It’s time for our annual review of the biggest news stories in the world of ballparks!
As usual, it was an eventful year, with openings (West Palm Beach, Hartford, Atlanta) and one closing (Augusta), while several big-league teams made news about new facilities. And one tiny ballpark even got to host Major Leaguers for one evening!
Check out our photo essay on the biggest stories from 2017!
Every autumn since 2003, we’ve provided a public service: a comparison of the two ballparks being utilized in that year’s World Series.
This year is no different, so what are you waiting for? Click here and check it out!
Twenty years ago this week, I started Baseballparks.com. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time, but the site you’re looking at today had its beginnings exactly two decades ago.
Well, sort of.
It started out with my desire to show others the photos I’d taken of baseball parks over the course of my life. At the time, I subscribed to the wildly popular America Online or AOL. It was all the rage, and the service spawned the ubiquitous phrase “you’ve got mail.”
Imagine, you could write letters to other people without having to drop them in a mailbox or fax them — and they’d get them really quickly! Well, usually they would get them. You could even post your thoughts on AOL’s topical message boards and interact in real time with like-minded folks in something called a “chat room.”
It was all so high tech!! All it took was a modem and a phone line, and after some odd squealing sounds, you could communicate with people all over the world! Well, until your connection was abruptly dropped, or someone else in the house tried to use the phone! Read More
Check out my behind-the-scenes look at Major League Baseball’s event at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. You’ll see what happened when all of the players and coaches of the Pirates and Cardinals mingled with the youngsters at the Little League complex. Then later the tables were turned when the Little Leaguers attended the big leaguers’ game at a spruced-up Minor League ballpark.
It was a tremendous day, and I’m quite pleased to give you a glimpse of what the once-in-a-lifetime event was like.
Check out my essay and a dozen photos here. You’ll also find links to my articles on the event published by USA TODAY.
You’ve seen them in countless sports publications, on the MLB Network, on travel websites, on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, on The Travel Channel, and of course right here at BaseballParks.com.
We’re talking about rankings of big-league ballparks.
In fact, my first writing assignment from USA TODAY was to pen a piece ranking the 30 MLB parks. This combines three of USA TODAY‘s very favorite things: lists; sports; rankings.
You probably think that the 30 stadiums have been ranked every possible way. Well, they hadn’t — until now.
Max Schleicher works for a start-up firm in Chicago called ReviewTrackers. Max explains that the company, among other things, analyzes online reviews of products and services to assess “customer service insights.” Obviously, such data would be invaluable to marketers.
“Plain and simple, I like playing around with data,” Schleicher told BaseballParks.com. “Doubly so for baseball data.” That’s what motivated him to start looking at feedback about ballparks in ways never before attempted. Read More
We are very pleased to announce that our 18th Annual Ballpark of the Year is Dunkin’ Donuts Park, the first-year home of the Hartford Yard Goats. (Official press release is here.)
Every year since 2000, Baseballparks.com has presented a plaque to the best new or renovated ballpark for that season. You can check out the list of winning parks and their architects here.
Hartford’s park wasn’t the most expensive baseball stadium that opened this year, or even the second most costly. Those would be SunTrust Park in Atlanta ($672 million) and The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches ($148 million).
While Dunkin’ Donuts Park’s $71 million pricetag isn’t a paltry sum, it bought an awesome ballpark. To learn why the park won the award (and read what the team’s owner, the park’s architect, Hartford’s mayor, the President of Minor League Baseball and the Farm Director of the Rockies had to say about it), I urge you to check out the official press release on the award here.
To read our massive in-depth review of the park — written right after it opened in April — go to our article entitled Ending Hartford’s Losing Streak.