For the benefit of those unfortunate few among you who haven’t seen it, the very humorous movie “Groundhog Day” deals with a TV newscaster, played by Bill Murray, doomed to live the same day — Groundhog Day — over and over.
He’s been sent by his station, against his wishes, to cover the annual rodent-shadow thing in Punxsutawney, Pa. That’s the day he repeats ad nauseum. Great stuff.
Shifting back to reality and back to Oregon, on Thursday morning before work I happened to be watching one of my current favorite television channels, the MLB Network. It was a countdown show called “Prime Nine,” and on this episode, the network ranked its top nine major league baseball stadiums.
As some of you know, I do my own countdown show every Thursday with a Top 7, and of course this Thursday was also Groundhog Day. This week’s list, unrelated to burrowing mammals, dealt with inspiring movies.
But anyway, in honor both of Groundhog Day — which at this writing (8 :30 p.m. Thursday night) it still is — and of the MLB Network, we’re putting together another Top 7 this week, as in right now.
I haven’t been to nine different big league ballparks, so instead, here are my Top 7 pro/college sports venues, of any kind, that I have visited, not counting the ones at my alma mater, Oregon State:
1. Wrigley Field, Chicago. On my one and only visit to the Friendly Confines in August 1985, Thad Bosley entered the game as a pinch-hitter and homered twice to fuel the Cubs' one-run win over Montreal.
2. Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, Minn. I saw my first major league game here, in about 1972. The Mall of America now occupies this site.
3. Memorial Coliseum, Portland. I've always loved the Glass Palace, dating to late-60s AAA basketball tournaments and early-70s Blazer games.
4. Safeco Field, Seattle. I've seen at least one Mariners game at this ballpark in the city of my birth for 10 straight seasons.
5. McArthur Court, Eugene. As most of you know, I don't exactly root for the Ducks, but I've always loved their former basketball arena, The Pit -- which the Beavers shut down with a Civil War win two seasons ago.
6. Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, Calif. There's not a bad seat in the house in the 89-year-old bowl hard by picturesque Strawberry Canyon.
7. War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyo. Stopped by here on a drive to Washington, D.C., in September 2009. Always loved the name. It's not the nation's only War Memorial Stadium, but it's the one I always think of first.
