My Ballpark Quest

I've been to well over 200 Mariners games in Seattle and I think the first was in 1982 at the Kingdome but I decided to list the first game I attended at Safeco Field here since it fell nicely within the already established range. The home team is 22-8 at games I've attended on my Quest—and, yes, I always root for the home team unless they're playing my Mariners (which only happened twice, in Toronto and Boston). I've seen the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins the most on the Quest (4 times each), and 10 teams only once, playing at home in their respective ballparks: Astros, Athletics, Cardinals, Dodgers, Nationals, Orioles, Rangers, Royals, White Sox, and Yankees. Five of the 30 games went into extra innings with the 11 inning game in San Diego being the longest.

Now you may be wondering about the rules for my Quest and there's actually only one Rule—I must see an official game for every Major League team in their home ballpark. So the fact that I did the tour of Fenway Park one year a few weeks before baseball season doesn't count (although it was cool). The official game rule also proved important with my first visit to U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. I was physically inside the ballpark on game day but it was called due to rain before it even began. So that meant I needed to return to Chicago later that same year and trade-in my unused ticket for the opportunity to see a different White Sox game, and the game I happened to choose ended up being the 18th perfect game in Major League Baseball history pitched by Mark Buehrle. The Royals game Carlyn and I planned to attend in Kansas City was also rained out before a pitch was thrown. Fortunately, I planned that trip so we had the ability to go to the game the following day and was able to cross Kauffman Stadium off my list. Weather was a factor when I was in Atlanta, too. The game the night before had been postponed due to tornados so the single game ticket I had purchased earlier let me see the first (and only) doubleheader I've ever attended. For what it's worth I've also seen 2 official games at Petco Park, Oriole Park and Busch Stadium, just not on the same day. Weather is the biggest gamble on a quest like this... David and I opted to go the game the night we arrived in Pittsburgh instead of the day after because the forecast looked bad (it did rain very hard that night but they got the game in). The game my fellow Venafi product managers attended in St. Louis back in 2019 was damp but never delayed.

When you take more than 20 years to complete an odyssey like this something else happens... ballparks come and go. The Braves and Rangers are now playing in different stadiums (Truist Park and Globe Life Field) than when I saw them (Turner Field and Rangers Ballpark). Dealing with that is a secondary problem since it has no bearing on The Rule, but once I complete The Quest, I may look for opportunities to "true-it-up". Expansion, on the other hand, would be cause to continue The Quest because The Rule would clearly apply. The Athletics are in the process of relocating to a new ballpark in Las Vegas, and new ballparks are also under consideration for the Rays, Royals, and White Sox. The A's, Rays' and White Sox stadiums were among the worst stadiums I've visited. On the other hand, I thought the Royals' stadium was quite nice, especially considering its currently the 5th oldest. The bar below is my ranking of the ballparks from best-to-worst.