If MLB Ballparks were larger
A Major League Baseball team’s stadium seating capacity has long since ceased being the only measure of that team’s fan interest. Although a lousy season dampens that interest, and with cameras everywhere, bad teams play in front of small crowds and lots of empty seats.
Major League Baseball ballpark seating capacity topped out with Cleveland’s defunct Municipal Stadium, where seating was 78,000 for baseball, 81,000 for Browns football.
Note: A 2008 exhibition game at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum between the Dodgers and Red Sox drew 115,000 fans which is the most ever for an MLB game. Many fans were likely there just for the experience as it would have been difficult to see the action on the field from some of the more remote parts of the venerated building.
Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium was the largest stadium to regularly host MLB games. The Dodgers played in the L.A. Coliseum when they first moved to Los Angeles, playing there in 1958–61 before moving to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Built for the 1932 Olympics, the Coliseum, more a football stadium than a baseball facility, it had a seating capacity of more than 90,000 as well as a very strange configuration. The Dodgers while playing at the Coliseum never averaged more than 30,000 fans per game. There were lots of empty seats.
Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium baseball field dimensions were not gargantuan for the time, nor would it be today. It’s dimension:
Left Field — 322 ft (98 m) Left-Center — 385 ft (117 m) Center Field — 400 ft (122 m) Right-Center — 385 ft (117 m) Right Field — 322 ft (98 m) Backstop — 60 ft (18 m)
Never having seen a baseball game played at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium or the L.A. Coliseum, I imagine some fans were very far from the action. This is something modern/smaller capacity stadiums have since rectified. It turns out that the way the upper deck was situated at Cleveland’s Municpal Stadium, fans in the upper deck were closer to the action than they were at the much smaller capacity Progressive Field, which opened as Jacobs Field in 1994. The first row of the upper deck at Municipal Stadium was 40 feet above the playing surface. At Progressive Field it’s 90 feet above the field.
With MLB players getting bigger and stronger, and pitchers throwing with more velocity than ever before, hitters are smashing prodigious home runs with increasing frequency. Have baseball parks field dimensions been reduced? After all there are no longer stadiums like the Polo Grounds or the old Yankee Stadium both of which had odd dimensions.
Two for example:
Polo Grounds in 1911 (opened first in 1883 but demolished and rebuilt):
Left field: 279 ft (85 m) Left-center: 450 ft (137 m) Center field: 483 ft (147 m) Right-center: 449 ft (136 m) Right field: 258 ft (78 m)
Yankee Stadium in 1927 (opened 1923):
Left field 281 feet, 415 feet to left, 490 feet to left center, 483 feet to center, 449 feet to right center and 258 feet to right field. There was 82 feet behind home plate for a catcher to chase wild pitches.
The spot at which Willie Mays made his famous catch off a Vic Wertz fly ball to deep center at the Polo Grounds in the 1954 World Series, would have been in the parking lot at most MLB ballparks existing today.
Baseball field dimensions have been shrinking
The overall shrinking is not only in the overall fair territory dimensions the foul territory dimensions have been even more reduced. The graphic from FanGraphs and Andrew Clem’s interesting website: is compelling:
Foul and Fair denote square footage of foul and fair territory, respectively.
Note: numbers for Dodger Stadium reflect dimensions before and after renovation.
Only three stadiums — Coors Field in Colorado, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and Rogers Centre in Toronto, have larger foul territories in their newer incarnations than their former ones. All other ‘new’ or revamped stadiums now have smaller foul territories than their prior ones. In some cases, dramatically smaller. Getting fans closer to the field is the reason, but the practice of smaller foul territories helps hitters stay alive in at-bats since foul balls that formerly would fall into fielder’s gloves, instead fall into the stands. This does not help pitchers pitch more innings since at-bats are extended, and more pitches must be thrown by the pitcher in the attempt to retire the batter. If MLB is serious about protecting starting pitchers, it might want to consider more foul territory.
Old time ballparks were part of the neighborhood
The old ballparks were often ‘fit’ into local neighborhoods (think Fenway Park and Wrigley Field). Oracle Park in San Francisco where the Giants now play, has an iconic short right field since it abuts San Francisco Bay. It was done that way by design.
Making MLB playing surfaces larger would force a change in strategy and tactics. Coors Field in Denver, a noted park for home runs, annually produces the most triples in MLB. While the baseball tends to fly further in Denver, Coors Field also has the largest field dimensions in MLB. Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City is also known for being triples-friendly and has the second largest playing surface.
As baseball has evolved into being a ‘three-true-outcomes’ sport, (home runs, walks, or strikeouts), these most common outcomes area all similar in that defense is uninvolved in the play. Making ballparks larger would reduce home runs, increase doubles, and triples, and increase the number of foul-outs. Larger playing fields would increase the number of plays in the field, since deeper outfield fly balls that would have been home runs, would more often stay inside the ballpark but still not be caught.
MLB outfielders are generally great athletes and can cover a lot of ground. Why not give the fans more plays ‘in the park’? Home runs are great, but action on the field and bases is equally if not more fun to watch.
Is the baseball at fault?
The baseball itself is another issue. As much as it would be great to count on MLB baseballs being the same year to year, they’re not. What’s difficult to understand is the MLB baseball variability from season to season. So many of the processes have become automated yet the overall inconsistency remains. MLB could turn over the monitoring of the manufacturing of the baseball to an independent third party. Fans and players would then have fewer concerns that MLB might intentionally enliven or dampen the baseball. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Baseball is the only sport in which the field dimensions are not standardized. It’s one of the many things that makes baseball unique and interesting. Seating capacities are smaller. MLB cannot mandate teams make the playing areas in fair and foul territory larger. But it might be better for players, fans, and baseball itself.
Here’s what I wrote about the Mets this past week:
https://mlbreport.com/2024/05/citi-field-is-where-met-offense-goes-to-die/
https://mlbreport.com/2024/05/mets-owner-steve-cohen-revealed-less-than-it-seems/
https://mlbreport.com/2024/05/fixing-edwin-diaz-fast/
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About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.
