Jacobs Field
					Jacobs Field, Cleveland, OH (visited August 27, 2001) – Okay, well I hear people go on and on about how lovely Jacobs Field is.  I’m afraid I have to rank it average at best.  It, unfortunately, reminded me a lot of Comiskey and Comerica – that is, not offensive in any way, very clean and nice, but just boring.  Evidently, Cleveland has terrific fans, and while I am not sure I agree with that assessment, this is not the place to soapbox on Cleveland fans.  The Jake has a few definitely neat features.  For one, there is a standing room only section above the 15-20 foot wall in left field.  It looks to be a neat place to cluster and hope you’re there when a home run happens to bounce your way. It's a
		lot like the SRO section at Camden Yards, except it’s in left and not right and it looks more like a porch overlooking your back yard.  They also have a scoreboard in the wall in left showing out-of-town matchups, which was very neat.  From that perspective, the “retro” look is in full swing.  Also, there is a “club” restaurant jutting out over the deep leftfield box seats.  You can only get a reservation there if you’re a club seat member, or something to that effect.  Basically, it’s not for the average fan to ever enjoy, so I think that sort of is a large negative.  Anyway, it’s plexiglass from floor to ceiling and during the game I was at a very hard-hit foul ball thwacked off the glass right next to a woman having dinner, fully-engaged in conversation, and likely completely oblivious that there was even a baseball game going on anywhere in Cleveland that night.  Anyway, when it hit the glass, I thought she was going to wet her pants.  High comedy.  The park also features somewhat unique-looking high rising white light towers that surround the building.  It’s a very cool retro feature and I think it makes the park look terrific from above or from afar.  The electronic scoreboard is exactly the same as the one used in Detroit (although, fortunately, placed in the correct spot) and this lends the park to a sometimes generic feel.  All in all, a good place for a ballgame, but probably not one of the tops.                      Back to Main Stadium Page                        Go Back Home!