If you’ve seen more than one baseball game in more than one ballpark (even on TV) then you’ve gotta know that virtually no two ballpark dimensions are the same. Well, they’re all the same in some regards:

1. The bases are all spaced exactly 90 feet from each other, and arranged in a square.
2. The front edge of the pitcher’s rubber is exactly 60 feet, 6 inches from the front edge of homeplate.
3. The pitcher’s mound is 10 and 1/2 inches tall, and 18 feet in diameter.
4. From the batter’s box, the backdrop of the pitcher is a solid color called a “batter’s eye”.

Everything else is variable. Some argue that everything should be standard; The foul poles at either end of the outfield fence should be exactly the same, and the distance to the wall at dead center should be exactly the same everywhere. The thought is that if you spiked a pin with a rope around it at home plate, and walked from one pole to the other,  you’d have the ideal wall shape for the outfield wall. I guess you’d have to standardize the height of the wall too. Because a ball hit just hard enough to make it over the outfield wall at 400 when the wall is 6 feet tall, won’t make it over if the wall is 10 feet tall. By doing this, you’ve created the exact same dimensions for each of the 31 Major League Ballparks.

The justification for this argument is that in the NFL, each and every football field is dimensioned the same way. In the NHL, each rink is identical, and in the NBA, each court is the same size. Even in these venues do subtle differences exist, but not enough to count. On this note, yes, it’s odd that baseball parks don’t share equal dimensions. It’s goofy that hitting a baseball just a few feet to the left of where you did would have resulted in a homerun rather than a fly ball out. It’s bizarre that at one point along the outfield wall an outfielder can jump and catch a ball that would have been a homerun, but has no chance to catch a ball hit over another part of the wall.

Something else these other major sports share is a game clock. Baseball doesn’t. A game will go on as long as it is necessary (except the All-Star Game, which according to Bud Selig, can’t go longer than 11 innings!!) until there is a winner and a loser. What if Baseball had a clock? What if you had x number of seconds to run a play like the shot clock in basketball, or the play clock in football? What if you were only allowed x number of seconds to put the ball in play as a batter. Would the game be the same? No, but it would be more fair. In this instance, a pitcher couldn’t step off the mound as often as he wants, he couldn’t throw to first when a runner is on base to stall for the bullpen. The batter couldn’t defensively foul off pitches, just waiting on his pitch to hit. It would standardize the game.

In the game’s history, there have been no regulations set which mandate an exact height of the wall or distance over it. There is however, a mandated minimum distance, which can be petitioned by the team. In those cases the height of the wall typically accounts for the change in depth.

Well that’s a problem for me. Baseball is different than every other sport. Sometimes it’s difficult to think about the reasons it is different, but I know it is. When I talk about stuff like this, baseball reveals a little more of itself to me, and I begin to see why it’s America’s pastime. It’s unique. The game itself has character and personality where the other sports do not. The size, shape and dimensions of each individual ballpark adds to the personality of the game. It’s one of the things which keeps it separate from the rest.

To technically counter the standard dimensions debate, I would say that if you standardize the height, shape, and depth of the outfield wall, you’d also have to standardize the foul territory as well. If you hit a popup to the foul ground on the first base side of the infield in Oakland, the fielder can run almost 60 feet before hitting the dugout fence or the rail of the stands. Hit the same popup in Wrigley in Chicago, and it’s a momento and souvenir for some fan. This creates a distinction between the two ballparks, and must be eliminated.

What about the field surface? I remember in Three Rivers Stadium that if you hit a sharp ground ball deep in the whole (between shortstop and third baseman), there was a good chance you were gonna reach base. The astroturf was fast, and rubbery which let those balls bounce through the hole. Defensively, if you could make a strong one-hop throw, you might get an out where as on the natural surface you wouldn’t. Today’s artificial turf is a better replica of the real stuff, but it’s still not going to be as random of a surface as the astroturf.

Because of how natural grass grows differently in the different parts of the country we would have to mandate all fields be resurfaced with astroturf. Not the new artificial turf or natural grass, but real astroturf. This way, no one ballpark offers its team an advantage over another. This standardizes the game, and makes it more fair.

How about the dome teams? Gone? No…because a dome around the field is the only way to ensure that all fields are the same. A mid-October game in New York City (which happens alot) between 8pm and 11pm is different than mid-October game in Texas. The air is cooler, dryer, and the ball carried further. Compare the same sized ballpark in Texas to the one in San Francisco, and you realize how much the weather (wind/rain/etc…) can affect the game. We’d have to move all ballfields indoors to make them the same.

Ok, you see my sarcasm here, and I’ll end it right now. But I still have the question to all those in favor of standardizing the dimensions: “Why obsess about this difference in ballparks, but not all the other (sarcastic) ones I’ve listed?” Why this one thing? The unique dimensions to each ballpark give that ballpark character and charm. It helps to make the game what it is, and I’m glad it helps to differentiate baseball from everything else. The players don’t mind. The fans (mostly) don’t mind. Baseball doesn’t mind. Why bother it?

Below is a list of diagrams from each of the major league ballparks. From these, you can see just how different each park really is.

(Photos courtesy: http://www.ballparktour.com/)

The National League

The American League