Watch 'em Play Ball ; Different cities offer different experiences of our national pastime All Editions

• Published in: The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)
• Main Author: Molyneaux, David G
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bergen County, N.J North Jersey Media Group Inc 03.04.2005
• Subjects: Smith, Jay

For more than a century, American baseball fans have forged bonds in ballparks, finding other lovers of the game and passing on their passions to their sons and daughters. I was reminded of that bond last July at Cleveland's Jacobs Field when I sat beside an 82-year- old great-grandmother who reminisced of childhood days when her dad took her by train from rural Indiana to Yankee Stadium in New York to see Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Less than 20 years ago, travelers were lamenting the demise of unique ballparks as older buildings were being replaced with cookie- cutter, sanitized stadiums that looked more or less alike. But that all changed in the 1990s, starting with Camden Yards in Baltimore in 1992 and the great parks that followed in Cleveland, Arlington, Texas, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. New well- designed parks recently opened in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. No matter how you feel about the Yankees and their payroll of a gazillion dollars, I would start with Yankee Stadium, home for a century to some of the game's best players. David Briggs, 19, a student at Ohio State University who grew up in Connecticut and is a frequent traveler to ballparks with his dad, ranks Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Busch Stadium in St. Louis among his top experiences. "It's because the fans are really into it, more passionate about the game," he said. "They seem more knowledgeable. Fans who don't know you still want to talk about the game."