So much depends upon the ballpark. The rules of baseball are different than those of almost any other sport because there are no absolute guidelines for designing a ballpark. Sure, the distance from one base to another will always be 90 feet, but most of the other field dimensions have always been up for grabs. Some parks have huge, expansive outfields. Others, "hitter's parks," make it easy for players to hit home runs with smaller outfields.
But it isn't just the dimensions of the field that vary from park to park. In the history of baseball, all manner of objects have been part of the field of play, from flagpoles to spectators. Here's a look at five quirky features of existing ballparks.
The Green Monster, Fenway Park
Possibly the most famous quirk in the history of baseball, Fenway Park's Green Monster is an enormous wall in left field that sets the Boston landmark apart from any ballpark before or since. Though it is situated a paltry 304 to 310 feet from home plate, the Monster is 37 feet high, the highest wall in Major League Baseball. Its height makes it impossible to hit line drives to left field for home runs, but its nearness to home plate makes line drives to left more likely to turn into doubles-after the ball caroms off the wall. Visiting left fielders are generally at a disadvantage when fielding balls off the Monster, whereas experienced Red Sox-yes, even Manny-can typically time caroms off the wall with ease.
An additional quirk of the Green Monster is its ladder, which lies in fair territory. The ladder used to be used by grounds crews to retrieve home run balls back in the days when only a handful of balls were used during any given game. After rules changes that prohibit reusing batted balls and with the addition of the bleacher seats on the Monster, the ladder has lost its purpose. Hitters have managed to bat a ball into the ladder at least twice in Fenway's history; both times for inside the park home runs.
Wrigley Field's Ivy
Second only to Fenway in terms of age, Chicago's Wrigley Field has an equal amount of character. The ballpark that Ernie Banks used to call "the friendly confines" has a quirky feature that changes from day to day as the baseball season wears on. The outfield wall is covered by vines of ivy. At the beginning of the season, the leaves are sparse, and the ivy is hard to spot. But, as spring turns to summer, the ivy grows until it covers the wall. It grows so thickly, in fact, that balls have been known to become lost in its foliage. Any ball lost in the ivy is an automatic double.
Though Wrigley used to be free from advertisements, ads have been posted on the outfield wall in recent years, to become slowly obscured as the ivy grows.
Tal's Hill, Minute Maid Park
Houston's Minute Maid Park might be a newcomer to baseball, but it's easily as quirky as Fenway. Between the Crawford Boxes in left field, a mere 315 from home plate, to the Conoco Home Run Porch, which extends over center field, Minute Maid Park is a strange place to play baseball. But its most prominent quirk is probably Tal's Hill.
Built next to the wall in center field, Tal's Hill is a 90-foot incline that makes the outfield look like a putt-putt golf course. The hill was named after the Astros' president, Tal Smith, and it was designed to echo ,the hill in center field at Cincinnati's now demolished Crosley Field. To further complicate matters, Tal's Hill boasts a flag pole that's in play.
The Metrodome's Speakers
Baseball fans tend to regard domed stadiums as an abomination. They provide terrible sightlines for fans, cavernous and unfriendly spaces, Astroturf fields that make fielding ground balls an adventure, and boring, generic field dimensions. On the other hand, domed stadiums have their own ground rule quirks.
Consider Minneapolis's Metrodome. The Metrodome, which was built in 1982, has an unusually low ceiling, a mere 172 feet above the ground. The ceiling is so low that it's not unusual for hitters to hit a ball right into it. What's more, the Metrodome also has speakers hanging from the ceiling, which are frequent, if inadvertent, targets for hitters. Any ball that hits the dome or a speaker remains in play until it lands-even if the speaker is in foul territory.
Tropicana Field's Catwalks
Like the Metrodome's roof and speakers, Tampa's domed Tropicana Field has a problem with a low ceiling. At the Trop, it's the catwalks that wreak havoc. Four low, circular catwalks radiate out from the center of the dome and are frequently hit by flying balls. To complicate things, only parts of the catwalks are in play. The A Ring, the highest catwalk, is entirely in play, as is much of the B Ring. The C and D rings are entirely out of play. If a ball strikes the C or D ring in fair territory, it is ruled a home run. Any ball that hits the A ring or the fair portion of the B ring must be played as if it were a fly ball.
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