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Thanks to my friend (and Cubs By The Numbers co-author) Matt Silverman, who made the suggestion that I put together this list showing my ranking of all 45 ballparks I’ve written about in each part of this series, with a brief comment on each (going to try to be nice here, as best I can, too). Here goes!
- Wrigley Field, Chicago: My home away from home, history and tradition
- PNC Park, Pittsburgh: Spectacular city views, friendly people
- Oracle Park, San Francisco: More spectacular views and great garlic fries
- Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City: A 2009 renovation made this good place great
- Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore: First of the retro parks, still great 25+ years later
- Fenway Park, Boston: The history’s worth the trip
- Target Field, Minneapolis: Stunning architecture, intimate sightlines
- Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles: Retro 1960s feel, but oh, the traffic
- Miller Park, Milwaukee: Good outdoor feel when the roof’s open
- Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia: Another park with a great skyline view
- T-Mobile Park, Seattle: Cool Mariners Hall of Fame & Museum
- Citi Field, New York: Surprisingly affordable, considering it’s New York
- Busch Stadium III, St. Louis: Lots of Cubs fans always, efficient & helpful gameday staff
- Coors Field, Denver: Beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains
- Comerica Park, Detroit: Get your photo taken next to the tiger statues
- Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago: Much better after extensive renovations
- Nationals Park, Washington: Easy to get to via public transit
- Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati: Good sightlines, though a bit generic
- Progressive Field, Cleveland: Also extensively renovated, reducing capacity
- Yankee Stadium III, New York: It’s just so... big
- Chase Field, Phoenix: It’s just so... big. Like an airplane hangar
- County Stadium, Milwaukee: Huge capacity (over 53,000), cheap tickets
- Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, Minnesota: Good sightlines
- Turner Field, Atlanta: The Braves didn’t need to leave this perfectly good ballpark
- Angel Stadium, Anaheim: Extensive renovations have made this place better
- Minute Maid Park, Houston: It has a train. And other weird quirks, not all good
- Rogers Centre, Toronto: It’s just so... big. Friendly people, though
- Comiskey Park, Chicago: The White Sox lost a lot of history by not renovating here
- Jarry Park, Montreal: A dump, but kind of a fun dump
- Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas: They built a new one after only 25 years, which says a lot
- Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg: The park’s fine, really. Getting there is the hard part
- Tiger Stadium, Detroit: By the time I got there (1999), the glory years were long gone
- Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Great memories, anyway, from the Cubs 1984 division clincher
- Busch Stadium II, St. Louis: It was hot there pretty much every single time
- Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati: Probably the most generic of the concrete donut parks
- Yankee Stadium II, New York: They killed the history with the mid-1970s renovation
- Shea Stadium, New York: So much wrong here, though Mets fans were very protective
- Tokyo Dome, Tokyo: Loved the trip and the people; the stadium wasn’t great
- Oakland Coliseum, Oakland: The faster they can replace this place, the better
- Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego: Maybe it could have ranked higher but for the 1984 NLCS
- Metrodome, Minneapolis: Like watching baseball in a warehouse
- Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan: Loved the trip and the people; the ballpark was not big-league quality
- Hard Rock Stadium/Dolphin Stadium, Miami: Completely unsuitable for baseball
- Exhibition Stadium, Toronto: Completely unsuitable for baseball
- Candlestick Park, San Francisco: Completely unsuitable for anything
Hope you enjoyed this series! I hope to add to this list, perhaps beginning in 2021.