Minute Maid Park

In 2004, the Houston Astros made it possible for fans to get onto the internet through a set-up of WiFi throughout the stadium.  Through an interestingly comical deal with Chick-fil-A in 2006, two cows with Astros caps on were placed on the two foul poles saying "EAT MOR FOWL."  If a baseball player hits the pole, which has happened three times in one season since then, the fans in attendance receive a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich.  Minute Maid Park also features a train which is on a track behind the outfield wall, which runs whenever a player bats in a home run.  As the stadium stands on what was formerly Houston's Union Station, this train is in honor of its history, although with giant Minute Maid oranges carried by the train instead of coal.

Minute Maid Park was opened for the 2000 season and hosts the home games of the National League Central's Houston Astros. It's located at P.O. Box 288, Houston, TX, 77001-0288, and has a 242 foot high retractable roof. The park is asymmetric and the deepest part of the field measures 436 feet. Minute Maid Park can hold almost 41,000 people and only cost the people of Houston $250 million. The field was originally named Enron Field on April 7, 1999, but the field was renamed on February 27, 2002, through an agreement by the Astros and Enron Corp.

The playing surface on the field covers 6.7 acres of land, equal to 291,852 square feet. The wall heights vary throughout the field and a 30 degree uphill slope represents the center field warning track. The flagpole is also located along the center field wall, actually still in the field of play. Minute Maid Park is also the first field in the Major Leagues to feature a closed-captioning board for the hearing impaired. Only 43 feet separate 1st and 3rd base from the stands and seats down the foul lines are as close as 5 feet to the action. Keeping an old tradition alive, the Astros allow children 14-and-under to purchase tickets in the Outfield Deck section for only a dollar.

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