The Best Seat in the House

On Friday night I went to (only) my fifth baseball game of the 2011 season.  Each time I've been to a game this spring / summer, I've sat in a different part of the stadium: at AT&T Park in San Francisco I watched the Braves beat the Giants from the left field bleachers, at the Oakland Coliseum I saw the Yankees pound the A's from the field level on the third base side, at Citi Field I viewed Angel Pagan's walkoff homerun versus the Cardinals from the left field corner, and at Yankee Stadium I witnessed the Mariners snap the season's longest losing streak from the upper deck in right field.  For each of those four games, I didn't buy the tickets and thus didn't have control over where I sat.

Friday night was different, though; I decided weeks ago to get tickets to see my Braves battle the Mets at Citi Field this weekend, and went out of my way to find my preferred tickets on StubHub.  In my opinion, you can't beat upper deck seats right behind home plate.  They're the best bang for your buck, and provide an awesome view of the entire field.  For about $25 a ticket (right around face value), I was able to secure an unobstructed view of the entire playing surface - unlike seats down the lines which prevent you from seeing what happens in the left or right field corner.

Section 516 provides a great view of everything Citi Field has to offer.

I know a lot of people will avoid the upper deck at all costs - they'd rather spend a lot more money for lower-level seats toward the outfield than sit with the commoners upstairs.  I never really understood that decision, however.  There's a reason that TV broadcasts primarily use cameras located behind the mound and behind the plate; the best vantage points from which to watch a game are, not surprisingly, centered.  While there are no seats situated in dead center field anywhere (each stadium must have a dark-colored, fan-free "batter's eye" directly behind the mound), every park offers excellent (and usually reasonably-priced) seats in the upper deck behind home plate.

Our Section 516 seats let us see everything at Citi Field; the entire playing surface, the dugouts, the bullpens and the scoreboards.  Sure, you're sitting pretty high up, but it's the height that helps you judge the depth of flyballs (as opposed to outfield seats that make judging flyballs nearly impossible) and the speed of baserunners.  Factor in the reasonable pricing of these sections, and I'll choose them over more expensive down-the-line seats any day of the week.  My next scheduled MLB game is Yankees vs. Oakland at Yankee Stadium; I recently purchased the tickets for just $15 each (including fees) on StubHub, and I bet you can guess where I'll be sitting.