Blog / Page 16

Looking ahead


Check out our look at the new ballparks that will be coming online in the next couple of years — starting with SRP Park in North Augusta, South Carolina. It will be the new home of the Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League in April.

We’ll also check in on the progress of new parks in Amarillo (Texas League), North Port (Braves spring training), Fayetteville (Carolina League), Las Vegas (Pacific Coast League) and more. (Photo of the Braves’ spring training site courtesy of Fawley Bryant)

Click here to find the article!

The Ballpark Year In Pictures


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!

Happy Birthday … to us!


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

Behind the scenes at the MLB Little League Classic


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.

Finally, a new way to rank MLB parks


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