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Field Trip of Dreams
Around the Major Leagues in 49 Days

Minute Maid Park
Houston, TX
Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros
July 12, 2003
 

By Ken Schlapp

This is clearly one of those places where I was treated very well, thanks to Todd, my main contact.  When I got to the stadium, I had a free stadium tour pass, a media guide, and a ticket for the game waiting for me.  And not just any ticket, I sat right behind home plate, only 12 rows back.  The only better seats were the Diamond Club, which cost over $20,000 for the season.

Romy was my tour leader at Minute Maid Park (not Enron Field, as we all know the disaster that turned out to be).  The tour started at 2 PM (game time was 6:05), which would normally cost $7 is definitely worth it.  You get to learn the history of the park and to a certain extent the birth of Houston, the city.  Minute Maid Park is built at Union Station, which was the central train terminal that allowed people to come and go in and out of Houston from the early part of the 20th century, and was a main reason Houston was able to grow to become a prominent city.  Union Station was renovated to eventually become the main entrance of the park and where the team offices are located.  The field and concourse are where the train tracks and platforms were located.  As you go through the entire ballpark, you can see that they have kept the history of the train station alive.  Most notably in the form of the train (circa 1860) and tracks over the center and left field walls.  The train goes into motion when an Astros player hits a home run.

Of coarse, with this being a stadium with a retractable roof, you also get the facts on the roof.  Some of the more interesting facts are that the roof can open or close in 13 minutes and that you can fit a 21 story building inside the stadium with the roof closed.  An interesting thing about the roof is that if a ball hits the roof and/or any of the beams supporting it, the ball still remains in play.  Meaning that a ball that is hit off the roof and is caught on the fly by a fielder does result in an out.  In addition to that, there is a flagpole out in centerfield that is approximately 430 feet from home plate, that is also in play.   Richie Sexson found out the hard way last week when he hit an apparent homer that hit high up on the flagpole and bounced back onto the field resulting in a legged-out triple instead.  However, if the center fielder had caught the ball directly after it hit the pole, it would have been a 458-foot fly out! What makes this tricky as well is that the pole is on a hill, which was constructed to resemble the hill that was at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, where Tal Smith (the Astros' President) got his start in baseball.  Also, not that it is 436 feet to the center field wall, which is the furthest outfield distance in any major league park.

Also on the tour, you are taken into one of the owner's luxury suites and you get to sit in the Diamond Club seats to get to see what it is like to "live large" at Minute Maid Park.  While you are sitting in these seats the tour guide fills you in on the various tidbits of the seats and the stadium in general.  The tour also takes you to the upper deck section furthest from the field called "The Outfield Deck" where seats are sold at $1 for children and $5 for adults.  To be quite honest, these are not bad seats to watch the game.  In general, the stadium is designed in a way where the seats are situated well from any part of the park.  In fact in the outfield field level the fans are only 5 feet from the foul lines.  The one thing we missed out on by taking a tour close to game time is that we were not able to go to either the press box or the dugouts because the players and/or press may already be using those areas.  Overall, the tour was very informative and interesting.  I have to say that Romy had a pretty good knowledge of what's what at Minute Maid Park and was not stumped by any questions.

After the tour, I had to find a parking spot, because I was parked at the 2-hour metered section (at no cost) for the tour.  When I went to get my car, I found that it was the only car left there and had nothing but traffic cones surrounding it, but thankfully no ticket.  I asked where to park for the game and was informed that I could go to the $5 lot 2 blocks away.  When I got there, there were no attendants.  There was just numbered parking spots and a payment board where you slip the money into a slot based on the number of your parking spot.  This scared the hell out of me, because there were also signs regarding towing unauthorized vehicles, but I asked others coming to get their car and was informed that there should be no problem.  I then took my customary walk around the stadium for photos and to find any interesting observations.  However, before I went into the stadium, I went back to check on my car.  This time there was an attendant collecting $5 from all cars entering the lot.  After talking to her I found out that my $2 from earlier in the day wasn't going to cut it, so after her boss came over, I paid an additional $3 and all was well.  Sorry for the parking banter, but this was so unusual that I thought I'd mention it.

I did find some interesting things on my walk as well.  On the Crawford street side of the park is Halliburton Plaza, which is an outside park that showcases the Astros' and Union Station's histories.  The most interesting part is the partial diamond field that includes life-like statues of Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell completing a play on the infield.  Note that this is assuming that Biggio was still playing 2nd base.  On the inside of the ballpark, you have to make sure you walk through Home Run Alley, which showcases the all-time home run leaders in Astros history as well as other Astros heroes in pitching and defense as well.  This is located, by no coincidence, behind the outfield walls in center field near the Crawford boxes in Left Field, where most of the home runs are hit in this park. Also, take note of the Home Run Pump that has been tracking home runs since the ballpark first opened.  The count was 388 at the start of the game and 390 at the end.  Underneath the Crawford boxes are manually updates out-of-town scores, in which games in process are presented on an inning-by-inning basis (similar to Wrigley, but in a different location). Like all other new ballparks, there is the Minute Maid Squeeze Play section by the Right Field entrance, where kids can play in a variety of interactive games.

There's also plenty of food from pizza to BBQ and the normal hot dogs and beer at this ballpark.  Some of the unique things are the Texas Dog, which you can order at a "Top Dog" concession stand.  I have noticed "Top Dog" type stands at the last several stadiums where you can order hot dogs in styles from different parts of the country like New York and Chicago.  The Texas Dog includes chili, onions, cheddar cheese, and jalapeno peppers.  As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of hot dogs, but all the extras made this taste really good!  Maybe, it's taken this trip to teach me to enjoy them.  They also BBQ baked potatoes here, which seem to go over pretty well with the fans.  The layout of all the food stands is also in the uniform green coloring and appears to be similar to ticket booths at a train station, which is line with the theme of this park.  Another nice part about the concession stands is that Aramark runs them in this park (as well as many others), and from what one of the concessionaires (Steve) told me is that they offer many non-for-profit booths.  Meaning that 10% of the revenue at these stands go to specific local fund raising events.

Luckily for me, the roof was closed at the start of the game.  It was 94 degrees and extremely humid at game time, but 70 degrees inside the air-conditioned ballpark.  The bad part about this is that you are now watching a Baseball game indoors, when it is meant to be played outdoors. At the time I didn't care, but I truly appreciated this fact when they opened up the roof in the 8th inning.  So I was able to get the perspective of watching the same game both indoors and outdoors, with outdoors clearly being the better way.  Once the roof was opened, I was able to notice the "422" sign under the top window of Union Station, indicating the distance from home plate.  You can also see the train in the outfield better without the backdrop of the windows and beams supporting the roof.

The actual game did not have that much excitement.  The Pirates first 4 batters scored in the top of the 1st on a 2-RBI single by Brian Giles and a 2-run homer by Aramis Ramirez to take a 4-0 lead.  Note that Kenny Lofton hurt his right arm sliding into third and had to leave the game.  But before he left, there was significant deliberation with his manager and the trainer over whether or not he should leave the game.  This took so long, that the Astros fans were yelling to put in a pinch-runner and get him out of there instead of cheering for him walking off the field.  Even though this was rude, I like the fact that this gave the fans some character, because at the last few games I've been to, the crowds have seemed pretty dead.  The Astros scored 2 runs in the 4th on a Jeff Bagwell home run, a triple by Lance Berkman and an RBI groundout by Richard Hidalgo.  The Pirates added another run in the 8th on an RBI single by Rivera.  Other than that there were mostly quick innings except for the 2 times Berkman ended an inning leaving the bases loaded (5th and 7th innings).

The scoreboards during the game are pretty good here.  The stats displayed for each batter are pretty detailed, and the Diamond Vision scoreboard in dead center field is HDTV quality at a size larger than most movie theaters. The replays are shown on this screen and are exceptionally clear.  They also display the weather report on this screen in the 8th inning of every game to prepare the crowd for their ride home.  The most unique feature though is the scoreboard in right field that captions all things spoken in the stadium for the hearing impaired.   The black H2 Hummer won the electronic race over red and silver.  The Astros had a unique 7th inning stretch in which they played "The Heart of Texas" after "Take Me out to the Ballgame" on an organ and replaced "Home Team" with "Rangers" in the rooting section of the song. I'm beginning to believe that only the Mets and Yankees leave the "home team" portion of this song alone.  Unfortunately, other than the Lofton incident and the singing of the "Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch, the only times the fans really got into the game was any time Jeff Bagwell came to the plate.  Maybe it was because of the Pirates getting on the board so quickly, but in general they were fairly quite, but definitely noisier than the fans in Arlington and Coors Field.  There was at least some life here.

Before I wrap up, I'll pass on a little tip if you are driving to the ballpark down I45 South.  Go early and get off exit 61 to stop at La Casita Mexican Restaurant, which is right off the highway, where you can order "Adam Dunn Nachos".  Dunn was from around this area and loved the food at this restaurant, so when the original restaurant burnt down, Adam helped to fund its replacement.  The food was really good and the people were really friendly.  I found this place on accident, but it clearly fit in perfectly with the theme of my trip!

Bottom line - This is a nice new downtown ballpark.  The people here were great and the view inside is good wherever you sit.  The only downside is that if the roof is closed, you still get that dome/high school gym feeling of being indoors.  Other than that, there is no doubt in my mind that it was worth the trip to Houston.

Basic trip facts:

* Stadium # 19
* Old Stadium Sites visited - None (Total - 9)
* Under construction Stadium Sites visited - None (Total - 1)
* Miles traveled - 289 via Car (Totals: Driving - 10,909, Subway - 20, Air - 3,196, Total - 14,145)
* States, provinces and/or commonwealths passed through - Texas (Totals: States - 31, Provinces - 0, Commonwealths - 1)
* Seats - Section 118, Row 12, Seat 5 - Field Level 1st row behind premium dugout seats directly behind home plate
* Prices: Parking - $5.00 - $20.00 (I paid $5.00), Beer - $6.00 - $8.00, Texas Dogs - $3.75 - $6.00, Program (including pencil) - $5.00,
Souvenir Soda Cup - $4.25, Stuffed Baked Potato - $5.00.
* Credit Card giveaway -  Ranger T-shirt or Cap
* First Pitch -  6:05 PM
* Attendance - 34,762
* Results - Pirates 5, Astros 2, W - Kip Wells, L - Roy Oswalt, S - Mike Williams
* Home team record to date - 10 wins, 12 losses
* Record of "team I was routing for" to date - 8 wins, 14 losses
* Lodging - Houston, Texas