I'll be showing you my own photos of the place next weekend, but Zack has a really good critique of Citi Field in photos. He brings up all the things that stink about this park--and it's all logistic stuff I completely understand. In his overall assessment at the end, he says what I've been saying for years, pointing out all the ways it imitates the other new parks. I've been calling them "the new cookie cutters" for a long time now.

Camden Yards got it right. They looked at the way parks used to be, and did something in that spirit, instead of copying 80 per cent of the other stadiums around it....whereas all the parks coming out now? That's right, they're: "copying 80 per cent of the other stadiums around it." Some are nice, but the whole league is so anti-septic now.

The question to me has been, "who will build the next SkyDome?" That place was the Eagles tour-bus brigade to Camden Yards' Ramones' first club gig. That poor city got stuck with the last of the dinosaurs, then watched as everyone else partied it up in the gutter. Now with the new cookie-cutters, somebody else is gonna get stuck with the last, most sterilized, overly retro-fied, spring training looking park that costs way too much money to build and get into...right before somebody else starts a new trend. I think the city of New York may have co-dinosaurs.

But how sweet would it have been if the Yanks had built their big tomb, while the Mets waited it out...and then started a new trend? But what would that new trend be? Well, no $2,600 seats. No catering to the rich. Put all that money-making fanciness on the periphery, and leave the fans to sit and watch baseball on a ballfield.

God I'm glad we've still got Fenway Park. The only true solution for these other teams is one they can never attain: going back in time.