What We Learned About Baseball Stadiums

Here at GeoJango, we love everything baseball related. That's why it's no coincidence that we offer a large variety of baseball stadium maps to help our customers celebrate their ballpark memories.

Earlier this month we launched a giveaway where one lucky person was destined to win a free baseball stadium map. In return, each contestant filled out a short survey that was meant to shed light into their ballpark experiences.

From favorite stadiums to favorite memories, we learned a lot about what makes a baseball stadium more than just a physical location.

Wrigley Field, Photo by Devin F.

The votes are in and the Chicago Cubs were the most popular team with a whopping 24% of the total vote!

Perhaps this is because the Cubs hold numerous records; they are the first team to ever play in three consecutive World Series and the first team to win two consecutive World Series. More recently, they won the 2016 World Series and ended a 108 year championship drought, the longest in MLB history.

Starting in the 2015 offseason, the Chicago Cubs started to upgrade Wrigley Field and began selling removed seats (in pairs of two) as sports memorabilia. In fact, I recently attended a wedding where a large group of us purchased a pair of these seats for the bride and groom as a wedding gift! The groom is a die hard Cubs fan and he was left speechless once he saw the gift.

The next most popular team was the New York Yankees, as per our voters. The Yankees commanded 14% of the total vote, followed by the San Francisco Giants at 9%.

Oracle Park (formerly known as AT&T Park), Photo by Cameron M.

Interestingly enough, both Wrigley Field and Oracle Park (formerly known as AT&T Park) tied with 23% of the vote each. This was followed by Busch Stadium and Yankee Stadium with 9% and 6% respectively.

Oracle Park is the new name of the San Francisco Giants stadium (as of 2019) but many people will always remember this location as AT&T Park. The stadium is famous for its position overlooking the San Francisco Bay, its grand scoreboard, and the large Coca Cola bottle/glove statues that preside behind the seats.

In 2004, AT&T Park was the first professional sports venue in the United States to support public wifi throughout the entire stadium. At the time it claimed to be "one of the biggest public hotspots in the world."

I've personally been fortunate enough to step onto the field while my dad threw the first pitch at a game in 2008. They even had his name on the jumbotron!

Now that we know which teams and stadiums were most popular among our contestants, it's time to relive some unique stadium memories! We asked each person to name their favorite experience from a ballpark and we received some interesting responses.

Let's start out with a funny one. To quote one person, their favorite memory was when "A Dodgers fan threw her drink on me." I think it's safe to say that this person is a Giant's fan!

How about some sentimental memories: "First game when I was a kid. Walking inside the park took my breath away. Fell in love with it." Another response reads, "Flying to New York to attend both a Yankees game and a Mets game on back to back nights with my dad."

We even received a response from someone who worked at the Guaranteed Rate Field! They said, "Working there for four years remodeling various parts of the ballpark."

SF Giants Memorabilia, Photo by Cameron M.

Aside from their favorite memory, we also asked everyone how they typically remember their experiences. We were excited to find out which methods were the most popular as there are many ways to accomplish this.

While everyone likes to take pictures, one person went a step further and said, "We like to take pictures and put them in our old school photo albums!"

Another person who has been to over 20 baseball stadiums wrote, "I buy a baseball from every stadium." That's a lot of baseballs!

The above photo comes from a respondent who said, "Taking photos and buying a hat from every new stadium that I go to."

Other people like to recollect their experiences through ticket stubs, shirts, or take-home cups. This just goes to show that there is more than one way to relive the ballpark experience.

Target Field, Photo by Jason L.

We hope you enjoyed these firsthand insights into the world of baseball stadiums!

All of this content comes directly from the people who know best: baseball fans themselves. Over the course of our contest, we learned a lot about what makes a stadium more than it may initially appear.

From brief memories to storied histories, from buying souvenirs to bonding with loved ones, each stadium and each experience is overwhelmingly unique.

Do you have a favorite ballpark memory? Tell us in the comments below!

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