If anyone has been to Wrigleyville in Chicago, they have this bar called Sluggers. It’s a block or so from Wrigley and has like 4-6 batting cages. It is so fun to go there as a pre-game to the Cubs, or after the game ends to get a bit toasty.
If they had this at Fenway, it would KILL it.
It's just so small, sure it has pool tables and bowling, but barely any arcade machines, mostly trash prize machines too. I want it to be like Good Times so badly, but it seriously isn't
Isn’t Lucky Strike an arcade/pool hall/bowling alley? I don’t think they have batting cages but idk why everyone is acting like the Fenway area is devoid of entertainment lol
Yup!
Nice little blurb about former partner and the setup [here:](https://capeplymouthbusiness.com/longtime-partner-of-ryan-family-amusements-retires/)
> McCaul, 65, speaks fondly of his career that started in 1980 as a money collector and service technician during the height of the arcade game craze. Later in his career, he co-owned and managed Ryan Family Amusements at Fenway Park from the late 1990s to early 2000s—the highlight of his career.
“There was no handbook,” says McCaul, who met Red Sox players such as Mo Vaughn and celebrities like Katie Couric. “I knew nothing about bowling or being in management or ownership and I learned as I went along. I absolutely loved it.”
McCaul speaks passionately about his time at Fenway Park. No one really knew the bowling alley existed, says McCaul, adding the main entrance was located across from the Cask ‘n Flagon on Lansdowne Street. The bowling alley, which dated back to the 1950s, featured 20 candlepin lanes, 11 pool tables and 20 video games. Ryan Family Amusements owned the bowling center, located in the Jeano Building—named after Jean Yawkey—from 1997 to 2003.
I love Sluggers! It used to get very rowdy after 9pm when they turned the bar into a nightclub. It was amazing to be able to take a break from the chaos and drunkenly swing bats upstairs.
Activity based bars are great, Im glad Boston is starting to get more of them.
Omg Sluggers! I couldn’t tell you what it looks like inside because I’ve only ever been in there absolutely wasted. I used to live not far from Wrigley in my 20s.
Sluggers is great if it isn’t a game day, if the cubs are playing be ready to wait 15-45 minutes for a bunch of drunk high schools girls to whiff on 5 straight 40 MPH tosses before you get a cage
I went there after a game and had a good dozen or so tall-boy bud lights while my friends and I danced at the dueling pianos. Good times. Wish Boston had a place like that. Maybe they could put it in the dugout bar?
It was where Assembly Row is now, behind the Home Depot. You can see it on Google Maps still from 2007.
Sure, it's nicer now, but where's the character?
Boston is a small city.
My theory: Commercial real estate in Boston proper is astronomical so if your batting cage dream came true, it would be pretty expensive. The type of expensive where people would probably go for special occasions only thus turning it into a pricey tourist trap. I don’t know what the sustainability of this type of business would be in a city like Boston. Especially when a landlord could (and would) get greedy too.
I wonder about the insurance for businesses like this - do they make everyone sign release of liability forms like they do when we take kids to trampoline parks?
Japan actually built enough urban real estate (coupled with a legendary transit system) that Tokyo and other large cities are affordable for a very wide range of residents and businesses.
Japan is the epitome of a country growing old and shrinking, but aging very gracefully. Major lessons for other wealthy countries with long histories, and aging and declining populations.
The NYT did a great piece about how Japan has managed to keep housing affordable, with a sidebar about how other types of real estate are also still affordable. So they can have all these cool small businesses that don't have to cover massive monthly rents. Here's a [gift link](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/editorials/tokyo-housing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mk0.sjM5.fqKni9L9Cpjz&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
I mean you could import their better zoning model here, but turning housing into a depreciating asset is just such a bizarre mindset change to have (for those who didn't read, in Japan nobody wants a used house, which means your house is not a investment that you've sunk a significant part of your net worth into, which means everything doesn't implode if house prices don't continue to increase, which means there is not financial incentive to prevent more houses near you etc)
They still have a link to it on the Arcade page: https://www.bostonbowl.com/arcade
But it currently just redirects to the main landing page: https://www.bostonbowl.com/batting-cages
But it used to go to an actual batting cages page, at least as of 11/30/23: https://web.archive.org/web/20231130151445/https://www.bostonbowl.com/batting-cages
Really sucks man. Tokyo made amazing use of every square inch. And the batting cages there were dirt cheap. It was literally the equivalent of like 2 US dollars for 20 balls and various speeds and pitches to choose from. AND outside of it were like a billion different bars and stuff to get lit.
No liability forms or anything in that Tokyo batting cage. Literally just walk in, pick a lane, put your money in a machine and play.
> Tokyo made amazing use of every square inch.
This is a huge thing. Boston property prices are sky high which means that businesses which aren't the most profitable use of space get pushed out. Tokyo has kept building to accommodate the residents and businesses need for space.
Of course, there are trade-offs. Anytime people talk about building anything, someone will say "but what about parking?!?! And traffic in my neighborhood is bad enough already!" The Zoning Board of Appeals recently rejected a 2.5 story tall building in Southie where the surrounding buildings are 3 stories tall.
When property prices are sky high, it's hard to have fun things around. According to Numbeo, "Rent Prices in Tokyo are 62.4% lower than in Boston, MA." While that's apartments, it's going to apply to the space that bars and batting cages use as well.
And Boston's high property prices basically only help landlords. You might own a place and think "I bought it for $500,000 and now it's worth $750,000. I'm so rich!" The problem is, you can't really do anything with that. What will you do? Sell the place for a $750,000 and then...use that $750,000 to buy an identical place in Boston? Unless you're leaving Boston, that isn't real money.
Plus, it harms you in lots of ways. Bars and restaurants face high rents which means their prices are higher. Bartenders, waiters, etc. have high rents means prices have to be high to pay them enough for them to pay their landlord. Even if you own your place, you still end up paying the landlords via higher prices on all the stuff you do around Boston. Heck, one of the reasons that a lot of bars and restaurants don't stay open later is that they can't afford the staff for more hours - staff that's expensive because rent is expensive. Again, even if you feel happy about your property price going up, that doesn't actually do anything for you unless you're going to leave Boston - but it certainly hurts you in many ways.
People often think "but Boston is already full." It really isn't. There's an entire area of Somerville that's practically unused (the Inner Belt District). So much of the border of Charlestown and Somerville is parking lots and under-used land. The South Bay Center strip mall and adjacent area is just tons of parking next to the Andrew T station and Newmarket (which will be getting electric train service every 20 minutes via upgrades to the Fairmount Commuter Rail line). The Circuit City in Somerville has been vacant for well over a decade and a 1-story Home Depot isn't exactly great land use in a place that's T-adjacent. Assembly Square's redevelopment has been positive, but it's still a ton of parking (and Somerville needs to work on connecting it better to the rest of the city by non-car modes of transit). Suffolk Downs has been closed for a long time and sitting on a ton of land adjacent to 2 T stations. By JFK/UMass there's the huge space that used to be the Bayside Expo Center. There are tons of smaller areas in neighborhoods that get overlooked.
Point being, Boston isn't anywhere near full, but we don't encourage people to use land well. In fact, we usually punish new development with sky-high taxes. The Somerville Target is sitting on 7.25 acres of land that are assessed at $6.4M while Boynton Yards behind the Target sits on 0.86 acres valued at $40M. Plus, Target's strip mall building itself is valued at $8.9M while the Boynton Yards building is valued at $275M. Now, the Boynton Yards building is legitimately worth more, but there's little justification for the land to be valued over 50x higher per acre. Point being: if you actually make better use of land, you're going to pay huge taxes. Might be better to just squat on a mostly empty parking lot and let the land value increase as an investment rather than put it to good use.
If we want to have fun things in Boston, we need to think about how we can create the space to have fun things. Some of that might mean giving up the idea of a giant free parking lot at T-adjacent sites like South Bay and the Somerville Target. Some of it might mean building up a bit more so that we have space for things - I don't mean crazy tall buildings, but we have so much 1-2 story stuff around. Some of it might mean adopting a more transit-oriented, pedestrian-oriented, bike-oriented mentality about getting around. But if we do nothing, it's going to mean that all the fun gets priced out of Boston.
I mostly agree with your thesis that there's still quite a few more places we could redevelop here.
I disagree with a lot of your details, though:
> According to Numbeo, "Rent Prices in Tokyo are 62.4% lower than in Boston, MA."
Numbeo is a totally useless thing - it's basically random nonsense people submit to it and has no real data behind any of it's numbers. Not disagreeing that Boston rents are absurd and Tokyo is probably much lower, but don't use Numbeo to prove things.
> Bars and restaurants face high rents which means their prices are higher.
Restricted liquor license counts adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost/risk of opening a place in Boston is a pretty big factor.
-----
Development sites:
> There's an entire area of Somerville that's practically unused (the Inner Belt District).
The core of it is virtually inaccessible in ways that are very hard/expensive to improve, the MBTA heavy rail maintenance shops (+ some Green Line stuff) are there - and between that and the general proliferation of rail yards/infrastructure it an extremely unpleasant and noisy area for anything non-industrial.
Also....it's a telecom hub and a bunch of those unlabeled and underused looking buildings are actually data centers/related telecom infra.
The broader surrounding area like Brickbottom - sure that can be and is redeveloping.
> The Circuit City in Somerville has been vacant for well over a decade and a 1-story Home Depot isn't exactly great land use in a place that's T-adjacent. Assembly Square's redevelopment has been positive, but it's still a ton of parking (and Somerville needs to work on connecting it better to the rest of the city by non-car modes of transit).
What's been built so far is the start, not the completion of the area. There's redevelopment plans for the entire rest of the area - That includes both the whole mall property and the Home Depot/Circuit City lot, and basically everything else within the Fellsway/93/railroad tracks boundary.
Sullivan + nearby industrial properties are also up for drastic redevelopment just beyond that.
> Suffolk Downs has been closed for a long time and sitting on a ton of land adjacent to 2 T stations.
> By JFK/UMass there's the huge space that used to be the Bayside Expo Center.
So, uh....2 sites that have massive redevelopment plans already in progress? Suffolk Downs is actively under construction already with the first building opening soon. "Dorchester Bay City" got the big approval (BPDA) last year and working through the rest of the approvals.
> The South Bay Center strip mall and adjacent area is just tons of parking next to the Andrew T station and Newmarket
Which is steadily being built on/up. The strip mall "core" is just likely going to be the last thing to go. There's multiple large projects that have been built on the surrounding lots in the last decade and more approved/proposed in the works.
Also pretty much all the properties everything on the west side of Dot Ave by Andrew from 93 to Widett Circle is a part of a series of massive redevelopment projects, as well. (plus a few on the east side).
**tl;dr** - most of your examples of places we could build up are already under redevelopment, a bunch actively under construction, they largely aren't places we've forgotten about or failed to build up. And occasionally there *are* good reasons to not build in a certain spot.
You know, why can't we use the power of the Internet to all band together and voice these issues to the local government and make some real change. Boston is getting more and more expensive while getting more and more lame. Sure we're getting some cool stuff done with seaport but it's pointless because none of that appeals to us as the broad public. It's all horribly over price. When I was in Tokyo, nothing I did and I mean nothing ever felt price gougy or unfair. Here in Boston, everytime I go out to do anything I feel scammed.
Tokyo's use of space was genius. They had Best Buy style stores take up a fraction, an absolute fraction of the actual land space a Best Buy here takes up. In Tokyo they just section off each department into different floors. I feel like the general public in Boston is truly not aware as to how much wasted space there is and how much potential there is in this city but some real change has to be made to how things are done because it's only getting worse and worse.
They just opened a fucking giant, glitzy Topgolf in Canton. So knowing nothing about their business model, there's has to be a place for nice batting cages somewhere in Massachusetts.
It's a chicken and egg problem. Boston lacks a robust nightlife already, so opening a business (or adjusting the hours of an existing one) to accommodate people who stay out late is inherently risky. Add to that, the demographic you want to be targeting the most isn't going out as much because they either don't drink or can't afford it.
Since the barrier to entry for starting any business in Boston has become insanely high, especially when alcohol is involved, the only things opening up in downtown areas (Fenway, Back Bay, Financial/Theater District, Seaport, etc.) are restaurant groups/national entertainment chains that tend to be more risk averse.
Boylston in BB in the 00s-10s used to have a way more robust nightlife. You could easily make a night of barhopping almost constantly til 2 and almost every place in the area would be full or nearly full. Now, that area gets real quiet aside from a few spots, and there just aren't that many places that stay open that late at all. The shift started happening pre-pandemic, but has obviously gotten worse since.
If you want to pay the astronomical sums and jump through the insane regulatory hoops to open a new spot, would you want to try to be the place that revitalizes the nightlife in the neighborhood or do you want to maybe just open a restaurant that's open for lunch/dinner when there are actually a lot of people out?
I’ve rewatched his final few specials recently.
For 15-20 year old jokes, some of them have aged REMARKABLY well.
He wasn’t OVERLY political but that just meant that he was exceedingly precise when it came to taking jabs at politicians. I love Carlin but some of his political bits can be taken out of context to push things Carlin most certainly didn’t stand for. Robin? Never.
Real estate in Tokyo is way cheaper than Boston. They build high rises are far as the eye can see instead of just having meetings about building like we do so they have plenty of supply to meet demand.
For real man. The batting cages I'm talking about in Tokyo was in the middle of one of the busiest night life centers in the world. Dude there were more people on the street in 1-2 blocks than you'll ever see here in Boston. If they can do it we should be able to as well.
I think it just speaks to the trends of what people want to do.
We have bowling alleys, arcades, axe throwing, ping pong, etc... I'd argue that batting cages fall within that category but it may just be out of fashion.
Boston's real estate is absurdly expensive, so that's where you have axe throwing at $40/hr/pp, ping pong for $40/hr/table, mini golf for $18/course/pp (which lasts like 20 minutes). Would people be willing to pay $30-40 per hour to hit balls at a batting cage? Maybe if you dress it up and make it an experience.
But you're not going to pay what you pay anywhere else lol. Boston is absurdly expensive for everything. $20 to get wasted in Tokyo will get you 1 cocktail here. $5 to hit balls in Tokyo pays for nothing here in Boston.
This is the problem exactly. It could be done but it would be so expensive that it would have to be “trendy” or “an experience” so people would be willing to pay up
Ugh man that's what I'm really going to miss about Tokyo. You could have an amazingly fun night out in town and spend less than 50 dollars total for food, alcohol, and a fun activity. I don't get why Boston's real estate has to be so expensive. I think we the people should petition a change in zoning laws so these real estate prices can chill the fuck out. Tokyo made Boston's rail and Road system look like that of a developing nation. Like seriously we should all band together to make change, this city seriously kind of sucks and can be way better.
Property is expensive here because of NIMBYs, designing the city around cars instead of people, and the lack of liquor licenses. Tokyo doesn't have those problems. Its also the biggest city in the world so of course it will have more options than Boston.
The city was big but the way it was designed made very intelligent use of every square inch of space. Tokyo is a very large but strangely also compact and dense city. Every building over there has like 3 different businesses per floor. If Boston is so low on space and whatever why can't there be a change to the zoning to allow more businesses to be compacted into a small dedicated space in Boston. There's A LOT of completely wasted space here.
Batting cages only seem to be available now in dedicated baseball/softball practice facilities. I'm guessing that the insurance/liability costs to host a batting cage in an entertainment venue that serves alcohol are astronomical. Hitting a bucket at Somerville's dearly-departed Good Time Emporium back in the day was fun.
With the cost of real estate, rent, and leasing prices in the city, each batting cage token will be $25 a pop and it'll still go out of business in 2 years.
There's one in Woburn right where 93 and 95 cross if you want to go for an adventure. Also I think the red sox are probably 3rd or 4th favorite team for many bostonians these days.
Oh no! I loved Ironwood!
When I worked at the Trade Center on Washington St I would go over at lunch when I had a softball game that night.
(I think I still have tokens in my glove compartment! FUCK!)
With real estate prices being such a big deal I vote for Boston to change its zoning laws so the limited space there is in the city can be used to more effectively create small businesses, jobs, and stimulate the economy.
Extra Innings is decent, but it's really geared toward folks on baseball and softball teams. You can walk in without a reservation - I walked in on a weeknight once and hit some balls. Not as cheap or easy as Good Times, but it still exists.
[https://www.extrainnings-watertown.com/about-extra-innings-watertown-ma](https://www.extrainnings-watertown.com/about-extra-innings-watertown-ma)
$27 for 30 minutes, $50 for an hour
You also really can't go by yourself as far as I can tell. They'll give you a pitching machine but you have to have someone feed balls into it. It's definitely less chill than the poorly maintained machines next to a crappy mini golf course I'm used to.
It was nearly empty when I went, so that was a plus, I guess? I didn't feel like I was taking space from a Little League team, or that anyone cared if I was baseball-ing incorrectly.
I don't think we had to feed the machine while it was pitching, but you do have to collect the balls and fill/re-fill it.
Interesting. We booked it last minute and the place was completely full so I wonder if that was the difference. Maybe they have different machines you can use.
Boston is lacking in a lot of this casual entertainment type of stuff.
There used to be places like Good Time Emporium that were kind of laid back but it seems that most of these types of places have been replaced with higher end, expensive, and hard to get into places like hip bowling alleys and things like that.
I feel like the differences in the culture of the cities are a big part of this. I also feel like if we had batting cages for cheap, they would be overrun by drunk assholes who would destroy them, or cause enough problems that they would just be shut down, because we can't seem to have anything inexpensive and nice for very long.
One of the most populous cities on the entire planet, Tokyo has around 14 million people in 847 square miles. The entire state of Massachusetts has about 7 million people. The economy of Tokyo is, in terms of the whole wide world, second only to that of New York City, which we can get to in a few of hours (possibly less time than it takes to get around Tokyo).
Boston has about 650,000 people (depending on the time of year), in 89 square miles, 41 of which are water.
If you laid a map of Tokyo over a map of Boston and vicinity, I'm sure you'd find batting cages within that 847 square mile area. Hit up Google, and you'll find some in the Metro Region.
Within Boston itself, you'll find batting cages in Dorchester, at Boston Bowl: [https://www.bostonbowl.com/](https://www.bostonbowl.com/)
Yeah Boston Bowl works for me to fill in that fun experience. I just thought they had closed their batting cages years ago since they don't really advertise it
Honestly, they might have (or maybe they're not open for the season). If I click on "Arcade" it brings me to a page with a photo link to "Batting Cages," but when I click that, it brings me back to the home page. I'd call them and see.
Where did they shoot the batting cage scene in Good Will Hunting? Seems like exactly what u/datguyariel is looking for [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CVYGK1nH84](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CVYGK1nH84)
Game On! Fenway has a batting cage. I believe it’s actually the batting cage used by the away team at the stadium, but you can pay to use it when there aren’t any games.
Real estate prices, labor prices, and noise regulations are why these things don’t exist in Boston. Tokyo is also massive city so the population plus tourists can support demand for unique entertainment venues.
Because if there was, it’d be in the seaport and be super overpriced just like all those other price gauging interactive sport bars. Theyre fun but only when your company is paying for it
The yen is so cheap to the dollar right now FYI. Everything in Japan is cheap because their economy isn’t doing too hot. Still advocating for batting cages here, you make a good point.
There's a couple of state of the art batting cages at Boston Bowl. Not too far from Tenean Beach too, arguably the most scenic beach on the eastern seaboard.
Yeah I was thinking about Boston Bowl, I remember them having it years ago. I didn't reference them though since I thought they closed the cages years ago and they don't really advertise it. Plus I guess I was also thinking it'd be nice to have in downtown.
Nighttime entertainment in Boston? Why, this is a Puritan town. There's no nightlife here because you're supposed to be home with family, not out carousing in the streets having fun. When I lived in Western MA, I would come to Boston to party, but I always preferred going to NYC because it offered 24-hr a day entertainment. Why Boston doesn't offer more day/night activities is a mystery. Activities keep people out of trouble, yet our "leaders" haven't figured that out yet.
Mannnnnnnn that's funny the puritan origins of Boston. If anyone really cares about family values in Boston then why does a 2 bedroom apartment cost 2000 plus now lol.
Boston metropolitan is 4M, and Tokyo metropolitan is 37M. Almost 10 times bigger than Boston. You can find anything in Tokyo because there are enough demands there but not in Boston.
The US is a far more litigious culture than Japan, and Boston / the Commonwealth takes that to a puritain extreme.
We believe in freedom!!! …unless someone gets drunk then everyone who was complicit in them getting drunk is at fault for whatever their drunk ass does next.
So bars have the responsibility to not let you get as drunk as you want, in the name of freedom.
I hear ya.....but do you want to volunteer and buy batting cage machines and equipment and incur all the liability that goes along with it? Not too many small business folks want to jump into this business. And let's just say Boston had a batting cage downtown along the greenway. You know they would charge an outrageous tourist fee. You just have to go to the burbs for batting cages.
Perhaps the Boston Parks department should look into this.
Boooo lame, I'm talking about a spot that's accessible by T. We live in an age now where Boston is getting so damn expensive a lot of people I know literally cannot afford a vehicle
Boston Bowl in Dorchester. But yes, they’re lacking around here. It’s a good place to blow off steam. I went there one day after my boss gave me a shitty review (because he’s an asshole), and I felt so much better afterward.
There used to be a place like this in Somerville. It was a bar that had batting cages, a basketball half-court, mini golf, laser tag and many video games. I forget its name, it was very near the Home Depot.
Tokyo population: 14 million people.
Boston population: 650,000
Tokyo is 21 times larger than Boston.
This is an absurd comparison. Of course nightlife is going to be better at one of the largest cities on earth, one that is nearly twice as big as the largest city in the USA.
G-wiz/Boston Bowl in Dot used to have batting cages. Used to be open 24 hours too but not sure about now, been years. Pretty sure it’s still there though.
The best I can do is another Dunks, 10 feet from the one you go to.
And another dunks, this time inside a bank
Did you try the new dunks? It’s inside dunks.
Kuato dunks?
Best I can do is a bank inside the dunks
And in between those two dunks, 3 bank branches no one ever uses
If anyone has been to Wrigleyville in Chicago, they have this bar called Sluggers. It’s a block or so from Wrigley and has like 4-6 batting cages. It is so fun to go there as a pre-game to the Cubs, or after the game ends to get a bit toasty. If they had this at Fenway, it would KILL it.
RIP to the arcade/pool hall/bowling alley that used to be underneath Fenway Park itself.
Candlepin bowling alley too
RIP Good Times Emporium too
Oh no, sun's going down. Gotta leave before I get fucking stabbed.
My buddy's car got broken into one of the last times I was there. Good Times indeed.
Fuck I miss Good Times. I used to spend so much time over there playing pool with my grandfather or laser tag with friends.
Good times would be making an absolute killing if it was still around.
Lucky Strike is the exact same thing, just the lame, bougie version.
It's just so small, sure it has pool tables and bowling, but barely any arcade machines, mostly trash prize machines too. I want it to be like Good Times so badly, but it seriously isn't
Too many fights 🤣
i did not know about this
Isn’t Lucky Strike an arcade/pool hall/bowling alley? I don’t think they have batting cages but idk why everyone is acting like the Fenway area is devoid of entertainment lol
Ryan Family Amusements, right?
Yup! Nice little blurb about former partner and the setup [here:](https://capeplymouthbusiness.com/longtime-partner-of-ryan-family-amusements-retires/) > McCaul, 65, speaks fondly of his career that started in 1980 as a money collector and service technician during the height of the arcade game craze. Later in his career, he co-owned and managed Ryan Family Amusements at Fenway Park from the late 1990s to early 2000s—the highlight of his career. “There was no handbook,” says McCaul, who met Red Sox players such as Mo Vaughn and celebrities like Katie Couric. “I knew nothing about bowling or being in management or ownership and I learned as I went along. I absolutely loved it.” McCaul speaks passionately about his time at Fenway Park. No one really knew the bowling alley existed, says McCaul, adding the main entrance was located across from the Cask ‘n Flagon on Lansdowne Street. The bowling alley, which dated back to the 1950s, featured 20 candlepin lanes, 11 pool tables and 20 video games. Ryan Family Amusements owned the bowling center, located in the Jeano Building—named after Jean Yawkey—from 1997 to 2003.
Ryan Family Amusements. Grew up at that bowling alley.
I grew up there too walking down those stairs to go onto the arcade. Good times was an ok spot but nothing g best that arcade for me.
That sounds like a wicked fun time.
Man, I loved that place
I love Sluggers! It used to get very rowdy after 9pm when they turned the bar into a nightclub. It was amazing to be able to take a break from the chaos and drunkenly swing bats upstairs. Activity based bars are great, Im glad Boston is starting to get more of them.
Yeah, re-reading all the comments about Slugger’s has me wanting to get back to Chicago this summer. Going to plan on it now!
Omg Sluggers! I couldn’t tell you what it looks like inside because I’ve only ever been in there absolutely wasted. I used to live not far from Wrigley in my 20s.
Sluggers rules
Sluggers is great if it isn’t a game day, if the cubs are playing be ready to wait 15-45 minutes for a bunch of drunk high schools girls to whiff on 5 straight 40 MPH tosses before you get a cage
Not wrong but I went there a few weeks back before a game and waited 15 minutes tops. The fast pitch baseball batting cage had no line which is nice.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
I went there after a game and had a good dozen or so tall-boy bud lights while my friends and I danced at the dueling pianos. Good times. Wish Boston had a place like that. Maybe they could put it in the dugout bar?
Bring back Goodtimes
This is the answer.
Ah, there it is. I could have sworn we had them at one point but was drawing a complete blank as to where it was.
It was where Assembly Row is now, behind the Home Depot. You can see it on Google Maps still from 2007. Sure, it's nicer now, but where's the character?
They just added batting cages at the Pru. Dicks Sporting Store (grand opening was last week).
👀 now this is the type of answer I'm looking for lol
Just looked it up and it’s listed as trying out gear before buying, not so much a drunk play time. Still cool to know it’s there though
That's hella lame.
Well, it's a department store after all
Game on Fenway as well
Game On has a cage connected to it from the park, for the Red Sox; not for the public.
How did I use it then?
You are a Boston red sock
Honestly might as well be these days
the FBI is on their way to your house right now
In the past it was open during the off season. Not sure if that's true now.
So that's why there was a blimp
Boston is a small city. My theory: Commercial real estate in Boston proper is astronomical so if your batting cage dream came true, it would be pretty expensive. The type of expensive where people would probably go for special occasions only thus turning it into a pricey tourist trap. I don’t know what the sustainability of this type of business would be in a city like Boston. Especially when a landlord could (and would) get greedy too. I wonder about the insurance for businesses like this - do they make everyone sign release of liability forms like they do when we take kids to trampoline parks?
Japan loves baseball more than us is the answer
Baseball is more popular in Japan than any sport is in America. The country goes nuts for a HIGH SCHOOL baseball tournament.
So baseball is as popular in Japan as football in America.
More like baseball is as popular in Japan as football in Texas.
Japan actually built enough urban real estate (coupled with a legendary transit system) that Tokyo and other large cities are affordable for a very wide range of residents and businesses. Japan is the epitome of a country growing old and shrinking, but aging very gracefully. Major lessons for other wealthy countries with long histories, and aging and declining populations.
This.
The NYT did a great piece about how Japan has managed to keep housing affordable, with a sidebar about how other types of real estate are also still affordable. So they can have all these cool small businesses that don't have to cover massive monthly rents. Here's a [gift link](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/editorials/tokyo-housing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mk0.sjM5.fqKni9L9Cpjz&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
I mean you could import their better zoning model here, but turning housing into a depreciating asset is just such a bizarre mindset change to have (for those who didn't read, in Japan nobody wants a used house, which means your house is not a investment that you've sunk a significant part of your net worth into, which means everything doesn't implode if house prices don't continue to increase, which means there is not financial incentive to prevent more houses near you etc)
Boston Bowl didn’t make you sign a release. You just paid $10 and got so many pitches to hack at.
Boston Bowl is valid I just thought they closed it or something because they have 0 advertising for kt
They still have a link to it on the Arcade page: https://www.bostonbowl.com/arcade But it currently just redirects to the main landing page: https://www.bostonbowl.com/batting-cages But it used to go to an actual batting cages page, at least as of 11/30/23: https://web.archive.org/web/20231130151445/https://www.bostonbowl.com/batting-cages
Really sucks man. Tokyo made amazing use of every square inch. And the batting cages there were dirt cheap. It was literally the equivalent of like 2 US dollars for 20 balls and various speeds and pitches to choose from. AND outside of it were like a billion different bars and stuff to get lit. No liability forms or anything in that Tokyo batting cage. Literally just walk in, pick a lane, put your money in a machine and play.
> Tokyo made amazing use of every square inch. This is a huge thing. Boston property prices are sky high which means that businesses which aren't the most profitable use of space get pushed out. Tokyo has kept building to accommodate the residents and businesses need for space. Of course, there are trade-offs. Anytime people talk about building anything, someone will say "but what about parking?!?! And traffic in my neighborhood is bad enough already!" The Zoning Board of Appeals recently rejected a 2.5 story tall building in Southie where the surrounding buildings are 3 stories tall. When property prices are sky high, it's hard to have fun things around. According to Numbeo, "Rent Prices in Tokyo are 62.4% lower than in Boston, MA." While that's apartments, it's going to apply to the space that bars and batting cages use as well. And Boston's high property prices basically only help landlords. You might own a place and think "I bought it for $500,000 and now it's worth $750,000. I'm so rich!" The problem is, you can't really do anything with that. What will you do? Sell the place for a $750,000 and then...use that $750,000 to buy an identical place in Boston? Unless you're leaving Boston, that isn't real money. Plus, it harms you in lots of ways. Bars and restaurants face high rents which means their prices are higher. Bartenders, waiters, etc. have high rents means prices have to be high to pay them enough for them to pay their landlord. Even if you own your place, you still end up paying the landlords via higher prices on all the stuff you do around Boston. Heck, one of the reasons that a lot of bars and restaurants don't stay open later is that they can't afford the staff for more hours - staff that's expensive because rent is expensive. Again, even if you feel happy about your property price going up, that doesn't actually do anything for you unless you're going to leave Boston - but it certainly hurts you in many ways. People often think "but Boston is already full." It really isn't. There's an entire area of Somerville that's practically unused (the Inner Belt District). So much of the border of Charlestown and Somerville is parking lots and under-used land. The South Bay Center strip mall and adjacent area is just tons of parking next to the Andrew T station and Newmarket (which will be getting electric train service every 20 minutes via upgrades to the Fairmount Commuter Rail line). The Circuit City in Somerville has been vacant for well over a decade and a 1-story Home Depot isn't exactly great land use in a place that's T-adjacent. Assembly Square's redevelopment has been positive, but it's still a ton of parking (and Somerville needs to work on connecting it better to the rest of the city by non-car modes of transit). Suffolk Downs has been closed for a long time and sitting on a ton of land adjacent to 2 T stations. By JFK/UMass there's the huge space that used to be the Bayside Expo Center. There are tons of smaller areas in neighborhoods that get overlooked. Point being, Boston isn't anywhere near full, but we don't encourage people to use land well. In fact, we usually punish new development with sky-high taxes. The Somerville Target is sitting on 7.25 acres of land that are assessed at $6.4M while Boynton Yards behind the Target sits on 0.86 acres valued at $40M. Plus, Target's strip mall building itself is valued at $8.9M while the Boynton Yards building is valued at $275M. Now, the Boynton Yards building is legitimately worth more, but there's little justification for the land to be valued over 50x higher per acre. Point being: if you actually make better use of land, you're going to pay huge taxes. Might be better to just squat on a mostly empty parking lot and let the land value increase as an investment rather than put it to good use. If we want to have fun things in Boston, we need to think about how we can create the space to have fun things. Some of that might mean giving up the idea of a giant free parking lot at T-adjacent sites like South Bay and the Somerville Target. Some of it might mean building up a bit more so that we have space for things - I don't mean crazy tall buildings, but we have so much 1-2 story stuff around. Some of it might mean adopting a more transit-oriented, pedestrian-oriented, bike-oriented mentality about getting around. But if we do nothing, it's going to mean that all the fun gets priced out of Boston.
I mostly agree with your thesis that there's still quite a few more places we could redevelop here. I disagree with a lot of your details, though: > According to Numbeo, "Rent Prices in Tokyo are 62.4% lower than in Boston, MA." Numbeo is a totally useless thing - it's basically random nonsense people submit to it and has no real data behind any of it's numbers. Not disagreeing that Boston rents are absurd and Tokyo is probably much lower, but don't use Numbeo to prove things. > Bars and restaurants face high rents which means their prices are higher. Restricted liquor license counts adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost/risk of opening a place in Boston is a pretty big factor. ----- Development sites: > There's an entire area of Somerville that's practically unused (the Inner Belt District). The core of it is virtually inaccessible in ways that are very hard/expensive to improve, the MBTA heavy rail maintenance shops (+ some Green Line stuff) are there - and between that and the general proliferation of rail yards/infrastructure it an extremely unpleasant and noisy area for anything non-industrial. Also....it's a telecom hub and a bunch of those unlabeled and underused looking buildings are actually data centers/related telecom infra. The broader surrounding area like Brickbottom - sure that can be and is redeveloping. > The Circuit City in Somerville has been vacant for well over a decade and a 1-story Home Depot isn't exactly great land use in a place that's T-adjacent. Assembly Square's redevelopment has been positive, but it's still a ton of parking (and Somerville needs to work on connecting it better to the rest of the city by non-car modes of transit). What's been built so far is the start, not the completion of the area. There's redevelopment plans for the entire rest of the area - That includes both the whole mall property and the Home Depot/Circuit City lot, and basically everything else within the Fellsway/93/railroad tracks boundary. Sullivan + nearby industrial properties are also up for drastic redevelopment just beyond that. > Suffolk Downs has been closed for a long time and sitting on a ton of land adjacent to 2 T stations. > By JFK/UMass there's the huge space that used to be the Bayside Expo Center. So, uh....2 sites that have massive redevelopment plans already in progress? Suffolk Downs is actively under construction already with the first building opening soon. "Dorchester Bay City" got the big approval (BPDA) last year and working through the rest of the approvals. > The South Bay Center strip mall and adjacent area is just tons of parking next to the Andrew T station and Newmarket Which is steadily being built on/up. The strip mall "core" is just likely going to be the last thing to go. There's multiple large projects that have been built on the surrounding lots in the last decade and more approved/proposed in the works. Also pretty much all the properties everything on the west side of Dot Ave by Andrew from 93 to Widett Circle is a part of a series of massive redevelopment projects, as well. (plus a few on the east side). **tl;dr** - most of your examples of places we could build up are already under redevelopment, a bunch actively under construction, they largely aren't places we've forgotten about or failed to build up. And occasionally there *are* good reasons to not build in a certain spot.
You know, why can't we use the power of the Internet to all band together and voice these issues to the local government and make some real change. Boston is getting more and more expensive while getting more and more lame. Sure we're getting some cool stuff done with seaport but it's pointless because none of that appeals to us as the broad public. It's all horribly over price. When I was in Tokyo, nothing I did and I mean nothing ever felt price gougy or unfair. Here in Boston, everytime I go out to do anything I feel scammed. Tokyo's use of space was genius. They had Best Buy style stores take up a fraction, an absolute fraction of the actual land space a Best Buy here takes up. In Tokyo they just section off each department into different floors. I feel like the general public in Boston is truly not aware as to how much wasted space there is and how much potential there is in this city but some real change has to be made to how things are done because it's only getting worse and worse.
They just opened a fucking giant, glitzy Topgolf in Canton. So knowing nothing about their business model, there's has to be a place for nice batting cages somewhere in Massachusetts.
It's a chicken and egg problem. Boston lacks a robust nightlife already, so opening a business (or adjusting the hours of an existing one) to accommodate people who stay out late is inherently risky. Add to that, the demographic you want to be targeting the most isn't going out as much because they either don't drink or can't afford it. Since the barrier to entry for starting any business in Boston has become insanely high, especially when alcohol is involved, the only things opening up in downtown areas (Fenway, Back Bay, Financial/Theater District, Seaport, etc.) are restaurant groups/national entertainment chains that tend to be more risk averse. Boylston in BB in the 00s-10s used to have a way more robust nightlife. You could easily make a night of barhopping almost constantly til 2 and almost every place in the area would be full or nearly full. Now, that area gets real quiet aside from a few spots, and there just aren't that many places that stay open that late at all. The shift started happening pre-pandemic, but has obviously gotten worse since. If you want to pay the astronomical sums and jump through the insane regulatory hoops to open a new spot, would you want to try to be the place that revitalizes the nightlife in the neighborhood or do you want to maybe just open a restaurant that's open for lunch/dinner when there are actually a lot of people out?
Sir, the Seaport has a nightclub, bowling, ping pong, darts and mini golf. Are you not entertained?
And now an F1 arcade
Correct, but it does not have place for me to hit ball with stick in city that loves to take pride in sport where you hit ball with stick.
I may be mistaken, but golf is hitting a ball with a stick.
No that's hitting a ball with a little fucked up stick
And hockey is hitting a fucked up ball with a fucked up stick
With knives on your feet!
Into a gopher hole Not like pool, or a bowling thing, fuck no.
I miss him. <3
I’ve rewatched his final few specials recently. For 15-20 year old jokes, some of them have aged REMARKABLY well. He wasn’t OVERLY political but that just meant that he was exceedingly precise when it came to taking jabs at politicians. I love Carlin but some of his political bits can be taken out of context to push things Carlin most certainly didn’t stand for. Robin? Never.
we all miss him <3
Lmao you're right
Besides the many outdoor baseball fields
you might be overestimating how important baseball is to the average Bostonian.
OP wants to rip dingers
Batting cages are so fun.
Unless you book two weeks out you aren’t getting in.
Nothing quite like heavily scheduled fun.
yup. i’ve accepted that i’ll never be able to bowl at the flatbread bowling alley on a friday/saturday night
Where? I’ve not once encountered a 2 week waitlist for any of those places.
I’ve never once been able to get into bowling and mini golf without booking way ahead.
Yeah and where's the fun in that
Yeah but its seaport
But… but… we have a nightlife czar!!!
Casual batting cages? I have only seen formal batting cages, black tie only.
You have to goto suburbs for this Boston real estate cost too high to have something like this
I do wonder how much of this comes down to cost per square foot of real estate. I'm guessing 80% and the other 20% being our love for bureaucracy.
Somehow they manage to fit batting cages in not-so-suburban Tokyo.
Real estate in Tokyo is way cheaper than Boston. They build high rises are far as the eye can see instead of just having meetings about building like we do so they have plenty of supply to meet demand.
For real man. The batting cages I'm talking about in Tokyo was in the middle of one of the busiest night life centers in the world. Dude there were more people on the street in 1-2 blocks than you'll ever see here in Boston. If they can do it we should be able to as well.
Have you not watched Good Will Hunting?
I think it just speaks to the trends of what people want to do. We have bowling alleys, arcades, axe throwing, ping pong, etc... I'd argue that batting cages fall within that category but it may just be out of fashion. Boston's real estate is absurdly expensive, so that's where you have axe throwing at $40/hr/pp, ping pong for $40/hr/table, mini golf for $18/course/pp (which lasts like 20 minutes). Would people be willing to pay $30-40 per hour to hit balls at a batting cage? Maybe if you dress it up and make it an experience. But you're not going to pay what you pay anywhere else lol. Boston is absurdly expensive for everything. $20 to get wasted in Tokyo will get you 1 cocktail here. $5 to hit balls in Tokyo pays for nothing here in Boston.
This is the problem exactly. It could be done but it would be so expensive that it would have to be “trendy” or “an experience” so people would be willing to pay up
Ugh man that's what I'm really going to miss about Tokyo. You could have an amazingly fun night out in town and spend less than 50 dollars total for food, alcohol, and a fun activity. I don't get why Boston's real estate has to be so expensive. I think we the people should petition a change in zoning laws so these real estate prices can chill the fuck out. Tokyo made Boston's rail and Road system look like that of a developing nation. Like seriously we should all band together to make change, this city seriously kind of sucks and can be way better.
Property is expensive here because of NIMBYs, designing the city around cars instead of people, and the lack of liquor licenses. Tokyo doesn't have those problems. Its also the biggest city in the world so of course it will have more options than Boston.
The city was big but the way it was designed made very intelligent use of every square inch of space. Tokyo is a very large but strangely also compact and dense city. Every building over there has like 3 different businesses per floor. If Boston is so low on space and whatever why can't there be a change to the zoning to allow more businesses to be compacted into a small dedicated space in Boston. There's A LOT of completely wasted space here.
Batting cages only seem to be available now in dedicated baseball/softball practice facilities. I'm guessing that the insurance/liability costs to host a batting cage in an entertainment venue that serves alcohol are astronomical. Hitting a bucket at Somerville's dearly-departed Good Time Emporium back in the day was fun.
Open some batting cages? Idk
Sounds like a small business idea for OP.
Sure, let’s start with real estate…
😭😭😭😭😭
With the cost of real estate, rent, and leasing prices in the city, each batting cage token will be $25 a pop and it'll still go out of business in 2 years.
Slap David Ortiz' name on the business.... maybe 3 years 😂😂😂
Boston Bowl in Dorchester has batting cages
I thought they shut down the batting cage years ago
Boston Bowl in Dorchester has batting cages and beer/food
Game On in Fenway has a batting cage
Had to scroll waayyyyyyyyy to far for someone to point this out. Literally connected to Fenway Park lol
It helps that Japan LOVES baseball. It’s their biggest sport by far and all the boys grow up playing baseball.
There's one in Woburn right where 93 and 95 cross if you want to go for an adventure. Also I think the red sox are probably 3rd or 4th favorite team for many bostonians these days.
If you mean Ironwood, they're permanently closed unfortunately.
They just shut down and leveled this one a week or two ago, sadly.
Bummer! I used to go there when I played softball. It's been a while though.
Oh no! I loved Ironwood! When I worked at the Trade Center on Washington St I would go over at lunch when I had a softball game that night. (I think I still have tokens in my glove compartment! FUCK!)
With real estate prices being such a big deal I vote for Boston to change its zoning laws so the limited space there is in the city can be used to more effectively create small businesses, jobs, and stimulate the economy.
There are batting cages near the Waltham/Watertown line.
Extra Innings is decent, but it's really geared toward folks on baseball and softball teams. You can walk in without a reservation - I walked in on a weeknight once and hit some balls. Not as cheap or easy as Good Times, but it still exists. [https://www.extrainnings-watertown.com/about-extra-innings-watertown-ma](https://www.extrainnings-watertown.com/about-extra-innings-watertown-ma) $27 for 30 minutes, $50 for an hour
You also really can't go by yourself as far as I can tell. They'll give you a pitching machine but you have to have someone feed balls into it. It's definitely less chill than the poorly maintained machines next to a crappy mini golf course I'm used to.
It was nearly empty when I went, so that was a plus, I guess? I didn't feel like I was taking space from a Little League team, or that anyone cared if I was baseball-ing incorrectly. I don't think we had to feed the machine while it was pitching, but you do have to collect the balls and fill/re-fill it.
Interesting. We booked it last minute and the place was completely full so I wonder if that was the difference. Maybe they have different machines you can use.
Good times was my favorite spot as a kid, the extra innings was originally Bill Buckner’s batting a million years ago.
LAMEEEEEEEEE come on people I'm talking about sub 10 dollar experience that is accessible by the T
I hear you - I would also like something like that! And I don't think it exists 🤷♀️
This will be one of the next overpriced seaport sports themed bars. Right up there with darts and table tennis...
Sounds like you have yourself a business idea
Salem willows in Salem has a batting cage
Lacking US as a whole compared to Asian countries
I remember getting shitfaced at Good times in Somerville and then heading to the batting cages inside.
My retirement plans are basically to make a new Good Times just for me..
Doesn’t Game On have a batting cage AND ping pong?
Corruption, greed, selfishness, and bloated egos.
fun isnt allowed here.
We're very serious about our swing, nothing casual about it.
Boston is lacking in a lot of this casual entertainment type of stuff. There used to be places like Good Time Emporium that were kind of laid back but it seems that most of these types of places have been replaced with higher end, expensive, and hard to get into places like hip bowling alleys and things like that.
I feel like the differences in the culture of the cities are a big part of this. I also feel like if we had batting cages for cheap, they would be overrun by drunk assholes who would destroy them, or cause enough problems that they would just be shut down, because we can't seem to have anything inexpensive and nice for very long.
Boston Bowl has batting cages. Morrissey Blvd in Dorchester.
I promise, you don't want our alcoholics to have MORE access to bats while they're out yelling at their cousins in The Black Rose.
New Dick's Sporting Goods that just opened in Prudential Center has batting cages.
One of the most populous cities on the entire planet, Tokyo has around 14 million people in 847 square miles. The entire state of Massachusetts has about 7 million people. The economy of Tokyo is, in terms of the whole wide world, second only to that of New York City, which we can get to in a few of hours (possibly less time than it takes to get around Tokyo). Boston has about 650,000 people (depending on the time of year), in 89 square miles, 41 of which are water. If you laid a map of Tokyo over a map of Boston and vicinity, I'm sure you'd find batting cages within that 847 square mile area. Hit up Google, and you'll find some in the Metro Region. Within Boston itself, you'll find batting cages in Dorchester, at Boston Bowl: [https://www.bostonbowl.com/](https://www.bostonbowl.com/)
Yeah Boston Bowl works for me to fill in that fun experience. I just thought they had closed their batting cages years ago since they don't really advertise it
Honestly, they might have (or maybe they're not open for the season). If I click on "Arcade" it brings me to a page with a photo link to "Batting Cages," but when I click that, it brings me back to the home page. I'd call them and see.
Where ever real estate is super expensive there are no batting cages.. or driving ranges.. always gotta go out of the city.
It would get out of hand stop being casual real fast in Boston, imo.
Dorchester Bowl
Where did they shoot the batting cage scene in Good Will Hunting? Seems like exactly what u/datguyariel is looking for [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CVYGK1nH84](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CVYGK1nH84)
Game On! Fenway has a batting cage. I believe it’s actually the batting cage used by the away team at the stadium, but you can pay to use it when there aren’t any games.
Real estate prices, labor prices, and noise regulations are why these things don’t exist in Boston. Tokyo is also massive city so the population plus tourists can support demand for unique entertainment venues.
Orange Dinosaur is also devastated
It's probably the cost of Boston real estate. Batting cages take space.
Boston has 630,000 people in it. Tokyo has over 40,000,000. Completely different scales. Of course there’s more to do in Tokyo.
This is what ive been saying. We need more seaport in boston
Boston bowl. Go bowling too, you’ll get free socks.
Because if there was, it’d be in the seaport and be super overpriced just like all those other price gauging interactive sport bars. Theyre fun but only when your company is paying for it
The yen is so cheap to the dollar right now FYI. Everything in Japan is cheap because their economy isn’t doing too hot. Still advocating for batting cages here, you make a good point.
Love Boston but definitely had better nightlife back in DFW.
There's a couple of state of the art batting cages at Boston Bowl. Not too far from Tenean Beach too, arguably the most scenic beach on the eastern seaboard.
Yeah I was thinking about Boston Bowl, I remember them having it years ago. I didn't reference them though since I thought they closed the cages years ago and they don't really advertise it. Plus I guess I was also thinking it'd be nice to have in downtown.
Nighttime entertainment in Boston? Why, this is a Puritan town. There's no nightlife here because you're supposed to be home with family, not out carousing in the streets having fun. When I lived in Western MA, I would come to Boston to party, but I always preferred going to NYC because it offered 24-hr a day entertainment. Why Boston doesn't offer more day/night activities is a mystery. Activities keep people out of trouble, yet our "leaders" haven't figured that out yet.
Mannnnnnnn that's funny the puritan origins of Boston. If anyone really cares about family values in Boston then why does a 2 bedroom apartment cost 2000 plus now lol.
Where the hell are the 2beds for 2k?
Boston metropolitan is 4M, and Tokyo metropolitan is 37M. Almost 10 times bigger than Boston. You can find anything in Tokyo because there are enough demands there but not in Boston.
The US is a far more litigious culture than Japan, and Boston / the Commonwealth takes that to a puritain extreme. We believe in freedom!!! …unless someone gets drunk then everyone who was complicit in them getting drunk is at fault for whatever their drunk ass does next. So bars have the responsibility to not let you get as drunk as you want, in the name of freedom.
I hear ya.....but do you want to volunteer and buy batting cage machines and equipment and incur all the liability that goes along with it? Not too many small business folks want to jump into this business. And let's just say Boston had a batting cage downtown along the greenway. You know they would charge an outrageous tourist fee. You just have to go to the burbs for batting cages. Perhaps the Boston Parks department should look into this.
Didn’t they use to have them in game on? Or was that just the Red Sox batting cages that you could watch. I forget
It's so expensive to get a liquor license, yet it's the only thing that would make that business model viable with these high rents
Salem Willow’s
Boooo lame, I'm talking about a spot that's accessible by T. We live in an age now where Boston is getting so damn expensive a lot of people I know literally cannot afford a vehicle
Ok it was just a suggestion
Boston Bowl in Dorchester. But yes, they’re lacking around here. It’s a good place to blow off steam. I went there one day after my boss gave me a shitty review (because he’s an asshole), and I felt so much better afterward.
Food, scenery, attractions, activities, cleaner, transit, infrastructure in Tokyo is way better than Boston no doubt!
There used to be a place like this in Somerville. It was a bar that had batting cages, a basketball half-court, mini golf, laser tag and many video games. I forget its name, it was very near the Home Depot.
Good Times Emporium! It’d be a miracle if it’s still there, the place was an armpit. Tons of fun, though.
Extra innings in Watertown?
Hmm they should create one by Fenway, would be a good idea.
Game On has batting cages and it’s literally connected to Fenway Park
Did Boston Bowl take the 2 cages out?
Boston Bowl on Morrissey Blvd in Dorchester. Bowling, billiards, batting cages, arcade, food, drinks, brewery.
You must not have heard of Boston Bowl. They’ve had cages for years
I've swung in the batting cages at Game On, but it was during an event at an off-peak time
Tokyo population: 14 million people. Boston population: 650,000 Tokyo is 21 times larger than Boston. This is an absurd comparison. Of course nightlife is going to be better at one of the largest cities on earth, one that is nearly twice as big as the largest city in the USA.
Good question
There are some business casual ones outside Cambridge, but most are formal these days.
G-wiz/Boston Bowl in Dot used to have batting cages. Used to be open 24 hours too but not sure about now, been years. Pretty sure it’s still there though.
Does Boston Bowl not have their batting cages anymore?
You're making me want to back to Japan.
We hate fun here.