Isotopes Stadium

On Monday night I was in Albuquerque and had a chance to see the Isotopes (a Dodger affiliate) play the Reno Aces.

As I have written often, I like AAA baseball. So this was an opportunity to see another team in the league play on its home turf.   I've now been to several of the Pacific Coast League stadiums including the ones in Fresno and New Orleans.  Each has a distinctive feeling - although the Grizzlies and the Isotopes stadium has a lot of the same features.  Here are my impressions:

• The stadium is about the same size as Raley field although it has two sets of skyboxes.   
• The crowd was slightly smaller than an average weekday crowd at Raley Field - about 4000.
• The ambience of this stadium has some features that Raley Field does not - for example, in the kid's play area there is a merry go round.
• The food choices at Isotopes park are superior to Raley Field.  For example, they had a stand that offered Bananas Foster - which was actually quite tasty.  The variety was also a bit wider.
• Prices for food were a bit lower than Raley Field and the portions were a bit more generous.
• The crowd seemed less engaged in the game than the ones at Raley Field.
• Ticket prices were reasonable - although I was unable to explain clearly to the ticket lady that I wanted to be on the first base side.   For a ticket half way down third base (I had specifically asked for the other side of the field) about 9 rows up - I spent $14.  Parking was $5.
• The batting averages of the Isotopes were well north of the Cats - one batter - who had been with the team since the start of the season was hitting .438.

In the end the Isotopes went out early with a huge lead, blew it and then recovered to win the contest 9-8.