The remodeled parks

This category is strictly for ranking the quality of the renovations of Major League parks which have been significantly changed in recent years.  Yes, I know Yankee Stadium was essentially re-built in 1974-75, but that was over a quarter century ago.  There were five significant "make-overs" in recent years, but one (Busch Stadium in St. Louis) has already been replaced by a new park next door, so I removed it from this list. Here is the ranking of the other four:

1.  U.S. Cellular Field -- Example of a great renovation ... and the place wasn't even that old! From a shortened upper deck to an incredible outfield concourse full of fantastic attractions, this five-phase reconstruction delivered the goods, changing a sterile, much-maligned stadium to a nice ballpark. See the complete write-up on the changes here.

2.  Edison Field -- Example of a good renovation.  There is a lot of Disney in this completely remodeled park in Anaheim.  The "Big A" (as it used to be called) was basically gutted to make way for this -- but unlike the Yankees in '74/'75, the home team didn't go play their games somewhere else in the meantime.  This meant that thousands upon thousands of seats were out of commission at various points during the '97 season, but it still easily accommodated the crowds that showed up.   I hope a few more show up now that the make-over has resulted in a first-class facility -- and now that the team has opened Mickey's wallet for some free agents!  For a look at Edison Field, visit the American League Photo Album.  By the way, the Manager of Ballpark Operations for the park wrote into this site, and wanted us to mention the "event staff" (ticket-takers, ushers, etc.) who work at Edison.  Glad to!  They definitely are more up-beat and fun than at most parks!

3.  Tropicana Field -- I know I included this one in the list of Parks Opened Since 1990, but that's because the "Trop" is a little tricky to categorize because the massive renovation occurred before the team there had ever played a game.  Nevertheless I would categorize this as a pretty good renovation -- although not nearly as nice as in Anaheim or St. Louis.  The Devil Rays' home has a little of the (bad) feel of those other domes that I hate so much (see the Parks That Should Be Benched), but the $62-million remodeling job in St. Petersburg converted the Florida Suncoast Dome-then-ThunderDome (the first two names of this edifice) into a baseball stadium with pretty good sight lines and very nice pressbox and office areas.  But it still looks strange that there are fewer rows behind home than down the lines, and the catwalks and lights are simply too darn low.

4.  Network Associates Coliseum -- Example of a not-so-good renovation.  The baseball fans of Oakland (I know there aren't as many of them as there should be!) deserve better than this.  The h-u-g-e expansion area in the outfield is nice for football, but it dwarfs the rest of the park.  It would have been fun, though, to see if Mark McGwire could've hit a 650-foot homer over that upper deck!  Oh, well.  He's been pretty busy basking in the glory of setting the all-time single-season home-run record (set while playing for a team other than the Athletics).  Oh, and the corporate-sponsorship name of the place doesn't help, either!

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