#26
As I am sitting here writing this, Sunday, 2 days later, Henderson Alvarez just completed a no hitter against the Tigers. Why do I come within a few innings of a game I am at, or a few days before or after one every year. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
Now that I got that off my chest, I heard a lot of different opinions on this Park, but I left my judgement open like I always do. Upon arrival I saw it from the freeway, but as I got closer, I had a hard time finding a place to get a pic of the outside because there are too many buildings around it. They are small buildings, but I didn't feel like climbing on roofs. But I found a decent spot. It definitely has a futuristic look to it from the outside. Nothing exciting, but not bad looking either. From this angle, it almost looks like a really big round office building.
Once you get around the other side, where the sliding roof is, that is where the ramps are as well. It still has a very good clean look though. It fits the Florida theme with its look and all the palm trees around it. The sidewalks are painted in "South Florida" colors, but actually look pretty cool. The main clubhouse store is right here too, but there is no access to it from inside, and the ones inside don't have anywhere near the selection to choose from.
The main concourse is wide open from foul pole to foul pole. It has the stands behind the last row of seats so if you want to eat your food there, or just hang out there, you can. Philly, Atlanta and a few others are like this as well. I like that so if you go to get a drink or whatever, you can still get a glimpse of the game until you get back to your seat.
This is obviously a pic from the upper deck. My seat was just inside the 3rd base dugout. I wouldn't give anything here a top 5 rating, but overall this was a very nice stadium, except for the WTF piece of art in the outfield.
I asked the season ticket holders I sat with about it, and they said they haven't talked to anybody that likes it. It only does its thing when a Marlin hits a home run, so I didn't get to see it in action.
The scoreboard is nice and it fits well into the layout of the park, but once again, it's nothing unique about it. They do have all the line-ups on the side of the video part through the whole game, which not all teams do, some only put it up when needed.
The Marlins won this game 3-2. All three runs came on this double that Stanton hit. That man will look great in Cubbie blue some day. There were a lot of Tigers fans there, and even the regular fans seemed a lot more than what I expected. In the first inning I figured out why, when Miguel Cabrera came up to bat and got a standing ovation. I realized then that not only he was there, but also Leyland, who managed them to a World Series win. Don't get me wrong, the stadium was still more than 50% empty, but that's a lot compared to what they have had lately.
The roof was open on and it was a beautiful night. Not only does the roof open and close for weather, but according to the regulars around me, so do the sections behind the outfield concourse. I looked it up and it appears that there are sliding doors that close that section off. It was open as well, and the breeze coming in made it a great night to watch a game.
Speaking of that outfield concourse, as you can see from the picture above this one, from the left field line to the WTF thing it is wide open for standing room, and there is a Budweiser patio over there too. It is a very nice design throughout the whole park. They flashed up a sign on the video screen late in the game that said "rainouts year to date 0". I know that number was pretty big for them before that.
Oh, I almost forgot, it was Star Wars night too. I think I have a knack for finding these games. This is the 3rd time I have been to a game and it was Star Wars night.
