Every MLB stadium ranked from worst to best

17. Nationals Park — Washington Nationals

After spending decades in the rotting boondoggle known as Olympic Stadium (and a stint in Puerto Rico) in their previous incarnation as the Montreal Expos, the Washington Nationals were deserving of a new ballpark.

So after the Expos picked up their bats and moved to Washington D.C., they played a couple of seasons at RFK Stadium before moving into their shiny new digs in 2008, the creatively named Nationals Park. The glass-and-steel ballpark certainly fits with within the character of the surrounding neighborhood, and the park offers enough amenities to make baseball fans feel as if they’re part of the game, moreso than they did in Montreal.

Nationals Park is more than functional, and the atmosphere can rival that of St. Louis and Chicago when the team is good, and you simply can’t beat the views of the U.S. Capitol Building from the upper decks. The one glaring problem that keeps Nationals Park out of the upper echelon of baseball parks is its character — or should we say, lack thereof? Outside of the cool-looking video board, there is nothing about Nationals Park that gives off the hint of being charming.

It’s not that it’s unfriendly to fans, as the ballpark is one of the most intimate parks in the Majors, especially for night games. However, the ballpark just looks dull. There is a sense of blandness, especially in the outfield, that one just can’t overcome when seeing Nationals Park in person, and if they just added a little more character to the ballpark, it would be a top-15 ballpark.