Memphis Redbirds: AutoZone Park

Opened in 2000 and ushering in both a new century and a new era of professional sports in Memphis, TN, AutoZone Park is, simply put, one of the finest minor league baseball stadiums in America. From its neo-traditional design (based on iconic Camden Yards) to the Bluff out in left field, everything about AutoZone Park is designed to provide a unique, thoroughly enjoyable baseball experience.Anyone living in Memphis at the time the stadium was being erected remembers some of the nightmares that the builders had to endure: the huge price tag ($80.5 million, by far the highest in minor league stadium history) which led to heavy resistance from the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County; the drawn out, acrimonious and very public arguments over where to locate the park; and construction delays, including the cavernous hole in the ground that flooded during the site preparation phase and led to derision throughout the region. But my, oh my, was the end result worth the tribulations the bu...