Posts Tagged: Houston Astros

MLB Parks Tour #11 – Minute Maid Park, Houston, TX – 2010

Working through these as quickly as I can preparing for the trip in June!

Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of Houston. And honestly, I couldn’t really give you any great reasons why. The humidity is a pain, but we’ve got some of that in Dallas. Whatever the reason is, it’s still in our back yard, and offers the convenience of being a drive away. We were busy in 2010, and already had a really nice vacation that we were recovering (financially at least) from. We had gone to Europe (which I’ll post more of in another post), and simply couldn’t afford to take another trip far away. Luckily, we had Houston still on the list and took advantage. Plus, we got to see my brother and his kids, which we hardly ever get to see. We actually didn’t do much else while we were there…so I’ll get straight to it.

Minute Maid Park is another of the downtown parks that have become a really cool trend in baseball. There’s something really nice to me about having the park in the epicenter of the city’s activities. We walked around in the horrible humidity for a while, and lamented the idea of sitting in the same weather for the game. Imagine our pleasant surprise when we arrived to find out that the walls and roof of Minute Maid Park were closed and the air conditioning was pumping in. While I usually believe baseball is meant to be played outdoors, Houston is the exception. Nothing is meant to be done outdoors there. Read More

MLB Parks Tour #8 – Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL – 2009

Working through these as quickly as I can preparing for the trip in June!

Chicago is an undeniably unique and wonderful city. From Sears Tower to Lincoln Park to El-Trains to that big, shiny, reflective bean thing in Millennium Park, Chicago is bursting at the seams with culture. And no Chicago culture tour would be complete without visiting one of America’s most iconic ballparks…Wrigley Field. You simply cannot look out from the seats of the “friendly confines”, see the ivy walls, the old scoreboard, and the unofficial rooftop seats, without feeling transported to the glory days of classic hardball. Wrigley was stop #2 in our 4-stop summer road-trip through Kansas City, Chicago, and St. Louis. In short, Chicago did not disappoint.

Wrigley Field was originally named Weeghman Park when it was built in 1914 to host the Chicago Whales. In 1916 the Cubs began use of the park, when chewing-gum billionaire William Wrigley, Jr bought the park in a trust with Weeghman. The field went by Cubs Park from 1920-1926, until it was finally dubbed Wrigley Field. It’s the oldest National League park in Major League Baseball, and the second oldest park in all of the MLB to Fenway (1912). The iconic Ivy was planted in the outfield in 1937, and has served as one of the most recognizable stadium features in baseball ever since. I could go on and on.

We had a great time at Wrigley, and sat in some of the oldest seats in baseball. Can’t beat that.

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