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The Great American Ballpark Ranking
Since 2012 my buddy and I have been on a mission to visit all 30 major league ballparks. You see, we really like baseball. It took seven years but as of July 8, 2018, we completed our quest: visiting 27 ballparks (we’d already been to games together at Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and Oakland Coliseum).
Our methodology was to arrive at least an hour before the game (we couldn’t do this in all cases), walk the entire stadium, sample the food, and then stay until the last out. Below are my completely objective rankings with the top three parks, along with the rest divided among three tiers. You may notice that there are not an equal number of teams in each tier. I don’t care. This is my post. So argue away.
Bottom line, any park is a good place to watch a baseball game.
Along the way we took in some other fun sights like the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park, California, the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens, the Reagan Presidential Library, the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, and stopping between Philly and Pittsburgh to spend a day at Gettysburg where the Blues beat the Grays in a hotly contested match not decided until the final inning.
Along with the ratings, I’ve included a sampling of the awards we made at the end of each trip. (If you are baseball nuts like we are, you can find a full account of each trip, with lots of photos at this link.)
Extra bonus feature: Read on to learn which park is best suited for you to survive a zombie apocalypse!
Top Three
Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox, 1912) – Hey, I’m a Red Sox fan, what’d you expect?
AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants, 2000) – Views of surrounding area, sight lines to the field, and the food was all top notch.
PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates, 2001) – Views of the bridge and city. Good seating and food.
Top Tier
Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs, 1914) – Some advice; don’t go to a June game on a sunny day if there’s a brisk wind blowing in from the lake, or at least sit in the bleachers where you are protected.
Petco Park (San Diego Padres, 2004) – Tied for best food with AT&T. Also like that factory facade built into the stadium.
Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners, 1999)
Kaufman Stadium (KC Royals, 1973)) – An older stadium with a nice feel to it. Very comfortable and open.
Coors Field (Colorado Rockies, 1995) – I may have been unduly influenced by the magnificent fireworks display at the end of the game.
Busch Stadium (St Louis Cardinals, 2006) – Great atmosphere, great fans, and food. And that’s even with us ending up in the last row of the third deck in left field.
Middle Tier
Marlins Park (Miami Marlins, 2012) – A lot of folks don’t like this one but I did, except for the stupid statue in center field which they should blow up. Instead, they blew up the team.
Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers, 2000) – Much better than anticipated.
Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers, 1962) – Great location, memorable history, but the park itself is looking old and tired.
Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles, 1992) – The state of the art stadium when it opened, it’s now been surpassed by the competition.
Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks, 1998) – I’ve developed a soft spot for the park of my new hometown team. Decent in every category, plus you can buy a Paradise Valley Burger there. On the other hand, team management wants out of the stadium because of a dispute with the city over deferred maintenance.
Globe Life Park (Texas Rangers, 1994) – Interesting park to walk around with good vantage points. My advice: don’t get seats on the third base line for afternoon or early evening games in the summer. I left some skin.
Target Field (Minnesota Twins, 2010) – Fun place, right near downtown.
Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds, 2003) – Like the river setting. Good BBQ in left field corner. So, do you think Joey Votto takes too many pitches?
Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers, 2001) – Fun place to watch a ballgame. Importantly, the ballpark best suited for you to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillie, 2004) – Like the promenade and food area around the outfield.
Citi Field (New York Mets, 2009) – If you go try to tie in a visit to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in nearby Corona, Queens.
Nationals Park (Washington Nationals, 2008)
Bottom Tier
SunTrust Park (Atlanta Braves, 2017) – We saw it last year when it opened. It left me cold.
Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees, 2009) – Yes, I hate the Yankees but hear me out. I’ve been to both the original Yankee Stadium and its 1970s replacement and thought highly of both of them. The new stadium, which I’ve been to several times, is a nothingburger, and a number of my Yankee friends agree.
Rodgers Centre (Toronto Blue Jays, 1989) – Nothing special in any way. Needs renovation. My view is admittedly colored by our seats behind the right-field light stands. Devoted fans, however. 48,000 showed up for a midweek game with the Tigers with neither team in contention.
Progressive Field (Cleveland Indians, 1994) – Impressed on my first visits to the stadium, but it had aged badly by my last trip in 2012. The field was renovated in 2014 and 2015 so maybe some of the old glory has been restored. I hope so.
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland Athletics, 1966) – I was last there in 1972. I’m told it’s not gotten any better.
Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros, 2000) – Like watching a game in a shopping mall. Great scoreboard though. The team is not too shabby either.
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Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox, 1991) – Winner of Worst Name for a Ballpark award.
Angel Stadium (Los Angeles Angels, 1966) – Low-rated otherwise, but don’t miss the bacon and cheese sandwich which comes with a ton of bacon. This Trout kid may amount to something. Keep an eye on him.
Somewhere Between AAA and Major League
Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays, 1990) – Like watching a game in a circus tent. It was so ridiculous I found it enjoyable, at least for one game.
Awards
Best Heads Up Play and Worst Fielding/Lack of Hustle Play: Alen Hanson/Anthony Rizzo/Javier Baez. In the bottom of the 5th, with the Cubs leading 1-0, Pablo Sandoval hit a weak ground ball on which Rizzo made an error catching the throw. The next batter, Alen (that’s really how he spells it) Hanson hit a grounder, forcing Sandoval at second. Hendricks made a pick-off attempt on which Rizzo made an error. Rizzo and Javier Baez showed a lack of hustle getting to the ball, allowing Hanson, who turned on the jets, to score all the way from first. Watch the play here. This cost Kyle Hendricks, who pitched splendidly for the Cubs, a 1-0 victory, and the Giants won in extra innings.
Best Drive: From south of Portland, Oregon to Petaluma, California (over two days). We drove through the Willamette Valley and then the mountains and valleys of southern Oregon on I-5 before turning off at Grant’s Pass and heading towards Crescent City, the northernmost town on the California coast, where we stayed overnight. The next day, we took Route 101 along the coast until it turned inland south of Eureka, got off for thirty miles to drive the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park, and then followed 101 to Ukiah and through the wine-growing valley to the south.
Jumbo Diaz Fielding Award: Jumbo Diaz of course!
As you can see, Jumbo is quite large and, as we found out, does not move well. He’s 33 and listed at 6’4″ and 278 pounds (that may be just a bit on the low side). With the game between the Rays and Orioles tied 3-3 in the 7th, Jumbo came in on in relief for Tampa with a runner on first. Over the next two innings, Jumbo gave up five hits and five runs of which three were bunt singles which he could not handle (to be fair the last one was more the fault of the Rays muffing coverage at first base). After the third bunt (and second in a row) we wondered if Buck Showalter was going to continue to do so until the Rays reacted. I guess he decided to have mercy on Jumbo.
Quickest Home Run: Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run against the Cubs that reached the left-field seats before we realized what had happened.
Best Food Actually Eaten: Chase Field. A hot dog smothered in mac ‘n’ cheese (Larry), Italian sausage with peppers & onions from Hungry Hill (me), and, at the insistence of my daughter: an ice cream churro dog shared by us all. We were comatose by the end of the game, which, given the quality of play, was probably a good thing.
Most Unintelligible Public Address System: Kauffman Stadium. Couldn’t understand a word.
Best Performance By A Player On His Bobblehead Day: Carlos Gomez of the Brewers who hit a long home run.
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Best Adam Dunn Type-Performance: Adam Dunn, of course! As you may know, THC is fascinated by all things Dunn. Our hopes were fulfilled at the White Sox game when Adam delivered the Adam Dunn Cycle (Homer, Walk, Strikeout). And it looks like our presence and inspiration was responsible for The Adam Dunn Resurgence. Coming into that game, Dunn was hitting .156 with 13 homers. Since then he’s hit .400 with five homers, raising his average to .183
Best Infield Play: I’d never seen a 3-2-2 double play before. In the Tampa-Detroit game, the Rays had runners on 1st and 2nd in the top of the 3rd with one out when Fuld hit a hard grounder to first base on which Prince Fielder made a diving stop and threw to catcher Alex Avila. You can watch the rest of it at this link.
Torii Hunter, the veteran Tiger outfielder, said after the game:
As long as you’ve been around this game, you’re going to see something . . . I don’t care how old you are or how long you’ve been in the game, there’s always something new in this game. All these years, here’s something new. It was amazing.
Number of Coyotes Seen Crossing Roads: One (US 60 in Ohio)
Published in Culture
My favorite beer vending setup was when I used to go to Mexican League games in Monterrey. I always went with somewhere between 4 and 12 people. The vendor would serve the beer in plastic cups but not collect money during the games. At the end he’d come round and you and your buddies would hand back a huge collection of cups, the vendor would count them, and then you’d pay.
Wow this is awesome! I always wanted to visit every stadium. It was on my bucket list with my mom.
The HHH, if it were to be on the list, would undoubtedly be dead last. It was hot in there – with the roof engaged. The rows in our section went on forever – we had to walk over 350 people to get from the aisle to our seats in the middle of the row. Apparently no cheering is allowed – I almost got into a fight with the guy behind me because he didn’t like our shouting the entire game.
But it was fun having to hold your hat as you left the building to keep it from being blown off by the change in air pressure.
Yeah, it was kind of weird. I saw only two games there that I can remember. But four of the seven games of the Best World Series Ever were played there.
It was weaponized to turn exiting fans into human projectiles.
I’m in the process of doing this too, and I have three stadiums left: Safeco (Seattle), Target (Minnesota), and Chase (Arizona). My rankings are pretty close to yours, though I’d put Rogers Center in the basement with Tropicana. The one thing I can say about Tropicana is the fans were great, so it made the game much more fun.
Your impression of Houston is like mine of the new Yankee Stadium. My first thought when walking through security was that it looked like an upscale shopping mall. When I got to my seat, the concessions and other vendors were separated from the field by such a large concourse that you couldn’t even hear crowd noise. For the amount of money I paid for the ticket, I at least want to feel like I’m at a ballpark.
Miami is fine. But for half a billion dollars, your stadium should be more than just “fine”.
My top 3: PNC, Busch, AT&T.
Great post. Thanks.
Agreed that the new Yankee Stadium is lame. I watched Maris and Mantle play in the real one back in the home run record year. That place was awe-inspiring.
I am so old, I have seen the Phillies play in Connie Mack Stadium, the Senators in both Griffith Stadium and RFK Stadium and the Tigers in Tiger Stadium. Fenway fans needed to know their neighbors–recall a great chat about depressed attendance whenever the Orioles were in town and Jim Palmer was on the mound–Palmer got pounded that night much to everyone’s surprise.
I don’t miss urban street parking and “Mister, protect your car for ya?” but walking through lively neighborhoods instead of a sterile vast parking lot is better.
I have always been fine with hot dogs, beer, peanuts and limited soft drink choices–sushi at a ballpark, seriously? I admit I do like the concessions choices at Camden Yards.
My grandchildren are so addled from video games they have a hard time with baseball. They also find this old man’s habit of seemingly arcane scorekeeping notations in the program baffling.
Not sure how baseball can renew its connection. I doubt there are still many 9-year old boys staying awake way past bedtime to listen to the game on a transistor radio when the home team was on a west coast swing. I try to imagine what it would have been like if Al Kaline, Ron Santo or Carl Yastremski had become free agents and moved to other clubs. There was something special about having an identity and some fixed stars that is lacking in the current game.
I’m not a huge MLB fan but baseball is my favorite sport to watch live.
I have managed to see a few stadiums-the old Jarry Park and Ugly Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Old and new stadii in Toronto. HHH in Minneapolis as well as its predecessor. I’ve also been to a game at Dodger Stadium and at the old Cleveland stadium.
All were fun for me.
Also, I understand the alcohol issue at Fenway. The right field bleachers became a steady low roar by the 7th inning regardless of events on the field. Fans were patted down at the gate to seize liquor miniatures taped to arms, legs and chest. Shirtless buffoons falling onto the field, fights and an overall significant departure from the family-friendly experience of major league baseball became the norm.
I’m a Rockies fan, so it was a thrill to go to Coors field, finally. I grew up watching the Zephers play, and I spent a good amount of time at Mile High, but having moved away in 1992, I missed seeing the Rockies until my wife surprised me with tickets (and airfare) to see the Rockies during Helton’s final homestand. So that may be my favorite experience. I also love taking the family to see Mariners games, especially because they play the Rockies now at least once per year. Safeco is a lot of fun, even though you have to put up with Seattle in order to get it.
I haven’t visited many ballparks, but as far as the parks go, my all-time favorite is PNC Park. The stadium is simply beautiful, and it’s got to rank as one of the all-time best places to watch a game.
Nope, no way, Uh UH.
Wrigley is #1
It’s a jewel, perfect proportions, the Ivy, the neighborhood, the Lake, the rooftop seating, the manual scoreboard, the W flag to announce a win, the team pennants showing the standings ( One day in 1968 I was in a crowd of 40 thousand who stood around waiting to watch the Cubs pennant hauled up in the # 1 position over the Cards and roared. Only lasted a couple of days but still….)
I’ll give Fenway #2. But you need to fix this.
Too many cubs fans.
That’s a feature, not a bug.
I was in the right field bleachers for many Yankees games in ’77 and ’78. Lots of drinking, at least one fight at every game. Heavy police presence. I was there the night people were throwing batteries at Micky Rivers. Bad scene.
The view, such as it was, from my seat at Rogers.
If you are looking for company when you make it to Chase let me know. I live nearby.
I would be much more favorably disposed towards the Cubs team (players) if not for their fans.
I used to *love* Cards fans. They were friendly, knowledgeable and traveled well. But something happened about 4 or 5 years ago, and they’ve gotten really obnoxious since.
Quit going to Brewers/White Sox games in the late 70s because of the number of fights in the stands. I remember one game in particular where we sat and watched squads of sheriffs deputies spend the night just running from one section to another breaking up fights.
On the other hand, I’ve heard stories about when the Braves first came to Milwaukee in the 1950s – One guy bought two season tickets – one for himself, and one to have a place to put the case of beer he brought to every game.
It amazes me in the upper deck of Miller Park how much of a (at least perceived) difference just a few rows can make in how far you are from the field.
My seats are the front row of the upper deck, directly behind the plate. You go back 10 or 15 rows it seems like you’re twice as far away.
That’s why we liked walking around the stadiums and varying our seat location. It’s very difficult from the photos to know how good the sight lines are. There are some websites that can help. At AT&T we were in the right field stands, upper deck and thought we might feel distant from the field but the sight lines were great, one of the best upper decks we’ve been in.
If you are planning a ballpark roadtrip this website is a big help.
Not bad. When I was in Rogers Center, I was in section 128, about 14 rows from the field. It’s amazing that it was build in 1989, but feels so much older. Probably because they followed the multi-purpose donut model of the stadiums built in the ’70’s (Three Rivers, Riverfront, The Vet). On the other side of the spectrum, I was surprised that Kauffman opened in 1973 and Angels Stadium opened in 1964. Neither one feels that old.
LOL. Your complaint about Wrigley would also apply to Miller park (;-)
The evening of the day when Vince Foster died, we were in Tiger Stadium in 2nd level seats far down on the 3rd base line, where the seats sort of curved in toward the field. Made it almost seem like we were watching the game over the shoulder of the shortstop. I’ve had better seats closer to the action, but I’ve never had seats anywhere else that had quite that effect.
Agree completely. I found Kauffman in particular a very pleasant place to watch a ballgame.
Dude, Cardinal fans have always been obnoxious.
Cubs fans are saints.
I know this for a fact, I’m one….
We were there two years ago for the first and only time. I thought it was very nice, and like you say, it didn’t seem old.
I believe Kaufmann’s gone through a couple major renovations since it first opened.
Let’s see, major league stadiums I’ve been to…
1. Milwaukee County Stadium
2. Miller Park.
3. New Comiskey (circa 1996?)
4. Humphrey Dome (1983, 2002 or 2003)
5. Kingdome 1992, 1996
6. Fenway 1997
7. Camden Yards 1999
8. Kaufmann Field 2000
9. Coors Field 1999
10. PacBell Park. 2005
11. PNC Park 2001
12. Riverfront Stadium (2001, when they had cut a chunk out of the outfield to make room to build GAB)
13: GAB 2005
14: Dodger Stadium 1998(?)
15: Old Busch Stadium 1996, 2004(?)
I feel like I’m missing one – I thought I remembered my count being at 16…
I was in Seattle in 1999 the weekend that the new stadium opened, but didn’t have tickets.
I refuse to go to Wrigley, just on general principle.