The Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros share a brand new spring training facility, the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches (www.ballparkpalmbeaches.com) in West Palm Beach, just west of I-95 on 45th Street. It’s in the style of newer major league ballparks with food and drinks available in a loggia-style area behind the seats from where you can watch the game while you’re in line grabbing a beer. The ballpark holds about 6500 people, so you are close to the game and I don’t think there are any bad seats. Each team has six practice fields and other areas for batting practice with walkways and bleachers easily accessible to fans. There are suites and restaurants with large patios above the general seating area for fans that want a dining experience other than stadium hot dogs and burgers.
As a Miami Marlins fan, I missed the coziness of Roger Dean Stadium, but the newness and access around the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches is pretty impressive. Being a brand new facility, in an area dominated by strip malls and warehouses, the neighborhood around ballpark needs to develop additional restaurants and bars, similar to the area to the southeast side of Roger Dean Stadium. These will come with time, I hope. The park is only about a half mile off of I-95 with easy access to parking. Parking is available on either side of the complex and the days I was there police moving traffic out of the park helped make exiting efficient and easy.
Roger Dean Stadium is only about 12 miles north and just east of I-95 in Jupiter, FL. If one were a Miami Marlins fan and a former resident of Washington, DC, one could easily spend the month of March shuttling between the two parks for a month of good baseball.
There are still about two weeks left before the regular season starts. So a great way to spend a day in the beautiful Miami sunshine could be a visit to the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.