Comerica Park ranked among top 10 ballparks

Comerica Park ranked among top 10 ballparks

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES • June 24, 2008

Like the boys of summer who inhabit them, baseball ballparks boast personalities best described as quirky. None of the 30 active parks are exactly alike and, frankly, most are wildly different, reflecting the neighborhoods around then.

The July/August issue of DRAFT magazine offers a roster that includes something old (Fenway Park, Wrigley Field) and something new (Nationals Park). Since seeing them all would consume considerable time and dollars, DRAFT highlights the Top 10:

1. Fenway Park: The Boston ballpark, shoe-horned into an existing industrial neighborhood in 1912, is the oldest in the majors. Fenway is famous for its enormous left-field wall that pitchers insist is much closer to home plate than its official distance. The Green Monster, which towers over a hand-operated scoreboard, stands 37 feet high but only 310 feet deep. Repeated renovations over the last four years have expanded capacity to 37,400. For many, the experience starts hours before game time when fans in Red Sox garb converge in a street bazaar between the ballpark and a row of souvenir shops.

2. Wrigley Field: Built for Chicago’s Federal League team in 1914, this venerable National League park hasn’t hosted a World Series since 1945 (the longest drought among the original 16 teams). Superstitious types insist that’s because of a curse applied when a local tavern owner was barred from bringing his pet goat in—even thought the goat had its own ticket. Bill Veech, who later became the owner of the White Sox, was a young executive when he built the 75-foot-wide, hand-operated scoreboard (1937) and planted the ivy that adorns the outfield walls (1937). Today, Cub fans complain that the club is in the 100th year of its rebuilding program (no championships since 1908).

3. PNC Park: Pittsburgh’s park is a lot prettier than its team. While the building is relatively small (seating 38,496) it offers big sightlines that include a bevy of bridges and the best downtown view of any park. Open since 2001, PNC sits directly across from the skyline beyond the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. Fans fed up with watching the low-payroll Pirates can take solace in the serenity of the passing riverboats and strollers on the gold-painted pedestrian bridge.

4. Yankee Stadium: The New York Yankees have won 39 pennants and 26 world championships since moving into their Bronx ballpark on April 18, 1923. Lights were added for night play in 1946 and a new scoreboard—the first that allowed messages to be changed—came along 13 years later. Because of a major renovation that forced the Yankees to share Shea Stadium with the Mets in the 1974-75 seasons, Yankee Stadium looks different form the ballpark Babe Ruth dominated during the ‘20s. Spectators at the 2008 All-Star Game will have one last chance to gaze at Monument Park (where retired jersey hang), take a photo in front of the park’s iconic white faced, or watch a home run sail into Pennant Porch—next season, the Yankees move across the street to the new stadium.

5. Nationals Park: Too bad Washington’s Cherry Blossom Festival is so short-lived; the cherry trees planted in the pedestrian concourse of this park bloom only two weeks into the season. Perched on the bank of the Anacostia River, the new home of the Nationals offers yearlong views of the U.S. Capitol Building and Washington Monument from many of its 41,222 seats. Fans like it because the field is 24 feet below street level—saving spectators from climbing stairs or ramps. Players aren’t so lucky: They have to run up and down stairs to connect from clubhouse to dugout.

6. Oriole Park at Camden Yards: The first new stadium with a retro look has become one of Biltmore’s biggest attractions. Not to mention, the home where Babe Ruth was born is blocks away, while the Ruth family café stood at the current site of center field. A museum, relocated from the Ruth birthplace to Camden Yards, honors both the sluggers and the history of the Orioles. The park opened in 1992, three years before Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s mark for consecutive games played. The success of the retro look spawned a myriad of imitations, with those in Texas (1994), Denver (1995) and Cleveland (1997) among the most notable.

7. Minute Maid Park: Houston’s domed ballpark, which opened as Enron Field eight years ago, is almost a composite, borrowing Boston’s short left-field wall, the 80-odd outfield angles of Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field and even the old outfield incline from Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. The Crawford Boxes, 315 feet from home plate atop the left-field wall, are a tempting target for hitters.

8. Safeco Field: The freight trains that rumble and toot by this Seattle stadium entertain spectators as much as the elaborate scoreboard system comprised of 11 electronic displays and a blast from the past: a hand-operated scoreboard. The roof keeps the Mariners’ field dry but creates an outdoor feel because of the sides of the stadium stay open even when the top is closed. The park also has the best-named concession stand in the majors: Intentional Wok.

9. Coors Field: During their first two seasons in the football-friendly Mile High Stadium, Denver fans set records for single-game and single-season attendance. Designed strictly for baseball, Coors opened with 43,800 seats in 1995 but had to expand to 50,200 to meet the demand. Before the team introduced a humidor in 2002, fans spent years relishing slugfests while eying the snow-capped front range of the real Rockies By refrigerating baseballs at 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity-higher readings than typical natural conditions-scoring returned to reasonable levels and the Rockies reached the World Series for the first time in 2007.

10. Comerica Park: It takes a village: the eight-year-old home of the Detroit Tigers includes cafes, a carousel, a 50-foot Ferris wheel, a scoreboard hugged but giant tigers and a fountain that spring to life whenever a local hits a home run. The stadium also features statues of six Tiger greats, plus such open sightlines that during the 2005 All-Star Game, the riverfront Renaissance Center posted a visible sign indicating the “home run distance” from the ballpark to the top of the building at 4,612 feet.

I understand why Fenway made #1.

I've been to one-fifth of MLB ballparks and none of them make the top 10

My Ass!


Comerica Sucks!

Top ten hottest ballpark.


Like Havana Cuba later this week

I can't believe AT&T Park didn't make the cut. That place rocks even before adding in the 10% extra credit for the best weather in the US.

Tiger Stadium was the best ever!


Comerica is too hot, too much bells and whistles and too much of a corporate Ballpark

IT MAY BE HOT, BUT IT IS A BEAUTIFUL PARK!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

IT MAY BE HOT, BUT IT IS A BEAUTIFUL PARK!

Ditto for San Francisco minus the hot part

Comerica has the hottest weather during the summer


No Thanks to Mother Nature and Bud Selig's scheduling!

More like an eyesore!


Can't wait another 25-30 years until it is replaced

They should have never left Tiger Stadium!



Comerica is to Tiger Stadium like Riverfront was to Crosley Field or Three Rivers was to Forbes Field

gs78 wrote:

corporate Ballpark

... We're in the era of a place called PETCO Park...

Comerica isn't the only one to have 'sold out'...

Too much Sun, Huge outdated Scoreboard that is more billboard than scoreboard; Not enough Mens Restrooms, Pepsi instead of Coke, Upper Deck too far away from the field; Ridiculous Outfield Dimensions; even after the fences were moved in! Dugout areas way too big, no flagpole in play, ivy about the Center Field wall, [ We ain't the Cubs Mike! ] Fountain above the ivy [ We ain't the Royals either]



Just to name a few things wrong with Comerica

And Corporate Fans too!


We are down by four runs in the 9th and half the people have gone home!


What a Joke!

If the Yankees can build a New Yankee Stadium; Why couldn't the Tigers build a new Tiger Stadium?

Getting back to the outfield dimensions; If you want to get a ball during BP; Tiger Stadium was much better; Hands Down! Many balls hit during BP [ at Comerica] land in the bullpens; in the shrubs and ivy above the CF fence and in the open area by the right field foulpole


Balls don't carry like it did in Tiger Stadium either!


Only time I ever saw balls crushed on a regular basis at Comerica was the Home Run Derby in 05; And they juiced them up big time

gs78 wrote:

Pepsi instead of Coke,

Hey now, pepsi puts shoes on my children's feet

SoulRat wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Pepsi instead of Coke,

Hey now, pepsi puts shoes on my children's feet

Then this will make you happy.

Coke is not allowed on the UCLA campus. No Coke products may be sold or advertised at UCLA. They used to allow for both Pepsi and Coke products in their stores but after sufficient student protests, Coke was banned from the school.

They were going to allow Coke to be sold again but there was a huge protest recently about it so Coke is still banned. Apparently Coke doesn't treat its workers in third-world nations well enough. (Like Pepsi, or anyone, does?)

The stadium is only 8 years old!! how could anybody justify building a new one?

catbox_9 wrote:

(Like Pepsi, or anyone, does?)

I have no idea. Pepsi treats their employees here very well though.

SoulRat wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

(Like Pepsi, or anyone, does?)

I have no idea. Pepsi treats their employees here very well though.

But what about the ones in Pepsi Presents New Congo? Do they make 3 cents an hour? If not, how much?

I already said I have no idea

SoulRat wrote:

I already said I have no idea

Well whose fault is that?

catbox_9 wrote:

SoulRat wrote:

I already said I have no idea

Well whose fault is that?

uhhhhh... Hairston's!!!

SoulRat wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

SoulRat wrote:

I already said I have no idea

Well whose fault is that?

uhhhhh... Hairston's!!!

But Rum tastes better with Coke.


I like to sign up for the Designated Driver, get a medium Soda, then mix a little rum [ that I sneak in] in the cup

Pepsi and Rum just don't mix!


Not saying I won't drink it though!

Like I am gonna sit through a 6 hour game Wednesday Night without a little booze!


I go broke buying beer and drinks at Comerica every game


Haven't been pulled over for a DUI yet!



No accidents either



What can I say!