In comparing Major League Baseball’s parks, many of us tend to get romantic — probably more romantic than we need to be. We like charm or tradition or quirkiness, and as a result those venues that lack that sort of charisma tend to get devalued in our minds. Take Chase Field, a park whose home team hasn’t been around long enough to develop the sort of tradition we associate with baseball, and the look of which, either inside or out, doesn’t really conjure up pleasant thoughts of a good ol’ afternoon at the ballyard the way many (most, really) of its rival stadiums do.
But then you think about the city it’s in, and it starts to make more sense. Phoenix is a metro area that has grown rapidly over the last couple decades, and as a result, so has its sports landscape — remember that barely 25 years ago, it had just one professional franchise. The Diamondbacks were born with an ambition that led to division titles by Year 2 and a World Series championship by Year 4. And don’t forget the main thing we tend to associate with Phoenix — it’s friggin’ hot. So take all that into consideration, and it shouldn’t be any surprise at all that it’s a giant, in-your-face retractable-roof stadium with a pool in the outfield bleachers and a wonderful, wonderful air conditioning system that graces downtown Phoenix.
I lived in Arizona for a few years during the early years of the Diamondbacks, when they were rockin’ about 600 different combinations of purple unis and the stadium was called Bank One Ballpark. I had actually forgotten about that name back in late May, when fate brought us to Phoenix for a weekend that coincided with some home dates on the D-backs’ schedule. Mrs. Fan exclaimed, “I haven’t been to the BOB in a long time,” and I couldn’t stop laughing at that. I can’t imagine too many people outside of Arizona still call it that. If the good folks of the Grand Canyon State still do, then maybe there’s more tradition at Chase Field than we thought.
Itinerant Fan 