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The List: Best ballparks From the Page 2 mailbag |
| On Wednesday, Page 2 ran its list of the top current baseball stadiums. We asked for your take, and you filled our mailbag with plenty of opinions.
1. Wrigley Field (230 letters) Without Wrigley, the Cubs are a mediocre team with lousy attendance. With it, they're a mediocre team who set the team's attendance record and lost 100 games. The Ivy, throwing back homers, the guys on the street with gloves waiting for a ball to leave the yard, everyone heading to Murphy's before the game and after (where you used to catch a glimpse of Mark Grace) and absolutely, positively still the best seventh-inning stretch in baseball. Jeremy Chicago It's in the middle of a neighborhood where you can watch a game from the rooftop of a house across the street. There's no other stadium in the world, in any sport, where you can do that. Jeff Buettner Chicago
Brian Beinborn Cuba City, Wis. For the sheer beauty of its "Friendly Confines", its neighborhood location, its age and accompanying history, its antiquated but remarkable scoreboard, even its smell of freshly mown grass mixed with decades of stale beer-on-concrete, no "stadium" rivals the shrine at Clark and Addison, the "field of dreams" of my youth! Arnold Gale San Jose, Calif. There's nothing like it anywhere else in baseball. The ivy, the atmosphere, and the die hard Cub fans. No domes, no retractable roofs, no corporate naming rights. Just plain fun at the old ballpark. Hop the train up to 1060 West Addison and turn back the clock to the way baseball was meant to be watched. Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse will always be missed, but it's still the place to be to catch a dose of America's pastime, and a glimpse at America's past. Andy Portland, Ore. 2. Fenway Park (219 letters)
Deana Damigella Boston It has to be Fenway; no competition. I've never been to a stadium that is so intimate, so welcoming. Sure, it's relatively uncomfortable, and the sightlines aren't perfect, but such atmosphere comes at aprice. The best part of a visit to Fenway? Walking toward the stadium across Kenmore Square. Bam, there it is in its glory, Citgo sign, Carlton Fisk pleading for divine assistance, and balls rebounding off the monster. It doesn't get better than this. Kelly P. Clark University Park, Md. Fenway. It's uncomfortable, the food sucks, the beer is overpriced, and it's usually filthy by the third inning. But find a sunny July Saturday when Pedro is pitching and stand out on Yawkee Way an hour before the game. The collective sense of anticipation and excitement is overwhelming and joyful to behold. Red Sox fans are the most unique in all of sports -- hopelessly devoted yet unflinchingly sarcastic; optimistic with every spring but pessimistic with every loss. But we are the best fans around; visit Fenway once and you will realize that. Jeremy Cutler Providence, R.I. 3. Yankee Stadium (136 letters)
Todd New York The tremendous sense of history every time I step into the place -- the monuments, the facade, imagining the Babe in right and the Iron Horse at First and Hall of Famers everywhere. The sense of awe and respect. Sure, the ballpark physically has seen better days, but there is no finer thrill than walking up toward the field and seeing the green grass. Probably sort of like visiting the Louvre or the Vatican or the Pyramids. Tim Olnick Lexington Park, Md. 4. PNC Park (98 letters)
Paul Kowalick Los Angeles 5. Pacific Bell Park (92 letters)
Ric Wilson San Jose, Calif.
6. Safeco Field (80 letters) Name another park where you can sit in the outfield, watch the game, and see the sun set over the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, all at the same time? Not to mention the rumble of the trains passing behind the stadium. Keeps you awake between innings! Michael Hanthorn Issaquah, Wash. 7. Oriole Park at Camden Yards (79 letters)
Chuck Lavin Laurel, Md. 8. Jacobs Field (52 letters) Jacobs had 455 sellouts in a row, is located in the middle of the city, and has lights designed to resemble the smoke stacks in the skyline (the only like it in the majors). There's also great sitelines, natural grass, and the guy beating the drum! Frank Liller Metairie, La. 9. Busch Stadium (37 letters)
John Willock St. Louis
10. Coors Field (35 letters) Quite simply because it is the most explosive ballpark in baseball. People are on the edge of their seat for almost every pitch, even when the pitcher is at bat. Juck Jones Carrollton, Texas Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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