Around Baseball 2023

[G-Snarls]

Mariners have lost 11 of their last 15

 

Holy f***

[connorp]

I loved Boston as a city when I was there, even getting to Fenway on the train and walking to the park was fantastic. Once inside, the experience went from A+ to complete dog s***. Fenway is a giant urine stain

 

Were you upset they didn’t have a proper selection of lattes and couscous in the concessions?

[connorp]

Toronto and Tampa are the leaders for worst stadium experience imo.. gap to anywhere else I’ve been

[Stangstag]

Can we all agree Baltimore is a f***ing dump of a city though?

 

Camden Yards is one of the best parks i’ve been to but the city itself is awful.

[Brownie19]

Can we all agree Baltimore is a f***ing dump of a city though?

 

Camden Yards is one of the best parks i’ve been to but the city itself is awful.

 

Yes - that may be one of the least controversial statements made on this board.

[wilko]

Yes - that may be one of the least controversial statements made on this board.

 

[connorp]

Can we all agree Baltimore is a f***ing dump of a city though?

 

Camden Yards is one of the best parks i’ve been to but the city itself is awful.

 

I’ve never ventured outside the harbor area, so to me, that’s Baltimore. So ok in my book. A lot of stadium you walk a block and it’s sketchy

[Brownie19]

Toronto and Tampa are the leaders for worst stadium experience imo.. gap to anywhere else I’ve been

 

I've been to Boston, NY (Yankee Stadium), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Washington, Cleveland and Philly and I haven't once thought to myself that the Rogers Centre was a s***** stadium experience. I think the improvements this year are fantastic and can't wait to see them rebuild the lower level.

[connorp]

I've been to Boston, NY (Yankee Stadium), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Washington, Cleveland and Philly and I haven't once thought to myself that the Rogers Centre was a s***** stadium experience. I think the improvements this year are fantastic and can't wait to see them rebuild the lower level.

 

I haven’t been to Cincy, but have been to all the others and they are much better places for a ball game if you take away the BJ fan part

[connorp]

I would wager external objective rankings have TB and Toronto at the bottom

[Brownie19]

I would wager external objective rankings have TB and Toronto at the bottom

 

This updated ranking has the Rogers Centre 23rd, ahead of Yankee Stadium. Most lists put us somewhere in the 20's. It will be interesting to see where we land after the lower level reno.

 

https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/best-mlb-stadiums-ranked-2023-edition-baseball-ballparks

 

My point being that it's not noticeable enough for me to complain about or suggest it's awful. I certainly thought Camden and PNC were absolute beauties and I liked the history of Fenway and Wrigley (did a tour there - didn't catch a game). Philly, Cincy, Cleveland, Washington? Meh - all solid in their own right, but I wasn't like "oh wow - these are so much better than the Rogers Centre".

[John_Havok]

Were you upset they didn’t have a proper selection of lattes and couscous in the concessions?

 

No i was upset that it smelled like a giant bowl of urine. Seats are wrought iron crap from the 20s that arent pointed towards the play, uncomfortable as f*** with terrible sightlines.

 

THe worst part was the urine smell though. All Fenway has is the monster, and history. THat's not enough for me to enjoy a game viewing experience in person.

[connorp]

This updated ranking has the Rogers Centre 23rd, ahead of Yankee Stadium. Most lists put us somewhere in the 20's. It will be interesting to see where we land after the lower level reno.

 

https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/best-mlb-stadiums-ranked-2023-edition-baseball-ballparks

 

My point being that it's not noticeable enough for me to complain about or suggest it's awful. I certainly thought Camden and PNC were absolute beauties and I liked the history of Fenway and Wrigley (did a tour there - didn't catch a game). Philly, Cincy, Cleveland, Washington? Meh - all solid in their own right, but I wasn't like "oh wow - these are so much better than the Rogers Centre".

 

I will admit my last visit was going back some years, pre-renovation obviously.

 

As for the Yankees, it’s got a strange vibe. They tried to copy the old stadium vibe and so it’s just a little weird. Lacks the thing that makes Fenway a good place to see a game, despite the 100yo stadium part

[L54]

[Terminator]

This updated ranking has the Rogers Centre 23rd, ahead of Yankee Stadium. Most lists put us somewhere in the 20's. It will be interesting to see where we land after the lower level reno.

 

https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/best-mlb-stadiums-ranked-2023-edition-baseball-ballparks

 

My point being that it's not noticeable enough for me to complain about or suggest it's awful. I certainly thought Camden and PNC were absolute beauties and I liked the history of Fenway and Wrigley (did a tour there - didn't catch a game). Philly, Cincy, Cleveland, Washington? Meh - all solid in their own right, but I wasn't like "oh wow - these are so much better than the Rogers Centre".

 

Yeah I personally think RC kind of sucks but it's not a "wow this is bad" kind of park. It's at least functional with walkable concourses and it's also located in a good spot downtown and has the retractable roof. It gets the job done and like you said, it's not really THAT much worse than other middling ballparks like Minute Made in Houston. It's just a little bit older but the renovations should catch it up some.

 

Truly bad parks are Oakland Coliseum or Angels Stadium. I don't even count Oakland Coliseum as it's a football stadium. Angels Stadium is the worst one I've been too. Limited food options bc there just aren't that many and narrow concourses. The only good thing about it is it has tons of parking because it's located in an LA suburb on a giant parking lot. Horrible place.

[connorp]

The same guy that made the list seems like he probably had Toronto at the bottom pre-renovation

[Terminator]

Here's my list of the ones I've been too. I'm probably forgetting some and I know I've been to some that no longer exist.

 

Great Ballparks

1. PNC Park

2. Oracle Park

3. Camden Yards

4. Coors Field

 

Old but Hold Up Well

5. Dodger Stadium (the location is the only bad thing but LA doesn’t have a good downtown anyway)

6. Kauffman Stadium (location the problem here as well but it's very underrated otherwise)

 

Good New Ballparks

7. Petco Park

8. T-Mobile Park (Seattle)

 

Kind of s***** but New

9. Citizens Bank Park

10. Minute Maid Park

 

Old But Gets the Job Done

11. Rogers Centre

 

Old and Horrible

12. Angels Stadium

 

Doesn’t Even Count and Soon Won’t

13. Oakland Coliseum

[Brownie19]

I think the location of Rogers Center boosts it up. Although it's still a 'trip', a quick trip up the 400 to Vaughan where I jump on the subway and cruise the rest of the way to Union Station, followed by a short walk seems really stress free and easy for me and the family. It's right in the heart of the city, so casuals can drop in and there's always lots to do for the kids nearby and lots of places to eat/drink. I also love taking the train from Barrie to Union.

 

You hear a lot of people complain about stadiums built out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by parking lot. I think that's a huge negative.

[Terminator]

After Biggio, Belly, etc etc use extreme caution with anything Term says

 

I've already admitted defeat with Biggio and I am now a bon a fide fan of his. With 0.9 fWAR and 0.6 bWAR I can longer deny the insane amount of talent this guy brings to the field each and every day. Truly a great player.

 

As for Bellinger you might want to run your WAR calculations again. KK has been worth 3.8 bWAR to Belly's 4.1. KK has been worth 2.1 fWAR to Bellinger's 4.0. So on a per dollar basis KK was clearly the better choice and I expect a full apology from you for this unsolicited attack.

[Stangstag]

I will admit my last visit was going back some years, pre-renovation obviously.

 

As for the Yankees, it’s got a strange vibe. They tried to copy the old stadium vibe and so it’s just a little weird. Lacks the thing that makes Fenway a good place to see a game, despite the 100yo stadium part

 

Lolll

[Stangstag]

 

Lol goddamn JD is a douche

[Terminator]

Rowdy jokes a lot and I think that's all this is.

[wilko]

Lol goddamn JD is a douche

 

Jays need that big dick energy!

[Laika]

I like Rowdy Tellez. It's sad that this will be his last year in MLB. He'll be a monster in Japan though.

[L54]

I don’t think Rowdy was joking, he sounded annoyed that these guys are all over JD’s jock

[Olerud363]

I've been to lots of ballparks every one was great except for Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

 

I even enjoyed Joe Robbie and the Oakland Stadium, probably because attendance at those two were 2000 people and it was easy to get amazing seats right behind home plate. So even a dump will seem amazing like 20 feet from the catcher.

 

The only Stadium I can honestly say I thought was terrible was Olympic Stadium, partly because it was obviously, but mostly because the 2 times I've been there (2003 Expos home opener, 2016 Jays exhibition) the god-damn place was packed and I was like 700 feet from homeplate and couldn't see anything. I bet I would have loved it on a regular day with 2000 people and getting to sit 20 feet from the catcher.

 

Exhibition statdium was great because it was awesome to see Fred McGriff hit one against the white sox in 88 into the god-damn end zone... again great seats. All these terrible parks are fine with good seats.

 

I've been to old Yankee Stadium and new Yankee Stadium and disagree the new one feels weird. It feels like the old one but in the future... thought they did a good job of replicating it.

[Brownie19]

Lol goddamn JD is a douche

 

Donaldson is hitting .160 this year. His douche level should be dropping like a rock and he should be grateful he's still getting paid to play baseball. Unsurprising that it hasn't.

[Terminator]

It's Jomboy. Dude lives for clicks.

 

Rowdy goes on in the interview to say that Donaldson is a good veteran presence and a good guy to have in the clubhouse and that he's glad to have him for the playoff run.

[Jonn]

Such a shame Miggy is ending his career in the irrelevancy that is Detroit. They should have done right by him and sent him back to the Marlins where he would be in a race. I don’t care how many years he spent with the Tigers. He will always be a Marlin to me.

[Brownie19]

Such a shame Miggy is ending his career in the irrelevancy that is Detroit. They should have done right by him and sent him back to the Marlins where he would be in a race. I don’t care how many years he spent with the Tigers. He will always be a Marlin to me.

 

you and only you I suspect.