ballparks
ballparks
I didn’t realize right away that the stadium was only one year old. It’s inaugural season was 2012, so I visited the park early in it’s second season. The site is the old home of the Miami Orange Bowl, which held many eventful football games and was torn down and replaced by Marlins park.
And taking a step back, this park is really remarkable. It is the first park built in years that is not a “retro” park, reversing a trend that has been going on for nearly 20 years. It has no brick or exposed steel in it’s facade to mimic the turn of the century (1900‘s) parks. It is a park that looks forward to the future, instead of to baseball’s nostalgic past.
We had a little trouble getting tickets -- not that they were sold out by any means, but because the kiosks were not connecting properly. After picking up the tickets from the booth, we headed up a long ramp. Apparently a bit short on staff, it wasn’t really clear where the entrance was. Every level looked like some VIP entrance, so we wandered around for a while. Eventually we walked in and headed to our seats.
First impressions were good. The park looked brand new. It’s retractable roof was closed, due to the possibility of rain. There is an amazing view of downtown Miami right out the windows in left and center field, which is really a great design. I also noticed a strange “Spanish tile” sculpture with flamings in center field. Pretty gaudy? Or perfectly Miami? I’m not sure I can still decide. But it appears to light up and move when a home run is hit (I am assuming).
The food selection was surprisingly limited. They had standard hot dogs, a pizza stand, and Mexican stand, and a burger stand. We eventually found one sushi kiosk and one smoothie kiosk. But nothing else. I had been watching a trend growing of gourmet food in ballparks. But they seem to have dialed it back to more basic offerings. In some ways that’s nice, but if you’re watered up for garlic fries of a “Chicago” style hot dog, don’t expect to find them here.
Just before headed out, we hit the restroom. And I have to say, I think it was the cleanest ballpark restroom I’ve ever been to. That may have to do with the fact there the park is barely a year old, or that there were only a few thousand people in attendance, but either way... That was a nice change! (sorry, no photo) :)
We ended up seeing an entertaining game with over 20 hits combined from both teams, but the Marlins ended up losing 3-7 to the Phillies, continuing their tough season.
Getting back in the swing of things (please pardon the baseball analogy) was great. Seeing a new ballpark is alway fun. Now let’s see... Just how far of a drive is it to Tampa Bay???
Brian returned to Marlins Park on: 5/2/18 (vs. Philadelphia Phillies) and 5/11/18 (vs. Atlanta Braves) when he filmed UFC fighter Yoel Romero, Shaq, and Derek Jeter.
Miami Marlins - Marlins Park
Tuesday, May 21, 2013