Idiots Write About Sports

The SF Chronicle’s John King wrote a front-page piece about Petco Park today. I always enjoy architecture discussions of baseball parks, being a bit of a ballpark geek, and I appreciated King’s column — but I’m sure I’ll have more of an opinion on it once I see the park in June as a part of the Baseball Prospectus Ballpark Feed with the Padres.

Still, I am a bit disappointed that King spends so much time comparing Petco to San Francisco’s own XYZ Park. Yes, the ballpark in China Basin is a gorgeous structure that is widely considered one of the best stadiums in baseball. (And yes, the contrast with Candlestick is enough to give you whiplash.) But in the context of King’s article, it felt a little bit too much like the Chronicle was defending XYZ Park’s title as Best Ballpark, rather than evaluating Petco on its merits.

Comparing ballparks is tough. I try to do it — I even try to rank the ballparks I’ve gone to. But it’s tough, because they really are different in so many ways that it’s hard to make sense of all the comparisons. For example, I love so many things about Camden Yards, but in my heart I think that the park on the river in Pittsburgh (we’ll call it ABC Park) is the best one I’ve seen.

But better than the former Pac Bell? That one’s hard to quantify. I’ve been to Pac Bell Park maybe 70 times, in all different kinds of weather and sitting in a dozen different seating sections. I saw one baseball game in Pittsburgh, on a miserably hot and humid summer day, and walked once around the entire park inside and out before sitting in my seat in the upper deck behind home plate. So I can’t really fairly compare the two. I know a whole lot more about the subtle charms of the park in China Basin, and I also know a lot more about its faults.

But I will say this: Those people who say that the best view in baseball is the view of the bay from the Giants’ park in China Basin are wrong. The bay is remarkably striking, and if you’re sitting all the way in the rightfield corner, your view of the Bay Bridge is fantastic. But most of the time the bay is just a gray mass with some ships on it. In contrast, when you’re sitting in Pittsburgh, you look out on the trio of beautiful Pirate-yellow bridges, a busy river populated with boats, and just on the other side, the fascinating skyline of Pittsburgh.

I don’t know if the stadium in Pittsburgh is altogether better than the one in San Francisco. But in terms of the spectacular view, I’ll take Pittsburgh over San Francisco in a squeaker.