Worst parks you've seen a game in

[POLO GROUNDS 1957]

Cleveland Stadium

Oh, I GET IT, you think that because I didn't list the mistake by the lake in my list of MLB parks I've been to a game at that I've never been there! Because the Indians were the only team that played there!

We get it, you like old parks and hate every team that ever moved. Seriously though you should hate the Indians because they left League park, and stop defending Cleveland Stadium. It would fit in more with your MO.

HEY BLEACHERBEE I FEEL JUST LIKE THE BROOKLYN DODGERS FANS AND THE NEW YORK GIANTS FANS DO ABOUT LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO BECAUSE AS FAR AS ME THE TIGERS LEFT DETROIT AFTER 1999. and yes i love the old ballparks including the POLO GROUNDS, SHEA STADIUM could not hold a candle to the POLO GROUNDS. and if you dont know the NEW YORK METS PLAYED AT THE POLO GROUNDS in 1962 and 1963 before the dump called SHEA STADIUM opened. BLEACHERBEE checkout the threads in the brooklyn dodgers and NY GIANTS sections

[Bleacherbee]

HEY BLEACHERBEE I FEEL JUST LIKE THE BROOKLYN DODGERS FANS AND THE NEW YORK GIANTS FANS DO ABOUT LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO BECAUSE AS FAR AS ME THE TIGERS LEFT DETROIT AFTER 1999. and yes i love the old ballparks including the POLO GROUNDS, SHEA STADIUM could not hold a candle to the POLO GROUNDS. and if you dont know the NEW YORK METS PLAYED AT THE POLO GROUNDS in 1962 and 1963 before the dump called SHEA STADIUM opened. BLEACHERBEE checkout the threads in the brooklyn dodgers and NY GIANTS sections

Thanks I was aware... what's the point of this?

[wamby]

HELLO i was at cleveland stadium for one game in 1992. and i liked the place. it looked like it was in good shape. i would have liked to have seen a game at LEAGUE PARK but they partially DEMOLISHED the stadium i think in 1950. they did leave a small part of the stadium and the playing field and i was lucky to have seen that in 1992. I have been told that it is still there today and i guess they are going to renovate what is still left there. GRANTED cleveland stadium when there was 20,000 people looked empty. i would have loved to have seen a cleveland browns football game there. DONALD DETROIT MI

You're one of the few people I've heard of that like Cleveland Stadium. By 1992 the place was a dump.

I'm not sure when League Park was demolished, but the Browns were using it as a practice field in the late sixties. A little bit of League Park is still standing at East 66th & Lexington. When I was growing up, that was reputedly the worst section of Cleveland.

[donut1893]

The worst stadium that I have ever been to is Veteran's Stadium in 2003. I did not really like Shea when I went to a game there but there are some redeeming qualities.

[64Cards]

The worst stadium that I have ever been to is Veteran's Stadium in 2003. I did not really like Shea when I went to a game there but there are some redeeming qualities.

It's next to LGA airport, so you can get the hell out of NY quickly.

[SRO]

I am new to the forum, and wanted to share my times at Arlington Staduim. Go early in the year or late in the season or the sun would cook you. I went to a game in early 80's against the White Sox, 7th inning was at 93 degrees, game started at close to 100 degrees at 7:30 pm.
Buddy Bell hit a grand slam to win the game, was one of my favorite memories about that old park.
Built as a minor leauge park for the Dallas/Ft.Worth Spurs became the home of the expansison Rangers. Small and cozy what a great place to watch a game. The dot races are a big fan delight.

I was shocked it took someone this long to mention Arlington Stadium, but even more shocked that in a positive light

My dad used to take me there all the time in the early eighties...I don't remember much about it, other than sweating my nuts off.

[Gary Dunaier]

[Shea Stadium is] next to LGA airport, so you can get the hell out of NY quickly.

Now there's an interesting visual - someone leaving Shea Stadium and going directly to the airport and jumping on the next departing plane, no matter where it's going.

This is what I'm talking about when I say it's a pain to get to [Shea Stadium] by public transportation.

First you have to take a subway to Penn Station. Then you have to get off the subway, go into the LIRR area, buy an LIRR ticket, and then hop onto one of their trains... which run on a schedule instead of just coming every few minutes. I'm not sure if you can take a subway to Shea, but if you can, it's got to be by some convoluted route that I've never figured out.

The individual who posted this must not have noticed the elevated subway tracks as he approached Shea Stadium on his way from the LIRR station.

I guess Grand Central station is really hard to get to. The #7 train directly links with every line except the A/C/E line. It is a cross town train.

You can connect with the #7 from the E train. Heading northbound, the E train separates from the A and C trains after 42nd Street where it heads into Queens. Take the E train to Roosevelt Avenue/Jackson Heights, and you can transfer to a #7 local which will take you to Shea.

* * *

How's that for bumping an old thread? :applaud:

[skobabe8]

HEY BLEACHERBEE how can you comment on a place that you never been to. i did go to the old cleveland stadium. but then again i can expect a comment like that from someone who likes SHEA STADIUM WHICH STINKS ALSO. I WOULD RATHER BE AT THE POLO GROUNDS ANY DAY OVER SHEA STADIUM. DONALD DETROIT :grouchy

DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST SAY THAT!!?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna be laughing about that one for a looooooong time!

[gman5431]

The Trop

If you go for the love of the game any ballpark is great. I do agree that the cookie cutter were the worst thing to happen ,especially since they took down some wonderful ballparks. Now they are replacing the cookie cutters with ballparks that look like the ones they tore down, go figure.

Sure the cookie cutters were (thankfully, were) terrible, but i would say i prefer them over the Trop. The Trop is the worst Major League Park i have ever been in... fake grass and a dome, the double wammy for me... it was even worse than the Metrodome.

G Man

[gman5431]

The "Top Six"

Growing up at Riverfront, I saw Reds and Bengals. My love for the game and my teams, it was the most beautiful thing my eyes had seen. Moved, had tickets to Astros in the Astrodome. Same-cookie-cutter-thing. I thought this was how sports was played...such a sheltered life. :noidea Then I saw Minute Maid-Astros and it was incredible. I know this is a baseball forum, but I have seen several Texans games at Reliant--holy cow!!

Upper deck Riverfront, because of circle, you feel like you are mile high and mile out. Reliant is a rectangle, sure you may be a mile up but you are on top of the field and you feel right on top of the action...same with Alamodome--saw many Spurs games and saw this year's Alamo Bowl game, Buckeyes vs. osu Cowboys. Minute Maid park--I dont think there is a bad seat in the house. The seats are very closed in and close to the field as oppose to sitting upper deck CF at Riverfront; you feel like you might be in Kentucky.

Just my perspective of it all.

This is great!! Remember the "Top Six" tickets at old Riverfront. They only sold them day of game and at one time they were $2.50. Usually you wouldnt sit in the top six but every once in a while you did and you definately were high up but it was kind of cool. This is why, every ballpark has something that makes it special... even domes, even though I still don't like them.
G Man

[skobabe8]

Sure the cookie cutters were (thankfully, were) terrible, but i would say i prefer them over the Trop. The Trop is the worst Major League Park i have ever been in... fake grass and a dome, the double wammy for me... it was even worse than the Metrodome.

G Man

I think most domes automatically have fake grass. What makes the Trop worse than the Metrodome?

[marlins739]

I think the Metrodome is the worst, and I liked the Trop a lot. At the Trop at least they try, with the all-dirt infield, baseball-only seating and dimensions, catwalks adding a little character. It was the only dome built for baseball (though it was a long time before baseball was ever played there). Have you ever been to the Trop? I've been to the Metrodome and the Trop and I liked the Trop a lot better

[Lafferty Daniel]

I think the Metrodome is the worst, and I liked the Trop a lot. At the Trop at least they try, with the all-dirt infield, baseball-only seating and dimensions, catwalks adding a little character. It was the only dome built for baseball (though it was a long time before baseball was ever played there). Have you ever been to the Trop? I've been to the Metrodome and the Trop and I liked the Trop a lot better

Many people consider Tropicana to be the worst ballpark because it's so much newer than the Metrodome and there's no reason to believe it will be replaced anytime soon...unlike the Dome. Tampa/St. Pete/MLB weren't thinking ahead when they built the Trop.

[Foppa21]

I DO care if I never get back!

Maybe it doesn't count as a full-time baseball stadium, park, but Mile High was terrible, for anything. Like Milwaukee County, a really horrible (yet fun) park, it is gone. Today's worst are U.S. Cellular, the horrid replacement to a shrine in Comiskey, a rollercoaster looking stadium void of personality and Jacobs Field, a park that became outdated like a 70s cookie-cutter venue maybe 2 years after it opened. Yankee Stadium, soon to go, good riddance, is saved only by its history and mistique (other than the lattice work and Monument Park).

Getting out of the negative, as this topic embraces, my faves, as far as great BASEBALL parks for all the various criteria you might come up with are:

Fenway
Kauffman
Oakland Coliseum (except for how the raiders ruined the park)
Pac Bell
Coors
Wrigley

[PeteU]

Many people consider Tropicana to be the worst ballpark because it's so much newer than the Metrodome and there's no reason to believe it will be replaced anytime soon...unlike the Dome. Tampa/St. Pete/MLB weren't thinking ahead when they built the Trop.

To be fair, the Trop was concieved in 1986, which was two years before Oriole Park at Camden Yards was first put in the planning books. And even OPACY in its first conception wasn't much different than New Comiskey Park. So the paradigm shift in ballparks hadn't yet occurred. The worst the Trop planners could be accused of was simply thinking within the box.

Tropicana Field when it was first built was essentially the domed version of New Comskey Park (prior to it US Cellular Field renovations). And to be fair, the Trop was built as a baseball-first venue. They could have made a gargantian megaplex for both the Bucanneers and baseball but instead they focused solely on the baseball, resulting in better baseball oriented sightlines. And given that the Trop was actually planned and built before New Comiskey, it really stands as the first baseball-primary stadium built since Kauffman, not New Comiskey.

The Trop gets a bad rap, but I think some of it is overstated. Of all the fixed dome stadiums in baseball history (Astrodome, Kingdome, Metrodome, should we include Olympic after the roof broke?), I would venture to say the Trop was probably the best of the bunch. Which is sort of like saying Boys II Men was the best of all the boy bands--it was a pretty crummy trend all in all--but in the land of the blind, the one eye is king.