How Different are Major League Baseball Fields?

Major League baseball fields are surprisingly different. Although the infields are the same, the outfields vary dramatically.

We used Google Maps to trace the shapes and sizes of all uncovered Major League Baseball stadiums. The image to the left is an overlay of all those tracings.

The distances vary from 302 feet (92 meters) to 355 feet (108 meters) along the foul line — that's a difference of over 17%. The distances from home plate to the center field fence vary over 11% from 390 feet (119 meters) to 435 feet (133 meters).

Angel Stadium, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Angel Stadium
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Turner Field, Atlanta Braves
Turner Field
Atlanta Braves

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Baltimore Orioles

Fenway Park, Boston RedSox
Fenway Park
Boston RedSox

Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs
Wrigley Field
Chicago Cubs

U. S. Cellular Field, Chicago White Sox
U. S. Cellular Field
Chicago White Sox

Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati Reds
Great American Ball Park
Cincinnati Reds

Progressive Field, Cleveland Indians
Progressive Field
Cleveland Indians

Coors Field, Colorado Rockies
Coors Field
Colorado Rockies

Comerica Park, Detroit Tigers
Comerica Park
Detroit Tigers

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodger Stadium
Los Angeles Dodgers

Citi Field, New York Mets
Citi Field
New York Mets

Yankee Stadium, New York Yankees
Yankee Stadium
New York Yankees

Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland Athletics
Oakland Alameda County Coliseum
Oakland Athletics

Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Phillies
Citizens Bank Park
Philadelphia Phillies

PNC Park, Pittsburgh Pirates
PNC Park
Pittsburgh Pirates

Busch Stadium, Saint Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium
Saint Louis Cardinals

Petco Park, San Diego Padres
Petco Park
San Diego Padres

AT&T Park, San Francisco Giants
AT&T Park
San Francisco Giants

Safeco Field, Seattle Mariners
Safeco Field
Seattle Mariners

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas Rangers
Rangers Ballpark
Texas Rangers

Nationals Park, Washington Nationals
Nationals Park
Washington Nationals



The official rules of Major League Baseball stipulate the following about the outfield dimensions: there must be a minimum of 325 feet (99 meters) between the left and right field walls and home plate, and 400 feet (122 meters) between center field and home plate. It is perhaps more telling to note what the rules do not say about the field. For example, specific requirements pertaining to the height of the outfield wall, the width of foul territory, or the actual curve of the outfield wall are all absent from the rulebooks.

Of course, the good news is that this allows each ballpark the opportunity to be unique, adding some complexity for the players. On the other hand, it's not an overstatement to say that these little quirks can have a significant impact on the outcome of single plays, entire games, or even an individual's career.


Some MLB Field Oddities


Fenway Park, home to the Boston RedSox: This ballpark has been "grandfathered in," since it has been in use since 1912 — long before the official 1958 ruling. Notable features include the Green Monster, a 37 foot (11 meters) tall green wall at a distance of 310 feet (94 meters) in left field, and a remarkably asymmetrical 380 foot (116 meters) distance to the right field fence, known as "the belly."

Yankee Stadium, home to the New York Yankees: Completed in 2009, this park took advantage of the quirks of the old Yankee Stadium, duplicating the dimensions of the old park that had been grandfathered in. This includes a right field that is 15 feet (5 meters) shorter than the rules require.

AT&T Park, home to the San Francisco Giants: AT&T Park, built in 1999, was built so close to the San Francisco Bay that the right field is abbreviated — 310 feet (94 meters) to the brick wall. Each season, several home run hits make it over the wall and into McCovey Cove which is usually populated by some boaters hoping to score a ball.

Aside from these notable exceptions, there are many others that don't follow the rules and offer no explanation — such as the Crawford Boxes at Houston's Minute Maid Field — and many that do follow the rules, but somehow still manage to avoid a standard size or shape.


Methodology


To assemble this data, we took screenshots of Google Maps views of each of the stadiums that were not covered at the time that the satellite image was taken. Dolphin Stadium, home of the Florida Marlins, for example, was in its football configuration, so we had to omit it.

Although we set the same zoom level for each screenshot, it turns out that the legends on various Google Maps are not all identical. We presume that the slight differences are caused by the various elevations of the terrain that the satellite is imaging. In other words, high-elevation locations will appears larger (and therefore more zoomed in) than lower-elevation locations.

To accommodate for the varying zoom levels, we normalized all the pictures by stacking them on top of each other and then scaling each image so that all the legends were the same dimensions. The image on the right shows a cropped view of all the legends stacked on top of each other for normalizing.

 
+19

Answer by  Anonymous

That's not Citi Field -- that's Shea.

posted by Anonymous
Good call Mario!  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
That's true the picture you are showing of Citi Field, is really a picture of Shea stadium. Most Mets fans would love to see Citi Field contain the same dimensions Shea had in order to see a few more home runs. The great wall of Flushing just hurts the Mets.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Completely left off the "K"  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
How valid are the baseball records when all firlds are different plus natural grass vs. artificial turf where  add a comment
 
+12

Answer by  Anonymous

You left out Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City.

posted by Anonymous
haha..they dont play major league baseball in kansas city  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
on behalf of all Royals fans, BITE ME  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
At least we weren't in last place! With the improvements we've made, we'll show you who plays major league ball idiot!  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
... and Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins?  add a comment
 
+10

Answer by  hefito (226)

Doesn't this make baseball a lot more like golf than say real sports like basketball and football?

Reply by philosophy (243):
I think both baseball and golf are "real sports," its just that the players have to adjust to drastically different conditions each time they play.  add a comment
Reply by DulceDeLeche (219):
I would argue that the differences in field surface in football (grass vs astroturf) are actually greater for the athletes than the field-size differences in baseball. Indoor/outdoor stadiums also make a really big difference for players. Coping with the variations is part of the sport.  add a comment
Reply by Topper25 (0):
Obviously, you've never tried to hit a ball moving, not only at you, but up, down, or sideways at close to 100 mph. Also, how about the oddity that the team holding the ball is on DEFENSE, and the best thing is there is NO time limit.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Dulce De Leche, baseball has grass vs AstroTurf as well as indoor/outdoor stadiums.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
baseball is the greatest sport of all time  add a comment
 
+8

Answer by  Anonymous

Great job. It would be interesting to figure in the 3D variations - and figure out what it actually takes to hit a ball out of the park. Because all the walls are different heights, distance to that wall is only half of the equation.

 
+8

Answer by  Anonymous

Just as an FYI: That's the old Yankee Stadium and not Citi: it's Shea.

 
+7

Answer by  Anonymous

As a Houston native, the reason for Minute Maid Park's dimensions are simple: it's built in the middle of Downtown and they weren't willing to knock down any historic buildings to make left field big enough. Thus the high wall to try (unsuccessfully) to balance it out.

posted by Anonymous
That is incorrect. There are no historic buildings in Houston.  add a comment
 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

missed the astros, twins, brewers, blue jays, rays, royals, marlins!

posted by Anonymous
only "uncovered fields" were done. At least for the Jays that means no Skydome.  add a comment
 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

The Royals don't play Major League Baseball? Last time I checked, the 2009 AL Cy Young winner calls Kauffman Stadium home. best recognize!

 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

Target Field?

 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

I know KC doesn't play like a major league team but they clearly have a major league ballpark. Where is Kauffman Stadium?

 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

In a sport that lives and dies with numbers (which is why the steroids scandal mattered so much) all fields are different making all individual stats worthless. Who cares who has the best stats if the stadiums aren't equal!!

Reply by iamwhaleman (1):
Many of the newer-school stats account for park factors so that all players across all eras can be compared regardless of where they played. As such, it doesn't matter if the stadia are equal.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Your point is fully valid if players only play in their own stadium their entire career. Since they all play everywhere, the stats have value even if they could be slightly skewed.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Just having a stadium at 5200+ ft. (Colorado Rockies) changed power stats significantly. It's not a fight worth fighting.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
because Miguel Cabrera won a Triple Crown and MVP in one of the biggest parks in baseball  add a comment
 
+6

Answer by  Anonymous

I think it would be interesting to incorporate foul territory into this image as well.

 
+6

Answer by  Sikkim (65)

Home teams should get a sizable advantage since they have so much experience with the intricacies of their field. One would expect that the home-team advantage should be bigger in baseball than in other sports, but I don't think that is true.

posted by Anonymous
I think that is true more for the pitchers than the hitters and fielders... pitchers feel so much more comfortable on a mound they are used to.  add a comment
 
+6

Answer by  paulp74115 (129)

They are different enough that a hit that would be a home run in Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium would be a fly out in Dodgers Stadium.

posted by Anonymous
The "oddities" section is off, too. Right field at Yankee stadium is 318', making it 7' less than standard, not 15'.
And where is the Diamondbacks' stadium?  add a comment
 
+6

Answer by  tschebyshev (252)

I cannot believe how different they are... I mean we all know that they differ, but the disparities are alarming. I am surprised that the league allows such gross differences.

Reply by udaipur (219):
I suspect that they were forced to allow the differences because the stadiums were already built before it really mattered that much. There is too much inertia (ie season ticket sales etc) to force teams to alter their stadiums.  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Right now the differences aren't too terrible to how some stadiums used to be. Fenway used to have a literal hill in it, Yankee Stadium had monuments in the outfield, etc.  add a comment
 
+5

Answer by  Anonymous

It really doesn't matter that they're different sizes. Both teams play each individual game within the park, so they both have the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each park.

 
+5

Answer by  Anonymous

Horrible, considering Target Field was left off. It's been in biz since April - is Google that far behind the times? Or is the author of this post the one who's living in 2009?

posted by Anonymous
1 Twins Way is still just a construction site on the Google Maps satellite view.  add a comment
 
+5

Answer by  Anonymous

the exact dimensions for all mlb ballparks are available at the mlb website (and plenty of other sites), they even include the indoor parks and the newer outdoor parks. i don't see why this this methodology was used.

 
+4

Answer by  Anonymous

Pretty interesting. Would be cool to have checkboxes or something, so one could compare specific fields.

 
+4

Answer by  Anonymous

thats not citi field.

 
+4

Answer by  Anonymous

And you forgot one of the crazier outfield walls - Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

 
+3

Answer by  kahare (6)

What I want to know is the actual square footage area of each outfield area. Quote "this is a really big field" So, How big are they? I assume that somebody has a tape measure and a calculator.

 
+3

Answer by  Anonymous

Why the heck can't you just list the three dimensions (home plate to left, center and right) for ALL MLB parks? So what if this over-simplifies the little quirks and angles of each individual park's outfield walls. I just want to compare the distances!

posted by Anonymous
you would never change something like Wrigley Field... and the same would go for Fenway... they are so original, that it makes the stadium itself a monument  add a comment
 
+1

Answer by  Anonymous

This is just naked without the inclusion of glorious Target Field =/

posted by Anonymous
must have been taken in october, ergo no activity....  add a comment
posted by Anonymous
Only homer Minnesotans think Target Field is "glorious". Get out once in a while!  add a comment
 
+1

Answer by  Brett (7986)

Baseball stadiums have some dimensions all the same: distance between bases, from home to the plate, etc. The differences are in the foul territories and the fences in the outfield.

 
+0

Answer by  Anonymous

why don't you just have all the stadiums, no love for the brewers on this page!

 
+0

Answer by  Anonymous

Note that the rulebook "advises" field orientation (that is, a line from home through second into center field) be toward east-northeast. Looks like most of the parks follow that suggestion.

 
+0

Answer by  Anonymous

Google images isn't satellite images. It's aerial photography from a plane that flys over. That might account for your discrepancies.

 
+0

Answer by  Anonymous

Wow, Comerica sure is square

 
+0

Answer by  PorkSword (1)

Why is New Yankee Stadium grandfathered? It just opened.

 
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