Baseball Stadiums I Have Visited, Part 6

First things first: I have heard from my frequent baseball-stadium-visiting-companion Jeff, and he informs me that my memory is faulty on a couple points related to previous posts in this series. The main thing that he told me is that we actually did not take in a game at Comiskey Park on our three city swing through the midwest. I was certain that we had, but after our conversation, I've come to realize that my first visit to Comiskey was actually a side-trip during a visit to my sister Sally who was in graduate school at Northern Illinois University. It was around that same time (1986), but not in the company of Jeff. So, I stand corrected. The other point he made, and one that I can't believe I forgot, is that the home run hit in Tiger Stadium that landed in the glove of the little kid sitting beside us was hit by Don Baylor of the Red Sox (I said Lance Parrish of the Tigers). I knew better too, but it turns out that when I checked the rosters to refresh my memory, I accidentally looked at the 1985 teams, and therefore my memory wasn't jogged by seeing Baylor listed. So I guess what this means is that, while I remember being at these places, I don't always have a firm grasp on all the details. So feel free to take the rest of the series with a grain of salt (though I swear I was in the places mentioned!).

12. Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)

When I was in graduate school researching my dissertation (so this was probably 1994 0r 95), I drove down to the University of Maryland to visit the archive they had on Broadcasting History. At the end of my first day in the library, I decided to drive up to Baltimore to catch a game. This was when the stadium was still pretty new (it may have opened a couple of years earlier), and it was a peach. Camden Yards was the first of the "throwback" stadiums that became very popular in the late 80s and early 90s, as an antidote to the cookie-cutter, all-the-same designs of the 60s and 70s. The idea was to make it unique, incorporating little quirks that made it different from every other park. The big old warehouse in right field was one fo the distinctive features, as was the asymmetrical design of the outfield. It really was a beautiful place to watch a game. Another highlight: in the walkway just beyond the right field bleachers, there's a long row of specialty vendors serving up favorite local fare. I'm not big on seafood, which is featured, but I did get a kick out of seeing Boog Powell (former slugging first baseman for the Orioles) who ran a barbecue place out there. He was just hanging out in the crowd, shaking hands and inviting people into his place for some ribs. One small warning: traffic from DC (the University is just on the edge of the capital) to Baltimore on a Friday afternoon is killer bad, so leave early if your coming from that direction.

13. Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)

If Camden Yards (and its imitators) try to recreate the old-style parks, well then Fenway is one of their models. I believe this is the stadium that has been in use the longest, and you can tell that it dates back to the early part of the twentieth century. It is cramped on the promenade, in the aisles, and especially in the seats. It's kind of dingy, and there were moments when I was there that I marveled parts of it hadn't fallen down yet. But it is also quite cool to look out at the Green Monster in right field and to feel the closeness of the crowd, all leaning in towards the action on the field. I saw two games here in 1996 with my friend John Delaney, who I got to know in grad school at the University of Buffalo. By this point, he was teaching down in Pennsylvania, and we met in Providence at the house of a friend from John's undergraduate days at Boston College, then drove up the next day to see the games. The Red Sox were playing the Mariners. I don't rememebr much about the first game, except we were sitting in seats with pretty much the view you see in the picture above. But the next day, when we were sitting out in the right-center bleachers, there were a couple of interesting details that stuck with me. First, Roger Clemons was pitching for the Sox, and due to an injury, their designated hitter had to play the field, thus forcing Clemons to hit for himself (we later found out it was the only time he batted in a Red Sox uniform during the regular season). He hit a slow roller down the third base line and beat it out for a hit. Then a little later, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a monstrous home run out towards us, and it was caught by a kid sitting right next to John only two seata away from me (shades of the Lanc.. I mean Don Baylor homer in Detroit)! Good company, and thrills like that make it easy to put up with the cramped seats, which is why I guess the Red Sox sell out most of their games.

Four more fields to cover (so far)... look for the next installment in a couple of days.