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Baseball fans: Take a quick tour of all 30 major league ballparks

Authors Josh Pahigian and Kevin O’Connell explore America's major league ballparks in "The Ultimate Baseball Road."

10. Houston Astros/Minute Maid Park

Pat Sullivan/AP

  • By Ross Atkin Staff Writer

Opened: 2000

Capacity: 40,950

What the authors say: “The roof, which is similar in its three-panel design to the one in Seattle, allows for the largest open area of any of the sliding-roof parks.”

Learned from the book:

• Minute Maid Park effectively plays up a railroad theme, with restored Union Station now serving as the ballpark’s grand entrance and an actual working locomotive running along a short track above the left- and center-field wall.

• The park was originally called Enron Field, but when the Houston-based energy giant’s image was tarnished by corrupt executives, the team bought back the naming rights for $2.1 million.

• A special hot-climate grass was developed especially for the park called Platinum TE Paspalum.

•  A chiming-bells recording is used to play a distinctive version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

• The Astros may have pushed commercialism a bit far in selling foul pole naming rights to a chicken restaurant and renaming them “Fowl Poles.”

•  Given the number of birds that flitter around even when the roof is closed, Minute Maid Park can be a birdwatcher’s delight.

• A hair-cutting business has several chairs in an outfield concourse for fans who could use a trim while watching the game.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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