{"id":235944,"date":"2012-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/padres-outfield-walls-come-in\/"},"modified":"2012-12-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T08:00:00","slug":"padres-outfield-walls-come-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/padres-outfield-walls-come-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres\u2019 outfield walls come in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distance changes should make way for a \u201cfun baseball\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since opening up to much fanfare in April of 2004, Petco Park has been known as one of the \u201cmost extreme pitcher-friendly parks in major league baseball\u201d due to the location of its outfield fences.<\/p>\n

In April of 2013, that will no longer be the case, because after eight years, Padres management decided to make a change and this week those changes are well underway.<\/p>\n

\"Petco<\/a>
A bird’s eye view of the outfield wall changes at Petco Park, as seen from the Marriott Gaslamp’s Altitude bar balcony. (Photo by Gary Miller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur goal is to move Petco Park away from being the most extreme run suppressing ballpark in Major League Baseball,\u201d said Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler in a released statement. \u201cAfter an extensive study, it became clear to all of us that some change was needed. Petco will still be a pitcher’s park; however, it will no longer be the outlier.”<\/p>\n

Local resident and longtime Padres fan Gary Miller peered down from his perch at the Gaslamp Marriott\u2019s Altitude Bar on Thanksgiving Day and got a bird\u2019s eye view of the current construction.\u00a0 He quickly grabbed his camera and went to work, and later said he was \u201cthrilled\u201d at the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pads have been my team since 1978 when I got here and we’ve never had a reasonable right field wall,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are so many great reasons to bring in that wall. The game will be more exciting now with more home runs and close plays at second base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pads have been last in homers for years,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe will be able to attract left-handed power hitters that want a shot at the new wall, similar to Yankee Stadium\u2019s short right field porch or the Green Monster in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans will be closer and the kids will have to wear helmets in the sandbox! No more 1-0, 2-1, boring pitcher battles. We’re gonna see run production and exciting, fun baseball here.\u00a0 The games will run longer but they will be more fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Padres\u2019<\/a>
The wall will be brought in to enhance possibility of homeruns at Petco Park. (Photo by Gary Miller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The specific changes for the 2013 season, according to the press release, are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The distance down the right field foul line will remain the same at 322 feet.<\/li>\n
  • From the right field porch to the right center field gap, the fence will be moved in 11 feet and lowered to<\/li>\n
  • match the sub-eight-foot height in left and center field.<\/li>\n
  • The out-of-town scoreboard will be relocated.<\/li>\n
  • At right center field, the distance will decrease from 402 feet to 391 feet.<\/li>\n
  • The distance at straightaway center field will remain the same at 396 feet.<\/li>\n
  • The deepest portion of the left center field gap will be decreased from 402 feet to 390 feet.<\/li>\n
  • The home bullpen will be reconfigured to allow for the visitors\u2019 bullpen to be relocated from the field to the area behind the home bullpen.<\/li>\n
  • The dimensions from left center field to the left field foul line will remain the same.<\/li>\n
  • The distance at straightaway left field will remain the same at 357 feet.<\/li>\n
  • The distance down the left field foul line will remain the same at 336 feet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Petco Park is the home field of the San Diego Padres major league baseball club. It has also been used for various other purposes, including a Rolling Stones concert, the Madonna Sticky and Sweet Tour, American Idol tryouts, a Food Network challenge, an NCAA baseball series, and a USA Rugby World Series game.\u00a0 It is located at 100 Park Blvd. For season or individual game tickets for the 2013 season, visit padres.com.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Distance changes should make way for a \u201cfun baseball\u201d Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor Since opening up to much fanfare in April of 2004, Petco Park has been known as one of the \u201cmost extreme pitcher-friendly parks in major league baseball\u201d due to the location of its outfield fences. In April of 2013, that […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Padres\u2019 outfield walls come in","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}