Every MLB stadium ranked from worst to best

7. Minute Maid Park — Houston Astros

There are a lot of MLB ballpark rankings that put Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros, in the middle of their pack, and I don’t understand why.

Minute Maid Park began its life hosting the Astros in 2000, replacing the now-abandoned Astrodome. Minute Maid Park is truly one of the more unique ballparks in the league, and those quirks are more pluses than minuses. To start, the left-field porch is short, with the left-center field open to the great expanses of the park.

Then there’s Tal’s Hill.

When the park opened, one was truly amazed at how a ballpark builder could incorporate a hill in center field, which gives the Astros a tremendous advantage. Opposing centerfielders usually don’t have to be on the lookout for a hill when they’re chasing down a fly ball or potential home run. When they renovated the park, they removed Tal’s Hill, which as both sad and expected as a player was bound to be seriously hurt if they ran up on the hill unexpectedly.

While Tal’s Hill is no more, Minute Maid Park is still packed with plenty of charming quirks, including a locomotive that filled with fake oranges every time an Astros player hits a home run. In many respects, Minute Maid Park perfectly matches the quirky nature of Houston as a whole, and add in the fact that Astro fans have been witnessing a potential dynasty in the making which has packed the park, and you have all the makings of a top-tier ballpark that should be treated as such.