D4P2

Today, we went to Minute Maid Park, which instantly became one of my favorite stadiums. It's a retractable roof, which is insanely expensive, but it helps keep the cool air in while also pretending to be a real baseball field. The best of both worlds, really.



Today, the roof was closed. The whole place is designed wackiness. There's a random hill in center field, and the left field, center field and right field fences are all different heights, with weird angles thrown around for good measure. The quirkiness pays off, I think, because the place genuinely looks cool, and you'll always wonder if someone's going to get hurt on that center field hill.

They have a little train that does things whenever the Astros do something good or Carlos Lee does something athletic. The train doesn't move much, actually.

During the seventh inning stretch, after take me out to the ballgame, the whole stadium sang along to "Deep in the Heart of Texas," a song about the merits of Texas. I just don't feel comfortable singing along to southern anthems, but the song was actually pretty catching. As far as anthems go, this would be my rankings as of now:

1. Waltzing Matilda
2. La Marseillaise
3. Battle Hymn of the Republic
4. O Canada
5. America the Beautiful
6. God Save the Queen
7. Deep in the Heart of Texas
8. The Star Spangled Banner
9. That scary soviet one/the Tetris song
10. The chicken dance

As you can tell, I have actually have a very small reference pool in regards to this question.



The layout of the stadium was superb and added to the quality feel of the place. Going through Target Field is like going through a subway station, all hustle and bustle. Going through Kauffman Stadium is like going to a corporate softball game; everyone's not really paying attention to the game, the kids are off playing in the playground, and the team sucks. The Tulsa Drillers game was high-school baseball team-esque, and the Texas Rangers stadium was like going to the state fair with all its stands. Minute Maid Park, on the other hand, felt like a indoor mall, a nice suburban one, and you never felt like the non-game distractions overshadowed the baseball diamond. I give it 8 thumbs up.