page_title: Baseball park
section_title: Unique features and quirks of current major league parks
hierarchical_section_title: Baseball park / Unique features and quirks of current major league parks
caption_attribution_description: Mount Davis at McAfee Coliseum. Taken at A's/Tigers game 4/18/06. Own work. 05:39, 19 April 2006 . . Dspserpico . . 640×480 (61,758 bytes)
context_page_description: A baseball park, also known as a ballpark or diamond, is a venue where baseball is played. A baseball park consists of the playing field and the surrounding spectator seating. While the diamond and the areas denoted by white painted lines adhere to strict rules, guidelines for the rest of the field are flexible.
  The term "ballpark" sometimes refers either to the entire structure, or sometimes to just the playing field. A home run where the player makes it around the bases, and back to home plate, without the ball leaving the playing field is typically called an "inside-the-park" home run. Sometimes a home run ball passing over an outfield fence is said to have been hit "out of the ballpark", but that phrase more often refers to a home run ball that cleared the stands, landing outside the building. The playing field is most often called the "ballfield", though the term is often used interchangeably with "ballpark" when referring to a small local or youth league facility.
context_section_description: Parks are ordered by date of construction.
  Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox) – Fenway is possibly the most notoriously quirky ballpark. The aforementioned 37-foot (11 m) Green Monster in left field, which includes a field-level manually operated scoreboard and a ladder, leads to unpredictable ricochets. So do the oddly angled fences in center and right field. While the Monster in left dominates the park, Fenway's right center field is 380 at its deepest point, a large divergence from the short left field. The curve of the fence comes in as it nears "Pesky's Pole", named for former Red Sox player Johnny Pesky, and the distance from home plate to the foul pole is only 302 feet (92 m). Despite this being the shortest foul line in baseball, home runs in this area are relatively rare.
  Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs) – Wrigley is the only major league ballpark left in use that has a brick outfield fence. This fence is mostly covered in Wrigley's trademark ivy. From time to time, a batted ball becomes lodged in the vines, which is ruled a ground rule double. Because there are streets close beyond the outfield fences, there is little room for seating or other structures, making the park open in the outfield. This, coupled with the park's proximity to Lake Michigan, which affects the wind currents from day to day or even hour to hour, can change the dynamic of the park. When the wind is blowing in, the park becomes a pitcher's park, despite the cozy power alleys. When the wind is blowing out, however, it becomes a hitter's park. The openness of the ballpark also allows residents of the buildings across the street to get an unobstructed view of the field. Some owners even have installed small sections of inclined seating on top of the buildings. Wrigley was the last major league park to install field lights, with the first night home game being played in 1988.
  Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers) – The view beyond the outfield is dominated by hills and the San Gabriel Mountains, and on one of the hills, large block letters have been erected that spell out "THINK BLUE", reminiscent of the Hollywood Sign (which can be seen from the top deck of the stadium facing away from the field). The setting Sun often reflects off the hills and can give the pitchers a distinct advantage, which the Dodgers have capitalized upon frequently. The Dodger Stadium grandstand is sculpted into the side of a man-made hill, in the fashion of the ancient Roman amphitheaters. This enabled the construction of multileveled terraced parking lots, which allow patrons to park their cars on the same level as their seats, thus minimizing vertical climbing and the need for elevators, escalators and ramps. One perceived drawback of this design is that it does not allow spectators to easily move from one seating level to another. The top of a ten-story elevator shaft bearing the Dodger logo rises behind home plate atop the upper seating level. The massive tiers consist of varicolored seats (yellow, light orange, turquoise, and sky blue), and the right and left field seats consist of little-league-style bleachers topped by a wavy roof. Dodger Stadium has become famous for the no-gimmick, nostalgic baseball atmosphere created by the aesthetic simplicity of the ballpark's design. The slogan for the stadium is "Blue Heaven on Earth".
  Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Los Angeles Angels) – Beyond the left field fence is a rock outcropping with water running down the center of it. At the top are three rocks forming an "A". Commonly known as the California Spectacular (or simply the Spectacular), the outcropping contains pyrotechnics that fire after home runs and wins. The roof over the dugouts continues, connecting the two to form a dugout-level seating. The parking lot contains a large "A" with a halo, which once held the stadium's scoreboard. There are also two giant red caps at the front gate with the cement painted in the form of a miniature baseball diamond in front of the home plate entrance. Behind the caps are oversized bats attached to a baseball which "hold-up" the stadium marque
caption: Oakland Coliseum's Mount Davis, the unused seats covered by tarps
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