Baseball season has recently started. I have fond memories of attending baseball games as a family from a young age. As we went on summer vacations, we would often try to see a baseball game in the city we were visiting. This is a tradition that we have continued with my 4 year old daughter. It can be a challenge to keep a young child entertained at a long sporting event.
I remember my first baseball game at Wrigley Field. It was before my sister was born, so I must have been 5.5 and my brother 2. The thing I remember most was it being windy and cold at the stadium despite being warm at home in the suburbs. Fortunately it was kid's jacket day so we at least had something to warm us.
We took my daughter to her first MLB game at 18 months at Comerica Park. Weather wise, her first game was the tropical opposite of my first game. It was in the 90s which is made worse when you are packed into a crowded stadium and trying to contain an 18 month old on your lap. We attended the game with our neighbors who have a son my daughter's age. We opted to just buy seats for the adults since the kids were not required to have their own seat. In hind sight, we should have bought one seat for the 2 kids to share. Even just to give us the extra elbow room.
Newer stadiums offer many more amenities and distractions from the game than older stadiums. Comerica Park in Detroit has a Tiger carousel and a baseball ferris wheel. Kids under 14 ride free on Sunday. AT&T Park in San Francisco offers a Coca-Cola slide, a mini ballpark for kids 3-7, and even a Build a Bear location. Even the newer stadiums without these attractions (Citizens Bank in Philadelphia, Citi Field in New York, Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore), offer wider promenades, a wider variety of food choices, and often a standing room or picnic bench viewing area offering an escape from your seats with a young child. I am sure that many other parks offer these features. These happen to be fields that I have been to in the last 7 years.
Have you been to another ball park that offers activities for kids?
Stay tuned for the next blog post - Keeping preschoolers entertained at a game.
