Stadium Tours - Angel Stadium of Anaheim

I had an interesting week at the end of May, where on back to back nights I ended up at both Angel Stadium of Anaheim and Dodger Stadium. Angel Stadium was for a corporate event where Dodger Stadium was to see a game. Both experiences were quite different. In this week's post, I will be discussing the Angel Stadium tour.

Full disclosure... I have not attended a game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, but instead, I was there for a private event. However, I did get a behind the scenes tour of the facility.

A small group of about 300-400 people attended a private party and hung out in the Lexus Club just inside the home plate entrance. The party spilled out into the lower deck behind home plate, into the visitor dugout, down into the visitor's clubhouse, and batting cages.

The structure of the stadium is very well kept for being the fourth oldest stadium in baseball (behind Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium). The stadium once was completely enclosed and looked like an old football stadium back when the LA Rams played there until 1994. Since that time, the stadium has remodeled to the point that it actually looks like a dedicated baseball stadium and not one of those bad hybrid baseball/football stadiums we used to see (like the Oakland Coliseum).

By Jerry Reuss (Anaheim Stadium 3 (6-12-91)) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I was fortunate enough to take the elevator downstairs to the visitor's clubhouse and batting cages. The first stop was the batting cages, where I show off my poor form to the world:

BP At Angel Stadium by stadiumscene

The next stop was the Visitor's Clubhouse. The first thing I did was hit the lazy boys in the middle of the locker room and hang out.   A gentleman who sat next to me turns to his buddy and said "Can you imagine how many naked athletes have sat in these chairs?".

Finally, I worked my way out to the field through a long tunnel. It's pretty clear the way that tunnel was designed, it was meant to handle a full roster of an NFL team. It took me well over a minute to walk from the clubhouse to the dugout.

Overall, I had a great experience at the stadium and the staff was very friendly and knowledgeable about the club and the history of their ballpark. I look forward to getting back to Anaheim to see a game at the Big A very soon.