Boston can't begin to fathom why Johnny Damon wouldn't come back to them. I can't begin to imagine why he'd go back.
I'll go back and start being nice.
The stadium feels tiny - in a cozy way. Almost like a minor league stadium must feel. The field feels small despite the 420ft center wall; maybe that's because I was staring at the green monster. The scoreboard shows how to score every play after the fact and previous at bats (though without scoring notation). They also display the final lines for pitchers - something I haven't seen in another park which I thought was silly in its omission. Papelbon coming in to the Dropkick Murphys is fun. The vendors outside of the stadium lend a feel of authenticity, like people love their team so much that they just have to pitch tent outside. The fans are passionate.
There, a number of nice things. That's all though.
The stadium feels tiny. It's cozy in your seat, but it's cramped everywhere else. The concourses are miniscule. The concrete under your seat angles down so when you put your things under there, they soak through in the inch of water at the back that you don't see. The scoreboard is generally out of sight for at least a quarter of the lower deck seats. There are pillars obstructing your view if you aren't in front of them or satisfactorially behind them. The scorecard comes in a program (something I'm realizing is more common) that's reasonably priced (I don't remember, $5 maybe) and comes with a couple baseball cards (as if anyone collects them anymore). The layout is terrible with what little scoring instruction on the back of one team's page and the pitcher stats on the back of the other. Every box has more boxes for balls/strikes. Useful if you want to measure every stat - but you're not including extra fouls for total pitches/plate attempt or getting really good defensive stats, so it's not really worth it in my opinion. It just clutters things up. The scorecards look like they were designed by a middle schooler. And not one going on to a graphic design career. There's zero fan interaction (kiss cam, animated races, shirt give aways, whathaveyou) aside from the pedophile anthem Sweet Caroline being sung by the entire stadium. The vendors are outside because there's practically no room inside. I'm not even sure if you can go back out to them after you're in. The fans are passionate in the way Brick loves lamp - blind passion without really knowing what's going on. For example, my entire side of the stadium got excited for a home run - one that was clearly a foul ball sailing well into the seats just past first base.
I can see why the stadium is loved. It has charm. It's unfortunate for baseball where the game has become secondary to the event - and not a very good one at that. It's clear that, while there are plenty of baseball fans, the social fan has bought most of the tickets. It could be a better experience if more work was put into the extras. The stadium just doesn't stack up in tangibles to any of the other stadiums I've been to.
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3 comments:
Glad to see you're being gentle on poor old Boston! After reading your thoughts, I'm much less anxious to visit Fenway! So do you remember anything of how Wrigley might compare?
You didn't even post pictures!
Claire: I don't have any pictures. The Boston series is one of the folders that didn't burn right to the DVD.
Dad: This was actually a bit of a redraft that was nicer than the old one. Part of it was probably Boston's general idea that Damon's "decision to stay with the Tigers is downright idiotic," and writers espousing thoughts like "For the next five weeks, you could live in downtown Boston and your wife could shop on Newbury Street. Or you could live in downtown Detroit, amid the boarded-up buildings and the proverbial skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets. Is this really a tough call?" Another part was probably that this was day 4 of pouring rain after three days in New York (Something like 7 inches over the four days). Driving through Connecticut at 4am in the rain was miserable (the freeway reminded me of Hines Drive).
That said, I can see how an old school purist would like the Stadium. It just felt like a lot of the "charming" things were at direct expense of a more convenient (and in a number of instances, to me, better) experience. Kindof the way a summer cottage without AC is "charming."
Unfortunately I barely remember Wrigley. I just remember peeing in the sink because I thought it was a trough urinal. It must've been really low, now that I think about it... but then maybe I should stop thinking about it.
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