Wrigley Field
U.S. Cellular Field
Attending the Sox vs. Angels game yesterday (the Good Guys lost) after last visiting Wrigley Field made it quite clear that tearing down Old Comiskey Park was a mistake. Well, perhaps not a mistake, since it seems if the Sox hadn’t made way for a new stadium the Sox would have been moved to St. Petersburg, FL. Yes, you read that correctly! And even when the Sox were saved from leaving the city, there was still the fight of keeping their stadium in the city instead of the suburbs. So, I would say a victory was had at least in keeping the team IN Chicago.
At first, U.S. Cellular was also called Comiskey Park (or New Comiskey Park) until U.S. Cellular paid for naming rights at the price of $68 million dollars. The Sox spent a portion of that on a state of the art Jumbotron that now allows the fans to enjoy such entertainment as SmoochCam and cartoon pizza pies racing for a free mini pizza with the purchase of a pizza at any Connie’s. Not a fair trade, in my opinion.
The best part of U.S. Cellular is the Lower Deck which is very open and reminds me of the Redbirds stadium back in Memphis. However, if you don’t have a 100 level ticket, than you are denied access to this part of the stadium. You can’t even get a Chicago style hot dog since they don’t sell those in the upper decks. Are you kidding me?
Yesterday, I was high up in the nose bleed section. The section still gives you a nice view of the action, even though I was situated by one of the few obstructions (steel support beam to the left) in the park. And if you turn around, there is a nice view of the Chicago skyline.
Which begs the question, why in the heck didn’t they build the stadium so that the skyline was the backdrop view behind the outfield?
Why?!?!
Okay, enough complaining. Yes, Wrigley Field is the better ballpark but the Good Guys are still #1 to me!
Check out this great tribute to Old Comiskey.