"My Baseball Dream" is a collection of articles written by Ray Bergman as he pursued his dream to tour all 28 Major League ballparks over a two month period. As he visited each park, Ray wrote about his experiences and e-mailed his articles to us so that you could follow Ray's progress and share in his journey right here on the Ballparks World Wide Web site! The latest article is featured on this page. Previous articles have been catalogued and may be accessed by clicking on the appropriate ballpark in the calendar of Ray's schedule below. Ray has now completed his amazing trip.

Ray's Ratings

October 21, 1996

I have rated the parks using the following createra: real grass vs. the phoney green stuff, the location of the park, the ease of using transpotation to get to the park, sight lines for viewing the games, the seats (were they comfortable), food (how did it taste, portions, etc.), how the fans reacted to the games and the players and, finally, the mascots (did they do anything to enhance the game and make it more enjoyable). I used all of the above but not neccassarly in the order you read them.

So, if you agree or not, here are my choices in four different catagories:

The Best of the Old

1. Wrigley Field in Chicago.
2. Fenway park in Boston.
3. Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

The Best of the Domes

1. SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2. Metrodome in Minneapolis.
3. Le Stade Olympique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
4. Astrodome in Houston.
5. Kingdome in Seattle.... best fans, worst dome.

The Best of the 1960s-70s Ballparks

1. Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles... clean and great Dodger Dogs.
2. Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City... lovely water fountains outside the fences.
3. Jack Murphy Stadium in San Deigo.
4. Shea Stadium in New York.
5. Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
6. Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
7. 3Com park in San Francisco, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Yankee Stadium in New York, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, County Stadium in Milwaukee, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Anaheim Stadium... I put all of these parks in the same catagory: Not real bad but not real good either..There are at least one or two things wrong, from a fans point of view, with these parks.

The Best of All the Ballparks

1. Jacobs Field in Cleveland...It has the best restaurants, transportation and the best viewing of all the parks I visited.
2. Oriole Park at Camden Yards...Tranportation to and from the yard is A#1.
3. Coors Field in Denver...the sight lines are great at Coors Field.
4. The Ballpark in Arlington... A little more detail would have improved this site.
5. Comiskey Park... It's a new park but rather blah for my taste.