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Ballpark review!

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Bubbler, Aug 13, 2012.

  1. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    It's OK. I wouldn't go so far to call it great.

    Sight lines are good, they worked it well into downtown St. Louis (though whatever they planned for the old Busch site has been an unmitigated disaster ... it's still a vacant lot beyond LF), and it has the feel of a decent ballpark, unlike Cincinnati.

    On the other hand, the food is terrible, maybe the worst in the Midwest.

    Hardee's at several of the concession stands? Really? St. Louis has some good places to eat. It's on the same dumb, corporatist level as DiGiorgno Pizza being in the concession stands at Comiskey Park. It's fucking Chicago, get some good pizza in there.

    Worst of all, Cardinals fans act like they're at church instead of a ballgame. It's a legacy of the grouchy old man LaRussa era/grouchy old man Herzog era in which anything considered outside the unwritten rules of the game is met with loud tsk-tsks by the school marm "best fans in baseball".

    Unless the Cardinals are doing it of course. Then it's OK.

    Kauffman Stadium is the best inside Missouri by a country mile. One of the best period. Surprised it doesn't get more love.
     
  2. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    >>>Worst of all, Cardinals fans act like they're at church instead of a ballgame<<<

    How so?
     
  3. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    One of the things I enjoyed most about my visit to Target Field this summer was the Twins' conscious effort to include local restauranteurs at the ballpark. And Minneapolis has some damn good food, too (downtown food trucks FTW.)

    The total ballpark experience was enjoyable.

    Strongly agree.

    I haven't been to Pittsburgh or San Fran yet, so any ranking I do is essentially incomplete until I see games there. But for my money:

    1. Camden Yards
    2. Wrigley Field
    3. Target Field
    4. Kauffman Stadium
    5. Petco Park
     
  4. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Besides the school marm-isms I mentioned, they barely cheer. They sit on their hands. They're inhibited. It's a quiet ballpark by the standards of others I've been to. I don't think anyone would consider Busch to be an intimidating place to play.

    Let me put it another way ... I don't get the impression that many Cardinals fans are there to enjoy the game experience. They're there to be in awe of the game experience. To be in awe of their Redbirds. Whole generations of Cardinals fans have been told they're the best fans in the world. It's like they've taken it too much to heart and decided that being one of the "best fans" means being reverent, quiet and worshipful.

    Oh ... and superior to the fans of other teams.

    I've gone to new Busch many times ... often times wearing Brewers colors. I haven't been since the teams battled for the 2011 division and Milwaukee became a disliked team in St. Louis, but in my trips prior to that, you get a weird vibe off of Cardinals fans.

    Fans at Busch are almost never overtly confrontational (full disclosure ... never been there for a Cubs game), they treat visiting fans with respect, which is good.

    But they also look at you kind of how a rich person looks at his help. They think they're better than you, and by God, they're going to prove it by being as inhibited as is humanly possible!

    I don't doubt their loyalty as fans ... Cardinals fans are great fans. They just have an oddball reverential way of expressing it.
     
  5. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Pittsburgh does a great job of that too. Lots of really cool food choices at PNC.
     
  6. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty New Member

    Been to:
    Dodger Stadium
    Kingdome
    Safeco
    Candlestick
    Dodger Stadium
    Angel Stadium
    Petco
    The Ballpark
    Kauffman
    New Busch
    Camden
    The Vet

    The best: Camden
    The dump: The Ballpark
    The shocker (pun): The Vet (Most people hated this place. I kinda thought it was a cool place to watch a game.)
     
  7. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Let's see:

    Tiger
    Comerica
    Fenway
    Royals
    Wrigley
    Old Comiskey
    New Comiskey
    GAB
    Metrodome (not for baseball)
    Shea (not for baseball)
    Old (1976-2010) Yankee
    Tropicana (not for baseball)
    Pac Bell
    Oakland Coliseum
     
  8. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty New Member

    come on, dude. best, dump and the shocker (pun). and you can't list the coliseum as the dump.
     
  9. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Hundreds of millions too many.

    And I agree that it's a much friendlier experience for the fans than the new (and awful) Yankee stadium.

    Of the rest, I'd put Dodger Stadium and Wrigley and Fenway at the top of any 'must visit' list.
     
  10. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    I haven't had a chance to try it yet for various reasons, but there's a new area outside Nats Park with bands, beer, food, etc. Anyway, apparently, they have a rack of food trucks lined up on the street, too, which is awesome.
     
  11. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    That's the one right across from the Metro. It used to be a beer garden. Once they finally build on that site, though, it's gone.
     
  12. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Right. But you'd hope they'd move somewhere else and keep some sort of "outside the park" entertainment option in the future.
     
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