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Consensus
Ballpark Ratings
by Ian Taggart
itaggart@mediaone.net
I am compiling Major League ballpark ratings from various websites so that I
can average them together to get a composite rating. The current composite
scores are at the bottom of the page. (Yes, I have way too much time on my
hands!)
I include only sites that (1) rate at least two thirds of MLB ballparks, from
first-hand experience; and (2) include quantitative scores for each ballpark
(i.e., numerical ratings or letter grades). The sites currently included are the
following (if there are others that fit the criteria, let me know and I will add
them):
Charlie's Big Baseball Park Page
http://members.aol.com/charliezeb/stadiums.htm
Brian Merzbach's Ballpark Photos and Reviews
http://users.bestweb.net/~merzbach/
MLB.com Baseball Odyssey
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/events/mlb_odyssey.jsp
Ultimate Sports Road Trip
http://www.thesportsroadtrip.com/
Sean and Aya's MLB Road Trip 2001
http://www.mlbroadtrip.com/english/
To make the different websites' scoring systems directly comparable to each
other, I take the raw numeric ballpark scores from a single website and convert
them into scaled scores with mean = 0 and standard deviation = 1. Each
ballpark's final score is then computed as the average of the scaled scores from
the different web sites. To convert Merzbach's letter grades into raw numeric
scores I use A+ = 12, A = 11, A- = 10, B+ = 9 ... D- = 1.
When a site includes ratings in other categories besides the ballpark proper
(food, area, fans, etc.), I give these other categories 1/4 the weight that I
give the ballpark itself in computing a site's overall raw score for a baseball
venue. The exception is MLB.com's "game" rating, which I don't include
at all.
| 1. PNC Park | 1.312 |
| 2. Camden Yards | 1.257 |
| 3. Pacific Bell Park | 1.162 |
| 4. Safeco Field | 1.059 |
| 5. Wrigley Field | 1.040 |
| 6. Enron Field | 0.817 |
| 7. Coors Field | 0.725 |
| 8. Comerica Park | 0.642 |
| 9. Fenway Park | 0.538 |
| 10. Jacobs Field | 0.498 |
| 11. Ballpark in Arlington | 0.458 |
| 12. Miller Park | 0.362 |
| 13. Dodger Stadium | 0.255 |
| 14. Kauffman Stadium | 0.250 |
| 15. Turner Field | 0.219 |
| 16. Busch Stadium | 0.177 |
| 17. Bank One Ballpark | 0.087 |
| 18. Yankee Stadium | -0.031 |
| 19. Comiskey Park | -0.142 |
| 20. Edison Field | -0.186 |
| 21. Network Assoc. Col. | -0.493 |
| 22. Qualcomm Stadium | -0.525 |
| 23. SkyDome | -0.574 |
| 24. Shea Stadium | -0.724 |
| 25. Tropicana Field | -0.836 |
| 26. Pro Player Stadium | -1.005 |
| 27. Cinergy Field | -1.122 |
| 28. Veterans Stadium | -1.489 |
| 29. Metrodome | -1.611 |
| 30. Olympic Stadium | -1.639 |
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