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How the Blue Jays turned a sterile stadium into a ballpark


As an assignment for USA TODAY, I spent a couple of days in Toronto to take a close look at the renovations completed over the past two offseasons. The results are phenomenal — including new concession items like the Hot Maple & Bacon Hot Dog and the Signature Poutine Hot Dog.

Read all about the renovations — and why the owners of the Blue Jays opted to invest heavily in upgrading the current facility rather than build a new park — in the expanded version of the article I originally penned for USA TODAY. Check it out here.

A fresh look at ranking the parks of MLB


I was asked by USA TODAY Sports to participate in a project to rank the 30 ballparks in Major League Baseball. I was one of eight panelists who provided a ranking from 1 to 30. Those responses were tabulated and a final ranking was released on USATODAY.com. This article was picked up by a number of publications around country, usually to report on how their local ballpark fared.

Before providing my own ranking, I decided to take a fresh look at how I felt about each of the 30. For instance, massive renovations on Rogers Centre caused me to move it up. The announcement that the Royals are looking to move to a brand new park in downtown KC (meaning Kauffman Stadium is no longer receiving improvements) prompted me to move it down.

If you look at the USA TODAY post, there is a blurb about each of the 30 parks. I wrote all of those. I’ve included those blurbs in my updated rankings here on BaseballParks.com, as well as how the overall panel ranked the park. I think you’ll find it interesting reading.

By the way, the park in this photo was not only my #1, but it was voted #1 by the overall panel.

So … check out my updated rankings!

Tribal community made Salt River Fields possible


Widely regarded as the best of MLB’s 23 spring-training complexes, Salt River Fields might never have been built if it weren’t for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. They provided the land on their reservation, and paid for the construction. But how did the relationship between the tribal council and the two MLB teams (Rockies and Diamondbacks) come about? Read our article to find out.

This originally appeared in the 2024 USA TODAY Sports Weekly Spring Training Preview. Used by permission.

The best right now


When it came time to write my 100th article for USA TODAY Sports, my editor and I decided on an interesting topic. Since I’m the “sports facilities beat writer” for USA TODAY publications, we thought writing a piece on the best venue in each pro sport would be a fun undertaking — both for me and for the readers. It was published 11/29/23 in USA TODAY Sports Weekly. You can read it here for free. Leave a comment with your reactions to my selections!