In the recent article “Padres to move in Petco fences” posted on ESPN.com we learned about some changes happening over at Petco Park in the East Village/Ballpark neighborhood in the middle of Downtown San Diego. The San Diego Padres have made plans to move in the outfield fences in front of right and left center field to make the ballpark a more hitter friendly place to play. Since the ballpark was built in 2004 the park has become notoriously known as a “pitchers park” for its huge outfields.
In a quote taken from the article, Padres president and CEO Tom Garfinkel said, “We want the park to play the right away for players and for the fans. That was driven first by baseball operations in terms of the right way to construct the dimensions to make it more fair for players. Players know what’s fair and what’s not. When they crush a ball that would be out in 29 other parks, and it’s not out here, they know that it’s not fair. We wanted to make it more fair from that standpoint.”
Both the right-center and left-center field fences will be moved in about 10 feet from their current dimensions and the right field wall will be lowered to match the rest of the park. The visitor’s bullpen will also be moved from the right field foul to up above the Padres bullpen in left-center field to improve player safety.
The adjustments to the park should not affect the noise levels of nearby Downtown San Diego Real Estate residents as no heavy machinery will be needed but should help provide some exciting more exciting baseball next season. ')}
//