November 7, 2009 [LINK / comment]
To mark the successful (!?) conclusion to the World Series, I have made some minor revisions to the Yankee Stadium II diagram, mostly with respect to the periphery on the third base side. I was watching closely throughout the postseason, and I didn't notice any discrepancies between the real thing and my rendition thereof, with the possible exception of the second-to-first deck overhang. I estimate about three rows of overhang, but it may be a few more rows than that. (Hopefully, I'll see for myself next year!) My hypothetical proposed alternative version, with the outfield walls pushed back by about ten feet, has been modified a bit as well.
While I was at it, I made a few more tweaks of Citizens Bank Park, mostly in center field and the area beyond. Mike Zurawski suggests that I put distance markers to match where they are placed at the actual ballparks, but in some cases that is hard to do without excessive squeezing. In this case, I simply adopted Mike's suggestion and made the "329" left field marker vertical, as it is in real life. The "334" marker located at the bend just to the right of the corner, is much more obvious to casual viewers, and excluding it might be confusing. Also note that the right-center marker (369) in the diagram has a pale gray background to indicate that there is no actual marker there, but that is, nevertheless, the "official" power alley distance. As previously mentioned, Yankee Stadium II and Citizens Bank Park are "the two most slugger-friendly stadiums in the major leagues." In the former, there were 2.93 home runs per game (237 total) this year, and the latter there were 2.56 home runs per game (207 total). For a complete list of 2009 home runs sorted by ballpark, see hittrackeronline.com.
Philadelphians may be bummed about the outcome of the 2009 World Series, but they have already earned a distinction that can never be challenged. As Buck Wolf pointed out at Weird News (link via SABR), Citizens Bank Park "is actually the city's FOURTH ballpark to host World Series games..." Philadelphia actually achieved that status exactly one year before New York did [, unless you include Brooklyn, in which case New York reached that level in 1969.]* No other city has even had that many stadiums since the early 20th Century. Whenever the Mets win the NL pennant, New York will [have reached six]. For the record, here is a complete list of all cities in which World Series games have been played at more than one ballpark:
City | Most recent "new" World Series ballpark |
Number of World Series ballparks |
Number of World Series ** |
---|---|---|---|
New York [/ Brooklyn ] | 2009 | [5] | 50 |
Philadelphia | 2008 | 4 | 13 |
Cleveland | 1995 | 3 | 4 |
Los Angeles / Anaheim | 2002 | 3 | 10 |
Chicago | 2005 | 3 | 14 |
St. Louis | 2006 | 3 | 17 |
Boston | 1915 | 2 | 13 |
Cincinnati | 1970 | 2 | 9 |
Pittsburgh | 1971 | 2 | 7 |
Minneapolis / Bloomington | 1987 | 2 | 3 |
Atlanta | 1999 | 2 | 5 |
San Francisco | 2002 | 2 | 3 |
Detroit | 2006 | 2 | 10 |
* Thanks to Kevin Connell for the fact check; corrections in [brackets]. NOTE: Based on further fact checks, a revised version of this table was posted on November 20.
** No double counting for "subway series," etc.
As for Old Renovated (Desecrated?) Yankee Stadium, much of the lower portion of the bleachers are now gone. See demolitionofyankeestadium.com; hat tip to Mike Zurawski.