Wrigley Ranks 10th, U.S. Cellular 22nd In Baseball Park Survey
NEW YORK (CBS) -- Pittsburgh's PNC Park tops the list for statistician Nate Silver's rankings of the best ballparks, while Wrigley Field just barely makes the top 10.
But U.S. Cellular Field comes in at No. 22 among the 30 ballparks in the U.S. and Canada.
Silver published his list in his New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog.
He is planning to examine the attendance woes for New York Mets games by examining game attendance as a mathematical function of factors such as the team's performance, the size of its market, and the quality of the ballparks. But his ranking list for the best ballparks was far simpler – it was based on average ratings on Yelp.com.
Wrigley Field comes in 10th on the list, with an average rating of 4.25 stars. U.S. Cellular comes in 22nd, with 3.89 stars.
Silver points out that even though Wrigley ranks 10th, it "elicits its share of skeptical reactions," including the narrow seats and the lack of restrooms. These would be hard to resolve without "gutting the place," Silver wrote, but the below-average food and beer options would be far easier to solve.
"Perhaps the Cubs should consider trading Alfonso Soriano for chef Rick Bayless," Silver wrote.
The Pirates' PNC Park got 4.77 stars on average, while the 30th and last-place finisher, the Toronto Blue Jays' Rogers Centre, got an average of only 3.02 stars.
