Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ulysses.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!smb From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball Subject: Re: Some trivial questions. Message-ID: <1047@ulysses.UUCP> Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 12:47:35 EDT Article-I.D.: ulysses.1047 Posted: Thu Aug 15 12:47:35 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 01:26:25 EDT References: <542@ihu1m.UUCP> <1676@hao.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 17 > 1. Are there any minimum or maximum dimensions for an official > major-league ballpark? Must the shape (I'm thinking of the > outfield walls--I'm sure the two lines at 90 degrees are > essential) be smooth or even convex? Is there some formal > certification procedure? I believe rules have changed since when I was a kid, but... At the time, a home run had to be over 250 feet, and no new park could be built with a lesser distance to the fence. In existing parks with less distances (of which I believe there were none...), balls hit over a fence of less than 250 feet were doubles. Since then, the minimum fence distance has been raised, I believe to ~325 feet, though without any oddball rules for fields with shorter distances. Deliberately shortening the distance -- remember Charley Finley's "Pennant Porch" -- is frowned upon; Finley in fact had to compromise and settle for a "Half Pennant Porch". (Of course, he then won several pennants in the more traditional way, i.e., building a good team, which he then utterly destroyed. But that's another story.)