Following the great success of bringing Major League Baseball to Australia with the MLB Opening Series 2014 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondback at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the hallowed turf was lauded by everyone from legendary broadcaster Vin Scully Diamondbacks star Paul Goldschmidt, as being as good as any ballpark in America.
In that spirit, here are five of my favourite Major League ballparks. If you’re looking for a few must-go MLB venues to plan a trip around, there are some good ones here, and I list them in no particular order, except, of course, for the one right at the bottom:
AT&T Park, San Francisco: Home of the Giants, this is probably America’s most beautiful ballpark, a popular one on the list of visitors wanting a good baseball experience, and perhaps one of the only sporting venues anywhere in the world where you don’t mind getting stuck with seats high up in the bleachers.
If you’re up high behind home plate at AT&T Park, you can catch glimpses of San Francisco Bay, and the massive span of the Bay Bridge. If the Giants aren’t going so well, you can enjoy a spectacular summer sunset over the picturesque Bay Area. It’s one of America’s most beautiful locations, so you won’t be disappointed by your surroundings, even if you are by the game.
Also, the atmosphere in the outfield, beneath the giant Coke bottle, is raucous, and the fact that the venue is just a baseball’s throw from the San Francisco Ferry Building and other transport, means that getting to AT&T Park is pretty easy, even if you’re from out of town. If that isn’t enough to convince you to go, the fact that San Francisco is a vibrant, exciting and beautiful city should be reason enough.
Beyond the ballpark, which is literally right on the edge of the Bay itself, sits the famous McCovey Cove, where kayakers famously sit in wait, clustered tightly together, waiting to catch balls that are hit over the outfield bleachers and off the property altogether. You won’t find a more spectacular Major League ballpark anywhere.
Wrigley Field, Chicago: Yes, the Cubs are cursed, and chances are better that you’ll witness a home team loss as opposed to a win, but that doesn’t matter. Wrigley is one of those places you have to visit if you’re a baseball fan. There’s something magical about the old ballpark, with the great view of the distant Chicago skyline.
As nice as some of these new ballparks are – see above – there’s nothing like the old-world charm, sitting in the outfield or behind home plate knowing that you’re sitting where generations of fans before you have. Sure, the seats aren’t going to be as comfortable or as roomy as a park opened in the last decade, but so much of baseball’s history can be traced back through big moments at places like Wrigley.
In terms of baseball venues, Chicago could be called a tale of two franchises. You have the grandeur of venerable Wrigley versus the home of the White Sox, the foreboding and impersonal US Cellular Field, which replaced the great old Comiskey Park some years back.
Very few venues anywhere in the country come close to matching the Cubs home in terms of history and tradition. Without a doubt, it’s one of America’s great sporting cathedrals.
Fenway Park, Boston: Speaking of great American sporting cathedrals! Even though I’m a Yankees fan through and through, I can’t ignore the greatness of Fenway, despite it being home to the team-who-shall-remain-nameless!
I love the downtown location of, how you can see the Boston skyline over the back of the outfield. Spend an evening in your seat looking over the field and enjoy the sunset as the home team – I can’t bring myself to say their name – does it’s thing. Like Wrigley, there’s a stack of baseball history here, right down to the old-style seats in the grandstands behind the plate.
Then, of course, is the Green Monster, with it’s spectacular vintage manually-operated scoreboard beneath the vaunted viewing platform. The left wall, at 11.33 m high, is the highest outer wall in the Majors, and the distance you have to hit a ball to score a home run – a mere 310-315 feet – isn’t anywhere near as long as the wait for seats up there.
Is there anywhere else in America where you have to go into a ballot and can often wait years to merely have the opportunity to purchase seats, let alone actually buy them? A unique situation for a unique baseball vantage point. Undeniably, the view from up there is fantastic, of both the ballpark and the city.
Fenway is versatile, having hosted soccer games in the past and, more recently, NHL and NCAA outdoor hockey games. Some might call it sacrilege, but opening up the famous ballpark to other history-making sporting moments – remember that great Winter Classic game between Boston and Philadelphia? – only adds to the legacy of the venue.
Busch Stadium, St Louis: A great baseball stadium in a city that eats, drinks and breathes the National Pastime. What the locals call ‘New Busch Stadium’ is one of those parks, constructed within the last decade, that’s vaulted straight into the hearts and minds of baseball fanatics everywhere. Really, what’s not to like about the home of the Cardinals?
Aside from the spectacular view – the iconic Gateway Arch is a grand spectacle, rising above the cityscape, part of the trend of modern ballparks to feature panoramic cityscape views rather than enclosing the field – from behind home plate, Cardinals fans have turned tailgating into a fine art and they are as knowledgeable and passionate as any fans in baseball.
A big game with a full crowd, and you won’t find a better environment to watch an MLB game than in the Gateway City. The stadium is reputedly home to the friendliest ushers in the Majors, and some of the best sightlines, too. It’s popularity is immense: Busch Stadium has been home to an average crowd of more than 40,000 on all but one year of it’s existence.
Opening in time for the 2014 season, Busch Stadium – named for the brewing company rather than the legendary owner Gussie Busch – will have a precinct built on the grounds of the old Busch Stadium featuring restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. If it was a great place to watch a game before, it’s only going to get better.
Yankee Stadium, New York City: My favourite Major League venue, because the Yankees are my team.
A caveat: I don’t love ‘new’ Yankee Stadium quite as much as I did it’s predecessor. I don’t think anyone does – perhaps aside from the Yankees owners, who bring in far more corporate dollars courtesy of new suites that the venerable old ballpark just didn’t have – because the new stadium can’t lay claim to having had the likes of DiMaggio, Berra, Ruth and others gracing it’s field.
Even so, some of the great modern Yankees have done their thing at the new version of the great stadium – Jeter, Rivera and Pettitte – and the fact that it is home to the Yankees, undoubtedly one of the most easily-recognised franchises in world sport, makes it one of those places that every baseball fan should visit at least once. It’ll be well worth your while.
The ballpark in the Bronx is certainly popular with tourists, who flock daily, even during winter, to do the all-encompassing tour that includes the mysterious no-photos-allowed locker room. The Yankee organisation has done a great job memorialising the old venue and the many great moments there, and have transferred as much of the look and feel across to the new stadium, whilst improving the spectator experience. It’s a good place to watch baseball, football or even hockey.
In time, the franchise, no stranger to success, will build up a legacy that will, hopefully one day, be talked about in the same breath as we all now talk about the legends who played at the old stadium.
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