Minute Maid Park
Jun. 15th, 2008 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreThis was my third baseball game of the season and the second one to a ballpark named after an orange juice company. Minute Maid Park is a step up from Tropicana Field, but it's not really a great ballpark. There's nothing inherently wrong with it - it's just lacking in character. I gathered that the ballpark was built on the site of the former Union Station and there's a little train that goes back and forth before the game, but it's not like railroads are really anybody's first association with Houston so that doesn't quite work. The old Astrodome, as horrible as it must have been (and Astroturf is really an unforgiveable invention), at least had a theme that had an association with the city. But the Space Age has come and gone without ever really arriving, it seems.
Maybe I'd have liked the ballpark better had the retractable dome been open. Or if I'd had a better seat, instead of being up in the nosebleed section. Or if the Astros had halfway competent pitching. Normally I wouldn't care, but they were playing the Source of All Evil in the Universe and were, hence, my second favorite team of the night.
Another annoyance, by the way, is that they don't let you bring in even a sealed bottle of water, forcing you to pay the inflated ballpark price. I'll also note that there are remarkably few vendors coming around the seating areas (at least in the upper deck area). I think a beer vendor came by twice and a cotton candy vendor once, but that's about it.
Finally, I'll note that they played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" once through (and surprisingly few people sang along, with many remaining seated), followed by "Deep in the Heart of Texas" twice (with somewhat more people singing). The Rangers do the latter, also, but have the decency to do it earlier, not during the 7th inning stretch. It is okay to sing whatever you want to at other times, but let's not muck with traditions, please.
Maybe I'd have liked the ballpark better had the retractable dome been open. Or if I'd had a better seat, instead of being up in the nosebleed section. Or if the Astros had halfway competent pitching. Normally I wouldn't care, but they were playing the Source of All Evil in the Universe and were, hence, my second favorite team of the night.
Another annoyance, by the way, is that they don't let you bring in even a sealed bottle of water, forcing you to pay the inflated ballpark price. I'll also note that there are remarkably few vendors coming around the seating areas (at least in the upper deck area). I think a beer vendor came by twice and a cotton candy vendor once, but that's about it.
Finally, I'll note that they played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" once through (and surprisingly few people sang along, with many remaining seated), followed by "Deep in the Heart of Texas" twice (with somewhat more people singing). The Rangers do the latter, also, but have the decency to do it earlier, not during the 7th inning stretch. It is okay to sing whatever you want to at other times, but let's not muck with traditions, please.
