Stadia Review

My apologies for not writing last week. I was on vacation in TX and had less time (and internet access) than I thought.

Last week I was in Texas, to attend my cousin’s wedding. Because the wedding was on Monday, and the reception on Saturday, Baby Brother, Wee Sister, and I had a little extra time in Texas. Thus, Wee Sister and I went to a couple of sporting events.

Minute Maid Park gets stunning reviews from us. It always helps a stadium when the weather is lovely, and the weather was lovely. The roof was closed when we got there, but opened up, showing the Houston skyline, but mostly the blue sky above. The hot dogs were hot dogs–nothing to warrant a rave review or a trip to the hospital. The Helmet Sundaes offered choices of hard ice cream (I had Vanilla; Wee Sister went with Cookies and Cream), and they had the choice of chocolate or caramel topping. The souvenir soda glasses are nicer quality than most other stadiums, and are probably about 20 ounces in volume. A nice size, really.

The sightlines from the front of the upper deck, approximately between home plate and first base were just fine for viewing a game, for $22 per ticket. Like every other ballpark not named the Metrodome, the pitch counts immediately disappear at the end of the inning, which is frustrating to score-keepers like Wee Sister and myself.

And, of course, the feature of Minute Maid is the train that runs atop the stadium wall in left field. Every time the Astros scored, the train would chug its way down the track. I rather prefer that to the typical fireworks for home runs. Speaking of home runs, we saw one hit over the stadium wall in left field, which is fun for someone who usually sits in an indoor ballpark.

The fans were lovely and well-behaved (and the little five-year-old boy behind us gave quite a lesson on baseball to his cousin…), although it probably helped that there was no opinion of the Twins, and we wore our free Astros ballcaps we were handed for Earth Day. The couple behind us tried to convince us that we should move to Texas, but my inability to handle heat and humidity hinders that idea. My amused moment was that after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the Seventh Inning Stretch, they played a song, which included the lines “Deep in the heart of Texas.” My only thought was, “We’re not in the heart of Texas. We’re on the edge of Texas!” (When it was played in Arlington, that was much more appropriate.)

In Arlington, we went the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, which might be Ameriquest Field or something, but I wasn’t quite sure. The stadium felt more enclosed than Minute Maid Park, simply because the office closed off any view you might’ve had beyond the ballpark in the outfield. Whole areas of the ballpark are cut off from a view of the JumboTrom (which is where the line-ups were listed), a fault which is inexcusable in my opinion. (I believe this is also true at Minute Maid, but I wasn’t sitting in those seats.)

They did not have Helmet Sundaes, a fault which is a tragedy, although on Sunday it was too cold to eat ice cream! (Sure, they had ice cream and sundaes, but not Helmet Sundaes!) The hot dogs were fine, and the souvenir pop glasses were the 40 ounce cheap variety that are seen at most ball-parks.

For lower deck, right field, the tickets were $33, and quite nice seats for watching a baseball game. I could still correct the umpire on his calls from there, so I was content (I have a better view than the umpire; he’s got the catcher in the way).

Those at the stadium are very polite and friendly (there was no harassment for showing up branded in Twins items). The child behind us, about age five, was attending her first baseball game, and couldn’t quite get down outs, innings, who was up to bat (after two pitches, she was calling for strike three, no matter who was up to bat–or if the first two pitches were even strikes. It was adorable).

In summary, I liked Minute Maid Park more than Arlington, but any time you get to attend a baseball game, be it in Yankee Stadium, Minute Maid Park, or Tropicana Field, it’s never a bad thing.

The Minnesota Swarm are in the playoffs, and will have a home playoff game. The question is: does Beth attend the playoff game, or the Twins game that night, which will feature the temporarily healthy Scott Baker?