As a fan of seeing new baseball stadiums, and as a frequent visitor to baseball parks big and small, I was naturally interested and excited when I received Patrick L. Shabram’s new book, Professional Ballparks of the West Coast.

Shabram, who also penned a Guide to California’s Professional Ballparks, expands his scope to include revisions to his original work and coverage of stadiums in Washington and Oregon, along with a “bonus” guide to Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, B.C., home to the Vancouver Canadians.

The book features a total of 35 stadiums, ranging from Vancouver, B.C., to San Diego, CA, home of Petco Park and the San Diego Padres, and covering independent league teams, minor leagues and the Major Leagues.

Shabram takes a similar approach in providing his “fan’s eye” review of each stadium – chronicling the quality of the food, fans and in-game entertainment while providing each stadium’s address, directions, ticket and parking prices. He provides a quick pluses and minuses synopsis of each stadium, as well as some helpful tips to help the reader get the most out of their visit to each ballpark.

Living on the West Coast myself, I’ve had the experience of going to several of the stadiums that Shabram covers in his book – 15 of the 34 as of my latest travels, so I was interested to see how my thoughts compared with his. There were many common thoughts, but also several that I didn’t necessarily agree with — such as the score of the game at Safeco Field in Seattle being hard to locate. As someone who has attended hundreds of games at Safeco Field, it’s hard for me to see it through the eyes of a first-timer, although the idea of not looking at the main centerfield scoreboard, or either of the two auxiliary scoreboards near home plate as a natural thing to do did seem a bit strange to me.

But this is exactly what makes this book both very interesting and somewhat irrelevant at the same time. Individual experiences can vary tremendously at the same ballpark, even at the same game. Sometimes you go on an off-night, and sometimes you go on the best night of the year. Sometimes you get told about some great secret that lies within the ballpark and feel like you’re a local, and sometimes you see it on a very surface level as someone stopping by for a quick visit. And as I have found when I’m a visitor, you often don’t have the connection with a ballpark that the locals do, which Shabram reminds the reader of throughout the game. The feeling of ‘it may be a dump, but it’s our dump’ is one that many of the fans Shabram talked to echo throughout the book.

The issue of practicality for a book like this was one that stuck with me as I read through its 144 pages. The book has some historical notes to it – such as that the original scoreboard and lights from Seattle’s Sicks Stadium, home to the Seattle Pilots for just one season, ended up in Vancouver’s Nat Bailey Stadium – but not enough to really be called a history book. While the reviews and notes from Shabram’s visits to each of the stadiums are completely valid and useful, they certainly shouldn’t be taken as the only source of information for your visit to a stadium, especially when you can get online and see dozens of reviews from many different types of fans. If anything, the notes on each stadium seemed to be a bit thin for me to really fall in love with the book as a true guide.

When I think of a guidebook, I want as much useful, relevant information as possible, so that I will enjoy my visit as thoroughly as I can. Whether the stadium is rich in history because it held great games there, or whether it offers truly unique food or experiences, that is what I crave from a guidebook. That may be asking a lot for one person to provide – but it is what I need to see before laying down my money for a guidebook.

Unfortunately, there were some factual and grammatical errors that stood out to me – the most memorable of which being directions to Yakima’s County Stadium, which directed visitors to take Interstate 5 either east or west, depending on their starting point. Unfortunately, I-5 runs north and south, and is on the western side of the Cascade Mountains, some 140 or so miles from Yakima. Needless to say, I would recommend both an editor and fact-checker for future versions of this book, as well as for you to verify the directions yourself prior to heading out on your journey. Likewise, things change with stadiums, such as teams, affiliations, ticket prices and parking options, so a visit to the team’s website would likely be needed for the most up-to-date and accurate information.

Shabram also runs a website – California Professional Ballparks – which has some of the same information you’ll find in the book, but could evolve into a much more dynamic and up-to-date resource for fans visiting the stadiums with more user-generated feedback and updates on recent visits to each of the stadiums. Sadly, I have yet to come across a site that provides an all-encompassing guide to ballparks, leaving fans to piecemeal details and tips from travel sites and smaller sites that only provide reviews of a limited number of stadiums. Maybe an idea for an entrepreneurial individual with some website development knowledge…

A good effort by Shabram, unfortunately marred by some editing errors, and in this digital age of wikis and forums, one that in printed form might be slightly outdated despite its useful information.