Ranking The Ballparks I've Been To: Chase Field

Christian Petersen. Getty Images.

Chase Field is perfectly fine. It does the basics absolutely well but it leaves you wanting more when it comes to some sort of identity. I know it's tough for newer teams to incorporate personality into a ballpark but I still couldn't help feeling it was one thing this place was lacking.

I did still enjoy this ballpark but before we go any further, we need to talk about the hot dogs. The Diamondbacks official hot dog is Bar S. When I was at my absolute poorest as a temp worker out of college in 2003, I would buy a pack of Bar S hot dogs for 89 cents. It's all I could afford at the time. If I ever did have more money, I always went with another brand. The only value Bar S is that it's the cheapest option.

It was horrible. I get a hot dog every time I go to a new stadium. This is the absolute worst one I've ever gotten. Even the soggy Fenway Franks of the 1990's were better than this. I also can't believe I paid $7 for a Bar S hot dog. You could literally buy 62 of these for the same price in 2003.

Other than the hot dogs, there are no other horrible places in this park. You mention this park to people nationally and the first thing they mention is the pool. But when you are actually at the park, you don't really notice it at all. There is a chlorine smell in the right field corner but other than that, the pool is even kind of hard to see from most sections. You forget it's there.

When I go to a park, I try to get decent seats and then cheap ones so I can really get a full scope of what it's like there. I LOVED the upper deck seats. Sometimes upper decks have shitty options for food, but this felt like a full concourse to me. I also thought  the view was really good from up there. 

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They hide it away for some reason but they have a very nice Diamondbacks team Hall Of Fame. It's down a tunnel in center field for some reason. But I did appreciate it a lot. They had a lot of awards on display and nice area for the 2001 team.

I love this kind of stuff and seeing how different teams honor their history. I wish it was in a prominent place but good for the Diamondbacks to help create traditions for their fans.

I did get to go to a game back in May where the roof was open and it was obviously nicer. But this isn't like Marlins Park where having the roof open completely changes the dynamics of the stadium. Marlins Park with the roof open is a Top 5 park that I've been to. Chase Field never gets there.

All in all, this isn't a bad park. The food is not great and some of the sight lines of the nicer seats weren't the best. But I appreciated the little things in this park and could easily envision having a great time sitting in the cheap seats for many seasons. They introduced a plan two years ago that gets you season tickets for $299. They are in the uppers and you need to say before each home series which games you will be attending but that is an incredible deal.

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Here's my updated rankings of the ballparks I've been to:

1. Camden Yards

2. PNC Park

3. Coors Field

4. Citizens Banks Park

5. Citi Field

6. Wrigley Field

7. loanDepot Park (Marlins)

8. CHASE FIELD

9. Yankee Stadium I

10. Yankee Stadium II

11. Fenway Park

12. Progressive Field

13. Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox)

14. Nationals Park

15. Shea Stadium

16. Olympic Stadium

17. Tropicana Field

18. Sun Life Stadium (Marlins)