The 2009 Major League Baseball season is almost halfway finished and the jury is still out on New York’s two new baseball stadiums.
The New York Yankees thought they had a reincarnation of the “House That Ruth Built” with the new Yankee Stadium.
A lot of thought and planning went into making sure the new digs would be true to the tradition of the old ball park across the street, especially the way the place looked before the 1970’s renovation.
The New York Mets, on the other hand, have a completely new experience. The new Citi Field is nothing like Shea Stadium that was demolished during the off-season.
The Mets brass at first wanted the new park to emulate Ebbets Field, the old Brooklyn Dodgers ballpark.
That was done with the building of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, which serves as the main entrance behind home plate.
But the rest of Citi Field at first left many Mets fans bewildered.
Both the Mets and the Yankees will have to go through a full season in their new environment before all the questions can be answered.
New Yankee Stadium is a Bandbox
The Yankees thought they got everything right with their new stadium. They even copied the dimensions of the old stadium (from the renovated days) right to the exact measurements.
But the Yankees found out that their new stadium is a bandbox, a place where it is easy to hit home runs.
Batted balls were leaving the yard at a record pace in the first couple of months. It seems that with the wider concourses, there is more wind blowing around the stadium. The old ballpark was enclosed and the ball didn’t carry as well.
Even balls hit to dead center field at 408 feet or to left-center and 399 feet seem to fly out of the House That George Steinbrenner Built.
The fans themselves have no problems with the look of the place except for the incredible ticket prices.
Citi Field is a Pitchers Park
The New York Mets have the exact opposite problems with their new stadium.
The outfield walls are very deep compared to Shea Stadium. There is a high wall in left field. It is over 400 feet in center and right-center field. Right field has a deep enclave where there are field level fan boxes and an upper deck overhang,
The Mets have a tradition of producing quality pitchers such as Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden.
But they might have went overboard in making the place hard for their own hitters to reach the seats.
It should be noted that the Mets original home, the Polo Grounds, had the deepest right and left centerfield in major league history.
Some of the Polo Grounds mystique went into Citi Field as well.
New York Baseball Stadiums Costly
Young baseball fans will enjoy both Yankees Stadium and Citi Field for some time to come.
But there will be some debate on whether the new venues were worth building.
There was nothing structurally wrong with the old stadiums and the City of New York and the teams could have saved the money for other purposes.
But now that the deed is done, there is nothing left but to enjoy the moment with a new era of New York baseball.
