Baseball Sunday: Around the horn

Seventeen new ballparks have sprouted up since Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992. The Yankees and Mets will add to that number next year. The Twins' playpen is under construction. The Marlins, Rays and Athletics are working hard to join the parade.

By now, we all know the drill. We "ooh" and "ahh" over the wide concourses and modern conveniences of the new place. We reminisce about our pleasant memories of the old. And life goes on.

What sometimes gets lost in the gee-whiz factor here is that the price of tickets and concessions in these modern facilities, almost all supported at least in part by taxpayer dollars, invariably rises sharply.

The New York Post recently reported on a man who has been a Mets season-ticketholder since 1964, the year the team moved out of the Polo Grounds and into Shea Stadium.

As recently as 1993, he said, his annual tab was $5,837. Five years later, it was $11,836. By last season it was $23,702. This year it's around $33,000.

And when he got a letter informing him that comparable seats at Citi Field next year would set him back about $60,000, he decided he'd had enough and informed the club that he won't be re-upping next year.

Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun was a little disappointed to find out at the All-Star Game that he actually enjoyed being around the players from the rival Cubs. "It turns out that (they're all) nice guys," he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "That's unfortunate. I thought it would be easy to dislike them."

— Combined wire services

Top 10

STADIUM EDITION

TEAM ... Last week

1. Chicago Cubs ... 1
Wrigley Field, built 1914

2. Boston Red Sox ... 3
Fenway Park, built 1912

3. Tampa Bay Rays ... 2
Tropicana Field, built 1990

4. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ... 5
Angel Stadium of Anaheim, built 1966

5. Chicago White Sox ... 4
U.S. Cellular Field, built 1991

6. Philadelphia Phillies ... 6
Citizens Bank Park, built 2004

7. St. Louis Cardinals ... 7

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