Posted on 06/21/2012 10:31:55 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
I suppose. I'm not an STL native so I never liked it much - though my kids (who were born here) are very nostalgic about it. I grew up around D.C. and used to go to Senators games at RFK - another monstrosity.
We'll have to agree to have different opinions on that. I watched it on TV, where I saw repeated replays from many different angles.
It was a great Series, with some outstanding pitching performances and some memorable heroics.
My suffering came during earlier World Series. I grew up a Reds fans, with a relative who played ball for the Big Red Machine. Too many Series lost to the Orioles and the A's.
I'm inclined to agree. Royals Stadium was the first of the new-old style baseball venues that are so refreshing, though being below ground level in the upper deck takes some getting used to. I've never been to Camden Yards but it looks fantastic as well and the new Bush Stadium is near perfection as long as it's not too hot. ;-)
I want to say that in 1972 they contracted for the two stadiums for 57 million. The last renovations spent over that in each stadium. Doing a major football stadium is now north of 350 million and in Dallas I think they spent a billion.
It was used for 12 and a half seasons. It was a makeshift thing but without it there would have been no team. There were some memorable games at the old Ex and the final game ended with a walkoff homer in extra innings. It was a nice way to say goodbye.
The stadium itself isn't that bad considering in the midde of summer you can watch a ballgame in the AC....
It feels like a minor league ballpark...
Of course it is build in the worst hood in St. Pete and there are almost no decent bars or restaurants except one in the area...
During the late 1970s, when I was a little older, I went to 30-40 games a year. Back then, it was cheap. I could go to all the games I wanted to on newspaper route money. I can still remember paying $1.25 to get a bleacher seat and after about the fifth inning, depending on attendance, they would let you buy a "grandstand pass" for an additional 75 cents and you got a standing room ticket that allowed you to roam the park and occupy any empty seat.
I usually got to work myself to the front row by the end of the game as many people left early to get a jump on traffic - especially if the game wasn't close. One time it paid off. The Red Sox were down something like 7-2 in the ninth and they came from behind to win. I saw the whole comeback from right behind the dugout and could practically touch Carl Yastremski as he trotted back to the dugout after making the winning hit.
Back in the 1970s, they sold beer to any kid who had the balls to ask for one. So I was 16 years old and drinking beer in the park! I think it was only 75 cents at the time. It's about $8.50 now.
Good times. But they really need to build a new ballpark. Turn Fenway into a museum or something. Keep the green monster intact and build hotels and restaurants all around the perimeter of the old field and people will still come even though the ballpark is now retired. It will be a gold mine for decades to come.
But seriously, I'm not even much of a fan of baseball, but there is something so perfect, so elegant and so lovely about the field and structure that I was overcome the first time, and every other time that I have been there. Watching a game there is like nothing else.
That stadium deserves a better team. The team might not be that good, but it looks like a great place to catch a ballgame.....PNC Park is another park that looks great, I love the ballparks that are in the city and not in the burbs....I love the Ballpark in Arlington, but it would be nicer with the Dallas skyline in the background.
BFL
A writer named Bill Jenkinson calculated that Babe Ruth would have hit over 100 homeruns in 1921 had he played in modern-dimensioned ballparks. Pitchers would throw balls outside the strike zone, and Ruth would swing at them. Because frequently those were the only balls he could reach. Many pitchers refused to throw him a hittable ball in the strike zone. He still clocked a number of them hitting quite a few over 450 to left-center and centerfield at the old Grounds. Most were just easy fly balls as the centerfield fence was 490 ft away.
I'm not sure exactly when, but it was sometime in the early to mid 1960's that they made a conscious decision to stop maintaining the park and let it go downhill. I'd forgotten they even tried to make it into a community center. Sad. Even Pittsburgh saved a part of old Forbes Field.
Anytime these modern people start prattling about the greatness of Aaron or Bonds or whomever might have exceed his record, they not only forget about the years he played in the Polo Grounds with that astronomically deep center field, they also forget that he played the first quarter of his career as a pitcher and a damn fine one at that.
I tell the prattlers to multiply every career offensive statistic by at least 1.25 and name me any other position player who would have made the Hall of Fame as a pitcher.
I saw ballgames in both of the Canadian stadia on the list (Exhibition Park, the Big O). As I recall, both of them (not just the Ex) had problems with dive-bombing seagulls.
Hate to say it, but I liked Riverfront. The cheap seats at the top of the second deck still had a decent view of the game. Great American Ballpark may be nicer, but the sight lines aren’t quite as good. Busch stadium felt like a pit and the new Busch was a great improvement.
...and what the Metrodome lacked as a baseball park, it did have an amazing vibe during crucial games. I was at the Twins-Tigers one game playoff a couple years ago and that was an awesome atmosphere.
One thing you have to say for the Cubbies though, is that they inspire more religious fervor than even Billy Graham.
After all, Billy was never able to get thirty thousand people in a stadium to jump up in unison and scream...
J—— C-——!
I remember $1.30 bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium (I grew up in New York) when a paper route paid $9.00/week, without tips. I remember drinking beer in Pete’s Blarney Tavern at night sitting at the bar next to two cops in uniform, when I was 15. At least I was paying for my beer.
Related Note...growing up a Philly sports fan develops a certain mental toughness for the junk that you plow through in real life. If you can be an every-game-following fan of the worst teams in football and baseball growing up, then you can overcome anything! (even Joe Kulharich and King Hill...LOL)
Tropicana Field in St. Pete Florida isn’t so great,either.
The parking sucks and it’s in a bad area.
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