Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays, American League

7/10

A relatively staid exterior is souped up with a giant banner of all the Rays' stars.

Behold, the dome in all it's beauty. It looks like it belongs in Japan, but being there, it didn't totally seem out of place for MLB.

Did not leave my seat the entire game here, so this is as good as I did.

I went to my first game at "The Trop" in 2012, having come from Pensacola the night before. I had heard a lot of negative feedback about the dome and I'm here to tell you it's a little overblown. Firstly, yes, the dome is a cave. There is a big white roof that does, thankfully let in some light and it will darken slightly when the sun goes down. There's a lot of white concrete and the backdrop is very boring, even for a domed stadium. That having been said, there was a pretty good downpour outside for about 3 innings, which we completely ignored, even a retractable design may not have been so fortunate. The parking here is actually really well organized too. It may have just seemed that way because of the lower attendance, but it flowed well, with cars coming down a big aisle in the middle to park and leaving via multiple exits onto the street on the opposite side. It was a welcome relief after "carmegaddon" a few nights prior in Atlanta. Still, the park is slightly below average overall.

The surprise here was the food. Pulled pork sandwich that wasn't bad, but there were about 10 kinds of BBQ sauce available, you pick AND self-serve. There seemed to be a lot of options, but the thing was the areas around the concessions were very large and removed from the concourse, to prevent crowding. Not sure how much trouble it saved at a sparsely attended park like this, but was welcome.

The atmosphere here was above average as well, with the Detroit Tigers as the visitors, a fair number of Tiger rooters showed up which barely saved this place from a 6/10. It gets the slightest 7 of all time, but even Tropicana Field manages to be average, in the end.

Update 2021: I have revised this one down to a 6. The atmosphere from the visiting/local Tiger fans was enjoyable for sure, but the home team generates very little. The facility is one of the bottom 3 MLB parks I've been to, although the concession was apparently ok. I still haven't been back here. Perhaps I'm due? Maybe if I did the very end of spring training, then into this.

Linescore

2012-06-28               

                        123   456  789  R H E

Detroit              002  101 001  5 15 1 

Tampa Bay       000  010  100  2 6 2 

Temp: 72F/Dome   Time: 3:05  Att: 20,532

Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium

San Antonio Missions, Texas League

8/10

The front door is actually the pass gate. The peons can enter on either base side.

The finishing touches on the field, post batting practice.

The crowd enjoys things from the upper aisle.

I rolled into San Antonio late one June evening,on the last night of my June 2015 trip after driving down most of Texas from Oklahoma City. I accepted a 3 hour drive after the game to catch one more park prior to flying home and I'm glad I did. Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium(or "The Wolff") for short, has been San Antonio's home for baseball since 1994. I would have pegged it as a late 80's park based on it's design, but was a little off. It's a little bit of a quirky design, but I liked it. There's your box seat sections, then loges behind an aisle, but there's an upper aisle behind that, which I really liked. There are also your run of the mill luxury boxes and some metal seats further back and further out. The park is on the edge of town, with an off ramp from a freeway almost directly into the lot. It was a cloudy night, but a few large planes could be heard taking off from the nearby Air Force base.

Concessions here were about average, there were lots of specialty kind of options, but they were made to order, which would have meant a wait of 10-15 minutes, which is a little much. I ended up with an average hot dog and drink.

The big thing that saves this from from being just another ballpark is the atmosphere. People want to come out and watch. The game featured the hometown San Antonio Missions, longtime AA affiliate of the San Diego Padres, against the Arkansas Travellers, who are tied up with the Angels at the moment. A Travs batter grounded out to Shortstop and decided against even moving towards first base, at which point, some random voice seated in the loge behind me yelled "There's little kids here! Run it out!" There were some promos and stuff, but on the whole, it's an enjoyable place to take in a game. I'll head back for sure and with a Texas trip towards the top of my list, it could be soon.

Update 2021: This place had a few interesting years since the last post. In 2019, the Colorado Springs franchise in the PCL moved here and the AA team moved to Amarillo. But, San Antonio's time in Triple A was limited to just the 2019 season, as 2020 saw the MiLB season cancelled outright and 2021 saw minor league contraction. The end result was San Diego selecting this park for it's AA team. I didn't write this at the time, but it did feel like there could have been Triple A here when I saw it. I'm sure the locals enjoyed their one year.

Linescore

                                                 123   456   789   R H E

Arkansas Travelers (LAA)        010  022   000   5  10 1

San Antonio Missons(SD)         012 300   30x   9  10  1

Temp: 88F Time: 2:58 Att: 4,749

Goodyear Ballpark

Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians (Spring Training)

8/10

I never did get the best shot of the exterior here....

Another beautiful clear day in Goodyear.

The sun begins to set on the only night game I've ever seen here.

Goodyear Ballpark holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first Spring Training, or Cactus league game I ever took in. It was the closest one to the old family condo in Arizona and rarely busy, so 8 games later, I still like it.

This park was built to lure two teams, the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds out from Florida and is located in the City of Goodyear(as in the tires) about 30 minutes without traffic west of downtown Phoenix. It's built on the edge of the desert, near an aircraft boneyard. I thought it looked like an AAA park when I first went, but having a few more under my belt, I'd say AA is a closer fit. It's a pretty simple layout, with all the seats between the foul poles, a BBQ area in right field and a berm out in left. Atmosphere is pretty quiet, with this park being the farthest away from either team's home city, still, the fans do come out and while a little quirky, fans of both teams are pretty easy to cohabitate with in my experience.

I originally gave this park a 9 on my old website, but reviewing it now, it is really "just" an 8. The plus? The food. Cheesesteaks, Pulled Pork, Good Burgers, pizza, Mexican, yam fries, they have everything here. The beer is a good selection, they even have Hefeweizen(German-style wheat beer), that drinks really smoothly. They also have about 7 condiments at each concession, so no one walks off disappointed at "just" ketchup.

The other added bonus here is the lack of crowds. While a lot of cactus league parks are expensive and packed to the gills, with long lines for anything, here, the best tickets are 30 dollars and both teams are in the bottom 5 of Spring attendance MLB-wide. If you are west of downtown and don't care about much else than seeing a game, head here, you won't be disappointed.

Update 2021: Somehow, I haven't been back here since the last update 5 years ago. I did manage to dig up my line scores. I've been here 8 times! I still fondly remember this as a cheap option, to enjoy Cactus league action, with good food and it's still a nice park. If I make it back for spring training here anytime soon, this one will be on my list.

Linescore

2010-03-24

                           123  456  789   R  H E

San Francisco     100  000  110   3  7 3

Cincinnati            101  100  07x  10 10 1

Temp: 82F  Time: 2:41   Att: 4,062

2012-03-23

                               123  456  789   RHE

Los Angeles(AL)      010 100  200  491

Cleveland                001  000  000  170

Temp: 77F   Time: 2:41   Att: 8,630

2012-03-29

                           123  456  789   RHE

Colorado            200  300  010  6 11 0

Cleveland           002  000  001  3 6 0

Temp: 72F  Time: 2:47   Att: 2,877

2013-03-23

                           123  456  789   RHE

Texas                 000  121   011   6 14 0

Cincinnati          100  010  000    2 6 0

Temp: 75F   Time: 2:47  Att: 6,192

2013-03-30

                           123  456  789   R H E

Cleveland            000 100  000   1 8  1

Cincinnati            000 213 03x   9  14 0

Temp: 80F  Time: 2:35  Att: 7,027

2014-03-23

                           123  456  789   R H E

Milwaukee          161 000 100  9 13 0

Cincinnati            000  001  000  1 5 1 

Temp: 81F  Time: 2:36   Att: 5,559

2015-03-23

                           123  456  789   RHE

Oakland               000  100  200  370

Cincinnati            000  000  031 461

Temp: 82F  Time: 2:39  Att: 5,447

2015-04-02

                           123  456  789   R H E

Cleveland             000 110 200  4 10 1

Cincinnati            100  000 110  3 11 0

Temp: 81F  Time: 2:19  Att: 3,069