Maybe if I designed these things I would like them? Maybe if I had a personal tour of these things I would like them? Maybe if I were a ballplayer having to work in these things I would like them? But I’m the average fan, watching from home and occasionally going to a game, and I do not like these new-old stadiums.
This week Major League Baseball brings into its family of workspaces two new ballparks for the Mets and Yankees. These facilities are not stadiums as I am accustomed to saying, but rather ballparks where only baseball is to be played. We are to note this distinction. This style of ballpark debuted most recently with the opening of Camden Yards in 1992 as a response to the cookie-cutter and otherwise out-dated multi-use stadiums of past decades. I remember watching Camden Yards on opening day, and it was exciting to see something new and different, with a nod to history. But since 1992, the vast majority of new facilities have been constructed in the same manner: “old-style” and oversaturated with anything to distract you from watching the game. And to me, this outcome has essentially restructured the whole problem of cookie-cutter stadiums.
Most people will tell you they like these new ballparks. They are closer to the field, they are cleaner, they sell chow that seems to have been designed by Emeril Lagasse, and most importantly, if you don’t want to sit in your $75 seat and watch the game, there are plenty of other activities to chose from. Batting cages, pitching cages, hot tubs, shopping, restaurants—why not just go to Disney World and let a baseball fan use your seat?
What makes a baseball park special, to me, is not what kind of microbeer I can get at the Hard Rock Cafe (New Yankee Stadium), or if I can Build-A-Bear (Citizens Bank Park), but what has happened on that same field—that same dirt—in front of me. I couldn’t go to Shea Stadium without picturing Mookie Wilson’s slow roller up along first or to The Vet without running mental footage of Tug McGraw’s strikeout to win the World Series in 1980. Sure, history will be made in these new parks, but it just seems a waste to destroy these places because they don’t have a Custom T-Shirt Shop (U.S. Cellular Field) or swimming pool (Chase Field). Some places have needed replacement, be sure, but through more original architecture, or custom retro-fitting, couldn’t we have a more unique assemblage of ballparks? And it’s bad enough that we lose the history, but we have also lost the wonderful names of these distinctly American sites. It seems the only way to get a ballpark named after you anymore is to buy a bank.
A perfect example of all this was on ESPN’s broadcast of the inaugural game at Citi Field. Reporter Erin Andrews was sent roving to report from various parts of the new park and provide updates to the announcers. Aside from mentioning that she was closer to the game than in Shea Stadium, there was little mention of watching the game as she tucked into gourmet barbecue sandwiches and, at one point, actually wondered outside the stadium to a miniature version of the new park. Ten bucks if Andrews can tell me who won the game.
I realize I am arguing against consumerism and baseball owners, which makes me as about as American as baba ganoush, but I don’t see it that way. Typically, I’m not old-fashioned and I encourage campaigns to improve the game and the experience, but I like to see the layers of chipped paint on the stadium rails, wonder who was in my seat the day Ted Williams retired, eat a lukewarm hot dog around the 7th inning and watch the entire game. I didn’t crave a ride on the Ferris Wheel (Comerica Park) or a romp on the playground (Safeco Field). Now, with Camden yards a few years shy of 20, the only thing I am wondering is how long until they decide to commemorate it by tearing it down and building a new one.
Yup, the “bank” parks are everywhere and they are full of non baseball related activities. Last fall I was at a game at the new Camden stadium. While you are there outside you feel as though you are sitting under the Ben Franklin bridge and when the lights come on the bridge at night it’s beautiful. But it is distracting to have a climbing wall full of kids to one side and a batting cage on the other. It’s like a baseball mall. oh well.