in play flag poles

[JPL BMX]

is there a rule where u can put a inplay flag pole like touching the fence, or 1 foot away from the fence or can u put a flag pole little bit farther away from the fence like 10 ft??

[Chisox73]

Minute Maid Park in houston has a flag pole that's in play,just about a foot from the CF fence.

Yankee Stadium(1923-73) had the flag pole in play,and so did Tiger Stadium

[BaylorGuy314]

Flag pole in play in Houston's Minute Maid Park.

[Yankee Pride]

I would hate to be a centerfielder with a flagpole in play. That could cause a major collision!!

[mjrbaseball]

Don't forget ... Yankee Stadium also had the monuments in play ...

See what Mickey Mantle had to deal with:

[Yankee Pride]

Yes , That must have been fun also!!

[Elvis]

Comerica Park also had the flagpole in play, however, when they moved the LF wall in, they also moved it in front of the pole. Too bad.

[west coast orange and black]

Originally Posted by Yankee Pride

I would hate to be a centerfielder with a flagpole in play...

righty-o, y-p, but that stupid hill out there is greater cause for concern for the center fielder. imagine running full-tilt and then suddenly not fully extending your leg's stride. ouch! at least the fielder knows that the pole is atop the hill, with the hill effectually subbibg for a warning track.

[a-rod13]

Wasnt the flag pole in Tiger Stadium in play?

[shoeless1920]

Flagpole was also in play at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.
Flagpoles in play are/were way, way out there, very rarely to be of consequence when dealing with the vast majority of fly balls, and the ballplayers treat them as any other ballpark idiosyncrasy.
Tiger Stadium's flagpole was in play, a feature originally duplicated at Comerica.

[efin98]

Wasn't the flagpole at Fenway Park also in play until recently? Could have sworn I heard that it was...

[1954 A's]

I am not sure, but I believe that the Fenway Park flagpole was taken off the field after the 1975 World Series, when they took the sheet metal off the Wall and replaced it with whatever they have on it now. They also put that dreadful scoreboard up in center fiield at that time. It was a significant face lift done in time for the 1976 season.

[efin98]

Originally Posted by 1954 A's

I am not sure, but I believe that the Fenway Park flagpole was taken off the field after the 1975 World Series, when they took the sheet metal off the Wall and replaced it with whatever they have on it now. They also put that dreadful scoreboard up in center fiield at that time. It was a significant face lift done in time for the 1976 season.

I'm surprised at that, I thought it was more like the late 80s when the 600 club was added or when the TV camera area was added in left/center...

[baseballwise]

Funny, but I've never seen a collision or even a near-collision with a flag pole. I've seen many outfielders bump their noggins on the brick wall behind the ivy at Wrigley, though.

So what do you think of the "hill" in centerfield at Minute Maid Park??? What's the logic for that?????

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by baseballwise

Funny, but I've never seen a collision or even a near-collision with a flag pole. I've seen many outfielders bump their noggins on the brick wall behind the ivy at Wrigley, though.

So what do you think of the "hill" in centerfield at Minute Maid Park??? What's the logic for that?????

The same logic that has kept 60'6" the distance to home plate when it's always been known that the 6" was a 150 year-old typo.

[west coast orange and black]

Originally Posted by baseballwise

...So what do you think of the "hill" in centerfield at Minute Maid Park??? What's the logic for that?????

the concept is a tip of the cap to a field of old, which had a hill in center field.

my guess -- and only a guess -- is that it was sportman's park.
i am probably wrong on this particular, though. anyone???

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by west coast orange and black

the concept is a tip of the cap to a field of old, which had a hill in center field.

my guess -- and only a guess -- is that it was sportman's park.
i am probably wrong on this particular, though. anyone???

Actually it was just an idea added to the ballpark by Astros president Tal Smith, who threw the idea in on a whim and expecting it to be thrown out of the plans. The incline is now known as "Tal's Hill" BTW.

Crosley Field in Cincinnati, and Yankee Stadium (from 1923-36) had inclined hills as part of their playing fields. Here's Yankee Stadium's old incline from the track to the wall:

[shoeless1920]

Originally Posted by efin98

Wasn't the flagpole at Fenway Park also in play until recently? Could have sworn I heard that it was...

Don't know about the flagpole in play although I know Fenway is the only ballpark with a ladder in play.

[Sashag]

a couple questions:

1 when did fenway not have a scoreboard on the green monster, (you seemed to hint that that was the case at one point-if so, then where was the scoreboard.)

2 can you explain the 6 inch mistake that some guy made that caused the distance from the plate to the mound to be 60 feet 6 inches

3 also, what is the distance from home to second, and from first to third. (im assuming its the same distance.)

4 aside from fenway, what other stadiums, if any, still have man operated scoreboards?

5 what is the history behind that huge clock at Wrigley (??) (the one that was blown up in THE NATURAL?)

-Sasha

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by Sashag

a couple questions:

1 when did fenway not have a scoreboard on the green monster, (you seemed to hint that that was the case at one point-if so, then where was the scoreboard.)

2 can you explain the 6 inch mistake that some guy made that caused the distance from the plate to the mound to be 60 feet 6 inches

3 also, what is the distance from home to second, and from first to third. (im assuming its the same distance.)

4 aside from fenway, what other stadiums, if any, still have man operated scoreboards?

5 what is the history behind that huge clock at Wrigley (??) (the one that was blown up in THE NATURAL?)

-Sasha

1. I think he meant the center field board, not the left field board that has been there since the 30s.

2. I'm not sure of the exact details, however it was just a misprint in the original rules as they were written down, that was never bothered to be corrected. It was supposed to be 60' even.

3. I got Cs in math.

4. Busch Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, Miller Park, Minute Maid Park, SBC Park, Wrigley Field, Ameriquest Field, McAfee Coliseum, Safeco Field and PNC Park all feature hand-op scoreboards.

5.

[shoeless1920]

Originally Posted by Sashag

5 what is the history behind that huge clock at Wrigley (??) (the one that was blown up in THE NATURAL?)

-Sasha

Is there in fact any history behind that huge clock at Wrigley that was blown up in The Natural? I don't know that Wrigley ever had such a clock and thought that scene was purely a Hollywood thing.

[1995hoo]

Originally Posted by Sashag

* * *
3 also, what is the distance from home to second, and from first to third. (im assuming its the same distance.)

* * *

It should be the same. The sum of the squares of the two sides of the triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse. Do the math

[baseball_in_hel*]

Originally Posted by baseballwise

Funny, but I've never seen a collision or even a near-collision with a flag pole. I've seen many outfielders bump their noggins on the brick wall behind the ivy at Wrigley, though.

So what do you think of the "hill" in centerfield at Minute Maid Park??? What's the logic for that?????

Isn't there also a hill in center field in the Kansas City Royals's stadium???

~~Tyler~~

[Bob Hannah]

Originally Posted by Sashag

3 also, what is the distance from home to second, and from first to third. (im assuming its the same distance.)
-Sasha

The answer to this question just popped up in this link here that appeared in a thread in this same forum.

Thanks, cong.

[klsm54]

Besides the flag pole being in play at Forbes field, so was the batting cage. After batting practice, they towed it out into the expanses to the left of the Flag pole, in the 457' part of the park.

There were also cages around three light poles that were in play. One in Left-center, one in center, and the other in right center.

I like the hill, and flag pole at Minute-Maid. Hat's off to Tal... ...It's the little things like that that add character to a park. The further we get from the "cookie-cutter" days, the better, as far as I'm concerned.