Chicago White Sox, Guaranteed Rate Field

Part 15: The Fly Out

April 15th, 2019. The White Sox defeat the Royals 5-4 on Jackie Robinson day in Chicago

After a two season hiatus from our stadium tour we begin again in Chicago. The intention of this trip was to see Globe Life Field in Texas before it closes at the end of the season. When we were planning on our trip to Dallas we were going to fly from Toronto to Chicago and then to Dallas. Since the White Sox were in town we decided to spend some extra time in Chi town for a game before we fly out to Dallas.

We left Toronto around 3pm toronto time and arrived around 4pm Chicago time. We were staying by the Midway airport and opted to take a quick uber to the ballpark instead of public transport. This was the first time we had seen a ballpark with a designated ride share pick-up and drop-off area. It was super convenient after the game and I imagine many ballparks are doing something similar, eventually I can see all ballparks doing this with the growing popularity of ride sharing apps.

Guaranteed Rate Field is located in the south side of Chicago which is not exactly a great part of town. My wife and I have both been to Chicago before but never experienced this part of the city. We did not have very high expectations for “The Rate” but we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Even the appearance of the stadium when approaching it from the parking lot was better than I would have guessed. The worst thing about Guaranteed Rate Field is probably the name Guaranteed Rate Field which is just is incredibly boring, cumbersome and super corporate sounding. The ballpark was formally know as US Cellular at the start of the tour which isn’t great either but considerably better. On the plus side “The Rate” is a half decent nickname and ultimately the ballpark name is more my own pet peeve and not actually important.

We waited for the gates to open and marched right to the shop to get our first ballpark shot glass in two years. We did a full lap of the ballpark before settling on getting some delicious tacos. We both noticed the ballpark had great selection of food options and there was many things that I would have wanted to try but I could only eat so much. I also had a helmet of Irish Nachos that were very good. The also served Goose Island beer which is the local Chicago beer that we have had before back home in Toronto and is very good. We found our seats for first pitch, we sat in row two along the third base line. White Sox tickets were very cheap. I think our tickets were only $30 and the seats were close to action and close enough to easily talk to the players going in and out of the dugout. Cheap seats means we were able to get even more food. During the game I got us some foot-longs, but for some reason the cut them in half. I know it’s the same amount of food but it was basically 4 regular sized hotdogs which was far more difficult to care back to my seat.

The game was alot of fun, I got to see some great plays by Tim Anderson who I had in my fantasy pool. It was also Jackie Robinson day which we didn’t realize until we got there. Great crowd as well, not so much in terms of quantity but in quality. The game was on a Monday night and they actually roped of the second deck so everybody was close together. This makes it a lot more fun when people can chat and heckle the players with strangers. Which we did. Now because we were on a trip to Texas and we try to pack as light as possible we weren’t dressed very warmly and it was particular cold that night. In fact Chicago had a snow storm the day before and it looked like it was still the middle of winter there. In the later innings it felt like it was starting to rain and we debated leaving early as we were flying out at 5:25am the next day. We ended up leaving in the eight inning and got an uber back to hotel. As we were leaving, the game finished and we saw a great display of fireworks celebrating the 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals.

We didn’t get a chance to check out anything around the stadium but if you do visit Chicago there is plenty do see and do downtown. We had both been to Chicago years ago so we didn’t need to spend time there again and besides we know we’ll be back again to see a Cubs game together. It was so much visiting a new stadium after taking a couple years off and we are super excited about getting back into our stadium tour. We got a few hours and then flew out of Chicago to Dallas early the next day. If you are planning on seeing some other stadiums near Gauranteed Rate Field the closests is obviously Wrigley which you might be able to see the same day on certain days of the season. You could also drive north to see a Milwaukee game or south to see a St.Louis game.

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Completed Stadiums: 13 of 30

To see the current completion status of our baseball stadium tour Click Here

Atlanta Braves, Turner Field

Part 14: Going Deep(South)

Sept 28th, 2016. The Braves beat the Phillies in one of the last MLB games at Turner Field.

Almost a year and a half after our California trip we finally add another park to our stadium tour. We originally hadn’t planned on going to a ballpark as we went on a big trip to Paris in the spring which was suppose to be our traveling for the year. You would not believe how expensive Paris is for not having any baseball. However, I had Julio Teheran in my baseball pool at the time and decided to watch the Braves game and heard the commentators mention it was the last season for Turner Field. My wife and I quickly realized we had a mission to see a game in Atlanta while they were still playing at Turner Field.

We had never been to Atlanta, even Georgia we had only driven through on the way to Florida when we were each kids. We didn’t know what to expect in the deep south. Atlanta is fairly easy to fly to as the airport is a major hub, in fact it is one of the busiest commercial airports in the world. There were no hotels available anywhere in the city so we had to stay near the airport. Not sure what was going on at the time but be sure to plan well in advance because apparently Atlanta does not have enough hotel rooms. Transit was easy enough though we were able get around to see some of the sights. We visited the Atlanta History center, MLK memorial, and World of Coca-cola.

While the stadium is not directly downtown there is a free shuttle bus that we used which made getting there nice and easy. The stadium has a great look, classic brick ballpark and it looks like it was kept in good condition. I also like the name Turner Field. After being in Atlanta for a couple days plus visiting the Atlanta History Center, the name Ted Turner gets dropped a lot having been a large influence on what the city is today. I like when ballpark names have some sort of significance to the area. Anyways, we walked into the ballpark and right away there is enormous energy. We see a performance by the “Heavy hitters & Tomahawk team”, playing loud drums and of course doing the tomahawk chop. Which at this point in the day it hadn’t got annoying yet so it was still fun.

We got our shot glass and began to explore the ballpark. Turner Field had lots of history on display. We saw an old train carriage that the team traveled on and even sat on an old bench from the dugout. They also had the World Series Trophy on display. We have obviously been to some ballparks of teams that have won the World Series it’s a shame not ever ballpark puts the trophy up to see. Maybe they do and I just never found them, but I doubt it. Another thing about the ballpark that connects to the city is Coke. Everywhere you look there are what I will describe as statues of coke bottles. There is also a giant coke bottle that shoots fireworks on homers. Before visiting Atlanta I never realized how much they love there local billion dollar company Coca-cola, also Delta airlines, lot of Delta stuff everywhere too.

We get to our seats which were pretty much the best seats we’ve ever had for a game. We were along the first base line about 5 rows back. In our exploring the ballpark before the game we looked at the upper deck and you could still get a good view of the game from there. Plus thye had simulated base lines and mounds for kids to play on. The game got underway and the tomahawk chops also got underway and never ended. During the game there was ceremony where Evander Holyfield came out on to the field and changed a 5 games remaining sign to a 4 games remaining. Afterwards he went back to his seat which is where we realized we had been sitting about 20 feet away from him the whole time. The significance of Holyfield I believe was the Olympics that Atlanta held in 1996. Which by the way the Olympic park in the center of downtown was closed the entire time we were there in preparation for a 20 year anniversary celebration.

Despite the Braves not having a great team that season they walloped the Phillies(I guess they were also not a great team that season). Atlanta won 12-2 which put our personal stadium tour record at 6 wins 6 losses for the home teams. After the game is where the real fun began. Everyone in the ballpark was invited to run the bases as a special promotion to commemorate Turner field. The entire ballpark lined up, I think we ended up on the second deck and worked our way down. I usually don’t like waiting in line for things but when would you ever get an opportunity like that again. Even just going through the tunnel to get to the field was cool let alone running the bases. We got the batter’s box and then we “touched em all”. Funny enough they gave us a certificate of our feat and based on the design and font they used the same ones that they give kids on the kids run the bases day. I know Toronto has promos where kids can run the bases I’m assuming Atlanta does the same thing.

All in all it was a fun ballpark to visit and I’m glad we squeezed it in before it was too late. I believe the plan for Turner Field is to use it for college football so it will still be there but not for any professional sports. I wouldn’t say Turner Field is our favorite park but we did quite enjoy it. I would say it does a lot of things well but still seems kind of plain. For example the food was fine but to be honest it didn’t stand out enough for me to really remember what I got. I just remember it as basic ballpark food.

If you are doing a road trip stadium tour Atlanta is one of the more isolated ballparks. It is on the way to the Florida ballparks, Tampa Bay being over 6 hours away. The next closest ballparks are in Cincinnati and St. Louis which are 7 hours and 8 hours drive respectfully.

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Completed Stadiums: 12 of 30

To see the current completion status of our baseball stadium tour Click Here

2015 Season Re-cap

The second season of our baseball stadium tour is now in the books. Unlike 2014 we accomplished visiting 5 MLB parks all in one 8 day long trip. Neither of us had been to the west coast before so wanted to spend some time in each city. We started in San Francisco for 3 days visiting all the touristy sights. We saw the defending champs the San Francisco Giants take on the Marlins in one the most highly rated ballpark in the league, AT&T park. Here we discovered garlic fries are not a Washington thing but an American thing and it was life changing. We also got infinity scarves which was a nice surprise because at the time Toronto only did promotions on Sundays so we never expected anything. The next day we took the BART train across the bay into Oakland to see the Athletics take on the Red Sox. O.Co Coliseum was one of our least liked ballparks and they didn’t even have shot glasses for sale so we had to settle for a key chain bottle opener. Overall San Francisco was nice but cold and after a few days we were ready to visit our next stop.

We rented a car and drove to LA where we rushed to see Dodgers stadium and we received our Clayton Kershaw bobbleheads. We saw the Marlins for the second time on our trip. Giancarlo Stanton hit an out of the ballpark home in the first inning. The Dodgers went on to dominate the rest of the game giving us the biggest home win of our tour. We had some dodger dogs and tried to not get lost walking back to the hotel. The next day we drove to Anaheim to Angels stadium. We got Mike Tout promotion hats and were surprised at how often other ballparks have promotions complared to back home in Toronto. The Angels were down and we got to witness the greatness that is Rally Monkeys.

After a couple of days in LA we drove to our final and favorite stop, San Diego, to see Petco Park. The first day in San Diego we spent the day exploring the water front and the restaurants in the gaslight quarter area. The next day we walked from our hotel to the ballpark were we finally got some California weather to enjoy. We got promotional hoodies which only made us feel worse about Oakland as they were the only team on our trip that didn’t give us free stuff. The Padres lost to the Nationals but we had a great time at Petco which we agreed is our new favorite park.

This trip was more in line with what you would typically think of stadium tour – driving from city to city, often following a team. I did enjoy doing several stadiums all at once(4 of the stadiums were in consecutive days) but it did leave a large hole in the rest of the summer. Essentially we were done travelling before the end of May which in the previous year we were just getting started. Also with long trips you need to really be careful with your budge. With several small trips it’s easier to make adjustments to the type of seats/hotels/etc as you go throughout the summer as you get a better idea of how much you are willing to spend.

Obviously the trickiest part is lining up the dates where everybody is playing at home. It is easier than you would expect, the best thing to do is look when the schedules are released as there may only be a few times a season where it is possible and you don’t want to miss some of they are early in the season. Also you want to consider having some days to explore the cities. You don’t want to buy tickets for a game in San Diego the day after you first visit LA. After all part of what makes a stadium tour so fun is exploring places you won’t otherwise ever see.

PANO_20150512_224423 — Sunset at Dodgers Stadium

I would like to do another trip like this in the future. There aren’t too many ways you could get 5 parks this easily but probably the most likely trip would be New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and/or Cincinnati. Now that we have seen a good chunk of teams the remaining parks to see are getting more spaced out.

We have now seen 11 MLB stadiums together on our tour after seeing 5 teams the last two summers. We do like to go on non baseball related trips so it might be difficult to continue doing 5 ballparks every summer. Also I enjoy crossing cities of my list and I don’t want to finish the tour quickly. Next summer we are spending our money on a big trip to Paris, which is a lot of money considering there isn’t even any baseball. The 2016 season is also the last season for Turner Field for the Atlanta Braves. Will we make it out to Atlanta before the final game? Tune in next week to find out. By which I mean click the link.

Go to Part 14: Atlanta Braves – Turner Field

Click to see the Current status of the Stadium Tour

San Diego Padres, Petco Park

Part 13: The Closer

May 16th, 2015. Padres lose at home to the Nationals

After spending a couples days in Los Angeles we drove down the coast to San Diego, our final stop on our California trip and the closer for our 2015 baseball stadium tour season. When arriving in San Diego we returned our rental to Hertz. There is an extra fee when you leave a car in a different location than where you pick it up but it was obviously worth it to not have to drive all the way back to San Francisco. Also you don’t need a car in San Diego, we were able to walk to everywhere from the hotel including Petco Park.

Throughout our California trip we had some very atypical California weather. It was mostly cold an rainy the whole time, in LA we had to change our plans from going to see the ocean to seeing the wax museum because of weather. However, once we arrived in San Diego our prayers were answered and we finally had some warm sunshine. Which probably created some pro San Diego bias when we rate our favorite cities on our west coast trip. We had a great day in San Diego before the day of the game. I wanted to check out the USS Midway(Aircraft Carrier) unfortunately we didn’t have time to board. At night we explored the gaslight quarter which has plenty of bars and restaurants none of which I remembered the names of the next day.

The next day was game day. We walked over to the stadium from our hotel nice and early. We walked into a shop to check out some of the merchandise and when we excited we came out in a closed off street and were handed Padres hoodies. We apparently walked into part of the stadium without realizing it. Basically there is a street and park outside of the ballpark that is kind of part of the ballpark. So we began to explore the “Park at the Park”. There was a small tee-ball diamond, a concert stage and a little grassy knoll that people can watch the game from. We sat down on the grass and had some Lime-a-ritas and enjoyed the relaxed picnic-esque atmosphere. As it got closer to game time it was time to explore the actual ballpark which looks like it was perfectly dropped into the surrounding downtown buidings of San Diego.

When trying to enter the actual ballpark we were a little confused at first as it seemed like we had to go up some stairs and then back down some stairs. We entered on the left field side near the Western Metal Supply Co. Building, which because the park was built around the building it makes sense that the path may be a little nonsensical. Everything else about the park was perfect, very clean and modern but it still some had some memorabilia and history to give it that classic romantic baseball feel. The park also featured a scale model of the USS Midway aircraft carrier and other Navy history items. After a single afternoon walk down by the water it is obvious the influence that the Navy has had on San Diego and it was nice to see Petco Park showcase that.

It was time to get to our seats. We couldn’t sit nearly as close to the action as the other games on our trip because we were running out of money. Despite getting cheaper seats we still had a great view of the game, and as a bonus our seats also had wait service that allowed you to get food and drink delivered to your seats. As I mentioned before we were pretty much poor at this point of the trip so we did not take advantage of this. The ballpark also has lots of micro brewed beer options.

The Padres were facing the Nationals and we got see Max Scherzer take the mound again and he did not disappoint. The Padres were down which meant we got to see their rally call which seemed eerily similar to the LA Angels. Instead of a rally monkey they have a rally gorilla. The gorilla is also playing drums to Phil Collins “In the air tonight” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD500lKAr-s

We did get to see San Diego Padres closer Craig Kimbrel which seemed unlikely given the padres we not in line for the win. Despite the best efforts of the rally gorilla the Nationals held off the Padres and won the game. Which put us back into a losing record with our home team wins/losses on our stadium tour. When we left the stadium you really see how advantages the location of the ballpark is. Emptying out right into downtown, surrounded by trendy restaurants and bars is the perfect setting for either a victory celebration or a “let’s forget about how bad our team is and just have a drink” night. Unfortunately we did not get to take advantage as we were flying out on the first flight out of San Diego the next morning heading back to regular old boring life. Oh man.

We we discus the trip Petco Park and San Diego we agreed were the highlights of the adventure. Again we had bad weather the entire right up until San Diego so there is a slight bias. We also didn’t spend as much time in San Diego so there is a feeling of things left undiscovered that makes me want to go back. Still that being said Petco Park was the best stadium of the trip and so far the best of our stadium tour beating out Baltimore’s Camden Yard.

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That closes out our California trip and the end of the 2015 basebal stadium tour season for us. I doubt we’ll have another opportunity to do this many new ballparks in this short of a time frame again. If we do it would like have to be the east coast with the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio teams. But only time will tell.

Completed Stadiums: 11 of 30

To see the current completion status of our baseball stadium tour Click Here

Go to Part 14: Atlanta Braves – Turner Field