ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When you think about the worst seat at a ballpark, the first seat typically does not come to mind.
“There are several seats on this list that are in row 1, or row A,” Bill Speros, a betting analyst for Bookies.com and sports columnist at the Boston Herald, said.
Speros came up with an algorithm to determine the worst seat at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.
“I began alphabetically and just started going down the list,” he said.
He scored each ballparks seating arrangement on a 0-10 scale in six categories, such as obstructed view and distance from home plate.
“The first seat on the list is right field at Fenway Park. It’s Row 1, Section 1, Seat 1,” Speros told ABC Action News sports anchor Kyle Burger. “Oldest ballpark, Fenway, but you go there, and you’re 400 feet away from the plate. There is a pole blocking the middle 90% of your vision. You cannot see any of the plate or bases.”
Closer to home, at Tropicana Field, you will find no worse seat than in the left field corner, Section 129, Row G, Seat 1.
“With the Rays closing off so many seats, you go from 42,000 to 25,000; that takes a lot of seats off the potential ‘worst seat list,’” he said. “What I tried to do for this story, we did not list seats that were not for sale.”
This seat at The Trop is technically on the front row, but they might be deceiving.
“They’re close, right on the field, but the problem is that angle,” Speros explained. “You’re facing right field, and you’re so low that your line of site is flat. So you can’t really get a good judge of the action. There is a real chance that someone in that little bar area in front of you is in your way. Then you have to look past the bullpen as well.”
A ticket for this seat cost around $30.
“It’s just a really difficult place to watch the game,” he said. “If you’re 20-30 rows up, you’re fine. I’ve sat in those seats.”
