Baseball Cities

I've always lived in cities with AL baseball teams. I prefer AL baseball and there are some great cities with AL teams. I've been thinking the past couple of days about which division in baseball has the best cities in it. If for some reason I had to choose one division in baseball and I had a random chance of living in any of the cities within that division, what would be at the top of my list? I went through and ranked them all based on my perceptions of each city as a place to live not considering being a fan of baseball.

6th - AL Central (Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis)

The AL Central is hard to rank last growing up a Tigers fan, but straight up there are a few cities in the AL Central that I really wouldn't want to live in. Kansas City is lifeless, Cleveland is Cleveland, Minneapolis in nice when it's not 10 degrees outside. I grew up near Detroit but it's still not a city that I would be excited to live in. The only great city in the AL Central is Chicago.

5th - NL Central (Milwaukee, St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago)

With 6 teams the NL Cental is nice if you like manufacturing cities located on rivers. None of these cities would be horrible to live in but most of them lack the glamour of a great city. The only cities I'd be excited to move to are Houston and Chicago.

4th - AL West (Dallas, Seattle, Oakland, LA)

In contrast to the NL Central, the AL West only has 4 cities making it a bit easier to rank. It seems like nothing good ever happens in Oakland. Dallas still strikes me as a city stuck in the 1990's. LA is LA, and as much as I hate to admit it would be a really cool city to live in. I live in Seattle so I know that it's a fine place but I honestly feel that it's lacking the character of some of the better cities in the US.

3rd - AL East (NYC, Boston, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Baltimore)

The AL East has 4 cities that I would totally jump at living in. NYC, Boston and Toronto are amazing cities and Tampa is really nice too. But the AL East also has Baltimore. Baltimore really drags it down the list. Maybe I've watched too much of The Wire, but no one wants to live in Baltimore.

2nd - NL West (San Francisco, San Diego, LA, Phoenix, Denver)

There are some great cities in the NL West and I like all of them. The last time I was in Denver I didn't really get a chance to appreciate the city but what I hear/read about Denver is that it's pretty decent. All the other cities I really love. Beautiful cities with great weather and lots of fun things about them.

1st - NL East (Washington, Philly, Atlanta, NYC, Miami)

The NL East really has it all. Each of these cities have been great places every time I've been. I've driven around Philly, but I haven't ever spent the weekend there. The other 4 cities I've been to a fair amount and they are all terrific. There isn't one city on this list that I would be unhappy living in.

I guess I hate on the midwest but with the exception of Chicago most of the cities are depressingly banal. From the view of a 24 year old LA and NYC beat out Milwaukee and Cleveland. Another note, whilst compiling this list I realized that the only MLB City I haven't been to is Toronto.

What do my readers think? Agree, disagree? Just a reminder to keep the comments reasonable. With all the comments on my last few posts I guess I need to remind you guys to not go overboard.

5 Reasons Why Safeco Field is Awesome

In my 2 years living in Seattle one of my favorite activities has been going to Mariners games at Safeco field. There are a lot of reasons I like watching games at Safeco. The good views of the city, the retractable roof, legalized scalping, the airplanes flying overhead to land at SeaTac, the sounds of the trains rumbling outside the stadium. All these are nice but as I continue heading to games I've found there are a few other things that really make going to Safeco enjoyable.

5) No Bad Seats - I've sat in every part of the stadium and so far I haven't found a spot with a crappy view. The cheap seats are still close to the action, and the outfield bleachers are at the perfect height to see the game. There is a great mezzanine level that features a full-service bar which I find to be quite special.

4) Park Location - Safeco is a 15 minute walk from the heart of Seattle and 10 minute walk from the Ferry terminal. It is on the south end of one of the prettiest neighborhood in the city. Right outside the stadium are bars and brewpubs. The stadium is only a couple of blocks from the International District (The PC term for Chinatown). For people not familiar with Seattle taking a walk to Safeco can highlight all the best parts of Seattle.

3) The Beer Garden - In center field there is a terrific beer garden right at field level. Often when the opponent was terrible we would purchase $8 bleacher tickets and just spend all game hanging out in the beer garden. Essentially those games were like going to a decent bar with an $8 cover which by the way happened to have a live baseball game going on inside of it. Like any stadium though you have to mentally get past the fact they you will pay $9.75 for a 20oz Microbrew.

I stole this picture from someone's Flikr. Fair use or whatever.

2) Fan Giveaways - The Mariners organization has typically provided great giveaways. Everything from a Franklin Gutierrez Fly Swatter to free compost (keeping Seattle one of the greenest cities in America). Yesterday was Irchiro replica jersey night and today is Felix Hernandez knit cap night. But every team does giveways. What makes Safeco special is that you can go into the stadium, pick up the free giveaway and then leave the stadium with it. In most stadia fans who arrive early enough for the giveaways resign themselves to waiting in their seats for an hour before the game. At the Safe fans can get the giveaways and then leave the stadium and go drinking before the game.

1) Food - Safeco has always had really good stadium food. The Garlic Fries make the entire concourse smell vampire proof and the Seattle Dogs (dog with cream cheese and grilled onions) are legendary. But that's not what makes food the number one awesome thing about Safeco. The number one thing about Safeco is that you are free to bring in any foodstuffs that you please. You can literally walk into Safeco with a shopping bag full of food. Usually I walk in with a completely unconcealed Jimmy John's sub in my hand. I've seen a guy bring in a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jelly and makes sandwiches for his entire family inside the stadium. I have no idea why they let people do this, but I'm not going to ask any questions. Letting people bring all the food they want into the stadium is totally awesome and is the biggest reason I love Safeco Field.

This amused me

Every once in awhile they send out these security newsletters at work. They are usually filled with stuff warning us about terrorists and shit. Whoever puts them together is either a 40 year old lady who wears Mickey Mouse shirts or a really high 17 year old sailor. Usually the last couple pages are filled with LOLcats, 90's clip art and random crap. I have no idea how they get sent out via official Navy Channels. The last page of the one they sent out today was simply this:

The image of a drowning sailor whose final thoughts before being consumed by the bosom of the ocean was someone blogging. Now consider all of the levels of irony that comprise this blog post.