The First of the New Wave of Baseball Stadiums

US Cellular Field opened in 1991.  Sorry Tim (the only White Sox fan I know), you got the 1991 version of Shea Stadium.  Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened a year later and changed the way baseball stadiums were built.  I finally made it there yesterday.  I went with my brothers and we sat in front of the press box, a little bit off to the third base side.  We got the seats for $40 each on stubhub.  Again, you are not going to find seats like that for $40 in New York.

Before the game, we walked around the stadium.  This is where this stadium really changed things.  I grew up going to games at Shea Stadium.  If you wanted to get from left field to right field, you had to walk about 270 degrees around the stadium.  As far as I know, this was the first stadium where you can go in any direction around the 360 degrees of the stadium.  The outfield area is very nice, probably the nicest of any stadium I've been to so far.  One thing I was disappointed by though is that you can't see the field from the concourse as you walk around (except in the outfield).  So I'm taking pretty big points off for that.  It's not like this architectural concept was created after the stadium was built; you can walk around the concourse at Dodger Stadium and still see the field.


I noticed the markings of homerun balls in right field.  Check out this picture:

Yep, this is a celebration of steroids in baseball.  Lots of Palmeiro, Brady Anderson, and Jason Giambi (they have the homeruns of visiting players marked also).  Quick Rafael Palmeiro story:  When I was young, the father of one of my friends knew people and used to occasionally get tickets for Yankee games that were in the first row behind the visitors dugout.  My friend took me to maybe three or four games with those seats.  Whenever the visiting team would come in from the field, we'd ask the players for a ball.  One time when the Yankees were playing the Orioles, Raphael Palmeiro threw a ball to another fan and looked at me and said he would get me after the next inning.  Yeah, he never gave me a ball.  I went to another game after that and did get a ball from the Royals first baseman (I'm guessing it was Wally Joyner, but I don't remember for sure).  But I always held that against Palmeiro and I was glad when he got busted for steroids.


As for food, I had a soft shell crab sandwich.  I might have gotten something else, but I was informed by Adam Richman on facebook that yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the sandwich.  (I love Adam Richman.  I can't wait for his new show, even though I doubt it can be as good as Man vs. Food.)  It was fine, but nothing special.  I liked the fish tacos I had in Miami better.


The game was unremarkable, except for the fact that the teams combined for 7 errors.  The Orioles won 5-3, but I definitely won't remember the details of this one in a week.  But I did vote for the All Star teams.  I don't think I've ever done that before.  Or at least I've never had my vote at a stadium counted.  I remember punching out the ballot at Citi Field last year, but I couldn't find a receptacle for my ballot.  I voted for A.J. Ellis as the NL catcher (look at his stats, he's having an awesome year).  Probably what I'll remember most, though, is following Game 7 for the Rangers and Game 1 for the Celtics on Sean's phone.  The Rangers hung on for a win and the Celtics came back to beat the Sixers.  All in all, it was a good day for me.  All that was missing was a loss by the Lakers in Game 7, but hopefully the Zombies will take care of them.

I heard a lot of comments and got some dirty looks from Capitals fans for wearing a Ryan Callahan shirt.

So anyway, I hope that I won't miss any of the next 14 games the Rangers play (because they'll probably end up going seven games two more times).  I will be missing Game 4 of the Celtics series because of the mystery trip that I have coming up at the end of the week (Been plantin' them apple seeds and while the apples grow...).  I hope they take a 3-0 lead into that game and I won't have to worry about it too much.


I might post something during the week, but if not look for my post about this trip at the end of the week.  Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading my blog!  (There's about a 99% chance that not a single mother has read my blog.)