Fields of Dreams: A Guide to Visiting and Enjoying All 30 Major League Ballparks [Paperback]

Jay Ahuja (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

The essential guide for anyone who fantasizes about the perfect baseball vacation, "Field of Dreams" gives fans all the information they need to plan a trip--ticket-booth phone numbers, drive time between baseball cities, nightlife options, listings of hotels with ballgame packages, and much more. This unique travel book, with its targeted information, will quickly become baseball fans' vacation bible. Photos .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Major League Baseball's 30 stadiums--each with its own distinct ambience and dimensions--greatly affect both a fan's devotion and a team's specific style of play. If not for the familiar sun- and beer-drenched bleachers and vine-covered walls, why else would fans perennially flock to Chicago's Wrigley Field to support yet another losing season? And, in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, where the "grass" never needs mowing, why not assemble rosters with speed in mind?

Ahuja's Fields of Dreams is a baseball stadium tour guide, including both stadium logistics (tickets, concessions, parking) and profiles of each Major League town (lodging, restaurants, and attractions). But the book's strength lies in its ability to capture what it's like to be a fan in each Major League city, including past stadium heroics (slim for some hapless clubs) and descriptions of parks from home plate to foul pole. The author, who moonlights as a baseball tour guide, describes venerable Wrigley as "a great baseball park in a great neighborhood where you can see the game the way it should be--up close and personal." Montreal's Olympic Stadium contains "everything there is to dislike about a modern-day ballpark," but its "nightlife is absolutely incredible--unlike anything I've seen since visiting New Orleans." Fields of Dreams also includes Tropicana Field and Bank One Ballpark, the respective homes of 1998's expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks. --Rob McDonald

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806519657
• ISBN-13: 978-0806519654
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,166,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mixture bag of stadium and tourist industy, August 25, 2004

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fields of Dreams: A Guide to V (Paperback)

This book proves to be mildly informative about the main subject matter, the baseball stadiums of the major league. However, I believed that the author spent too much time being a tour guide of the city of each stadium instead of the stadium itself. I wanted a lot more information about the stadium of each city instead of the city itself. I can find other books on the city if I need to. I don't need to read about it in a book I thought would be about major league baseball stadiums.

Each stadium is given a very short review and rest of the chapter centered around the sights, sound and places to stay. I really wanted to know bit more about the stadium, best seats, worst seats, food, and that sort of thing.

I got the 2001 edition and it does feel dated already. I think this book have been effectively replaced by "The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip" book that came out this year and contain a huge wealth of information about each stadium and its suroundings. But in that book, the stadium and baseball remains the main focus; in "Fields of Dreams", it seem to be the city. In many ways, "Fields of Dreams" should have read like the "The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip" but the author wasn't ambitious enough to do it right.

Overall, it does have useful information but they are rather minor and its dated. The "other" book have effective replaced it so I don't see why any one wants to buy this book any more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nice format, needs update, April 12, 2000

By 

Ben Hsu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fields of Dreams: A Guide to Visiting and Enjoying All 30 Major League Ballparks (Paperback)

Like other reviewers said, much of the information is outdated, but I like what the book tried to do: collect both baseball and nonbaseball information in one volume. The 'closest major league city' section are a nice touch for someone planning a road trip, and the top ten lists scattered throughout the book are a nice touch

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ahuja does a nice job..., August 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Fields of Dreams: A Guide to V (Paperback)

of reviewing the major league ballparks in the United States. I enjoyed reading this book and finding out more about the cities that the ballparks were in. A good book for any fan interested in traveling to the games.