Why does Fenway Park have the Green Monster?

[Prevost]

Or, why did they design Fenway so asimmetricaly?

I REALLY want to know. :mrgreen:

[asok007]

A lot of the old parks were built to fit the area available so many of them have some strange dimensions (at least compared to the cookie-cutter concrete donuts of the 70's). I don't know for sure, but I would assume this is the case with Fenway.

And if you think the dimensions of Fenway are bad, the Dodgers played a few years in the L.A. Coliseum and had a left field net (not wall) about 250 feet from home plate.

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ has the history and dimensions of most parks.

[doogald]

Yes, Fenway was designed to fit in the lot on which it was built. And the wall is there I think in part (if not in total) to prevent people standing on Landsdowne Street, or on the roofs of buildings across the street, from watching the game without buying a ticket.

[Steven Cedrone]

Yes, Fenway was designed to fit in the lot on which it was built. And the wall is there I think in part (if not in total) to prevent people standing on Landsdowne Street, or on the roofs of buildings across the street, from watching the game without buying a ticket.

I was under the impression that it needed to be that high to prevent a disproportionate number of home runs at the park...

Steve

[Prevost]

Yes, Fenway was designed to fit in the lot on which it was built. And the wall is there I think in part (if not in total) to prevent people standing on Landsdowne Street, or on the roofs of buildings across the street, from watching the game without buying a ticket.

I was under the impression that it needed to be that high to prevent a disproportionate number of home runs at the park...

SteveYeah, I also supposed that, although it's obvious that the real question underlaying is, why did they built it so short by the left?

Anyway, it allows a number of 2 and 3 bases hits that are flyouts in any other park.

[Mark Kenepp]

I was under the impression that it needed to be that high to prevent a disproportionate number of home runs at the park...

SteveYeah, I also supposed that, although it's obvious that the real question underlaying is, why did they built it so short by the left?

Anyway, it allows a number of 2 and 3 bases hits that are flyouts in any other park.

Fenway has a much shorter distance down the right field line (officially listed as 302' but I read somewhere that it has been measured with a tape measure at less than 300').

Yankee Stadium is 314' down the left field line and there are a number of other ballparks that have "short fences" with distances from 307' (at Pac Bell in San Francisco) to 315' (The "Juice Parks" Minute Maid in Houston and Topicana in Tampa.

Not all of these have higher walls at the shorter distances.

[doogald]

I was under the impression that it needed to be that high to prevent a disproportionate number of home runs at the park...

SteveYeah, I also supposed that, although it's obvious that the real question underlaying is, why did they built it so short by the left?

Anyway, it allows a number of 2 and 3 bases hits that are flyouts in any other park.

Fenway has a much shorter distance down the right field line (officially listed as 302' but I read somewhere that it has been measured with a tape measure at less than 300').


Yes, but it also gets deeper faster than the left field wall, which remains quite short all the way to left-center field. I still think that closing out the park from Landsdowne Street (the sidewalk of which is literally just a few feet from the in-play side of the wall - as the scoreboard is inside the wall there obviously is a cavity within the wall)) was the major reason for the wall. Right field has a good hundred feet plus of grandstand behind it.

[Prevost]

Yes, but it also gets deeper faster than the left field wall, which remains quite short all the way to left-center field. I still think that closing out the park from Landsdowne Street (the sidewalk of which is literally just a few feet from the in-play side of the wall - as the scoreboard is inside the wall there obviously is a cavity within the wall)) was the major reason for the wall. Right field has a good hundred feet plus of grandstand behind it.
Most likely, since the wall is very linear, so it's like it should if following an street line.