Baseball's 10 worst ballparks. Ever!

espn ^ | 6-20-12 | jim caple

[TurboZamboni]

The late Dan Quisenberry once said of the Metrodome, "I don't think there are any good uses for nuclear weapons, but then, this may be one."

And he only pitched in 16 games there his entire career.

Torii Hunter, on the other hand, played 10 full seasons in the Metrodome, so maybe he had a better read on it. This is what he told me about his former home just before the Twins moved out: "If they need any kind of help blowing it up, I will definitely be there. I will push the plunger. Boom. Boom. I will not miss the Metrodome at all."

The funny thing is, I kind of do. As much as I love the Twins' new field, I had a lot of great times at the Metrodome. (I asked my future wife out on our first date from the pressbox phone while covering the Twins' 1991 worst-to-first championship season.) Or, as my mother frequently told me, if you grew up in hell, you would miss it when you left. But even as much as I enjoyed the actual games on the field, I have to admit the Metrodome was not a good place for baseball.

But was it so bad it deserves detonation, either via dynamite or nuclear weapon? Was it the worst stadium in baseball history?

[Notary Sojac]

I attended my first ever game at Fenway last month and I loved every minute of it.

I don't think any real baseball fan would not get a charge out of sitting in the park where the greats from the 1910's on forward played.

[Billthedrill]

The blowup was a hoot. They dynamited the place and everybody cheered and then went home, mostly back toward downtown. But the wind shifted and in about five minutes this horrible rain of dust and insulation and God knows what else started falling throughout the business district. Took days to clean up the mess. The Dome got us all one last time.

[cuban leaf]

—The Dome got us all one last time.—

Priceless. Reminds me of the snake head in Old Yeller. :)

[xrmusn]

Unless you are in the field boxes there are big I beams blocking your view of the field.
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Which is why there will NEVER be a good stadium in Krakow or Warsaw. “Most everyone will be sitting behind a Pole”.

Hard to go to a baseball game in Washington DC because there are too many (G)nats.

[Kryn-Man]

I don’t care what hey say, I have many good memories of baseball in the metrodome. Maybe the players didn’t like it, but the attendance in it’s final year was higher then the AL average.

[glorgau]

>The pitchers have to dodge foul balls while warming up.

I really like that about Wrigley. You can tell the pitchers are getting ready to come in when they start throwing “heat”. Plus they have to pay attention to the game or get beaned.

[wordsofearnest]

How can Wrigley Field not be on the list. The History Channel’s series “After People” used Wrigley as an example.

After 20 years it still smelled of piss and stale beer.

[massgopguy]

I love Fenway Park. It looks great on TV while I drink $3 Ballantines at my club.

[Vigilanteman]

Veteran's was awful enough but even worse was that it replaced Connie Mack stadium (a/k/a Shibe Park) which was one of the best baseball parks ever built before it was allowed to deteriorate, the first victim in the multipurpose park crapola which took hold of the era. And, of course, Philadelphia had to be on the leading edge of that abject stupidity.

Not that all the old parks were great. The old Polo Grounds in New York should have been retired decades before it finally was. No knock on the great Willie Mays and his legendary catch of that Vic Wertz blast in the 1954 World Series, but had they been playing in any semi-normal ballpark, Willie would have had to have been deep in the centerfield bleachers to even have a shot at that catch.

And, yeah, we actually cheered in Pittsburgh when they dynamited Three Rivers Stadium. PNC Park has been the best thing that has happened to Pittsburgh baseball since Willie Stargell retired.

[massgopguy]

I love Fenway Park. It looks great on TV while I drink $3 Ballantines at my club.

[Pappy Smear]

I've been to 20 some MLB parks past and present. Hands down the worst is old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto where the Blue Jays played prior to their current Rogers Centre.

It was baseball played on a football field/bowl. The seats didn't face the field, and they had a poor slope in seating for site lines.

Just horrible.

[shotgun]

Your comment reminded me of my one and only visit to Martin Stadium in Pullman,(WSU),Washington. Went there to watch the Huskies play the Cougs in during the snowbowl (2-3 foot of snow fell that day). Anyway I made a trip to the can which was located under the wooden bleachers and you could literally stand at the urinal and look out through the slats in the wood, through the peoples feet and continue to watch the game...

[Cyman]

I nominate Fenway Park. Been there twice(not recently) and the seats are aligned terribly,no parking, the concession stands few and far between and the level of profanity in the stands and in the concourse was overwhelming.The proximity to the playing field was it's one redeeming feature.

I have never understood the contrived published and air waved love affair for that dump.

[Osage Orange]

Blasphemy!!

[Retired Greyhound]

I went to the Metrodome one time, for a convention.

I had no idea that when you leave the dome, the pressurization literally sucks you right out the door.

The funniest part was watching unsuspecting people get sucked out the door and look back like “what the hell?”

But despite some great World Series moments, it was a lousy place for baseball.

[Retired Greyhound]

Amen on Fenway. It’s a ridiculous park, with screwy angles and dimensions that always inflate the Red Sox offensive numbers.

I will definitely attend the demolition (Yankees fan).

[lurk]

The old Busch Stadium with the green rug that had humpy seams in it because it was a dual-purpose field with the football team. Hot ground balls on that rug would do odd things. Sort of makes you think the architects were smoking some good Jamaican stuff and looking at a truck tire rim lying on the ground when they designed that thing.

[Fiji Hill]

Candlestick Park didn’t make the list? Wow!

I had figured the Stick would have made it near the top. Giants fans used to have bumper stickers on their cars reading, "veni, vidi,vixi"--I came, I saw, I survived.

[nutmeg]

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[Retired Greyhound]

I wish the Astros were still called the Colt .45’s. That was a great name for a team.