On our first full day in Phoenix, we decided to do a guided tour of Chase Field. Our tour guide was John and he was delightful (not as delightful as Jeff from Texas, but still pretty delightful). We parked in a garage nearby and with ticket validation from the team store, parking cost $2.
Since we were early, we purchased our souvenirs for that night's game. Serena went with hat with the team's current logo and Lisa went with a throwback. Both hats were $25. The team is celebrating its 20th Anniversary, so there were a lot of nods to the original team colors and logo in the team store. Baxter was $20.
The tour tickets were among the cheapest we've purchased to date. $18 for both. The proceeds of the tours are donated to the Diamondbacks' charitable foundation, which is refreshing.
Chase Field was originally named Bank One Ballpark. It had affectionately been referred to as the "Bob," which is why Baxter is a bobcat and not a diamondback rattlesnake. Also, if you add arms to a snake, you really get a lizard and to be honest, we're not sure that there are a plethora of individuals looking forward to hanging out with a rattlesnake in the first place. Chase eventually bought out Bank One, hence the name change. Also, fun facts about the park:
*Chase Field is 1,100 feet above sea level making it the second highest ballpark in the league (Coors Field being first at 5,277 feet).
*Chase Field is the fourth largest ballpark in the league behind Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, and Coors Field.
*Chase Field is officially the cheapest place to see a ball game as per the studies conducted by the league. Our money is on the most expensive parks being from New York and Boston.
The tour began in the main rotunda. On the top are mosaics depicting trademark Arizona landmarks and on the floor is a mosaic of the state of Arizona. Phoenix is marked by the team logo in the team's original colors. Guess why the team changed its colors to "Sedona red?" The MLB asked them to! The Rockies, who are in the division with the Diamondbacks, already had purple uniforms and they wanted more variety!
When the concession stands are closed, like they were during the tour, you can see that the gates are decorated by old school baseball photos.
Our first stop following the main level was the Sandlot located on the third level. The roof must be open every day because the grass on the field is legit grass, which needs sun to grow. We forgot to mention that it was 110 degrees that day, so it was hot AF standing there with the roof open. Since the game was scheduled to start at 6:40, so the roof would be closed at 3pm in order to cool the stadium down by game time. The roof takes four minutes to close.
The Sandlot is home to the kids' playground and more importantly, Baxter's Den. Clearly, we had to hit that later when we returned for the game.
The numbers retired by the Diamondbacks are Jackie Robinson, Randy Johnson, and Luis Gonzalez.
Our next stop was the 20th Anniversary Experience on the 200 level, which is just a small collection of memorabilia from the team's history.
The famous pool in the outfield is actually a suite that you can buy tickets to. It's not just a random pool like we thought. The suite can accommodate 40 people and can run you about $4,000, which isn't that bad if you break down the cost per person and compare it to some of the luxury seats at the more expensive ballparks.
This is a list of all of the fields named after Diamondback players. A player decides they'd like to have a community ballpark named after them and the money to build the field comes out of the player's paycheck. The Diamondbacks pay to maintain the fields.
On the Diamond Level, there is a bar/restaurant called The Draft Room that anyone with tickets can go to, which is rare. Usually only fans with premium tickets have access to places like this. The suites are also on this level, but for ticketed fans only. This is one of the larger suites:
This is a smaller suite:
The hallway is decorated with paintings of baseball players done by a local artist.
This is inside the press box:
This is us behaving like dicks in the press interview room:
We found Baxter's car on the way to the dugout.
The walls of the tunnel were decorated with all of the starting lineups for Opening Day and the Diamondbacks who were in the All Star Game.
We walked by the Diamondbacks' clubhouse and got to see someone warming up (couldn't tell which player it was from the angle we were at, but he was definitely a Mariner).
Another fun fact: when Randy Johnson used to pitch, his back would tighten up, so the team installed this bar for him to use to stretch his back out in between innings.
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for:
This is Serena pretending to be the shortest manage in MLB history:
The Mariners had started to take batting practice while we were on the field.
Which is how we got to meet Robinson Cano!
That is all for the tour. The rest of the stadium photos will be featured in the
game's post.
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