August 15, 2008 [LINK / comment]
Mets sweep the Nationals
The downward spiral continues in Our Nation's Capital, as the Washington Nationals lost their seventh straight game. Sometimes, they play hard and barely get edged, but usually they get creamed. So much for renewed hope in the new month! Nevertheless, attendance at Nationals Park continues to meet or exceed expectations, averaging 30,000+ per game. As the headline in yesterday's Washington Post went, "Nats Don't Even Need a Hit to Reach Fan Base." Hey, when you've got a big city full of fans who have been starved of baseball for over a generation, it's not hard to please the crowd. I should note, however, that Nats pitcher Jason Bergmann did get booed during that atrocious 8-run rally by the Mets on Wednesday night.
The mail bag
Some of the messages in my in-box are over a month old, I'm afraid. Anyway, let's go: Jay Boyle suggests that the Padres move the bullpen which is currently in the right field corner of Petco Park to the area in front of the fence in right field where there is more room. He also sent me some old football/baseball field diagrams that will be very helpful as I continue with my own diagram revisions.
Bob Andrews was kind enough to let me use his pictures of Minute Maid Park, which are posted on his flickr page. Many thanks, Bob! (I needed to update the text on that page anyway, and I'll be making minor revisions on the diagram eventually.)
Cody Gobbell wants to know when I'll get around to making a rough draft diagram for the Twins' new ballpark. I have a lot of old diagrams to fix first, so I would say it will be at least a couple more months -- unless I get a sudden avalanche of pleas from Twins fans, of course. "I aims to please..." 
He also noticed that the distance markers at Kauffman Stadium have been changed to read 390 and 410 feet, presumably part of the vast renovations going on in Kansas City.
Stadium impressions
Beginning today, every time that someone submits their impression of one of the baseball stadiums, it will appear on the Baseball blog page, in the right column toward the bottom. This is another small step toward making this Web site more interactive and responsive to fan input. I'm pleased that quite a number of fans have taken the time to share their experiences already, but it seems that some stadiums are much more popular than others. What about the homely but lovable old Milwaukee County Stadium, for example?
(Speaking of which, I made a few further tweaks to the diagrams on that page, mostly in the area around each foul pole.)