Ranking the 10 best ballparks in Major League Baseball
By Will Osgood
9. AT&T Park
A common denominator among the majority of the stadiums that made the top-10 list is the ability of the ballpark’s designer to include facets of the surrounding area—i.e. the city itself—into the ballpark. In some cases, the ballpark becomes a sort of shrine to the city in which it resides.
In other cases, as is the case with AT&T Park, it does some of that, but more importantly uses its surroundings to enhance the stadium. For example, on the exterior of AT&T Park is the hustle and bustle of a downtown-like area.
Architects recognized from the early developmental stages they could take advantage of the many different transportation options available to commuters to AT&T Park. As such, like any great stadium—minus one on this list—AT&T is right in the heart of an area where there are mass transportation crossroads.
Cable cars can take passengers to the game. There are bars and restaurants immediately outside the stadium where fans can eat and drink beforehand, and then walk to the stadium.
Or if they really want a unique experience, they could arrive to the game by sea. With the outfield overlooking the San Francisco Bay—and right field being prime “Splash” landing area for towering home runs—the Bay provides a different avenue for travel to the stadium. Not to mention it offers a beautiful view from above home plate looking out, especially during a day game when the skies are clear.
A spectator sitting high above can not only catch the sport’s best team from three of the past five seasons, but can also look out at the sea and see ships, surfers and people on canoes, rowboats and the like all hanging by the ballpark waiting for a gargantuan home run or just enjoying a beautiful San Francisco summer day.
AT&T Park is unique also in that it is one of the few modern ballparks which pits both team’s bullpens within the playing surface, stashed along either foul line and giving again an aura of yesterday.
AT&T, though, is anything but cookie-cutter. Right field is far enough away with the heavy, thick marine layer prevalent on the California coast, while the right field wall is taller than in most every other park, a mini monster. Under the monster-ish wall, is a fence where bystanders can stand occupied by only a chain link fence to keep them from entering the field.
As the wall moves closer to centerfield it moves farther away from the hitter’s grasp. At its farthest dimension, right center shoots out to 420 feet before jetting back in to 400 in straight away center, creating a kind of triangle feel—seemingly an ode to San Francisco’s oddities as a city.
In left field, high above the playing field, where no hitter without Kris Bryant herculean type right-handed pull power could hit it, sits a large, intimidating glove sculpture—perhaps a reminder to hitters the Giants are a team who thrives on pitching and defense. It’s as if the Giants are saying to their opponents, “You can try to hit it here, but you won’t.”
The park is also one of the few which distinctively separates the outfield bleachers from the rest of the stadium, with no way to get from one section to the other—something also common in the past, though not the present. Only Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field are separated in quite the same way.
Next: This park is probably more well-known for its humidors