a beautiful park.
4. Oriole Park at Camden Yards – beautiful, the best of the new ones I have seen. Saw a game vs. the Yankees that was suspended due to rain.
5. Nationals (?) Park – don’t even know the name. It is a really nice stadium also but has nothing that sets it apart. Two hour rain delay here led us to the bar and a few too many $7.00 beers.
6. Busch Stadium (new) – Just saw the four-game set vs. the Dodgers with my aforementioned father and brother. It truly is a beautiful park and the fans in St. Louis are amazing baseball fans. In four games of wearing Dodger Blue and cheering loudly, but mostly in vain, I didn’t hear one negative remark from a Cardinal fan. Polar opposite of Houston.

Old Parks
1. Astrodome – not much to say
2. Ranger Stadium – I have been to Double A parks better than this.

We’ve been to 16 as a family (with our daughter who’s currently 2 yrs old) plus 3 more (including old Yankee stadium) as a couple (and my husband’s been to a couple others on his own). We hope to make it to the rest of the current ballparks in the next year or so!!
nicole @ roundballroundbat.com