Marlins Park

Miami Marlins, National League

7/10

 I was running late, so I grabbed a photo of this sign on the way in.

 A Saturday afternoon matchup against the Blue Jays drew a decent crowd.

BP for the next afternoon's game.

Bonus pic: The "Home Run Sculpture" in Left Field.

It's not the Home Run Apple, but I found it super deflating when the Jays gave up a home run.

Firstly, there is a lengthy backstory surrounding the construction and financing of this stadium. In a nutshell, the Marlins played at Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, for their first 18 years. That facility was apparently designed with Baseball in mind, but was hardly a permanent home for the Marlins. So ownership began a sustained effort to build a ballpark, which eventually led to MLB threatening that the Marlins would leave town if one wasn't built. That night, an agreement was reached for a new park to be constructed on the site of the Orange Bowl, which had recently been vacated by the Miami Hurricanes football team. The park got built, the Marlins paid just under 20% of the cost to build it, got their knuckles rapped for not spending enough of their luxury tax payments on payroll, now represent Miami instead of Florida, the mayor of Miami-Dade County was recalled over the issue and as of right now, the Marlins are drawing around 2,500 more per game than they did in Miami Gardens. Anyhow, the ballpark itself......


Going here was the crown Jewel of my Florida/Georgia/Alabama loop in 2012. The Jays were in town and I found a way to make it work. I drove down from Orlando for game 1 and arrived in the 2nd inning. This ballpark aimed to be uniquely designed, with architecture and décor that would be out of place anywhere but South Florida and appears to have succeeded. I've seen Marlins Park classified as both a Retractable Roof ballpark and the first "Modern" ballpark, both are correct, but only the latter reflects that the Marlins have a unique venue in MLB.

There were many plusses to Marlins Park. Firstly, it has a roof, which in the heat and especially the humidity of South Florida, is a near requirement. The park was brand new when I went and it was kept very clean. The food here is something else. There are a lot of different options including gluten free. I had first and currently only Pressed Cuban Sandwich here and it was pretty good. There's your usual ballpark fare as well as one item based on the visiting team. For the Blue Jays, they chose Poutine, which included a description for those unfamiliar. People in blue shirts seemed to be buying most of them. The park also makes an effort to cater to everyone with a more particular diet, including people who are going gluten-free. There is only one small concession in center field that has gluten free stuff, but it's the only one I've ever seen anywhere. The ballpark has numerous homages to the old Orange Bowl, including displays of big games and the orange bowl sign chopped up in pieces out front as street art.

But, there are some negatives. The area around the park is residential, so there's not really an after party atmosphere. People are offering their driveways and even their lawns as parking spots. I parked in one of the parking garages next door owned by the team. At the time of my visit, the roof either leaked, or had condensation issues, like most windows in South Florida. This meant that a steady stream of water dripped onto entire rows of the upper deck and I had to dodge some droplets to get to my seat. I'm not sure if the issue's been fixed. There is also a ballpark location of the "Clevelander" from Miami Beach behind left field, which I guess is supposed to overcome the lack of nightlife in the area. I just found it somewhat tacky, although it was full.

Overall, the City of Miami has a nice new park, which I'd rate as an 8/10. Once the kinks get worked out and the area around the ballpark inevitably changes, it would be rated higher.

Update 2016: I have not been back since 2012, evidently, I am not alone, as 2016 saw the Marlins finish 27th in MLB in attendance. With Atlanta getting a new park for 2017 and Texas as early as 2020, we will find out in a few years just how good this place is. Under the new scoring rubric, I can't help but knock the score down to a 7, as while the food was good, it wasn't worthy of a full point. 

Linescore
2012-06-23
                                   123   456   789   RHE
Toronto Blue Jays         010   000    006  780
Miami Marlins              000   000    100   151
Temp: 76F   Time: 2:49  Att:  24,448 

2012-06-24
                                     123   456   789    RHE
Toronto Blue Jays           000   000   000   080
Miami Marlins                 040  002   30x   980
Temp:  73F  Time: 2:29  Att: 27,888

San Manuel Stadium

Inland Empire 66ers, California League

8/10

The exterior is painted an appropriate colour of beige.

I enjoyed my food so much, I didn't do my picture walk until later than usual.

The 66ers in their baby blue home shirts go to bat against Lancaster, lined up the field.

I made the trip down to San Bernardino as part of my Cal League loop in 2016. I had taken in an early start in nearby Rancho Cucamonga, then driven to Yorba Linda and the under renovation Richard Nixon Presidential Library. I arrived well before the first pitch. The park is another early 90's design from Populous, which is why it's laid out almost exactly the same as Lancaster, Peoria and Hohokam Park. The exterior is painted a beige-yellow and comes across as somewhat southwestern. Overall, it's hardly a bad park, but it's hard not to consider it average, especially knowing of it's many cousins in the southwest.

I hit the concession shortly after arrival and opted for the Pulled Pork/Mac and Cheese nachos. At 10 dollars, I expected a slightly smaller than acceptable serving, but no. I ended up with a veritable boat of food, feeling very satisfied that I had gotten what I paid for. Needless to say, concessions here were solid, with the nachos factoring into my top 10 ballpark food items.

Atmosphere here was sedate, as you might expect on a midweek game in may, based on what the cluster of diehards in my section were calling the worst 66er team in memory. An elderly gentleman sitting in front of me claimed to have played for the USC Trojans in his day and piped up with a critique of the home side's strategy every few innings. About half the tickets sold for the game appeared to be redeemed. Still, with either the Dodgers or Angels in town pretty much every night, it's hard for the team to compete.

Overall, I enjoyed my stop here, food was fantastic, but with the park being a one of many in this design, plus the absence of any real crowd, it's hard to rate it too high. 8 it is.

Linescore
2016-05-04                             123    456    789   RHE
Lancaster Jethawks(HOU)       122    000    100   690
Inland Empire 66ers(LAA)        000    000    010   192
Temp: 68F  Time: 2:51  Att: 1,994