Special Edition- Progressive Field: Home of the Cleveland Guardians
This special edition features my first MLB ballpark review at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, my fifth Major League Baseball ballpark visit. Progressive Field sits in downtown Cleveland right next to Rocket Mortgage Field House, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Monsters. The ballpark is in a great location with the center of downtown Cleveland being no more than a half a mile walk. I know this blog is centered around minor league ballparks but I hope you enjoy this special edition!
I chose to visit Progressive Field because they were taking on my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. The game took place on a very rainy day that made me doubt that I was going to even see a baseball game. The rain held off a little bit and the grounds crew managed to keep the field in good shape which led to no delays or cancellations. The crowd was slim at this game due to the weather but there was still energy in the park.
About me: My name is Sam and I have been a baseball fan my entire life. I grew up in Syracuse, New York and went to plenty Syracuse Chiefs games (now known as the Syracuse Mets). I have always enjoyed the flare and personality that minor league baseball has. In my high school years, I started to dream of visiting every minor league ballpark, so here I am!
About the blog: The purpose of this blog is to inform readers about each minor league ballpark. Hopefully readers will be inspired to do the same journey as me! Each post will follow the same format (at least I'll do my best). I will open with my personal experience which might include a story or two. Then I will highlight the three main aspects that I think are important to the overall experience, location/scenery/amenities, food/drinks, and entertainment. Finally, I will give each ballpark a grade out of 100.
Location/ Scenery/ Amenities (4.7/5)
Progressive Field entered the 2024 season during a very large facility upgrade. The upgrades are mostly completed as of April 2024 but there are multiple areas that are still under construction. With the upgrade, there are new seats, increased food options, and updated large group spaces. The scenery in particular was enjoyable. The city in the background provides a nice view and the outfield bleachers and decorations added a nice touch. I also enjoyed the scoreboard which pictures do not do justice as the board is much larger in person. The seats were nice (even though they were wet) and it was an overall great place to watch a game. While I thought the city skyline was cool, there are much better skylines out there, which is the reason for the small deduction.
Food (4.5/5)
I had a really hard time evaluating the food in Cleveland. I decided to try the slider dog ($11.00) which has mac and cheese, bacon, and Fruit Loops. There was no way I wasn't trying that. However, the price was really high for such a small and simple, albeit creative, creation. I'm trying not to hold the prices against them too much because, after all, it is the MLB and food is destined to be expensive. Plus, this is not a value review, it's a ballpark review. On top of that they had all types of creative dishes available as well such as a the Southern Style BBQ Dog (pulled pork, beer cheese, collard greens and BBQ sauce), Dyngus Dog (sauerkraut, pierogies and horseradish sour cream), The Heater Sandwich (pulled pork, "heater sauce", flamin' hot cheetos, Jalepenos, on a kaiser roll), and much more. You won't be disappointed with the options. But to add on to the high prices, a bottle of water will set you back $4.75. Great food but once again, price is an issue.
Entertainment (2.8/5)
There wasn't much on the entertainment front at this game. The desolate crowd also impacts this score a little bit but there wasn't much I can think of that moved the needle. They had a hot dog race midway through the game which was probably the highlight of the entertainment.
Sam's Score: 80/100
Progressive Field has a lot of great qualities to it. The location and scenery surrounding the ballpark was done very nicely and the food is memorable and creative. However, the entertainment was a little lackluster for an MLB team. Obviously, this ballpark is much better than any minor league ballpark that I have visited. I tried to rate this ballpark a little harder since it is supposed to be the best of the best. Overall, this is definitely worth the visit and is a great park to catch a ball game.
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