December 24, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Opening Day at Nationals Park!

The first official stateside baseball game of the 2008 will take place in Our Nation's Capital, as the Washington Nationals will host the Atlanta Braves in a one-game "series." That is certainly appropriate recognition as the franchise passes through the transition phase that began when it was announced that the former Montreal Expos would relocate to Washington. The special event will be cablecast nationwide on ESPN, no less! See MLB.com.

Marlins wait till next year

It looked like they almost had a deal nailed down to get a new ballpark for the Marlins at the site of the Orange Bowl, but complications arose and they will wait until January to settle everything. As part of the proposed stadium funding deal, the team would be called the Miami Marlins, which is appropriate. See MLB.com; hat tip to Mike Zurawski.

Construction in Minneapolis

After a delay stemming from the collapsed Mississippi River bridge in August, construction of the Minnesota Twins' future home is now well underway, as the first section of concrete has been poured. Target completion date is the spring of 2010. See Twins Ballpark blog; hat tip to Bruce Orser. Also, Cal Ripken has lent his name to an architectural design firm: ripkendesign.com. They are working on the (hopeful) renovation of Tiger Stadium, among other things.

Hiatus for the holidays

In preparation for some future upgrades to the baseball stadium pages, there will be a brief baseball blog hiatus for the holidays. Please note that the ballpark impressions feature is temporarily out of service, but please come back next year!