Park It Here
The 1992 opening of Baltimore’s Oriole Park
at Camden Yards marked a watershed event
in Major League Baseball, ushering in a new
generation of modern, fan-friendly stadiums
that paid homage to ballparks from the early
20th century.
Opening night at Nationals Park stadium
The baseball gods have surely smiled on
the Northeast Corridor, where fans can enjoy games at six Major League stadiums, from venerable Fenway Park in Boston, opened in 1912, to eco-friendly Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.,
opened in 2008. April’s dual openings of New York’s Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium will
leave Fenway as the only field in the region older than Oriole Park.
The Phillies opened Citizens Bank Park in 2004, and its multitude of fan attractions proved
an immediate hit. Ashburn Alley, a wide plaza and entertainment area beyond the left field fence,
was named for Richie Ashburn, the Phillies’ onetime slugger and longtime broadcaster. The Phils
have certainly responded to their new home: They open the 2009 season as defending World
Series champions.
In Washington, the Nationals play in the greenest stadium in the Major Leagues. Nationals Park
features water-conserving toilets and roofs that help keep the park cool. The stadium is just a half
block from a subway station, encouraging fans to use public transportation. And Nationals Park
employees get around the stadium in electric cars. The new stadium’s coolest eco-feature? The soda
cups are made of corn, which decomposes faster than paper.
Yankee Stadium
Cost: $1.3 billion
Seating capacity: 52,325
Tickets: $12–$2,500
Cool new feature: The Great Hall
In the annals of New York baseball,
Phil Linz merits at least a footnote.
He’s one of a few dozen players to play
for both the Yankees (1962–1965) and
the Mets (1967–1968). But let there be
no doubt about where his loyalty lies.
He was a season ticket holder at the old
Yankee Stadium, where he played in
three World Series alongside Mickey
Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford,
and he’s itching for the ’09 season in
the new Yankee Stadium.
“It’s just magnificent,” says Linz,
who toured the stadium while it was
under construction. “I just can’t wait
for Opening Day.”
Call it the House that George Built.
For years, the Yankees’ principal owner,
George Steinbrenner, pined for a new
stadium for baseball’s most glamorous team, often threatening to leave
the Bronx if he didn’t get one. For all
its historic majesty, for all the Hall of
Fame ghosts roaming baseball’s most
hallowed grounds, the old ballpark on
161st Street had few of the comforts
of modern, state-of-the-art stadiums.
The new Yankee Stadium, by contrast,
has comfort to spare, from 47 luxury
suites (the old stadium had 36) to eight
party suites (the old stadium had none)
to an open-air martini bar. The field-level Legends Suite— 1,800 cushioned
seats extending from behind home
The last day of the old Yankee
Stadium in the Bronx.
plate, down each baseline in the 25 sections closest to the field—offers the
most exclusive views in the house.
You’ll want to enter the ballpark
through the Great Hall, Yankee Stadium’s new front door. A mammoth
outer shell marked by high, vaulted
arches, the Great Hall stretches from
