Back To The Future

I love the website Ballparks of Baseball. It has old park pictures. It has current park pictures.

Perhaps the most interesting "pictures" are those of ballparks that have yet to exist. The future ballparks, if you will.

Right now, they have artist's renderings (one of my favorite expressions) of how the proposed parks will look.

I've taken the time to rank them on their beauty and uniqueness, based on these renderings. The truly great thing about this is that there's still time to change the looks.


New Busch Stadium

Since I am thoroughly qualified to be a new stadium critic with what we've been through with St. Louis, I'm offering my opinions. And since I'm quite sure the powers of the Major Leagues monitor this website, I thought some feedback from me was important.

There are currently six teams that have committed, or are darn close to committing, to new parks:
A's, Marlins, Twins, Mets, Yankees, and Nationals.

So here's how I think they're doing so far, ranked from #6 to #1.

6. Marlins.




What the heck is this thing supposed to be? The top picture looks like the "Starduster" from my all-time favorite cartoon, "Space Angel". I guess that it is some sort of retractable roof thing that moves from the football to baseball stadium. Who drew up these plans- Uncle Larry's Architecture and Siding Company?

5. Mets.




What kind of futuristic sport is this thing supposed to support? Roller-ball? You know that retro-pastural-ballpark-look there you were after, Metropolitans? This ain't it.

4. Twins.


Nothing wrong with this. Just nothing obviously unique. And if you're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, at least get a little creative. But this is a big improvement from what they have now.

3. Nationals.




Again, nothing wrong with this. Just no unique-ity. At least the roof kind of looks a little RFK-like, so I score it some points for tying in to the previous home.



2. A's.




This would definitely be the most unique looking ballpark in baseball. Some might not like it, but I think it is very cool. And it seems to fit the A's and Oakland. I love the A shaped seating arrangement in left field. And I love the enclosed feel to it. This is what a new ballpark should do- be uniquely fitted to its team and town.


1. Yankees.





Of course, the Yankees would have the best of everything. The renderings of this stadium are stunningly beautiful.

Feel free to rearrange this list as you see fit.


Of course, you'd be wrong.