Chase Field
401 East Jefferson Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
Capacity: 48,633
Indoors/outdoors: Retractable
Roof
Game Attended: Astros at Diamondbacks; August 10, 2011
After five stadiums, let’s welcome the National League to
the rankings! Believe it or not, the
five worst stadiums in baseball are all housed in the Junior Circuit (American
League for you non-baseball nuts) and while the National League most certainly
has the better stadiums between the two leagues, the American League has the
designated hitter – so there. You get
the better place to watch games, WE get the better actual games.
Chase Field (formerly known at Bank One Ballpark) was built
in 1998 in anticipation of the arrival of the expansion Arizona
Diamondbacks. Unlike Tropicana Field
(which was already discussed) the Diamondbacks were fortunate enough to arrive
to a brand spanking new place to play, one that has held up surprisingly well
and is full of things that make it as unique as any other park in Major League
Baseball.
First off, the place has a retractable roof, which, in
Phoenix, is necessary for the entire baseball season. I’m not sure how often
the roof is open but for the game I attended (in the heart of August) it was
blazing hot out and the roof was, mercifully, closed. Although this is now common place, at the
time, this was the first domed stadium to grow live grass which doesn’t move
the meter much for yours truly but perhaps is interesting to you, the reader.
The other very unique feature of Chase Field is the swimming pool located in right-center field.
While this pool looks pretty cool on television and was a pretty swell
idea, it’s pretty underwhelming in person.
Not just anyone can go swimming in this pool, either. You need to rent the area out and God knows
how much that costs.
A must-see in Chase Field is the main rotunda, which
features a tribute to the Diamondbacks’ 2001 World Series championship team
(note: you may want to skip this exhibit
if you are a Yankee fan). For those
unfamiliar, the 2001 World Series was perhaps the greatest in MLB history. Just weeks after the 9/11 tragedy the series
went 7 games, featured several walk-offs, included maybe the best 1-2 pitching duo in baseball history and induced a goose bump moment when President Bush
threw a strike for the first pitch while wearing a bullet-proof vest. Despite all that, the biggest moment of the
series was also the last, when Luis Gonzalez and the DBacks rallied against Mariano
Rivera (who is the greatest post-season pitcher in MLB history) in the 9th
inning to win the whole thing. There are
pictures and items there and it’s really well-done.
Outside of that, there isn’t much great about Chase
Field. I don’t want to act like it’s a
bad park (as I had said in a previous entry, several of these stadiums until
about #13 are very very close) but there isn’t much that separates it from the
rest of the pack.
Because the games are mostly played indoors you don’t have a
great view beyond the outfield wall (which astute readers have noted is very
important to me). When the roof is closed, the view beyond the
outfield is simply a scoreboard and advertisements in front of windows (which
allow sunlight to help the grass grow even when the roof is closed.
The upper deck in Chase Field is also massive. Not since old Yankee stadium was around can I
recall a steeper upper deck. I have no idea
when these seats are ever filled and I believe that the capacity of 48,633 is a
tad too much.
Finally, the pre-game and surrounding area. I didn’t spend much time walking around the
outside of Chase Field (which looks like a massive football stadium from the
outside) because it was so hot out. My
friend and I found a solid bar which was attached to the park to have a few
beers beforehand and, for a Wednesday night, was pretty crowded. I would imagine that because the park is
located in downtown Phoenix there are plenty of great spots but, as a husky
fella that does not enjoy it when the temperatue exceeds 80, the chances of me seeking
them out were slim to none. The park
itself can’t help the hot weather, but it certainly could detract from your experience
if you’re not too into the heat (although to be fair the same thing could be
said for Target Field in Minnesota in April).
As for the surrounding area, there are beautiful golf courses in your
backyard (again, that needs to be your thing) and for the two days I spent in
Arizona it was an OK time. No points
deducted for the Phoenix area.
Overall Chase Field won’t blow you away. It’s not a terrible place by any stretch but
the antiseptic feeling of the closed roof, combined with the heat makes it just
an OK place to see a baseball game and it comes into the rankings at #25 on the
list.
Finally, sorry for taking so long to update the blog. I was moving this past weekend and Comcast
was just able to get my internet up and running today. Maybe as a reward to my handful of faithful
readers I’ll pump out ranking #24 tomorrow.
After all, there is nothing like writing about a baseball stadium in
Arizona when the forecast is calling for 8 inches of snow! Until next time…
