Meet Me at Union Station

Home plate entrance to what was then Enron Field, Aug-2000.

Looking at the stands from Home Run Alley.

The view from behind the plate, including the Home Run Train.

Chronological Tour: Stop 188

• Location: Texas Avenue at Crawford Street, Houston, Texas (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 2000 as Enron Field
• Additional names: Astros Field (2002); Minute Maid Park (2002)
• Home team: Houston Astros, Major League Baseball (2000-present)
• Capacity: 42,000

Rating: 4 baseballs

The retractable-roof facility, which includes windows looking out to the northwest and some of the city’s skyline, has a major rail-station motif. Many of the concession stands have railyard names, and some vendors have red and green signal lights. Most significantly, the Astros have installed a “home run train”, a locomotive and caboose, beyond the left-field fence – reminiscent, in a way, of Chattanooga except that this train is always visible and then moves along its rail and belches smoke when the Astros hit a home run, something that has happened with unusual frequency in this hitters’ ballpark which has been nicknamed “Home Run Field” or “Ten-Run Field”.

The roof was closed when my Aug-2000 game started, but they opened it in the seventh inning. The entire roof slides off to the northeast, creating the largest open-air area of any of these new facilities (including Bank One Ballpark and Safeco Field).

A nice touch is the captioning message board, displaying everything the public address announcer has said for the benefit of the hard of hearing or anyone else who was distracted or couldn’t hear the announcement over the cheering fans.

In recent years, “Tal’s Hill”, the raised area in dead center field near the flagpole, was removed in the interest of player safety.