It’s #1 on most rankings of MLB’s best ballparks, but the Pirates aren’t resting on their laurels. They invest significantly in improvements to PNC Park — and they brought in ballpark-design guru Janet Marie Smith to bring those improvements to life.

Read all about the ways the Pirates reinvent PNC Park.

This year marks the Oakland A’s 57th and last season at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. As the team’s time in Oakland was drawing to a close, I spent the weekend in Oakland to talk to fans and reflect on the history of the stadium.

Needless to say, A’s fans are heartbroken their team is leaving.

Read all about it here.

Ballgame tickets are expensive. We all know that. But when you’ve spent your hard-earned dollars to attend a game, you want to see the action clearly.

That’s where sunglasses come in. But what are the considerations when choosing the best pair to take to the ballpark? Check out Paul Mason’s explanation of your options.

For many of its “jewel” events in recent years, Major League Baseball has created temporary ballparks where none existed before. For its regular season game on June 20, 2024 in Birmingham, Alabama, MLB did the opposite. It worked with the city to modernize a ballpark that opened in 1910.

This was no easy task when you consider that Rickwood Field is on the National Register of Historic Places. In fact, it’s so old that the city’s Minor League team has moved twice since it last called the park its regular home in 1987.

I spent three days in Alabama to investigate and witness how all of this was accomplished, and see what kind of event was done by MLB. Here in one place are four different articles I produced to give you the full picture.

The first provides the rich history of Rickwood — some of it profoundly negative, due to the segregation in place for decades. It’s important for you to understand that the very reason MLB chose to bring a game here wasn’t because the ballpark is old. It’s because it was home to the Birmingham Black Barons, and honoring the Negro Leagues was the major motivation for this game.

The second article addresses how the aging facility was upgraded to accommodate a big-league game — without destroying it’s historic nature.

Next is a series of quotes from interesting people I encountered at Rickwood — from the two grandsons of the man who was responsible for the design and construction of the stadium in 1910 to a delightful U.S. Senator.

Fourth was a specific assignment given to me from USA TODAY headquarters. That was to record my biggest take-aways from the events … and I had a lot to say about everything.

So check out these two very special pages to learn all about the event called MLB at Rickwood.

When Maryland State Senator Paul Corderman was starting to tackle the process of obtaining money to build a new downtown ballpark in his native Hagerstown, he knew it would be a long, long uphill battle. And he figured that he probably wouldn’t be successful. He committed, though, to playing “the ultimate long game.”

Not only did he play that game, he won it.

Meritus Park is open for business. After a “soft opening” during its initial homestand, the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars (wait ’til you read where that nickname came from!) are celebrating its grand opening on Friday May 17.

We visited the first game played there on May 4, and put together one of our usual “in-depth reviews” of how the park came to be, where it’s located, etc., etc. You’ll learn the whole story — including my conclusions about what might be ahead for this impressive facility — by clicking here.

Let us know what you thought of the review in the comments section after the Summary.

As an assignment for USA TODAY, I spent a couple of days in Toronto to take a close look at the renovations completed over the past two offseasons. The results are phenomenal — including new concession items like the Hot Maple & Bacon Hot Dog and the Signature Poutine Hot Dog.

Read all about the renovations — and why the owners of the Blue Jays opted to invest heavily in upgrading the current facility rather than build a new park — in the expanded version of the article I originally penned for USA TODAY. Check it out here.