Chronicle stat guru Zachary Levine had a post yesterday on Minute Maid Park, and the difficulties that umpires have at the facility. He then goes on to ask for reader opinions about the park gimmicks.I think I have made it clear, often, in the past, that I think MMP needs to be blown up. There are no redeeming qualities to that cheap, plastic pastiche of better stadiums. But amazingly, there are people who come to the defense of the choo-choo train, Tal's Hill, the Crawford Boxes, the flagpoles, etc. And frankly, I think these people are too stupid to live.
But the primary reason the defenders of these idiotic gives is that the ideas came from things which had existed at other ballparks. Tal's Hill came from the old outfield in Cincinnati. The flagpoles in play came from Detroit. Etc. But here's the thing about those gimmicks. When those teams moved to new parks, they didn't bring those gimmicks with them. You would think that if they were so damn great, the clubs would have taken those gimmicks with them to their new parks, but they didn't.
As for the comparisons to Fenway Park's Green Monster when it comes to the Crawford Boxes, the reason for Boston's short left field was a space issue -- the team had to fit the ballpark into the land that was available. This wasn't a problem in Houston. The Astros could have made the dimensions whatever they wanted.
Then again, MMP is just like Houston. It's a ballpark designed by idiots, for idiots, who live in a city that has been designed and run by idiots for far too long.
[Note, I have fixed some typos since originally posting this.]
4 comments:
I like the Choochoo & the hill & the flag obviously you are the one thats stupid about this plus would you rather the game be canceled do to rain the roof is a very goood feature plus its too hot here sometimes
Well, I never said anything about the roof. I don't mind the roof, though, if you're one of the poor people who get stuck in the upper reaches of the stadium you'll find that the heat can be unbearable.
"Then again, MMP is just like Houston. It's a ballpark designed by idiots, for idiots, who live in a city that has been designed and runned by idiots for far too long."
Hey, you idiot. I take offense to that. :D
Just as Houston is trying to be a copy of other, more 'World class' cities (Disco Green, Buffalo Bayou, Danger Train etc.) so is MMP just a copy of things other places innovated.
Now the Astrodome, THAT was a truly innovative stadium. Sadly, that type of leadership doesn't exist in Houston any longer.
I take offense as well the Astrodome was good in the early 80's but it got a little dull with its demensions by the mid 90's so that called for a change just think we would have a guy with 500 bombs already if the dome had a shorter left porch. The hill makes things interesting for when balls are hit that far. To see if the center fielder can climb the hill & Catch at the same time it would be interesting to see if the ball was to hit the flag & stay in play how many bases would a runner be able to make
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