Coinciding with the start of the season, I’ve started trip preparations for making ballpark work this summer. I bought film in bulk before the Kodak price hike, am reviewing 2022 work to map out a narrative and shot list for 2023, and finalized my stadium list for the year after a winter of indecisiveness.
The If They Don’t Win It’s a Shame tour will be making its way to Denver, Baltimore, D.C., and—fingers crossed—the Big Apple for a week. I don’t have as much PTO as I used to so I decided to keep the schedule (and wallet) light. And you already know I’ll be biking over to The Bank for a few Phillies games.
There are no other updates but I need to feed the content mill. Over the winter I wrote a long recap of the 2022 trips, on the waning memories I have from last year, but it felt dull. However, I have a running list of rankings for each stadium photographed, based on: the stadium itself, my experience, a hot dog taste test, an ice cream helmet taste test, and my overall impression. I figure that’s a more interesting way to abbreviate the prior project junkets.
Stadium Rankings
What is a stadium ranking? Well, it’s kind of vague. It includes aesthetics/photographableness, accessibility, history, etc.
Wrigley Field
Citizens Bank Park
Target Field
Fenway Park
Kauffman Stadium
Busch Stadium
Guaranteed Rate Field
Miller Park (now sponsored by and named American Family Field, but I refuse)
Experience Rankings
What makes up an experience? Again, it’s vague. I consider it the ticket holder experience, fan culture, my personal enjoyment at the game. It can be anything from dumb mascot pranks to fan clubs to the tailgate scene.
Guaranteed Rate Field
Wrigley Field
Citizens Bank Park
Fenway Park
Target Field
Kauffman Stadium
Miller Park
Busch Stadium*
* Automatic bottom of the barrel for having the head of security take an interest in my photo-making.
Hot Dog Rankings
Wrigley Field
Citizens Bank Park
Fenway Park
Miller Park
Kauffman Stadium, Busch Stadium, Guaranteed Rate Field, Target Field
At a certain point, a generic concession roller-dog is just another generic concession roller-dog.
Generic concession roller-dog
Ice Cream Helmet Rankings
Kauffman Stadium
Citizens Bank Park
Miller Park
Busch Stadium
Fenway Park
Target Field
Guaranteed Rate Field
Wrigley Field
The Kauffman Stadium ice cream isn’t good for a ballpark.—it’s good good. At the other end of the spectrum, I found out ice cream can actually be…bad. The Guaranteed Rate soft serve was ice water (not be confused with water ice) and the Wrigley Field ice cream tasted like paper. Although, to be fair to Wrigley, I did order the vegan ice cream.
The #1 ice cream helmet. Mint choco + fudge syrup + whip
Overall Rankings
Wrigley Field
Citizens Bank Park
Guaranteed Rate Field
Target Field
Fenway Park
Kauffman Stadium
Busch Stadium
Miller Park
Guaranteed Rate Field has no business being as high it is. It’s as ugly as it sounds and upper deck tickets aren’t allowed in the lower levels. Be that as it may, the two games I photographed were the most fun I’ve had making pictures.
Putting Fenway Park this low feels like me being an unnecessary contrarian, but, I’ve been to Target Field more than any stadium outside Citizen Bank and it’s always a joy there. And when comparing Fenway to its historic counterpart in Wrigley, the latter does a much better job playing up the old-time vibes while still offering a great modern game-day experience.
Before I get outta here I need to sing my praise of Citizens Bank Park. It’s beautiful, accessible, the atmosphere is lively, and the food is top notch. I’m biased but it’s an ideal place to watch a game. And photograph.
I love The Bank