Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Bucket List Complete!

My daughter Kara Kelley and I flew to Cincinnati to see the Red Sox play the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark.

That completed the World Tour.
The Red Sox won, 5-4. As of that game I have now been to Every Major League Ballpark.

Not just visits.
I'm talking actual games. At 41 places. There are 30 Major League Ballparks, and I've seen games at all of them. Also at 11 parks that are no longer around or no longer used for baseball.

In order.
1957: Fenway Park, Boston.
1958: Griffith Stadium, Washington DC.
1987: Memorial Stadium, Baltimore. Angels Stadium, Anaheim CA.
1992: Camden Yards, Baltimore.
1993: Veteran's Stadium, Philadelphia; Arlington Stadium, Arlington TX.
1994: Ballpark at Arlington, Arlington, TX.
1997: Turner Field, Atlanta.
1998: Wrigley Field, Chicago.
2000: Olympic Stadium, Montreal; Shea Stadium, NYC; Yankee Stadium, NYC; Pac Bell Park, San Francisco; Coors Field, Denver.
2001: Dodger Stadium, LA; QualComm Stadium, San Diego; PNC Park, Pittsburgh.
2002: Minute Maid Park, Houston; Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City; Comerica Park, Detroit.
2003: US Cellular Field, Chicago.
2004: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia; Skydome, Toronto.
2005: Jacobs Field, Cleveland; RFK Stadium, Washington DC.
2006: Miller Park, Milwaukee.
2007: McAfee Coliseum, Oakland CA; Chase Field Phoenix.
2008: Safeco Field, Seattle; Petco Park, San Diego.
2009: Metrodome, Minneapolis; Nationals Park, Washington DC.
2010: Citi Field, NYC, New Yankee Stadium, NYC; Target Field, Minneapolis.
2011: Sun Life Financial Field, Miami; Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg FL.
2012: Marlins Park, Miami.
2014: Busch Stadium, St. Louis; Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati.

But wait, there's more.
I've also been inside old Busch Stadium in St. Louis, which was set up for soccer, and The Kingdome in Seattle. That was in October 1998, and the Mariners don't play in October, so it was set up for football. I've also peered through the closed gates at Tiger Stadium and Candlestick Park, sat in the old right field grandstand at Braves Field in Boston and stood where home plate used to be at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston, where the Red Sox played from 1901-1911. There's a statue of Cy Young where the mound used to be.

So which one is best?
I'll have a ranking by topic (best fans, best food, worst park, most local color, etc.) shortly. Then a weekly one-by-one writeup on each park. That will take almost a year to post. Don't touch that dial.

No comments:

Post a Comment