Well the news is out: the Philadelphia Flyers will probably be playing the New York Rangers in the NHL’s yearly Winter Classic, and the venue will be Philadelphia’s superb Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies.

 

Not much more you need to know, except that they haven’t established the date yet; the Eagles will be playing the Washington Redskins at Lincoln Financial Field across the street on the traditional New Year’s Day, assuming the football…

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Latest tip on the Ballpark E-Guides Blog:

 

Ballpark E-Guides makes every effort to give you any information you could use for going to a ballgame. Some ballparks present different challenges than others. At Yankee Stadium the challenge is to leave the game with a few bucks left in your wallet. At Citizens Bank Park you should know the differences between all of the cheesesteak options. And at Fenway the biggest problem to be solved is simply how to get into the…

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Wisconsin is brat country, something I learned too late after my first trip to Miller Park.

 

While I liked Miller, I was a little bit miffed at the low quality of the hot dog. I believe at the time I declared it to be the worst dog I’d ever had at a ballgame, and I liked Wendy Selig less afterward for it. (This was in 2001 when she still owned the Brewers.) As far as I was concerned, there was no excuse for a ballpark in Wisconsin to have a lousy hot dog.

 

It…

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I live in South Jersey, which is unequivocally Philadelphia sports country. Nobody around here is a Giants or Rangers or Knicks fan, and the occasional Devils fan you find is not very vocal about it. People here bleed Eagles green, Flyers orange and Phillies red, and no one cares too much about the 76ers.

 

I don’t live and die with the Flyers’ fortunes and care much less about the Eagles, but I must admit that the new, revitalized sports complex in Philadelphia is quite the…

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Even in the most comfortable of great seats in some of today’s ballparks, chances are you’re going to be sitting closer to a stranger than you’d like. This, especially for somewhat introverted people like me, can be a source of discomfort. Introducing yourself to strangers, something our parents always told us not to do, is difficult, and we just want to have a good time at the ballgame.

 

But you’ll likely get to talking to folks a little bit, as I have done many times. And…

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I’m not big on ticket scalping. If I’ve done it for five events in my life it would be a lot. Of all my ballgame experiences I believe I’ve paid scalpers to get in twice. (Although I did score a great seat to an Orioles-Yankees game at Camden Yards for nothing once. The seat was so good I could see the expressions on my Orioles’ faces as the Yankees whipped their butts. Sometimes patience and persistence can make a world of difference.)

 

The first time was my first trip to…

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U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox, doesn’t present near the congestion challenges as does Wrigley Field, its venerable neighbor to the north. There are a few reasons for this; the White Sox offer more parking, they don’t draw as well as the Cubs, and there isn’t much else in the area drawing crowds, at least not at the moment.

 

But this isn’t to say that you won’t run into your own set of difficulties on the South Side. The Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/94) in…

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It’s a great thrill for Philadelphia fans to have a baseball team good enough to win four division titles, two National League pennants and a World Series in the last four seasons. As someone who lives in the Philly area, I can tell you that for many Philly folks it’s a great thrill just to have a contending team!

 

Best of all, this exciting club is playing in gorgeous Citizens Bank Park, one of the finest ballparks in America. It’s a win-win for anyone who wants to go to a…

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Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, is the oldest major league ballpark in America…and given the rabid nature of Red Sox fans and the fondness baseball fans around the country have for history, it’s also one of the most popular. The Red Sox are riding a string of over 600 consecutive sellouts! So if you’re planning to go, make sure you get the most out of your visit. You’ll need a plan.

 

Start with getting tickets. A very wise thing to do is to sign up for the Red Sox…

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OK, so the cross-town rival Yankees have their majestic new stadium and a 2009 championship. The division rivals Phillies have a 2008 championship and plenty of parking. So what. The Mets have an unendingly loyal fan base, cooler hats, and the Ebbets-influenced outstanding new ballpark in Flushing. Citi Field is a vast improvement over the former home of the Mets, Shea Stadium, in nearly every way. Even with the Mets underperforming over the last couple of seasons, the Mets faithful still…

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It's difficult to explain how a new stadium that cost $1,500,000,000 could still have obstructed view seating.



It was only discovered after the fact that the new Yankee Stadium has a major design flaw. The Mohegan Sun Sports Bar that takes up the batter's eye in center field is a rectangular building placed smack in the outfield bleachers. As a result, people sitting in the wrong parts of Sections 201 and 239 may have of a portion of the field blocked from view by a bar for people… Continue

Hey Kids, here's a tip for Yankees fans living in NJ:



I have tentative plans to go to the new Yankee Stadium on May 5th, provided my boss lets me have the day off and my wife doesn't notice.



Being a New Jersey native my whole life, I've learned to find ways to beat a system that is designed to be unbeatable, that being avoiding any extra charges for tolls and parking that can be avoided without a great deal of effort.



I state in my Yankee Stadium Guide (to be… Continue

Next Tuesday, I will be going somewhere I haven't been to in almost nine years--I will be attending a baseball game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.



I won't go into detail, but when Cal Ripken Jr. retired, it kind of ended things for me as an Orioles fan. Once Cal was gone, it was as if the last link to their great past was severed. I guess I picked a good time to bail out, since the team has been painfully bad for years. I don't know if I could have handled a 30-3 drubbing at home.… Continue

Anyone who has sat in the Grandstand seats at Fenway Park in Boston can tell you that it's one of the best places to see a ballgame. It can also be one of the best places to not see a ballgame.



Fenway was built in the early 1900s, when baseball owners tended to not give much of a whit about fan comfort or views. The goal then was to pack as many butts into the place as possible (as opposed to today, when the goal is to get the most cash out of each butt), and Fenway was clearly… Continue

I compiled a list of the Theme Nights that the Philadelphia Phillies will be holding at Citizens Bank Park in 2010, and how to get discounted tickets and other nice Phillies related stuff. Each of them has a promotional code that you enter when you're buying tickets for a discount.



Friday, April 16 is Irish Heritage Celebration Night, where each fan receives a green hot dog...ok, not really. But there will be Irish delicacies (Does that mean Irish potatoes? Man I love them without… Continue

I don't know how many people do this. I used to have photos from every major league ballpark I'd been to (unfortunately I don't have any from Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium...sniff) on display on my cube at work. Talk about a conversation piece...I've had people be just in awe of that. "***in' awesome", one co-worker told me.



I've since arranged them on posterboards and then frame them, with the ticket stub from each game under the ballpark. I have three framed posters, one for… Continue