Minute Maid Park
What originally fueled the B4B idea was to visit each major league baseball stadium across the country. Now that our dreams will become reality beginning in 2012, we will want to share our greatest experiences with followers of our journey. We’ll report on fan devotion, best concessions, most memorable park moment in history and video blogging each 7th inning stretch the B4B crew will sing along to all season. We really want our readers to experience each stadium along with us.
Over the next few months, the B4B blog will be providing previews of each major league stadium. We will give some historical background, along with plenty of pictures. We would love to get fans perspective on each park as well, so please provide feedback on your favorite stadium on facebook and twitter. Our posts will take us from the oldest stadium all the way to the brand new Marlins Stadium. We hope you enjoy.
Minute Maid Park
MinuteMaidParkreplaced the Astrodome as the home of the Houston Astros in 2000. The stadium was originally named Enron Field, after the Houston-based energy and trading company that was behind one of the biggest corporate scandals in American history in 2001. Needless to say, the Astros didn’t want to align their brand with a greedy bankrupt company, so they bought back the naming rights of the stadium before selling them to Minute Maid.
This retro-modern stadium is much like other ballparks built around this time with very quirky dimensions and asymmetrical fences of varying heights. In particular, Minute Maid Park has a very short left field porch at 315 feet. Although hitters can take advantage of left field, some home run hitting advantage is negated by the center field dimensions. The center field wall is a very deep 436 feet behind a 90-foot wide 30 degree incline known as Tal’s Hill, for team president Tal Smith. This feature was taken from the “terrace” at Crosley Field inCincinnati, but outfielders obviously dislike it. The flagpole in the middle of the incline makes Tal’s Hill even more dangerous. It can make for some interesting highlights on Sportscenter.
The stadium was built by HOK Sport (now Populous), and pays homage to the site’s history asHouston’s Union Station. The largest entrance to the park is the main lobby of the old station, and the left-field side of the stadium features a train that moves along a track on top of the exterior wall beyond left-field whenever the home team hits a home run.
The Astros lost to the Phillies in their first game at the stadium, 4-1. Career relief pitcher, and 2011 World Series champ, Octavio Dotel started the game for the Astros and Enron executive Kenneth Lay threw out the ceremonial first pitch. What’s that? You want some more random facts about Minute Maid Park? OK! The longest postseason game in MLB history took place there in 2005 between the Atlanta Braves and Astros in the NLDS. The almost 6 hour, 18 inning game was won on a walk-off home run by Chris Burke. Check out the box score.
Biking for Baseball is excited to check out a game here. Be sure to follow us on facebook and twitter to stay updated on our trip. Let us know more about other cool features to see at Minute Maid Park when we watch the Astros take on the Reds on June 3.