New Rules: Time for some ballpark dimension intervention?
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Imagine no short right-field porches in Baltimore or San Francisco.
No Green Monster in Boston.
No home run porch above Tal's Hill in Houston.
No photo of Mickey Mantle hitting the 461-foot sign in dead center at Yankee Stadium in the summer of '64.
That's what this next rule up for vote wants -- all ballparks to have the same dimensions.
These imaginations are courtesy of superstar big chuck:
big chuck "This is one point that hardly gets any attention when it comes to the integrity of records in MLB. Just look in Boston with the Green Monster. How many homers have gone for doubles because they weren't hit high enough or how about big stadiums like Petco?
"Baseball parks should all have the same dimensions from LF to RF. This is something they should have done when the game was still young."
Currently, there is an official rule (PDF) about dimensions. It only talks about minimums, not standardization.
Obvious issues with this involve losing the charm of stadiums like Fenway and Camden, turning baseball into all the other sports with hard-and-fast dimensions and, on a practical level, reshaping many urban ballparks.
On the good side, it would level many statistical arguments.
That's just one of six rules up for vote for inclusion in the New Rules of Baseball. This is the final week of this season's edition, but if your noggin' keeps churning out new rules, share them below or in The New Rules of Baseball Group.
The other rules that would like your vote:
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| Should 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' only be sung at the Friendly Confines? (Getty Images) |
Tuxter21"All players, coaches and managers will line up and shake hands after a Divisional, League or World Series is completed. Every other sport does this in one fashion or other except for MLB."
ERM219 "Umpires have been making the call from day one. Right or wrong it is a huge part of the great game of baseball. If you put in replay for, let's say home run calls, then that opens the door for other plays. First base calls, plays at the plate, etc. What's from stopping them from using 'K-zone' to call balls and strikes?"
'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' rule
jayhawk_cub15 "Take Me Out to the Ballgame can only be sung between the top and the bottom of the 7th inning at ballparks that are named Wrigley."
| New Rules Rewind |
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DomiNeyTor "As in 'Let's Go Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, Marlins' and any other team that happens to have a two-syllable name. Fans need to come up with something more original."
Adjusting the batting glove rule
sportsfan10 "Anyone who undoes and reattaches the straps on the batting gloves during an at bat forfeits the right to wear batting gloves the rest of the year."
And welcome back the Big Guy/Gal in the Sky
Senior MLB writer Scott Miller's rule (No. 10) restricting players from "pointing to the sky upon crossing home plate following a home run," is no more after collecting 34 percent of nearly 2,000 votes.
Point all you want, sluggers.
