Progressive Field, Cleveland (MLB #23 - The Jake Lives Up to its Reputation)

 


Cleveland’s Progressive Field (“The Jake”) has a reputation as being one of the best ballparks in which to watch a game.

I won’t disagree.

The stadium is old, by major league standards. It opened in 1994, which makes it the 10th oldest of the 30 MLB stadiums. However, at the time it was ground-breaking, the second stadium (after Baltimore’s Camden Yards) to be built in the “Retro-Classic” style, a style that many parks since have tried to emulate. In many ways, it remains one of the best.

It is situated in the heart of a rebuilding downtown. In fact, the NBA arena across the street was hosting a second-round playoff game as we walked to the game from our hotel.

It has wide concourses, so you don’t feel like you’re going to get crushed trying to get to your seat. Note the amount of space in the outfield concourse around the statue of Jim Thome in the picture above.

It has the fewest permanent seats of any team’s park, 34,820 (not counting Florida stadiums that close off the upper deck because the tickets will never sell), so the seats are reasonably close to the field.

There’s more variety at the concessions stands than at many ballparks. The one food item I tried, a cheeseburger with “two special sauces,” was quite good.

The staff is friendly. More on that in a minute.

It looks nice from the outside.

Incidentally, the reason I called it “The Jake” is because when it opened, to great acclaim, it was “Jacobs Field.” But in 2008, the same year that a fan opinion poll rated it the best stadium in MLB, the naming rights changed to Progressive Insurance. But the name “The Jake” has stubbornly stuck around, and I like it. 

In fact, the only thing I don’t care for about it is that it doesn’t have a retractable roof. I can’t fault Cleveland too much, since at the time The Jake was build, there was only one, Toronto’s CN Centre – now there are seven. I have to say, after walking through rain to get to games that were played in pleasant conditions and sat through rain delays in parks that would be beautiful on a sunny day, I like the idea of retractable roofs more and more.

We arrived at the stadium in sunny conditions, and it was still sunny when the grounds crew came out to cover the field with the tarp for the approaching storm. We’ve become far too familiar with tarps on this trip. Kerry had the brilliant idea to walk back to our hotel to wait out the storm (we’re only three blocks away, one of the advantages of a downtown stadium), so we didn’t get drenched. When we got back, the usher who had been discussing rain delay strategies with us (which seats would they allow us to sit in, which seats would be under cover) gave Kerry a hug to welcome us back.

But still, with a retractable roof, I wouldn’t be writing this at 12:45 a.m.

The game: Minnesota Twins 2, Cleveland Guardians 1 (11 innings)

On the third pitch of the game, Minnesota’s Byron Buxton hit a home run. Ten innings later, he hit a ball to nearly the same spot that didn’t quite clear the fence, so he had to settle for a double, but it scored a runner, for the Twins’ second run. In between, they had zero base hits.

The Guardians, meanwhile, got back-to-back singles in the 4th inning to score a run, their first hits of the game, then loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batter, but failed to score. That was the sum total of their hits and runs for the game.

Twice more, in the ninth and 10th innings, the Guardians loaded the bases on walks (plus the extra runner that starts the inning at 2nd base in extra innings) with one out, but each time failed to score.

That situation, game-winning run on third with less than two outs in the home half of the 9th inning or an extra inning, often leads to a specific defensive alignment that I don’t think we’ve seen before this season, but we saw it twice tonight. Since even a fly ball to a medium depth in the outfield is likely to allow the runner from third to score after tagging up, some teams (including the Twins, apparently) will bring one of the outfielders in to play as a fifth infielder, reducing the number of places a ground ball can go through the infield.

It’s a gamble, and often doesn’t pay off, but tonight it did. In the 9th, the Guardians’ Bryan Rocchio hit a hard ground ball, but it was right at the second baseman (it’s hard for a ground ball NOT to be right at someone in that alignment), who threw to the catcher to get the runner at home plate, and the next hitter grounded out. In the 10th, the Guardians’ Dan Schneemann hit a line drive that looked like it was headed for the outfield, but Twin shortstop Brooks Lee made a spectacular diving catch to keep the game going, and the next hitter hit a deep fly ball, but not deep enough to get over the outfield with two outs.

Even in the 11th, it looked like the Guardians had a chance to tie it. They got the extra-inning runner to third with two out, and Rocchio (again) hit it hard on the ground (again), but Lee (again) made great play to throw him out at first by a step and end the game.

Adding in the two hour rain delay, the game ended a little before midnight.

Audience participation

One thing that every major and minor league team tries to do is to get the audience involved in the game. Often, it may be as unoriginal as a sign on the Jumbotron that says “MAKE NOISE.” It may be the mascot and others throwing out T-shirts to the crowd, and exhorting the audience to jump up and down to get their attention. I was impressed that the Cleveland crowd did more things spontaneously than I’m used to.

Specifically, three players got personalized greetings. When Bryan Rocchio would come to back, a chant of “RO KEY OH” would start. When José Ramírez came up, it was the sing-song,

              JO SÉ

              José José José

              JO SÉ

              JO SÉ

Every player has a “walk-up song” music, a snippet of a song that plays as they come to the plate. In most cases, it tells you a little about the player’s taste in music, but doesn’t add much entertainment value. Guardian rookie Chase DeLauter uses the opening bars of “Country Roads.” What I found interesting is that the crowd would sing along, and then keep singing, after the loudspeaker stopped, until they got to the end of the first verse. I liked that. And yes, he did grow up in West Virginia.

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