FFFF Award
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=== Flying Fickle Finger Of Fate, Dept. ===
The most outside-the-box post of the year, maybe? :- )
The solution, IMHO, is to rotate the park 90 degrees.
They did it at the Kingdome...they can do it here. Right now the wind generally blow sin from left. If they turned the park clockwise 90 degrees, the wind would simply be a crosswind blowing mostly out to RCF.
Without any doubt, rotating the field of play WOULD affect the batted balls. A lot. It's a creative suggestion.
I actually would be interested to see you do a point-by-point as to how a 90-degree rotation would be handled in terms of suites, broadcast facilities, the cheap benches in the LF stands vs. the stuffed chairs behind the plate, the glamor entrance taking you to home plate, the kitchens to the Diamond Club being walking distance from the $5000 seats, foul balls going out of the stadium, the scouts' glass and area being behind home plate, the clubhouses being attached to the dugouts by short runways the way they are now, the pitchers' bullpens being down the 3B line, and all that stuff :- ) Are we talking $200M to make it work and look nice? Or what?
When did they rotate the Kingdome field? They moved home plate 10' away from LF one year.
Are there any (other) precedents here? Because rotating the field of play WOULD affect the batted balls, a lot. It's a creative suggestion.
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Reason we bring that up: if you've ever strapped on a tool belt and started measuring this kind of thing, ANY change is going to be five times the effort you thought it was.
Does anybody remember that the Mariners called a press conference MARINERS FOR SALE!! over the specific issue of getting that roof? The city council said fine, sigh, you can have your state-of-the-art stadium but we can't afford a roof. You buy one if you want one.
The council stated that they would not pay the extra money for a roof, and John Ellis turned on his heel, called a press conference and put the Mariners up for sale (and therefore on their way out of town). The Mariners said that baseball in Seattle needed a roof, literally had to have one if there was to be baseball here (never mind that Boston, from March-October, gets more rain than Seattle does). And then the council paid for the roof, and Ellis took the Mariners off the market. Okay, you can have your baseball team now. Everybody good?
Instead of asking how much it costs, to convert a Lexus convertible into an SUV, they could close the roof they demanded that we buy them.
Or not,
Dr. D