Leveraging Ballparks

16163 Commentshttp://firebrandal.com/2007/06/03/leveraging-ballparks.htmlLeveraging+Ballparks2007-06-03+05%3A59%3A53Guest+Columnist to “Leveraging Ballparks”

• Guest Columnist says:

  June 3, 2007 at 12:35 AM

  Rob, the New Yankee Abomination will have the same dimensions as the current Yankee Abomination: aka the least interesting version. 399 to left, 408 to center, 314 down the right field line. It’s just another way New Yankee Stadium has failed to be remotely interesting or worth the billion dollar investment.

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• Rob Bonter says:

  June 3, 2007 at 3:07 AM

  You have nailed the primary and generally overlooked reason the Yankees have dominated for decades, while the often equally-talented Red Sox have lived in perpetual frustration. Baseball is a LEFT-HANDED game, and the sooner this club gets out of charming but hampering Funway, the better for the Red Sox and all of baseball, in a competitive-balance context.
  This fine column begs the question: will the new Yankee Stadium (New York Stadium I would call it so as not to diminish the legacy of the original) be symmetrical or “warped” in the tradition of capitalizing on imbalanced confines like no other franchise in history?

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• Rob Bonter says:

  June 3, 2007 at 1:12 PM

  I am appalled that baseball would tolerate such overt manipulation of playing conditions. Why cannot MLB mandate a minimum foul line dimension of 340 feet? ANSWER: Because the Yankees run baseball, that’s why.
  I cannot say I blame the Yankees for their intelligent understanding of the REAL underpinnings of their glutonous success, spanning eight decades, now. Since the 20’s, only the 80’s marked a decade in which the Yankees did not have at least one World Championship team.
  I will say it here, and emphatically, the Yankees do not win because they have more money, they do not win because they have more talent (some obvious past exceptional years, but no longer), they do not win because of pinstripe “tradition and pride,” they win because they are the SMARTEST organization in the history of professional sports.
  The Red Sox better get hip to building a lefty-slanted ballpark, and fast, or this century will seem like the last century, redux.

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