Orioles vs. White Sox, 7:10pm start
Let's go ahead and get what you're thinking out of the way. Yes, we do live approximately 30 blocks from this stadium and yes, it is the fifth stadium I'm blogging about. However, this was at least the fifth time I've been there, but the first since starting the project and blog. Ok, then.
The great part about this stadium is that it's literally right off of the public transit system (red line to the Sox-35th stop), so that makes getting to the stadium really easy. In the past, I have done the driving and parking, which is also really easy and the tailgating can be pretty amazing. The only bad thing about taking public transit (aside from the fact that the station is PACKED heading back into the city after the game- good thing we were heading south!) is that all of the gates are on the opposite side of the stadium from the stop. But when you finally get to the gates, you get to see this:
Since we arrived an hour early, we headed up to the upper terraces to give you a view of the inside of the stadium:
And show you the great view of downtown Chicago:
As well as remind you, as always:
You might notice that I'm wearing Orioles gear, even though I stated that I'm a Cardinals' fan. After having such an amazing time at Camden Yards (remember the free hats?), Dan bought me an O's shirt for our anniversary. While I'll always be a Cards' fan at heart, the O's have such a great fan-base and are so fun to watch, that I'm really starting to like them. That being said, I paid good money to see Mark Reynolds screw up and even though there were 3 errors, he didn't make any of them. He is seriously the worst player in the majors and it is hilarious.
Which brings me to the Sox fans. I've got to say that I know several of them personally and while they are their own brand of... interesting, they aren't the worst fans I've ever seen. They were quite happy that they won, but not one person said anything to me in my O's gear (unlike the Nats' fans). Unlike the O's fans, who filled the stadium while we were there, even though the team was pretty terrible, the stadium last night was only maybe 1/3 full (which, to be honest, is about 10x fuller than it was on Tuesday). That's probably why were were 25 rows off the field almost behind home plate for only $13/ticket. So I'd say the fans fit smack dab in the middle of my "fan experience" ranking.
The stadium really isn't anything to write home about, but I'm ranking it slightly higher than Wrigley Field, since it is a little newer and the seating/amenities are just better. My biggest complaint is that unlike a lot of the other stadiums, they don't show you the scoring decision anywhere. Dan let me score again, but I was rusty (it's been 7 months, people!) so I had to keep asking him questions. It started raining on us in the 7th inning, so I didn't get to finish scoring anyway. But, since there were a few home runs, we did get to see fireworks:
Our pennant collection is growing, though unfortunately our wall is not...
Let's go ahead and get what you're thinking out of the way. Yes, we do live approximately 30 blocks from this stadium and yes, it is the fifth stadium I'm blogging about. However, this was at least the fifth time I've been there, but the first since starting the project and blog. Ok, then.
The great part about this stadium is that it's literally right off of the public transit system (red line to the Sox-35th stop), so that makes getting to the stadium really easy. In the past, I have done the driving and parking, which is also really easy and the tailgating can be pretty amazing. The only bad thing about taking public transit (aside from the fact that the station is PACKED heading back into the city after the game- good thing we were heading south!) is that all of the gates are on the opposite side of the stadium from the stop. But when you finally get to the gates, you get to see this:
Since we arrived an hour early, we headed up to the upper terraces to give you a view of the inside of the stadium:
And show you the great view of downtown Chicago:
As well as remind you, as always:
You might notice that I'm wearing Orioles gear, even though I stated that I'm a Cardinals' fan. After having such an amazing time at Camden Yards (remember the free hats?), Dan bought me an O's shirt for our anniversary. While I'll always be a Cards' fan at heart, the O's have such a great fan-base and are so fun to watch, that I'm really starting to like them. That being said, I paid good money to see Mark Reynolds screw up and even though there were 3 errors, he didn't make any of them. He is seriously the worst player in the majors and it is hilarious.
Which brings me to the Sox fans. I've got to say that I know several of them personally and while they are their own brand of... interesting, they aren't the worst fans I've ever seen. They were quite happy that they won, but not one person said anything to me in my O's gear (unlike the Nats' fans). Unlike the O's fans, who filled the stadium while we were there, even though the team was pretty terrible, the stadium last night was only maybe 1/3 full (which, to be honest, is about 10x fuller than it was on Tuesday). That's probably why were were 25 rows off the field almost behind home plate for only $13/ticket. So I'd say the fans fit smack dab in the middle of my "fan experience" ranking.
The stadium really isn't anything to write home about, but I'm ranking it slightly higher than Wrigley Field, since it is a little newer and the seating/amenities are just better. My biggest complaint is that unlike a lot of the other stadiums, they don't show you the scoring decision anywhere. Dan let me score again, but I was rusty (it's been 7 months, people!) so I had to keep asking him questions. It started raining on us in the 7th inning, so I didn't get to finish scoring anyway. But, since there were a few home runs, we did get to see fireworks:
Our pennant collection is growing, though unfortunately our wall is not...
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| Side note: since we visited several extremely iconic parks at the beginning, we just assumed they'd all have park pennants, but that is proving not to be the case. It's hard to find pennants at places! |
