March 26, 2013 [LINK / comment]

Dominican Republic wins WBC

Felicitaciones (congratulations) to the Dominican Republic team for winning the World Baseball Classic. They prevailed over Puerto Rico, 3-0 in the final round at AT&T Park, and were undefeated throughout the entire tournament, a three-stage modified round-robin arrangement. It is the first time the Dominican Republic has won that title, Japan having won the WBC in the first two occasions: 2006 and 2009. See MLB.com.

Estadio Hiram Bithorn update

Well, I just had to mark the occasion by updating the Hiram Bithorn Stadium diagrams, since that was one of the WBC venues this year. (Too little, too late, perhaps?) The main changes are that the grandstand angles out more widely, and is about 20 feet deeper than before; most of the latter difference is in the concourse. There are a few new details, and I will probably get around to adding a "roofless" version to show the entry portals, roof supports, and the rear concourse. I noticed that four rows of box seats have been added, from the dugouts on outward, so I created a new (2013) version. It still has a huge foul territory (about 38,700 square feet), nearly as big as Oakland Coliseum.

The mail bag

It looks like I will have to do another revision of Citi Field some time soon, as the Mets have added a new section of seats behind home plate. See metsblog.com, hat tip to Brian Hughes, who notes that it is "like what the team did back at Shea Stadium during the 2006 post season."

Kevin Scalley asked me whether the Cleveland Rams played at League Park in the late 1930s. I didn't know, but he was subsequently able to find out that they did indeed, briefly. See sportsecyclopedia.com. Yet uncertain is the exact placement of the gridiron.

Many more items to get to, including news from Mike Zurawski. Stay tuned!