Step Up to the Plate for This Baseball Stadiums Quiz

The day Atlanta-based restaurant chain Waffle House opened its doors at Turner Field in 2013, the Braves started a 14-game winning streak — which led many superstitious fans to claim the breakfast food purveyor helped the team win the NL East. When SunTrust Park replaced “the Ted” as the Braves’ home, naturally Waffle House wasn’t far behind.

Tal's Hill was a 90-foot-wide incline situated at the back of Minute Maid Park's center field and marked with a flagpole. Named for former Astros president Tal Smith, Tal’s Hill was a throwback to old ballparks like Cincinnati's Crosley Field, where the outfield was about 6 feet lower than street level. In 2016, after the Astros' ownership changed, the new management got rid of the iconic hill.

The air is thinner in the Mile High City (about 15% less dense than air at sea level), which allows balls to travel farther when hit, in part because the dry air tends to cause baseballs to shrivel a bit. Since 2002, Denver’s Coors Field has kept baseballs at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% humidity in a humidor, a storage container designed to maintain a relative humidity level, to help combat this disadvantage.

At Tropicana Field, fans can not only root for the Tampa Bay Rays but also interact with the animals the team is named after. In 2006, through a partnership with the Florida Aquarium, the team installed a 35-foot-long, 10,000-gallon tank where fans can touch stingrays — the first interactive animal experience at a professional sports venue.

If you’re looking to beat the Arizona heat, there’s no better way than to take a dip in the pool just beyond the outfield wall at Phoenix's Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks. Initially mocked by baseball purists when it was built in 1998, the pool suite sells out every game, with tickets starting at $4,750.

At 40,700 square feet, Oakland Coliseum in California leads all of Major League Baseball for most foul territory, and it isn’t particularly close. Toronto’s Rogers Centre comes in second with a relatively modest 30,500 square feet. The Oakland Coliseum’s foul territory is nearly twice the league average of just over 23,000 square feet.

In 1937, MLB owner and Hall of Famer Bill Veeck borrowed a concept he’d seen at several minor league parks and installed ivy on the outer wall of Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Ever the self-promoter, Veeck claimed in his autobiography to have done the actual installation himself one night, but this has proved to be an embellishment.

In 1986, Toronto, Canada, broke ground on the SkyDome (later renamed Rogers Centre), the first sports stadium with a retractable roof. With the push of a button, more than 70 motors — each with 10 horsepower — move the 11,000-ton roof into place at a rate of 71 feet per minute. Within 30 minutes, rain is no longer a factor.

Opened in 1910, Alabama’s Rickwood Field was once home to Minor League Baseball's Birmingham Barons and the Negro League’s Birmingham Black Barons. Today, Rickwood is used by Miles College, as well as for hosting the Rickwood Classic, when the Barons return in retro uniforms to honor the field. The oldest major league stadium still in use is Boston's Fenway Park, which opened in 1912.

The flashing 60-by-60-foot Citgo sign was first erected over Fenway Park's left-field wall (aka the Green Monster) in 1940, when the company was known as Cities Service. In 2018, the Boston Landmark Commission voted to make it an official city landmark, though that was vetoed by the mayor. Instead, he agreed to a deal to ensure the sign would be up for at least 30 more years.