Well, gang, we’ve almost made it. The Major League Baseball season officially kicks off Tuesday in our wee hours with the Dodgers and Cubs squaring off in Japan, but the official Opening Day is Thursday, March 27. That means come next Monday, we’ll be back to the Official Power Rankings of 30 teams from me that you’ve grown to know and love, greatly, over the course of the past 13 seasons.
We started the spring with a full Power Ranking before tiding ourselves over during spring training with lists of top lineups, top rotations, top bullpens, top offensive duos and now our final installment: top ballparks.
I’ve done ballpark rankings before and have generally always taken a lot of things into account, such as the parking/transportation situation, the exterior, the area surrounding the ballpark, etc.
This time around, it’s going to be just how the ballpark looks from the inside or on TV. Specifically, picture yourself walking into the ballpark from behind the backstop and viewing everything from home plate to out over the outfield wall.
What are the best ballpark views in baseball? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, obviously, which means mileage may vary. For me, I grew up seeing plenty of the cookie-cutter, two-sport venues and those were a relative eye sore. Gimme some personality and quirkiness and/or a gorgeous view.
Is this bias? Of course there is! There is for everyone. If you grew up going to a ballpark and the team playing there is still your favorite team, there’s no doubt there’s an inherent bias. I embrace mine and regular readers can already guess what sits at No. 1. Make your own rankings if you have an issue. I’m not acting like the ultimate authority here.
Some parks that ranked highly in the past missed the cut here, such as Comerica Park (Tigers) and I love Yankee Stadium because it’s Yankee Stadium, but walking in, it isn’t overly breathtaking compared to the rest. Make sure to latch onto that last part. Every MLB ballpark should be beautiful, so it’s all relative. I’m going to pick a top 10 here, but I generally like them all.
Honorable mention: Petco Park (Padres), T-Mobile Park (Mariners), Target Field (Twins), Great American Ball Park (Reds)
There will be a few people who lament the removal of Tal’s Hill and the in-play flagpole in center field, but I still really enjoy the look over left field with the Crawford Boxes and the train over the top of the station facade. That brick out there in left-center field in play is pretty nice-looking as well. I like the quirks! The replacement for Tal’s Hill is a batter’s eye that contains an Astros logo in it and I quite enjoy that as well. I’m a fan of this polarizing yard.
9. Angel Stadium
Once the Rams departed and this ballpark got a nice facelift to return to a one-sport venue — as God intended! — the team did such a great job with it. The tall right-field wall, the shrubbery and grass in center and the waterfall rock pile (“California Spectacular”) in left-center make this one of the best views in the majors.
Without duplicating the most iconic one, I appreciate when ballparks use a high outfield wall in just a small segment of the grass, just as the Rockies do with a portion of right field. Moving from the right-field foul pole toward center, you get a view of the bullpen surrounded by trees before you get to center with a collection of rocks, trees, shrubs and water features. It’s beautiful. Above the batters eye, deep in center is the “Rockpile,” a section for fans to buy cheap tickets with a nice, if a bit distant, view of home plate from the outfield. And in left, there’s the monster videoboard with a large Rockies logo atop. If anything, this ballpark is ranked too low. It’s excellent.
7. Oriole Park at Camden Yards
In terms of the legacy of this stadium, it would be ranked higher. It was the one that changed everything and directed things toward the retro-modern movement that produced so many great ballparks. The best thing it did was shift away from the cookie-cutters. Regardless, that doesn’t count here because I’m only judging how the ballpark looks from the inside and this one still scores terrifically. Again with the high wall in right field and it’s an especially nice view with the warehouse looming over the top. That alone is what makes this ballpark unique and worth a look.
I’m not going to get into measurements or anything because, again, this is an eye test list. What I am going to say is that from the Kauffman Stadium seats behind home plate, that gigantic videoboard with the Royals crown on top certainly looks like the most monstrous in all of baseball. It’s probably due to the relatively small grandstands surrounding it, but it sticks out nicely and I’m a fan. Of course, the main event here is the waterworks over the outfield wall. It just never gets old seeing home run balls splash out there. Bonus points for the view over the ballpark being trees (at least when they are green) because I’ll always prefer that over buildings.
5. Dodger Stadium
My only explanation for this ballpark being ranked so low — yes, five is low for this one — is that it’s an absurdly crowded top five. Hiking up to the top of the hill to enter on the home plate side in the top deck of the stadium, looking out over the mountains behind the outfield wall provides arguably the most gorgeous backdrop in baseball. You’ll spot some palm trees as well and almost always a clear, blue sky. From any which way you view that ballpark, it is toward the top in all of baseball. Also, those jagged, metal “covers” over the top of the outfield seats provide some character.
It’s a pretty breathtaking view of the Pittsburgh skyline over the Allegheny River. I love that, as long as you sit high enough, you can see the river along with the yellow bridge looking over center field and right-center. Again we have an extra-large right-field wall and this one is special because it stands exactly 21 feet high in honor of No 21. Roberto Clemente. That yellow bridge I just mentioned is the Roberto Clemente Bridge, too. The shrubbery spelling out Pirates in the batter’s eye is cool and there are quirks on the left-field wall as well. The designers of the ballpark didn’t just hit a home run, it was a grand slam.
Pretty easy to envision, no? The Green Monster is legendary for every baseball fan and I still remember tearing up the first time I finally got to see it in person. The triangle in center field is an excellent quirk as well, just as the bullpens right over the way-too-small right-field wall leading over to the fans being on top of the action and Pesky’s Pole. Though there are a lot of seats, the feeling is still quite cozy when you glance out over the ballpark, almost in an inviting way.
Much like above, I significantly enjoy the water over the right field wall being such a part of the ballpark viewing experience. In the case of San Francisco, it’s McCovey Cove and we get to see some home runs splash down, though not nearly as frequently since the retirement of Barry Bonds.
Here, though, if you get high enough and position yourself correctly a little bit on the first-base side, you can get a view of water all around the outfield in addition to seeing the Bay Bridge. It’s quite a view. That isn’t all, of course. Over on the left-field side you’ll see the huge Coke bottle (that actually has kids’ slides inside) and large baseball glove. The large center-field videoboard featuring a clock on top fits really well. And of course, there’s right field. There are weird juts all over the place, making it near impossible for any right-fielder to properly play balls hit off the wall. The brick in right field provides a nice view before you look over the top to the water. I can’t say enough about how much I love this place.
1. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
The ivy-covered walls still do it for me and were a childhood favorite as a Cubs fan. The old scoreboard up, deep over the center field wall is another fixture and I like the batter’s eye, too. The much-maligned videoboards do nothing to detract from the view, for me, and you can still catch a glimpse of the rooftops seats from inside the yard. I love the curves on the outfield wall in right and left field that pave the way for some of the longest dimensions down the line in baseball moving toward a short power alley.
Bias here, yeah, obviously, but if you’re talking about just looking over Wrigley from somewhere behind home plate in the middle of a sunny, summer day for a 1:20 p.m. Chicago time start, you simply can’t match it for me.
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