Citizen's Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies, National League

7/10

A very busy sky at the entrance to the ballpark.

A decent crowd takes in the Phillies and Reds on a Saturday afternoon.

Looking back in you can see the upper deck is sparsely populated, but the lower bowl is nearly full.

This is as close as I could get to the standard, "behind home plate" shot.

I headed out to onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Pittsburgh for the few hours over to Philadelphia for the Reds/Phillies. I ended up having some issues with my debit card and paying the tolls on the turnpike, so I arrived in the 2nd inning. This is another retro-modern park, located in the middle of the "Sports Complex". I paid to park in the lot directly next to the football stadium across the street. The arena hosting the 76ers and Flyers is off in another corner.

It was a muggy, overcast, spring afternoon in Philly, with a decent, but not huge crowd out to see the Fightin' Phils. The Phinatic was out and had a steady entourage of wellwishers following him around the entire day.

The park itself however, I would describe as "adequate". It's a much needed upgrade over Veteran's Stadium, with a decent view of the downtown skyline. Besides the large Liberty Bell light display in right centre field, there's nothing really unique about it. The food is also(surprisingly) average, although it's always tough to judge that in just one visit. I had the "Crab Fries", which were also very popular in Pittsburgh the night before. I'm honestly not sure why, I found them pretty average. The atmosphere, for all the lore of the rabid, borderline toxic Philadelphia sports fan, was enthusiastic, but par for the course too. The game was very back and forth. Michael Saunders hit one of very few homeruns as a Phillie and Tommy Joseph hit a walk off single in the bottom of the 9th.

Overall, this is hardly a bad ballpark, but I'd put a return trip to Pittsburgh ahead of coming back here. 7/10.


Linescores
                        123   456   789   RHE
Cincinatti           200  001    000   390
Philadelphia       110  100    001   470
Temp: 73F  Time: 2:47  Att: 30,100

Chukchansi Park

Fresno Grizzlies, Pacific Coast League

7/10

The front entrance to the park after the game.

The small crowd didn't do the park justice.

Another small crowd watches Fresno play a getaway game against Reno.

We went to Fresno in the midst of our 2014 loop of the Western States. It was our first 2 week roadie together, which meant less parks overall, but it worth it. This meant we were coming from a baseball-free night in Las Vegas the night before, headed into Fresno to watch the Grizzlies, the San Francisco AAA team at the time, take on the Oklahoma City RedHawks, who were Houston's.

It was a Wednesday night, which saw a sparse crowd, officially in the area of 3,000. Considering they would draw 10,000 for the game on Saturday, the park was very slow, the seating bowl was nearly deserted. The park is located in downtown Fresno, which is a little shady, with not much else even open after the game.

I caught this park on a bad night. Without many people, it just appeared slow, even though this wasn't an average crowd. The food wasn't particularly memorable and the facility itself looked to be maybe a little above average for the PCL. They were advertising the upcoming "Taco Throwdown" where local taco trucks would park in the left field corner, with a winner being crowned before the end of the game. The product on the field was good, with a late inning comeback by Fresno fought off by the RedHawks. I plan to swing back through here as part of a "California Retreads" roadtrip, to give some misinterpreted California ballparks(I'm up to 4) a second chance. Until then, this one's markedly average.


Update 2015: The Grizzlies got caught up in the massive affiliation shuffle in the PCL and are now the AAA stop for the Houston Astros.

Update 2019: Fresno is now the affiliate for the Washington Nationals, starting this season. I made it back in 2016 for a getaway game against Reno. The noon start time meant this crowd was possibly even smaller than the first time. I remember Socrates Brito,  A Diamondback prospect who eventually had a cup of coffee with the Blue Jays having a good day and the box score confirms that my memory is correct. I will have to go out of my way to go here a third time on a night where people might actually be present. Until then, this one is still a 7.



Linescores: 
2014-08-13
                                                          123   456    789   RHE
Oklahoma City RedHawks(HOU)                                     4
 Fresno Grizzlies(SF)                                                     3

The boxscore on MiLB.com no longer loads and I wasn't able to find an alternative. I'll dig more next time.

2016-05-05
                                            123   456    789   RHE
Reno Aces(ARI)                     000   120    000   390
Fresno Grizzlies(HOU)             000    000   101   271
Temp: 63F Time: 2:59 Att: 2,830