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The Indians may not be having the best season, but there’s still nothing like a day at the ballpark. Sports Illustrated ranked Progressive Field the best park in baseball based on a 2008 fan poll.

Progressive Field Directions
Progressive Field
2401 Ontario St
Cleveland, Ohio
(216)420-4200‎

If you’re coming in from the airport, you take Berea Freeway for 3 miles east, and then get on I-71 north for 9 miles and then I-90 east for 1 mile. You will then find Progressive Field at 2401 Ontario Street, across the Cavaliers arena.

Progressive Field - Google Maps

You can also ride the RTA rapid train straight from the airport to the Tower City station in downtown Cleveland, which is just a five-minute walk from the stadium.

The RTA also runs trains from the southern suburbs to Tower City. (Route Maps) A single ride on the train from one stop to another is $2, and an all-day ticket is $4.50 and gives you access to unlimited rides for the day.

Parking at Progressive Field
Ever since the Indians stopped winning division titles, parking costs have decreased greatly. You can park just a few blocks from the park for $5 or $10. My favorite spot is the Huntington Bank Parking Garage at 947 Chester Ave. It’s three blocks away, but it’s only $5 and always has a lot of open spaces.

Attractions in Cleveland, Ohio
If you’ve got some time to kill before the game, a great place to visit is the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Located to the northeast of Progressive Field right on Lake Erie, you can get there via the RTA train from Tower City. Admission is $22 for adults, and it has a vast collection of rock n roll memorabilia and temporary exhibits.

The Rock Hall is in a section by the lake near the Great Lakes Science Center and Cleveland Browns Stadium, which offers a view of the lake from Voinovich Bicentennial Park.
Closer to the park is the Tower City Mall, a fun place to browse, with lots of sports stores.

Cleveland Dining
The best restaurant in Cleveland is Lola, owned by Chef Michael Symon, winner of the 2007 Iron Chef contest on the Food Network. Lola features exquisite American cuisine including smoked Berkshire pork chop, Walleye, lamb, and duck. It’s located a short walk from the park on East 4th Street, between Prospect and Euclid Ave, a charming stretch that also includes the House of Blues, the 4th Street Bar and Grill, Pickwick and Frolic comedy club, and other restaurants.

Of course Lola is pretty expensive with most dinner entrees costing about $30. If you want something more affordable with more of a sports atmosphere, I’d recommend The Winking Lizard Tavern. The Winking Lizard is a local favorite with locations all over the northeastern Ohio area. It has a great atmosphere and great ribs and wings and has a location at 811 Huron Road very close to the park.

At the Park, Inside Progressive Field
Once inside the ballpark, sit down and enjoy the game! With a modern design, all seats have a good view of the game. Out in center field, is Heritage Park, honoring the Indians’ best players. If you’ve got young kids with you, they might like to visit KidsLand in right field. And of course, there’s nothing like heckling the opposing teams’ relievers as they warm up in the bullpen, located in the right field area as well.

Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox - The Game
After being swept by the Tigers, the Indians had some needed relief, facing the second worst team in the American League Central, the Chicago White Sox. (The Indians are the worst.) The Indians won game one and lost game two, so this was the rubber game, matching up Mark Buehrle with Cliff Lee.

My friend Sifat and I had great seats in the second row halfway up the first base side thanks to RazorGator who provided the Cleveland Indians tickets. Being so close to the field, I could see the expressions on the players’ faces as they warmed up and as they batted.

Since it was on the visitors’ side, there were a few people heckling especially loudly, and I did see A.J. Pierzynski utter a response after being told, “Remember when highlights were cool in 1998?”

Victor Martinez homered in the first to put the Indians up 1-0 from the start. Cliff Lee then held the lead, pitching 7 scoreless innings, striking out 9 and allowing 6 hits. The Indians added 2 more in the fourth on a Ryan Garko home run then another run in the fifth to end up winning 4-0.

The White Sox threatened the Indians in the sixth and seventh, when they had the bases loaded both times with two outs, but Lee ended up getting out of both innings unscathed.

With the bases loaded in the sixth, Jermaine Dye was called out on strikes to end the inning. He responded by flipping his bat to the ground and arguing with the umpire, and he was then ejected after slamming his helmet to the ground. Ozzie Guillen came out onto the field to escort Dye away but strayed from the argument.

It was not until Guillen was back in the dugout that he was ejected, so he came out onto the field and started arguing about his ejection. Since I was behind the dugout, I didn’t see what, if anything, he did in the dugout to warrant his ejection, but I did have a good view of both Dye’s argument and Guillen’s subsequent argument.

With the way the White Sox season has been going, I can see why they’d be in the mood to argue, but with a seat down the first base line at an afternoon Indians game, I had nothing to argue about.