My Minnesota baseball trip (30th MLB stadium, finally!)

[rhd]

Just to correct you, the Metro Transit police are a a force of their own, separate from Minneapolis PD, St. Paul PD, and surrounding suburbs that the light rail passes through. All they do is to deal with issues on the transit system, buses and trains, so it's not a drain on the local departments at all, they only interact with the Transit PD when there's something of a violent nature that the Transit police need help on.

http://www.metrotransit.org/transit-police

They looked and acted like "regular" police. They said they deal w theft cases that occur on trains, and when they checked for my fare card the first time, they did a "warrant" check on me, which is another complaint I have about this system. That would surprise me if transit police have the authority to do a warrant check. Are you sure that the city police dont also do checks on light rail passengers?

[heyelander]

The thing I really like about Citizen's Bank is that you are always inside the stadium. Places like Camden yards, you have to walk out through the tunnel to get to concessions and then you are basically standing outside with a view of the parking lots waiting in line for food. At the Bank, you are always inside with concessions lining the outside of the stadium. Even standing room seats (back when they would sell them) were a great way to see the game and just wander around the park.

[TranaGreg]

30) Rogers Centre (Skydome), Toronto - An engineering marvel for its time but this place is unattractive inside and out. It looks like a blimp hangar. And it has artificial turf. Toronto is a very nice city, tho.

Your comments?

I immediately scanned down to make sure you had it at 30 - you definitely got it right. It's already almost 25 years old, and while they are trying to modernize it (natural grass coming in a couple of years), there's only so much that can be done.

fwiw I really enjoyed a game a couple of years ago at Nats park & expected to see it a bit higher - mind you it was the whole experience - hot Friday night, took the river taxi from Georgetown right to the ballpark, had front row OF seats, & a great game.

[Hornsby]

They looked and acted like "regular" police. They said they deal w theft cases that occur on trains, and when they checked for my fare card the first time, they did a "warrant" check on me, which is another complaint I have about this system. That would surprise me if transit police have the authority to do a warrant check. Are you sure that the city police dont also do checks on light rail passengers?

Metro Transit Police are fully licensed police officers with all the rights and responsibilities that city police have. The regular city police don't have the time, and probably not the interest, in doing ticket checking on the LRT.

[DMT]

Your comments?

My rankings:

1) Wrigley Field - Guess I appreciate the older parks more, and the excitement in the entire neighborhood is electric.
2) Fenway Park - like being in a time machine, it'd probably be #1 if I wasn't a Cubs fan
3) Dodger Stadium - despite my witnessing the Cubs getting swept in 2008, this park is beautiful
4) PNC - gorgeous, and I got to sit front row behind the Pirates dugout because the stadium was nearly empty
5) Camden Yards - also beautiful
6) Kauffman - I went many times as a kid as I grew up in Omaha, their AAA afiliate
7) Comerica - this was the most surprising, I was very impressed how the capture the slice of Detroit that doesn't look like a war-zone
8) Petco - hopefully they're filling seats now because I've been to a handful and they've always been light
9) Coors - my buddy has season tickets, Jay Payton tried hitting on my wife after one game
10) Citizens Bank - SO much nicer, philly-whiz!
11) Angels Stadium - the first game I saw I almost hurt my neck craning to see all the hotties, but I went last year and wasn't that impressed so it fell in my rankings
12) Progressive - I like the scoreboards on the OF wall
13) Old Yankee Stadium - it was great fun rooting for the Devil Rays (who owned the Yanks the year I saw them)
14) Old Busch - Cardinals fans are totally overrated IMO...I went to school there from 94-98 and saw plenty of games
15) Metrodome - so loud
16) Chase Field - unfortunate that one of my least favorite parks is the one I can visit regularly
17) Miller Park - basically the same stadium as Chase...Wrigley North
18) O.co - nothing fancy
19) Rogers Centre - nothing memorable
20) Joe Robbie (formerly Marlins) - bleh
21) Kingdome - glad they tore that POS down
22) US Cellular - the last horrible stadium built...upper deck stairs are like climbing Mount Kinabalu (i.e., straight up)
23) Tropicana - just sad, but it was so quiet that Zobrist, playing RF, turned and smiled when I yelled out, 'hey Zobrist, I own you'
24) Veterans Stadium (formerly Phillies) - not only a POS but I witnessed a fight break out two rows behind me

Still on my list: AT&T, Nats Park, CitiField, GABP, Turner, Minute Maid, Ballpark at Arlington.

[joncarlos]

Glad to see the K ranked so highly. I was there last year and the whole experience was just so, so underrated because it doesn't look like the new retro parks. The fountains and the atmosphere were amazing. And yeah, it's basically just a stop along the interstate, but once you're inside, it's fantastic.

For me, nothing beats PNC Park, but AT&T comes the closest.

[Lucky]

Of all the places I have been (I think 37 states), the one for which I would most likely adopt an honor system for mass transit tolls would be Minnesota. Some of the nicest folks I have ever met.

[heyelander]

Of all the places I have been (I think 37 states), the one for which I would most likely adopt an honor system for mass transit tolls would be Minnesota. Some of the nicest folks I have ever met.

so how did we manage to get the one prick in the whole city?

[Hornsby]

so how did we manage to get the one prick in the whole city?

Wow...why you gotta be so harsh on Baldgriff? He's a hell of a nice guy...or did you mean Funkley? Not nice to speak ill of those who ill those who don't post here anymore...

[heyelander]

Wow...why you gotta be so harsh on Baldgriff? He's a hell of a nice guy...or did you mean Funkley? Not nice to speak ill of those who ill those who don't post here anymore...

damn, I had the whole funkley thing set up when you took your mock umbrage to my post.

[The Dane]

I'm not sure how my rankings would compare... pretty similar. I also really liked Petco, and Dodger Stadium is really awesome, and pretty underrated, in my opinion.

Especially with the recent historical on-the-field events, I think AT&T is probably the best park, all things considered.

[Hornsby]

damn, I had the whole funkley thing set up when you took your mock umbrage to my post.

Who says I'm mocking with my umbrage??? There is very real umbaraging festering in my dark soul as we speak...FESTERING I TELL YOU!