Your Dream Ballpark Designs

[Knick9]

my dream park...is entirly made up of chocolate

Gee, the balls would bounce of the hershey bar outfield! ROFL

[Padday]

You just better watch out for the two little german children being fatened up by the witch who shall then subsequently eat them.

We don't get no Hersheys over here.

[Knick9]

Here we go...

This ballpark has the same exact size of the Polo Grounds, but it has been modified a bit.

Ballpark name: (Give me suggestions)

Left Field Foul Pole: 354 feet
Left Center Field: 391 feet
Center Field: 434 feet
Right Center Field: 391 feet
Right Field Foul Pole: 354 feet

Fences: 4 feet, all the way through

Foul Territory: small

Backstop: 52 feet

Yeah, the ballpark looks very, very big. It's even bigger than Coors. Well, I give the hitters at least a better chance to hit a homerun with Dodger Stadium Corner sized walls throughout the park. As for the infield and backstop, I'd have the Ballpark at Arlington setup, a pathway to the pitcher's mound and to home plate from the dugout.

[JordanDL3891]

how do those pathways help?

[Knick9]

how do those pathways help?

Uh, Comerica Park has a trail from home plate to the pitcher's mound. The same (I think) can be said for The Ballpark at Arlington.

[RichardLillard1]

Comerica and Chase Field are the only ones I know of.

Old ballparks used to have the pathway, I'm not exactly sure as to why. My guess would be less work for the grounds crew.

[DTF955]

LOL, these are great, used to design some ins tudy hall myself just drawing them in high school.

Hmmm, the weirdest ideas have been taken :-) Really high or low walls, way close or way far out. But, who says the foul lines have to be closest?

To get my fielders to try hitting up the middle more, how about 400 feet downt he lines, 290 feet to center. There was something a little like this in Earl Weaver Baseball, IIR, one of the specialty ballparks you could use.

As for the chocolate and the German kids, I thought only the boy was getting eaten and the girl saved him by pushing the witch into the pot. Or maybe that's a redone version.

No matter, a chocolate ballpark would be interesting, but when the hot summer sun comes out, I'd rather not have my pallpark melting. :-)

Oh, speaking of cookie cutters, why do cookies have to be round? Don't any of you remember making Christmas cookies of different shapes? In the 1970s, when cookie cutters were the rage, I'd have suggested a star design to really be freaky - or at least the bottom half of a star in the outfield. 315 downt he lines, a diagonal from a power alley going back to about where the foul would be, out to maybe 450, CF comes in to 300 again, RF power alley out to 450 again, then 315 to left.

Now, if only someone would do the cookie cutter shaped like a Christmas tree :-)

[Knick9]

I call this, "Are you kidding me? Field"

Left Field: 200 feet (100 foot wall)
Left Center Field: 383 feet (30 foot wall)
Center Field: 1,000 feet
Right Center Field: 383 feet (30 foot wall)
Right Field: 200 feet (100 foot wall)

Does anyone have any idea what would happen whenever a ball hits the wall here? How would the fielders react to it? Would there be any difficulty?

[mrow1927]

I'll make my field a right-hander friendly field. I would take elements from the Roman Colosseum and Yankee Stadium and give it a gladiator look. The outside would look like the Colosseum and the inside would have the grandstand wrap around the foul poles like Yankee Stadium. Make a four tier stadium that can hold 100,000 people. The Bleachers would be double decker with the upper deck hanging two feet over the wall from from left center to center. The stadium would be supported by support beams.

The Dimensions would be:

backstop: 70 FT.
Left Field Line: 287 FT with 8 FT wall
Left Center: 378 FT with 7 FT wall
Center Field: 479 FT with 9.5 FT wall
Right Center: 477 FT with 15 FT wall
Right Field Line: 326 FT with 15 FT wall with a 15 FT clear plexyglass wall on top of that to make it 30 FT high

[Mariano_Rivera]

Google Sketchup is awesome I`m just starting but it looks cool so far.

LF- 285 (30 ft high wall)

LCF- 330 (20 ft high wall)

CF- 380 (black seats)

RCF-420

RF- 360

Basically what i would do for Yankees Stadium is leave everything up except for the OF. Bring in LF and add a huge wall with bleachers on top and box seats inside the wall. In LCF I would have the wall slope down and slope outward. In CF the curve become more dramatic and the wall will disapear and the black seats can be seen. RCF can keep curving out creating a very deep RCF making it difficult for opposite field hitting righties like Jeter but this should give them more doubles and FB singles. In RF it would come almost straight in. Nice park for pull hitters or left handed opposite field hitters.

[Knick9]

Overhead view...

You know, when I look at the ballpark design again, I do see a sense of excitement, or an element of surprise when I look at the ballpark. The problem is, I don't think any pro team would ever build a ballpark like this, but I'd love to make it myself.

By the way, Padday, could you make one where center field is just 461 feet? I'm being realistic now. 200-380-461-380-200

If not, then it's okay.

[Williamsburg2599]

I found this little old rundown place while I was in Italy. It could using a little patching up, but I think that It could make one hell of a ballpark.


(Al Spalding actually wanted to play a game there while on his baseball world tour )

[Padday]

You know, when I look at the ballpark design again, I do see a sense of excitement, or an element of surprise when I look at the ballpark. The problem is, I don't think any pro team would ever build a ballpark like this, but I'd love to make it myself.

By the way, Padday, could you make one where center field is just 461 feet? I'm being realistic now. 200-380-461-380-200

If not, then it's okay.

I forgot I made that freakish thing. Thanks for reminding me.

As for your request, I recommend tying it yourself with Google Sketchup (I couldn't be arsed to do it in other words.)

[Padday]

I found this little old rundown place while I was in Italy. It could using a little patching up, but I think that It could make one hell of a ballpark.


(Al Spalding actually wanted to play a game there while on his baseball world tour )

That's why it's important to have a good groundskeeper.

[sfgiants29]

I get bored.

[Knick9]

I get bored.

You know, even a ballpark that's like this would easily beat out any of the ideas that HOK has. Nice work, sfgiants29, I applaud you.

[riverfrontier]

I applaud you too. Now bring the upper decks in closer for a standing ovation.

[Williamsburg2599]

I get bored.

WOW! Nice work, makes me want to figure out how to work Google Sketchup, maybe we could have a BBF ballpark design contest someday...

[JordanDL3891]

ugh green seats! noo!

I really like the OF wall this time though

good Job!

[Sean O]

[Padday]

A little bit of a backround would be helplful.

[catbox_9]

I don't have a design drawn out or anything but I think it'd be interesting to have a cliff in center field like that in Houston but instead of going up have it go down.

Another idea that I like is to have RF be about 310 and LF be at like 460 and CF at 385. Add some interesting features to the OF so that it isn't just a straight line but pretty much have it be slanted so that one corner is shallow with the other corner super deep and CF somewhere in between.

[redbuck]

I've had several over the years.

First, here are three I never really pursued beyond a rough unpolished model.

The first one was a salvage idea for Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, although I did it after the park was torn down. Basically the concept was to remove all seats in left field and replace the second deck with a concourse area like at current US Cellular Field. The large area below the base of the second deck would remain for a field level scoreboard and to house bullpens.

The second is a joint set of Jacobs Field in the distance and another smaller ballpark that is triple decked and very compact, very old fashioned, perhaps between AAA and MLB size.

The third is just a very rough design that takes advantage of a city superblock to create a very large field and maximizes space for seating.

[redbuck]

Here is a more substantial design I came up with a couple years ago.

It employs a lot of lawn seating, unusual for MLB, and I tried to make it an aesthetically pleasing ballpark with flowing sections and rising and falling heights, perhaps good for a mountain city. It is triple decked so fans don't have too many stairs to climb to get to a concourse, and the scoreboard is quite large and the side board would contain a complete electronic scorecard of the game. The outfield walls are unusually tall, and the left field corner would have a large screen because it is less than 300 feet from home. I tried to curve all seats to the action. The only flaw is that because the decks don't overhang very much there is not much shade or cover and upper deck seats may be back a little ways. Also, the lower deck would be less steeply angled but not very large, so would appear fairly small.

[redbuck]

I think this is the most promising of my proposals. It is roughly based on Petco Park, although it is unique in many ways.

It has two small decks tucked under a larger upper deck that overhangs close to the field for better views. This seems ideal because on nights with a small crowd the fact that the two smaller decks are more unified would make the ballpark seem smaller and more full and lively.

There is a split around first base where the upper deck drops several feet and curves around to the right field corner, creating an effect I like where there is a nice open space between the top of the first deck and the bottom of the upper deck, and impressive supports for the upper deck.

In left field the bleachers are double decked and go out about 2/3 of the way to center field. In center, there are a few sharp angles - see picture 2 - as the wall drops back and increases in height. In left center there is an area where there could be some good social space or perhaps a restaurant. Behind center there is a lot of lawn seating. This is above the hitter's backdrop.

The scoreboard support comes into play in right center, and the scoreboard is tall and not terribly wide. Along right field the fence is high and there is a walkway behind it with good views.

Bullpens are down the lines. Estimated capacity is 45-50 thousand, large but not too big.