Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Now that I have visited every major league park that is currently being used, there is a strong desire to rank my favorites. To help me in my ranking, I decided to group the stadiums into three categories; Go-Go, So-So and No-Go. Go-Go stadiums give the fan a unique baseball experience and everyone that enjoys baseball should go out of their way to attend a game at these ball parks. Ball parks that fall into the So-So category are nice stadiums and if you are in the area and have the time, catch a game. Most of the time you will have a good time. The stadiums that qualify for No-Go should be avoided unless you are an avid baseball fan. It is hard at these ball parks to really have a great baseball experience unless your lucky enough to watch a great game.

So to start the analysis, here are the No-Go Parks:

• Tropocana Field, Tampa Bay
• Rogers Centre, Toronto
• Shea Stadium, New York
• McAfee Colosseum, Oakland
• Metrodome, Minneapolis
• Dolphin Stadium, Miami
• RFK Stadium, Washington DC

None of these stadiums add anything unique to the baseball experience and in some cases they distract from watching the game. All of these stadiums are general purpose (except for Dolphin which was designed for watching football). Even food at these parks is bland and general purpose. For example, at the Metrodome, one person ordered deep fried cheese curds. Anything deep fried should taste great, but these were down right nasty. If you do attend a game at one of these parks, make sure you have good seats and good friends as the conversations at the game maybe the most memorable part of your visit.