Corey Brock has a nice story up over at MLB.com today about the changes in dimensions at Petco Park. The facts on the ground so far are interesting -- Brock notes that three home runs -- all by the opposition -- would have been long outs before the fences were moved in. The overall thrust of things seems to be that the dimension changes won’t be dramatic, buy will make things more fair.
I’m far more interested in the stuff he writes about climate in San Diego being the much bigger factor, which certainly sqaures with my experiences there. I’ve told this story before, but a few years ago my brother and I went to doubleheader of sorts at Petco. The day game featured the Lake Elsinore Dragons Storm [I don’t know what I was thinking] the Padres’ high-A team, playing a “home” game there. The ball flew out of the park with multiple homers being hit by guys that were likely never to make the bigs. Then around 7pm-7:30 the marine layer rolled in and the temperature dropped and the ball just friggin’ died on everything hit up in the air.
The fences aren’t going to fix that. Nothing likely will given the geography of the place. But as someone rather partial to pitching, I’m not sure I care all that much.
