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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>
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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.)