Lindquist Field

Ogden Raptors, Pioneer League
8/10

 

This park's facade is somewhat famous amongst the ballparking community.

So is this view.....

A relatively large crowd on Public Schools night saw the Raptors mop the floor with their crosstown rivals from Orem.

I came into Ogden after seeing a game in Helena the night prior as part of my 2015 summer loop. This marked the beginning of 5 new parks in 5 days. This place has a reputation that precedes it as on the the top parks anywhere in the minor leagues, so I was very much looking forward to it. Ogden is a suburb of about 85,000 at the north end of the Salt Lake metro area.

The park is in the middle of town, in a more or less average area, on street parking is free. The home Raptors were in a pennant race with Idaho Falls and were facing their rivals, the Orem Owlz, who also had won the first half title.

The park itself is different than what I'd expected, as I thought for some reason it had a wraparound concourse. It doesn't, but the third base side has a concourse going all the way to the back wall of the park, while first base has one under the seats, as the park is literally sitting right next to an alley. The view from behind home plate is often cited as the best in the minors and it's easy to see why, as Salt Lake and Orem both have similar mountain backdrops. This place outdoes them both.

There are two minor drawbacks to this place though. The concessions are very straightforward, but expensive. The token specialty items are just not here. The selection of beer is pretty limited as well. I ended up getting a BBQ chicken sandwich that cost something like 7 or 8 dollars and looked like something you'd get for 2 off the value menu at your favourite burger joint.

The atmosphere was somewhat disappointing. Nights with lots of people who don't normally go end up being a little annoying and this was the case here. It was a group night for a local school board, who were restricted to general admission only, but quickly spilled into the main seating area once it was "full". I ended up with a family of 4 sitting in 3 seats beside me. The teenaged ushers checked my ticket when I showed up, but didn't do anything other than complain when someone refused to leave their seat after it was determined they hadn't paid to sit where they were. Further to that, the sound effects, which I normally don't notice either way, were over the top. Every time the count sat at 2-2, with two out, the PA announcer shouted "dueces!". A full count brought out "The Count" from Sesame Street, and the announcer's version of the count's voice saying "The count is full....blah!" I ended up moving to the left field concourse for the last few innings.

Overall, this is hardly a bad park, but the concessions were suprisingly behind the curve and I caught it on a bad night for sure. Still, the place is a cut above average, if only slightly: It's in a good spot for roadtrips, so I know I'll be back soon enough.

Update 2018: I have not been back, but with the 2019 season upcoming, a return trip here does make some sense. It'll be in my maybe pile for this year. The Raptors are still going strong, leading the Pioneer League with 3,400 a game for 2018.

Linescore
2015-08-28
                                     123   456   789   R H  E
Orem Owlz(LAA)            000  120   102  6  8 4
Odgen Raptors(LAD)     030   080   30x  14 15 3
 Temp: 92F Time: 3:02 Att: 5,876 

JetBlue Park at Fenway South

Boston Red Sox, Spring Training

8/10

The crowd files inside just after first pitch.

A nice sized crowd takes in a Friday nighter vs. Baltimore.

A hasty picture from the right field corner and Spring Training '17 is a wrap!

I headed to Fort Myers after a day game in Bradenton, to check out the relatively new Red Sox park in Fort Myers. It was a night game against the Orioles, with a large crowd on hand. I managed to run just a bit behind and didn't make it to my seat until the start of the 2nd inning. This a new park as of 2012, when it replaced an older stadium closer to the centre of Fort Myers. This one is technically just outside the city limits. This, I believe was my most expensive game of the entire trip, but it was also the last. The weather was perfect however, so there was at least that. This is a very large, very ornate park, serving fans from all corners of "Red Sox Nation". It reminds me of some of the newer spring parks in terms of size, like Salt River, but compares the best to Sloan Park, with an iconic team, with a big fan base, playing in a large, new and expensive spring park.

I bought on a resale site and sat next to the guy who had been selling the tickets, who decided to go to the game when the other ticket didn't sell. He was a decent guy and explained how the old spring park, "City of Palms" was in a bit of a dicey neighbourhood. When he and two friends had gone to a Sox game there at some point in the past, they were stopped by police walking home and asked why they were in the area..that bad. The usual problems of bad parking and low capacity versus demand meant this move was likely inevitable.

I somewhat resent this trend of making spring training stupid expensive, but you can't really hate this park. It's impressive, no bones about it. Large concourse, the seating area is nicely spread out and there's a "mini-monster" in left field. Concession was adequate and maybe a little expensive. Atmosphere was a shrug. There were lots of die-hard fans, but lots of highly disinterested casual types, so it was a wash. The only real thing was parking, with ingress being lousy(I arrived at first pitch though, so I deserve a little blame..) and egress being a disaster(a three car collision did not help). All in all, I didn't hate coming here, but there are other parks in the area I'd head for first. 8/10.

Linescore
2017-03-10
                           123    456   789  RHE
Baltimore             000    000   000   061
Boston                300    100   000   450
Temp: N/A   Time: 2:29   Att: 9,957