Now that (I think) I’m done with my baseball stadium tour for the year, it’s time to give my personal rankings of the six stadiums I visited. And just for fun, I gave “half-point” rankings to the two stadiums I’ve visited in previous seasons.

6. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; Minneapolis, MN (Minnesota Twins) — Okay, I know this is the stadium I grew up visiting and I have fond memories of watching Kirby Puckett, Gary Gaetti, and Kent Hrbek win World Series here. Heck, I’ve even imitated Kirby in the outfield my self, leaping into the centerfield wall on a tour in fifth grade. I got to play with my high school’s marching band here during a Gopher football game on “Band Day.” I was there when the roof caved in in the early 80s. I can’t deny the sentimental memories. But it’s an awful baseball stadium. Period. This has nothing to do with my beloved Twins — baseball was just never meant to be played indoors on plastic grass. Thankfully, my father had the sense to take us to Milwaukee every summer, just to be certain that we knew what we were missing.

5.5. Skydome (now Rogers Centre); Toronto, ON (Toronto Bluejays) — I went to a game here in the summer of 1999 during my tour of potential colleges. I don’t remember that much of it — I think David Wells was pitching for the Jays. We were fortunate enough to go on a day in which it started to rain, which meant that we got to see the retractable roof first hand. Still, my aversion to indoor baseball still stands, even it’s only for part of the game. Oh, and there’s a Hard Rock Cafe in the outfield.

5. The Coliseum; Oakland, CA (Oakland Athletics) — It was big and cavernous. And on the day I went, relatively empty. As the name implies, it’s coliseum style and basically a big, high circle of seats around a baseball field. Mostly, it just lacked atmosphere and character. To it’s credit, it was the cheapest game I went to all season. And it had no roof.

4. The Great American Ballpark; Cincinnati, OH (Cincinnati Reds) — There’s a big gap between the bottom three stadiums and the top five. This was a nice solid outdoor park, but nothing in particular stands out about it to bump it into the top four. Except for the fact that it’s the only major league stadium where you can eat Skyline Chili dogs. Mmm… Skyline chili.

3. SBC Park; San Francisco, CA (SF Giants) — This place gets bonus points for being full. There’s something about a large crowd that makes a game that much better. Plus, I liked being able to look out at the boats in McCovey cove, just behind right field.

2. Comerica Park; Detroit, MI (Detroit Tigers) — I like this stadium a lot. It’s also the stadium I saw the most games at (3) this year. There’s a lot of cool bas relief of Tigers around the outside and giant Tiger statues on top of the scoreboard. The bronze statues of legendary Tigers in the outfield gives you a better sense of the history of the team than the usual stickers with numbers on them. I have mixed feelings about the ferris wheel and carousel — they’re designed with baseball and Tigers in mind and add to the atmosphere, but I’m there to see a baseball game and I don’t want to be distracted.

1.5. County Stadium (demolished in 2001); Milwaukee, WI (Milwaukee Brewers) — This is the only stadium I’ve been to that’s no longer around. Sentimentality is probably the reason I rank it so high. It was the stadium that taught me what a baseball game is supposed to feel like. We’d get there early and tailgate, grilling brats and hotdogs in the parking lot — the only stadium I’ve ever done that at.* I watched the Twins beat the Brewers 15-1 while sitting 20 feet from third base. A friend and I stood up to the drunken Brewers fans who dared to jeer our beloved Kirby Puckett. (They only hated him because he got 11 hits in two consecutive games there, which I believe is still a major league record.) While it’s the Brewers stadium, I don’t think I ever saw a game there that wasn’t against the Twins and thus, it became my adopted home stadium. Besides, how can you not a like a stadium where the mascot slides into a giant mug of beer everytime the home team hits a homer? Oh, and the great sausage race (done at the sausage’s own risk).

1. Fenway Park; Boston, MA (Boston Red Sox) — This place smells like baseball. I can’t really explain it. But somehow, when you walk through the doors, you can tell that it’s a place where baseball has been played for over ninety years. It has history and character and charm. It’s small size means that it’s always sold out, always filled with fans. And it’s only ever been baseball — no football, no amusement park rides to remind you to have fun.

Now that I’m starting the school year, I don’t think I have the time for more roadtrips. But next season… perhaps Cleveland, Toronto, Chicago, and maybe Milwaukee.

* Tailgating is also allowed at the Coliseum. But Anand was being adventurous enough by going in the first place and so I didn’t want to push it. Not to mention that we took public transportation there.

Bartlett’s safe in the sixth

This is a bit of a delayed game report, especially given that the really exciting Twins game was Tuesday night’s nailbiter against the White Sox*… but I have pictures, so that ought to make up for it. (Photo credits all go to my father.)

This past weekend was the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1965 American League Champion Twins. Sunday was also the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles played at Met Stadium, former home of the Twins and now site of the Mall of America. In honor of the event (okay, not really), I came home to see a game. Prior to the current Twins face off with the Mariners, we were introduced to the Twins legends of ’65 — Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Mudcat Grant (who took a few steps without his crutches for the crowd), Frank Quilici, and probably some people I’m forgetting. There were three “first” pitches (and that’s a rant for another time — there can only be one first pitch) by some Twins management who were involved with the team in 1965 and then the real game started.

The Mariners struck first in the top of the first with a Raul Ibanez homerun to put Seattle up 1-0. But the Twins struck back immediately with a Joe Mauer triple followed by a LeCroy single. Some fans behind me immediately started talking about Mauer’s chances of hitting for the cycle. When he singled in the fourth, I started thinking that maybe it wasn’t impossible. But it was not to be.

The Twins were down 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. They quickly scored two runs off of two doubles, a single, and a sacrifice ground ball hit by Nick Punto. With Shannon Stewart on third, just waiting to be hit home, up stepped Mighty Joe Mauer to the plate, looking for a double or a homerun to continue his quest for the cycle. But the Mariners had other ideas — Joel Pineiro intentionally walked him. And this set the stage for Lew Ford to hit a three run homerun, his second in three days. With managing like that, I thought I was watching the Tigers. Mauer came up to the plate two more times, but the Mariners just kept walking him. Alas, I’ve still never seen a cycle live.

In the 6th, with the Twins up 7-3, Jason Bartlett doubled and scored on a Shannon Stewart single to make the final score 8-3. But the excitement wasn’t quite over. In the bottom of the 7th, the Mariners brought in Clint Nageotte to pitch — and he only got one pitch. Not one at bat — one pitch. He threw the ball at Lew Ford’s head. Ford got out of the way, but that was enough for home plate umpire Ron Darling, who immediately ejected Nageotte. Ford ended the at bat with a new pitcher by flying out to center.

Oh, but I’ve forgotten the best part of the game… since it was the 40th anniversary of the Beatles concert, the between innings music was all Beatles. Beatles and baseball… I was in heaven.

* About that nailbiter… Freddie Garcia of the Evil Sox pitches a one-hitter and Cy Young winner Johan Santana pitches a three-hitter. Guess who won the game? Well, thanks to a Jacque Jones homer in the 8th, it wasn’t Garcia.