I was referring to the design, architecture and engineering. I would get into that further but fvk it, not worth the effort here.

51 minutes ago, AntMan26 said:

I just love the game of baseball and I find that scoring the game can help tell the story in a different/better/more nuanced way, both while the game is happening and when reflecting on it afterward. I also feel more intimate with the game when I score

Of course, there are also times where I just enjoy a nice cold beer and simply watch the game as well.

Sorry, I should have also said impressive as well. I have never scored a game, but I always figured that would be something that one would learn from their grandpa, father, and so on. My dad never did it, so I never learned it. I would be surprised if many people still do it today. I think it has unfortunately aged out, due to stat tracking. But your first sentence provides the explanation.

Edited yesterday at 01:08 AM1 day by WhiteSox2023

16 minutes ago, tray said:

I was referring to the design, architecture and engineering. I would get into that further but fvk it, not worth the effort here.

@tray, I don’t bust your balls much anymore and I agree with you on a lot of things but you can’t have it both ways.

5 hours ago, WestEddy said:

kaufman (royals)
Big A (recent reno)
Oakland Coliseum
Previous Arlington
Safeco (Seattle)
Olympic Stadium (Atlanta)
RFK (DC)
Shea (previous)
Both Milwaukees
Wrigley
Old Busch
Riverfront (Cincinnati)
Dodger
Coors Field (Colorado)
Whatever San Francisco's called

Milwaukee's old park had a great vibe to it. I believe you couldn't see the field from either Arlington or Cleveland's concourses. Dodger Stadium and Kaufman were both cool in that I always saw them on TV as a kid and visiting was a life's dream. Safeco is cool walking by the bullpens. RFK sucked in that from the middle tier, you couldn't see popups for the upper deck overhang.

Riverfront and RFK both sucked in that they were old, worn down, the astroturf in Cincinnati had patches and was fluorescent. The RollerDome sucked, too. Magglio Ordonez left our group comp tickets, as we kept running into the White Sox at the hotel we stayed. That didn't suck. I mostly just remember the seated game experience for most of these. There's often drinking involved, which limits the note-taking. San Fran and Fenway have great neighborhood experiences, as does Seattle, Wrigley. I never got to the Bowling HOFs across from Busch stadium.

Riverfront was one of the cooler fan experiences, everybody dressed in red crossing the Ohio River bridge. Sat near Joe Crede's aunt and cousin at the Sox game in St. Loo.

Great food in Seattle, one real option in Dodger stadium (King Tacos?). If you walk from the Embarcadero in SF, Red's Java Hut was a must stop. My wife and I drank beers in their parking lot during their first modern World Series run, and we fell in love with that team. Rooted for them that year. Saw Curt Schilling no-hit the As into the 9th until Shannon Stewert broke it up with 2 outs.

Milwaukee can heat the stadium to about 30 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. Whenever I joke that I bet they can get it up to about 120 in the summer, whoever I tell that to corrects me that they probably don't have the heat on in the summer.

Do you mean Turner Field? How was it? Interesting that they converted the actual olympic stadium into the Braves new ballpark. I saw a good YouTube clip a while back that explained the factors that led to the Braves abandoning Turner Field after only 19(?) seasons. Amazing.

I'd like to see a game at Kaufmann before the Royals move to their proposed downtown stadium. I only have a few years left to do that.

Edited yesterday at 02:45 AM1 day by 77 Hitmen

3 hours ago, tray said:

Was at the new Ryan Field - an architectural and engineering feat. Go Cats.

It’s a nice stadium for almost a billion dollars. But damn is it loud. You literally can’t have a conversation with the people around you with how loud it is.

I’ve been to the Rate all my life and haven’t had any issue with it. The tailgating is nice since I think ballpark prices are outrageous. I can sit in the outfield, upper deck, infield and shop for the best value seats. It’s fine for what it is.

Wrigley is ok but my guess is Fenway is better. I didn’t care for it when I went in 2014 and in 2016 before and during the renovations.

I really enjoyed Tropicana Field with my dad and son earlier this year. We sat in the section behind the plate and saw the Rays and Detroit play. The concourse isn’t much and gives off United Center vibes, but the in game lighting and music is fun to be around. Sting rays in center field are a nice touch.

Miller Park was interesting to watch a game at, but it was far more interesting to umpire my twin brothers’ game in the field next to it. Got to call my brother out on strikes as my younger brother pitched to him (ABS challenge would not have upheld that call 😂).

10 hours ago, The Beast said:

I’ve been to the Rate all my life and haven’t had any issue with it. The tailgating is nice since I think ballpark prices are outrageous. I can sit in the outfield, upper deck, infield and shop for the best value seats. It’s fine for what it is.

Wrigley is ok but my guess is Fenway is better. I didn’t care for it when I went in 2014 and in 2016 before and during the renovations.

I really enjoyed Tropicana Field with my dad and son earlier this year. We sat in the section behind the plate and saw the Rays and Detroit play. The concourse isn’t much and gives off United Center vibes, but the in game lighting and music is fun to be around. Sting rays in center field are a nice touch.

Miller Park was interesting to watch a game at, but it was far more interesting to umpire my twin brothers’ game in the field next to it. Got to call my brother out on strikes as my younger brother pitched to him (ABS challenge would not have upheld that call 😂).

I was at the Trop to see the White Sox Friday night game in the series this summer (we won)! I had a better experience at the Trop than I would have guessed. It is sterile. It is odd. The bullpen situation is just...strange! But...customer service was outstanding! People were friendly! We hit some BOMBS that night (so did Junior)! Interesting that you mentioned the lighting...one of my takeaways from that night was how easy it was to see the ball. The lighting was great for what I thought was going to be a subpar experience. I enjoyed watching a game at the Trop way more than I ever guessed I would. Although it had a very different feel to it when compared to attending an outdoor game!

12 hours ago, 77 Hitmen said:

Do you mean Turner Field? How was it? Interesting that they converted the actual olympic stadium into the Braves new ballpark. I saw a good YouTube clip a while back that explained the factors that led to the Braves abandoning Turner Field after only 19(?) seasons. Amazing.

I'd like to see a game at Kaufmann before the Royals move to their proposed downtown stadium. I only have a few years left to do that.

Yes, Turner Field. I remember little. The parking lot was on the old stadium's footprint. They left the outfield wall. Was not digging the tomahawk chop.

11 hours ago, WestEddy said:

Yes, Turner Field. I remember little. The parking lot was on the old stadium's footprint. They left the outfield wall. Was not digging the tomahawk chop.

I heard they changed the name of it to the “Indigenous Peoples’ Chop”, so it is now fully PC.

43 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I heard they changed the name of it to the “Indigenous Peoples’ Chop”, so it is now fully PC.

"Since 2020, however, Kansas City Chiefs cheerleaders have been required to lead the chop with a closed fist rather than the traditional open palm."

Was looking up what FSU does now...apparently KC has to play the FSU band's rendition on the PA.

weird.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by caulfield12

On 10/22/2026 at 8:09 PM, WhiteSox2023 said:

@tray, I don’t bust your balls much anymore and I agree with you on a lot of things but you can’t have it both ways.

Both sides of what? This thread ostensibly was about the aesthetics of mlb stadiums. I attended a game at a new football stadium. I found that the architectural design and the engineering to create that structure was impressive. Not sure why that is/was controversial.

4 hours ago, tray said:

Both sides of what? This thread ostensibly was about the aesthetics of mlb stadiums. I attended a game at a new football stadium. I found that the architectural design and the engineering to create that structure was impressive. Not sure why that is/was controversial.

No billionaire gets there without ruffling lots of feathers along the way.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/03/06/aons-fall-from-grace-personal-for-ceo-ryan/

On 10/22/2026 at 5:26 AM, MiddleCoastBias said:

Gate area at the airport is empty except for two other guys and I overhear them debating all of the stadiums they've been to, best to worst. One of them wholeheartedly said Rate Field was the worst fan experience and that he would never, ever want to return. Worse than any other stadium, including Oakland and Tampa.

Now, this is an outsider perspective and not a fan of the team, so they didn't tailgate etc to get the full experience. And it's only one voice calling it the worst. But non-Sox fans are not champing at the bit to come see a game here. We have an opportunity to make this fan-friendly for our fans and make it an attractive place to visit.

On 10/22/2026 at 8:05 AM, Falstaff said:

My best friend was a diehard Cub fan, and he preferred the Cell over Wrigley, to each his own.

I know it's just two guys, but I wonder why they felt the experience at Rate Field was the worst fan experience. That seems way over the top to me. The best anecdotal experience I have is that I worked downtown for 30 years and was always known as an unabashed Sox fan. In all those years, it was always a tough sell to convince people who weren't already big Sox fans or just huge baseball fans who will go see a game anywhere to go to Sox Park. This included coworkers and especially people who were coming in from out of town for conferences. It had nothing to do with false perceptions of crime in the area and they knew it was a short ride on the Red Line to get there, it was just people thought the park was generic and the area around it was boring. I know that's unscientific, but that's been the challenge for the Sox for decades. Tailgating and chest thumping about the South Side isn't bringing in more fans.

@Falstaff , I too have met some diehard Cubs fans who said they like Sox Park over Wrigley. So, that's definitely not unheard of. Not every lifelong Cubs fans likes the bar scene culture around Wrigley. Of course, it still doesn't change the fact that there's not enough people out there who feel this way to make the Sox a better draw.

Here's my last set of ballparks that I have visited. This one is for older ballparks.

Wrigley Field: I haven't been there since the major renovations. This is a difficult one for me to rank because of not seeing the Ricketts overhaul and because of my blind hatred for the Cubs and anything Cubs. That being said, I've sat in some pretty crappy seats at Wrigley in the lower deck with the overhang blocking popups. The concessions area was cramped and the food was unremarkable (though I don't know if the food is better now). Communal urinal troughs in the men's room? Gross! All these faults inexplicably get totally swept under the rug when grown men weep at the thought of this place. That being said, you can't beat the atmosphere there and there's no denying that the place has become a bucket list destination for some. Even a number of Sox fans acknowledge enjoying the Wrigley experience. Unlike the Sox under Jerry, they've done a masterful job of embracing their history. Obviously the neighborhood is a huge draw. Parking sucks, it's not next to an expressway, and yet they still manage to draw huge crowds even when they're bad.

Fenway Park: I was there 30 years ago, so maybe the park as been renovated since then. You can't beat the history and how it's integrated into the neighborhood. When we walked up to it, I was amazed at how it just looked like another building. Much more so than Wrigley. That being said, other than the history, I thought the place was a dump. Cramped concessions, cramped seating, the food was just standard ballpark fare (though that might have changed). They've obviously done extremely well there and it'll be their forever home, but IMHO, I thought the place was overrated. Transit access was great - we were able to take the "T" from our hotel to Fenway no problem

Angel Stadium: One of those "there's nothing wrong with it" ballparks. The concourse is worse than Rate Field. It's surrounding by nothing but parking lots, but unlike at Rate Field, you can't just walk to a nearby neighborhood and it's not right by a couple of train lines that are a few stops away from downtown. There IS a train station near the ballpark, but for most people the only way to get there is to drive and park. On the plus side, it's just a couple of miles down the road from Disneyland. They seem to have done a fine job renovating the place in the 1990s and the Angels always draw well despite many years of poor play, but it'll be interesting to see what Kroenke does when their lease is up in the 2030s. My guess is either massive overhaul or build a new ballpark next to it on the parking lots.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by 77 Hitmen