Our review of Progressive Field - Day 22 of our trip (Cleveland Indians)

Our visit to Cleveland was just a quick 3 hour drive from Detroit.  We got in and drove from our hotel to Progressive Field to take one of the three daily tours offered by the Indians.  Unfortunately, some crazy country music festival was taking place later in the afternoon and all tours were cancelled for the day.

Needless to say, we were hugely disappointed.  The Indians did not say anything about it on their website.  This meant the possibility of having no view of the park, which would have sucked for our trip.  This was the first negative thing that happened since we left three weeks ago from Phoenix.  Anyway, we went into the Indians’ team shop and begged one of the guys working in the shop to let us in the stadium to at least take some pictures even if we couldn’t get a formal tour.  He agreed to do so after we let him know that we were from Phoenix and asking him would he want to have us not being able to see the ballpark be on his conscience. 

Michael in front of the statue of the great Indians pitcher Bob Feller

Anyway, he let us in and we managed to walk around a little bit.  We couldn’t see the field because of the concert set up, but we did get to see everything from the concourse view.  I can certainly tell, the park is a nice place to watch a game.  Like Comerica, you get a nice view of downtown Cleveland from behind the plate.  The scoreboard is huge and it seems like an intimate park where every seat is a good one.  Outside, it is really plain.  Overall, it’s just too hard to review a stadium that you spend all of 10 minutes inside of without seeing a game or tour.  I give it a 6 out of 10.

Not since Disco Demolition Night back in 1979 at Comiskey Park have I been so offended

One last thing … calling your team the Indians is one thing.  Using that God-awful Chief Wahoo caricature of an Indian is just plain ridiculous.  It’s 2011 and someone ought to let the organization know that Chief Wahoo has to go.  If you want to use an Indian caricature, be more respectful.  Design something that looks more like the Braves’ logo.  

Saw this awful thing in the team shop.  Memo to Indians' ownership - it's 2011.  Get rid of it.

After we snapped a few pics, we took spent the afternoon at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Very cool place!!  We highly recommend it.  You could literally spend about 6 hours seeing it all.  Michael really liked the Michael Jackson exhibits.  They’ve even got some Lady Gaga stuff in their already.  Let’s see if she’s around in a few years.

Michael thought this exhibit was cool

The Hall of Fame is in the shape of a pyramid.  Very cool place!

Anyway, here’s Michael’s take:

It’s me Michael.  I was really upset about not being able to get a tour.  I don’t even like country music and you shouldn’t be playing a country music concert in a baseball park.  I just thought Progressive Field was okay.  I don’t really have much else to say about it and I don’t think I will rank it very high.

Anyway, there you have it.  Tomorrow, we take off for the two-hour drive down to Pittsburgh to see an afternoon game between the Mets and the Pirates.  From what I understand, there are a lot of people from Pittsburgh (including lots of ASU alums) who are following the blog and are holding their breath to see what Michael and I have to say about PNC Park and, more importantly, Pittsburgh.  We’ll let you know if it all lives up to the hype.  I’ve never met any person from Pittsburgh who isn’t crazy about their town or their sports.  

Our review of Comerica Park - Day 21 of our trip in Detroit, Michigan

Our trip to Detroit was nice.  My whole family is from Detroit and when I was a kid, I visited there several times.  I got a chance to visit my mom’s family who I had not seen in about 30 years.  We had a nice lunch in a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant (another Detroit icon).  Here we are right here.  My brother Rick, who we stayed with in Detroit, gave Michael and I a great tour of Downtown Detroit, including Belle Isle and Gross Pointe.  It’s weird to be able to look across the Detroit River and see Canada.

My family from my mom's side - from L-R Reggie, Teresa, Me, Michael and Roger

The hamburger works great for keeping the rain off

Every Detroit native knows this place

Anyway, in all the times I visited, I only got to see a game in old Tiger Stadium once.  I was Michael’s age when I saw this game back in 1977 with my father.  I remember it vividly.  Tiger Stadium had charm, but it was a horrible place to watch a game.  Our seats were obstructed view seats in the upper deck of the right field bleachers and the game was delayed by over an hour for rain.  But the best part was that I saw Mark "the Bird" Fidrych pitch for the Tigers against my White Sox and the Sox won.

Mark Fidrych was a lunatic.  He used to talk to the ball on the mound
and clean the pitchers' mound  with his hands like he's doing in this picture.

The experience was far different this time.  Two days earlier, we suffered through 97 degrees and high humidity.   This time, it rained all day in Detroit, the temperature was 62 degrees, and we were concerned that the game would get rained out.  To our surprise, the rain stopped about 15 minutes before the game was to begin and the game was played.  We had great seats and Comerica Park is way better than old Tiger Stadium to watch a game.  Michael and I went to the game with my brother Rick.  It was a pretty nice evening.

My brother Rick and Michael

Michael and I next to the statue of the great long-time Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell

Crappy day in Detroit

Like many of the newer stadiums, Comerica tries to capture the old school look everywhere.  But in Detroit, it fits right in with all of its surroundings.  Detroit is an old city that has been hit hard by the recession.  But there has been some new development of homes and businesses around the stadium, which is a good sign for the area.  Anyway, inside it’s a great place to watch a game.  From behind home plate, you get a great view of downtown Detroit.  The scoreboard sits in left field and is huge.  Unfortunately, it’s cluttered with a lot of advertisements and it has three very small matrix and video boards.  I like what Chase Field and Miller Park have done with theirs – the whole thing should be one big video board. 

Downtown Detroit in the background

Me and my main man

The food was great according to Michael (I was still full from lunch).  The one thing that I really liked was that the stadium is full of Tigers history.  Everywhere you look along the concourse there were pictures and monuments to the Tiger greats like Al Kaline, Ty Cobb, and Hank Greenberg as well as pictures of all of their all-star players throughout the decades.  The Tigers haven’t won the World Series since 1984, but you wouldn’t know it.  Finally, the fans were very cool.  I remember the fans being very rowdy back in ’77 at Tiger Stadium.  This time, they were more subdued, but they showed up in force – over 30,000 on a night when the weather was awful.  The Mariners beat the Tigers 3-2.  Overall, I’d give the stadium an 8/10.  Here’s Michael’s take:

Hi everyone, it’s Michael.  I REALLY liked Comerica Park.  The scoreboard was really cool especially the two tigers on the top of it.  When they played Eye of the Tiger at the park, the eyes glowed in those tigers – Very Cool!  What was also cool was that I got a couple of players to autograph my souvenir baseball.  And what was even cooler was that one of them got a hit when he came in late in the game just because he signed my ball.  Overall, I give the stadium an 8 out of 10.

That's me with the 42 on my hat.  That guy got a hit late in the game because he signed my ball.

Next up is our review of Progressive Field in Cleveland.  Since we already saw it earlier today, I can tell you it won’t be good.  

Updated Stadium Rankings - through Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds) as of 6/8/11

Through 13 stadiums, here are our updated rankings through Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati as of 6/8/11.  We'll update this after each game/tour.

Michael's Rankings:

1. Petco Park - San Diego Padres
2. AT&T Park - San Francisco Giants

3. Coors Field - Colorado Rockies

4. Miller Park - Milwaukee Brewers

5. Anaheim Stadium - Los Angeles Angels

6. Great American Ballpark - Cincinnati Reds

7. U.S. Cellular Field - Chicago White Sox

8. Kauffman Stadium - Kansas City Royals
9. Wrigley Field - Chicago Cubs
10. Chase Field - Arizona Diamondbacks

11. Safeco Field - Seattle Mariners

12. Busch Stadium - St. Louis Cardinals

13. Dodger Stadium - L.A. Dodgers

14. Oakland Coliseum - Oakland A's

Lance's Rankings:

1. AT&T Park
2. Petco Park

3. Safeco Field

4. Coors Field

5. Chase Field

6. U.S. Cellular Field

7. Miller Park

8. Kauffman Stadium

9. Great American Ballpark 

10. Busch Stadium
11. Anaheim Stadium
12. Dodger Stadium
13. Wrigley Field

14. Oakland Coliseum

A Mistake on the Lake

We had the first major disappointment on our trip. We showed up to Progressive Field to get our tour only to find out that the tours had been cancelled for the day due to some stupid country music concert at the stadium later today.

Fortunately, the clerk in the team shop let us in the ballpark so we could walk around and get some pics and video.

We will still have a review of Progressive Field, but it will definitely be a grade of incomplete.