Parking near the stadium was very easy. There was a ton of metered parking that expired at 6pm, so I just had to put a dollars worth of change into the meter and I was good to go. Minute Maid Park is downtown Houston right next to a big convention center but aside from a few bars, there isn't a whole lot going on in the area. There are a couple of cool features on the outside of Minute Maid Park though. One is a outdoor plaza with some trees and grassy areas. In this plaza they have a few flags and plaques in tribute to past team and individual achievements. The other is the Union Station entrance. This used to be a train station in Houston but they left the building up to serve as a historic entrance to the ballpark.
The ballpark continues with the train theme on this inside with a large train running above the left field concourse. Supposedly this train moves back and forth when an Astros player hits the homerun. The train track's main purpose is a track from the retractable roof. The roof was closed for this game to give the fans and the players a break from the Texas heat but the vertical panel above the left field concourse is transparent so the downtown Houston view was still somewhat preserved. The wall from the train track down to the field is made from stone/stucco to make it look like a bridge. At the base of this wall are the Crawford Boxes. The Crawford Boxes are a few small sections in left field that are above the out-of-town scoreboard. The left field wall is relatively close to the plate but the roughly 20 foot scoreboard gives the ballpark a unique baseball dynamic and cool viewing perspective for fans. The Crawford Boxes detract from one of the more unusual and more well-known features of Minute Maid Park: the centerfield hill. There isn't a good reason why there is a hill in centerfield but the top of the hill is a deep 436 feet from home plate. There is also a flag pole in the field of play at the top of the hill. Thankfully the hill is less noticeable than its reputation.
The concourses at Minute Maid Park are industrial modern and similar to the other retractable roof ballparks. Some of the key features on the concourse are the home run pump and the wall with past greats. The home run pump is a large replica gas pump that keeps track of the number of home runs hit during the parks existence. Large photographs of past Astro greats including Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio are displayed on the adjacent wall. As for food I got the Goya Burrito. This was recommended by an usher but I thought it was just mediocre. There were very few fans at the ballpark on this Monday evening but everyone I talked to was overwhelmingly friendly.
As for the game, the better team dominated the lesser team. Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel danced around trouble in the first two innings but the Rays tagged him for three runs in the third courtesy of a sacrifice fly and the first of Ryan Roberts's two home runs on the night. The Rays added two runs in the 5th and put the game out of reach in the 7th inning with 4 more runs on 5 straight singles. Rays' starting pitcher Matt Moore was masterful as he won his 11th game on the season. The final score was 12-0 in favor of the Rays.
My take-away from Minute Maid Park is that it has debunked some of my complaints on domed/retractable roof stadiums. The transparent panel in left field maintains the downtown city view and keeps the playing surface bright with natural light. The ballpark has many unique features to keep the players on their toes and give some different perspectives in watching a ball game.
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