By Kelly:
At the beginning of 2013 one of my goals was to make it to 10 different stadiums and see a few new ones I have never been to. Mission accomplished, barely. I made it to 10 exactly with 1 honorable mention and 4 of those were stadiums I haven’t been to before. I’m not sure if I will be able to beat that in 2014 but who knows where this 9 Inning Empire is going to take us.
Safeco Field (Washington) Home of the Seattle Mariners. I made it to 6 games there this year including Ken Griffey’s Mariner Hall of Fame induction night, which I wrote a post about. Also, the last weekend in January every year the Mariner’s hold a Fan Fest at the stadium and this was the 10th year my family has gone.
O.co Coliseum (California) Home of the Oakland A’s. This was one of the new stadium that I made it to this year. Not a great stadium but I had a great experience there. Watching a game from the right field bleachers is something every baseball fan should put on their baseball bucket list. It’s a must!!
Volcanoes Stadium (Oregon) Home of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Class A Short Season Northwest League. If all you are interested in is getting autographs this is the stadium for you. I don’t really want to say anything bad about this place even though I could. I did get to meet Bill Buckner, Doug Drabek and Tommy John there this year.
David Story Field (Washington) Home of the Cowlitz Black Bears of the West Coast Wood Bat League. It’s a little stadium for the community college in Longview, WA. Great family atmosphere and we go to several games a year. Their mascot Corbin the bear is one of my favorites.
PK Park (Oregon) Home of the Eugene Emeralds of the Class A Short Season Northwest League. Another one of my new stadiums and it didn’t disappoint. This was the first game where I got a press pass to get into the game for free and go into the press box. Probably one of my highlights of the year.
Hillsboro Ballpark (Oregon) Home of the Hillsboro Hops of the Class A Short Season Northwest League. This was the Hops inaugural season. Another new stadium for me and easily the gem of the Northwest League. The Ballpark has a spring training feel to it and I plan on making it to more than 1 game in 2014.
These next 4 stadiums I saw when Josh and I were in Arizona for the AFL. I don’t have much to say about these stadiums because the stadiums themselves are stripped down for the AFL. We literally only saw a ticket taker, maybe 2 ushers and 3 or 4 concessions workers at each stadium. Now when we go to Spring Training in March that will be a different story and I will have much more to say.
Surprise Stadium (Arizona) Home of the Surprise Saguaros and Peoria Javelinas.
Camelback Ranch (Arizona) Home of the Gendale Desert Dogs.
Scottsdale Stadium (Arizona) Home of the Scottsdale Scorpions.
Hohokam Park (Arizona) Home of the Mesa Solar Sox. New stadium I made it to.
HONORABLE MENTION
Candlestick Park (California) Home of the San Francisco Giants from 1960 to 1999. Even though I didn’t get to see a game here I had to stop by since I was so close and it’s going to be demolished sometime it 2014. Lots of memories of watching the Dodgers battle the Giants on TV there when I was a kid.