Dear Houston Astros,
Thanks for an exciting series. Now, go home and beat the snot out of the Red Sox. Nobody else seems up to the job.
Thanks in advance,
New York
I know the schedules balance out in the end but jeez it seems like for the past month the Yankees have played the elite teams while the Red Sox have fattened up on the Little Sisters Of The Poor. Kind of bites that the Yankees have to make up a DH in Detroit and a completion of a game plus a full game in DC this month. I wish they would make every team schedule say 10 doubleheaders, this would allow them to start the season 1 week later and also have a few more off days for making up postponed games.
It would be interesting to have a discussion about what the worst stadium is among the new retro stadiums. It’s easy to beat up on Oakland or Tampa Bay but those teams know they’re in bad stadiums. What’s the most ill-advised NEW stadium?
I was not super impressed with Miller Park. It was, obviously, a bagrillion times nicer than Oakland, but
- It’s kinda dull, and
- It’s sort of nowhere, sitting in a sea of parking lots at the junction of two freeways, disappointingly far from downtown.
I will probably be vilified for this statement in this thread, but of the newer stadiums I’ve actually been to, I was probably least impressed with Yankee Stadium. Two things I admit up front: 1) I recognize it was modeled after the old stadium; and 2) I never made it to the old stadium. I like the grand entrance, and I liked the Legends Park. But I did not find it a particularly interesting place to sit for a baseball game (I’ve been to 2.5 games there). I remember puzzling about why the stadium wasn’t oriented in such a way that there was something interesting to see over the horizon of the stadium. Most of the newer stadiums have a nice downtown or waterfront view.
That being said, it is in no way a bad stadium. Just not particularly interesting to me.
Those are the two Ballpark Problems in MLB today, yes, but not for the same reasons. The Trop would be fine in Tampa, alongside I-4, and that’s where the Rays are trying to move. St. Pete is just too far for most of the market. I actually like the place, for all of its indoor weirdness and local-team suckitude and fan apathy, and I say that as a Fenway veteran.
The Oakland Coliseum was a nice place to see a game, too, before Mount Al. The view of the hills over the outfield grandstand more than made up for a ridiculous foul area. There’s something in the works about the A’s getting ownership of the place when the Raiders are finally gone, and that would enable another copycat retro park to go up there. But the franchise might do better in Portland or Charlotte than the East Bay.
I did not particularly like the old Yankee Stadium, and of course, the new one is meant to copy the old.
I liked the old Yankee stadium a lot more than the new one. I don’t think it matters which way you orient it though…it’s the South Bronx so there ain’t much to look at.
One of the worst things about the new one is the empty seats behind home plate. Every single game. It looks terrible on tv. Even during the 2017 wildcard game there were gaps back there, and by the 8th inning it was half cleared out.
The new stadium wasn’t built for the fans. It was created as a toy for the wealthy.
Happy June! New thread here.