A Major Leaguer’s Top Baseball Stadiums to Visit

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Matt Bowman ’14

Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles

Matt Bowman ’14 has spent 14 years in professional baseball and played in the major leagues for parts of seven years, a journey that’s sent him from all-night bus rides in the minor leagues to chartered flight luxury. Now a relief pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, Bowman knows his way around the big leagues — with previous stops with the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Seattle Mariners.

Now 34, Bowman grew up in the second wave of Major League Baseball’s ballpark renaissance and has pitched in 25 of the 30 current stadiums, from creaky relics to modern structures that still have that new-car smell. With summer at hand and ballpark and road trip possibilities seemingly endless, Bowman shares with PAW his favorite destinations, both on and off the field:

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

Dodger Stadium is probably my favorite [ballpark]. It mixes the sheer size of a park — so the atmosphere is very good — with the history. Those two things come together. And the hexagonal scoreboard (in center field) is out there, so it feels a little bit retro.

But the place also bumps — it’s got a crazy sound system. Parts of it are a little older and you can tell. You know what’s happened there: You have Sandy Koufax in the stands sometimes, so that part is very fun.

Wrigley Field, Chicago

Wrigley’s also got that old mystique — one of the oldest ballparks, but the fan base is a little younger. Whether [the team is] good or not, the fans are there. They’re there after the game, they’re drinking, they’re yelling at you. That’s fun. That’s the environment you want. You want people to be into the game.

Baseball lives a little bit on nostalgia. I’d say the best ballparks are the ones that connect you to the past — you get on the mound and you’re like, there have been other people on this mound, at this plate. There’s a lot of history here. I’ll sit in the (cramped) bowels of Wrigley before Atlanta if we’re going for how cool it is to be here.

PNC Park, Pittsburgh

PNC is, I think, just one of the best-looking parks. If you have the right seat, on a beautiful Pittsburgh day, you can look out over the Clemente Bridge, you see the skyline. The stadium itself is newer. It has a unique aspect to it. Some newer ballparks, I won’t say they’re exactly cookie-cutter, but PNC stands apart.      

The perfect off day

I live in New York, so either of those ballparks (the Mets’ Citi Field or Yankee Stadium) work for me. But it is hard to beat Chicago in the summer. There’s a lot to do. You go to Lake Michigan if you have a little bit of time, and you feel like you’re at the beach. But you also have shopping, you have incredible food. You can maybe go to a Michelin-starred restaurant if you have an off day.

If I had an off day in a city, a summer in Chicago probably sounds like one of the best places to be. Seattle’s not bad, either. You can walk around, you can play some crazy golf at Chambers Bay, you might do a hike. You can walk around Seattle and feel like it’s a good three-day trip.

Home cooking

If I did not grow up in the Washington, D.C., area, [I’d say] that’s a phenomenal place to visit. If people make use of their time there, D.C. is one of the best places to go. There’s so many things to do, and all of it’s so interesting. You can be there for an hour if you want: It’s all free, so you feel like you’re not wasting time or money. I can go to the National Mall, the Air & Space Museum, go to the zoo. I can go exactly as long as I want and then leave.