Charms/Quirks of Baseball - part one

One of the things I may like best about baseball is that it's very quirky. When looking at other popular organized sports (eg: basketball, football, and hockey) baseball is so odd in it's statistic heavy look, and also just the many ways the game of baseball is so weird.

My BoSox who are off to a good start this year, just finished last night a 3 game series in Cincinnati, Ohio that features a new ballpark ("The Great American Ballpark") that is what's called a "fanbox" in baseball lingo.

A fanbox is a small stadium that tends to be home to many homeruns because the walls the ball has to go over to be hit a homerun are short and/or not very deep when compared to the norm. Tonight, the Sox start another 3 game series, but this time they are in Philly to face off against the Phillies, which also features a small fanbox ballpark.

Here are some dimensions to illustrate my point:

The outfield dimensions of the ballpark in Cincy are:
Left-Center - 379 ft
Center Field - 404 ft
Right-Center - 370 ft

The outfield dimensions in Philly are:
Left-Center - 374 ft
Center Field - 401 ft
Right-Center - 369 ft

A pitcher's park is field that features a big, expansive outfield, which allows balls that may be a homerun in say Cincy, be a long flyball out. Some examples are:

Comerica park in Detroit:
Left-Center - 370 ft
Center Field - 420 ft
Right-Center - 365 ft

MinuteMaid Park in Houston:
Left-Center - 404 ft
Center Field - 435 ft
Right-Center - 373 ft


This is one stat that is kept track of and eventually quantified, as some parks are considered a good pitchers park because of the expansive outfield and/or the vast foul ball territory (the more foul ball territory, the more likely a foul ball is to be caught for an out and then the batter has no more pitches to possibly swing at and score runs on), and some are considered good hitters parks.

Despite this, players who play at home in such small fanboxes get an added advantage of a few extra doubles or, more likely, homers per year. While, pitchers who pitch in pitcher's parks get the benefit of having their earned run average look better than it possibly should.