Stadium Rankings: Part 3

Here ya go...the long awaited final post on my stadium rankings board. Heard a suggestion recently from Jeff Straub that Fenway should be somewhere in the mid-20's, and a suggestion from Just Hank that Kauffman should have been higher than 20th, but otherwise it's been pretty quiet. We'll if anyone has any suggestions about the top 10...

#10 - Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees)
It's old. The Yankees play there. If you decide to go, you have to deal with rude fans. They play God Bless America every...freakin'...game. The evil presence of George Steinbrenner can be felt throughout the building. These are all reasons that Yankee stadium could have been put in the bottom third rather than the top third. But this was Babe Ruth's home ballpark. Not to mention Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and so on and so forth. The history that has taken place in this ballpark makes it something special, and so it earns a place at the bottom of my top 10.

#9 - Jacobs Field (Cleveland Indians)
The place just plain looks great. It's older than many of the ballparks in my middle column, but this place has the perfect kind of baseball atmosphere, and to me beats out places like Comerica, Miller, Citizens Bank, and many of the rest.

#8 - Angel Stadium (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)
Something about this place makes me rate it up here, even though it's not as fancy as many of the newer ballparks. Maybe it's the laid back Southern California attitude, which explains why I made the next pick as well...

#7 - PETCO Park (San Diego Padres)
Maybe I just like the fact that no one seems to be able to be a reliable homerun hitter here. It looks great, it has a great feel, and for no other reason it beats out many of the more contrived newer parks.

#6 - Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)
OK, I blasted Minute Maid Park for being contrived, so how can I have Fenway way up here, considering the crazy geometry involved in the shape of the field? Simple...it's Fenway Park. Jeff may not like the place, but there's a mystique about it that's undeniable. Bonus points for it's prominent appearance in Field of Dreams, the best Kevin Costner movie ever made.

#5 - Oriole Park (Baltimore Orioles)
The place that made "retro" cool. This place looks exactly like a ballpark should. The architects did it right; now if only Peter Angelos could do the same with the team itself.

#4 - AT & T Park (San Francisco Giants)
Location, location, location. How can you not like a place where homerun balls end up the water? I thought long and hard about putting this place a little lower, though, because I don't think it looks as good as some of the other parks on the list. Nevertheless, it is consistently rated as one of the best parks in the game, and never having been there I have to defer to the experience of others.

#3 - Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)
It's a gorgeous park, and it's in Seattle. Rated as the best in the game by some, I can't go that far. I can say if there is a ballpark that I haven't been to that I most want to get to, Safeco is it.

#2 - PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates)
It was finally showcased to the baseball-loving world during this year's All-Star game, and it's about time. This place is fantastic. I went to college in Pittsburgh, and made it to as many games as possible. There is simply not a bad seat in the ballpark, and the view of Pittsburgh is spectacular. This is as good as a modern park gets, and would easily be my #1 if not for...

#1 - Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
Maybe it was just the fact that I was there on a beautiful day, but somehow I doubt it. If you haven't been there, you can't possibly understand that this place is the Mecca of baseball. Do yourself a favor and go to one of the numerous day games that the Cubs still play. Sit in the Upper Deck on the first base side. Soak it all in. It doesn't get any better than this, especially if you're not a Cubs fan (because if you are, you have to worry about the fact that your team stinks). I don't care that the stadium seems to want to kill people by shedding chunks of the Upper Deck roof from time to time...I care only that watching a game here is bliss.