Stadium Situation

Wednesday, December 22 2021 @ 07:00 PM EST

Contributed by: John Northey

Rogers has announced they are going to reno the Dome instead of building new at a cost of roughly $250 million.

This is the article

With things so quiet I figured this would be a good new thread - memories of the SkyDome/Rogers Centre, and other parks. Why not? Amazing to see the dome is now the 7th oldest park in baseball. The oldest...

  1. Fenway Park - 1912 - opened the week the Titanic sunk. I have been to this one, and it is well worth a visit if you can get there. I hope they find ways to keep it going forever.
  2. Wrigley Field - 1914 - another ancient one, I remember watching games on TV during days I was sick at home from school, lots of fun. I hated it when they added lights to it. I've been just outside it but never in it (my visits to Chicago have never hit when the Cubs were in town).
  3. Dodger Stadium - 1962 - amazing it wasn't given Astroturf given how the NL went nuts with the stuff in the late 60's. Looks beautiful but I've never been close to it.
  4. Angel Stadium of Anaheim - 1966 - has been through two massive renos over the years (to first make room for the Rams, then to make it back into a pure baseball park).
  5. Oakland Coliseum - 1966 - at big risk of vanishing from the majors soon, given how the A's are talking of moving to Vegas. Enough foul territory to make 1B/3B get massive workouts every trip there.
  6. Kauffman Stadium - 1973 - I really want to visit this someday, but have no reason to go to Kansas otherwise. Looks beautiful in pictures and video.
Then comes the Dome, the Rays park was built in 1990 but not used for MLB until 98 (and should never have been...ugh), ChiSox opened theirs in 1991 (last of the ugly parks), then came Camden Yards in '92 which changed stadiums forever (although Buffalo built theirs first). Since the SkyDome opened in '89 we've seen new parks come and be replaced in Texas and Atlanta. I for one am happy the Jays plan to keep renovating instead of rebuilding as rebuilds almost always demand public money for roads if nothing else (and there is always something else). As a fan I miss the old Tiger Stadium (saw a few games there in '88/'89 when I lived in Windsor for a year) - was at a Tiger game when Stieb had his second near no-no and they put up on the scoreboard that he had a no-hitter going with 2 out in the 9th then didn't post anything for about 30 minutes driving me nuts. Even the Big Owe in Montreal (saw just one game there but it was fun - inside the park home run to win the game in extras in 1994, even with a stadium that had 'just' 30k or so in a park built for 60k+, super quiet around the park before and after the game which helps explain why the Expos died). Exhibition Stadium I saw many games at (I loved the $4 outfield seats with free CNE/Ontario Place admission) was a horrid park for baseball but I had a lot of fun there - saw Fred McGriff's first home run, Bell hitting the final homer there, sat behind home plate and caught a ball, froze on the benches many times (once with a crowd from McDonald's where I worked as a teen where we chanted To-ny Arm-as with appropriate gestures to the outfielder in the 80's), saw a young David Wells driving home after a game when he was a rookie, watched Team Canada beat the USSR with Gretzky & Lemieux on the same line on a 4" black and white TV because we got premium seats and weren't going to waste them - the crowd was mostly listing on radios to the hockey game instead of watching the Jays so cheering was at odd times and it was funny seeing players reactions, especially the visitors.

Ah, so many memories.

So what parks have others here been to, and which were the most fun, least fun, etc.?

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https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20211222190010884