By Howard Koplowitz
Citi Field will become a more friendly place for home runs after the New York Mets decided Monday to move in the fences at the Flushing ballpark in time for next season. Portions of the outfield wall will be moved as much as 12 feet closer to home plate and the entire outfield wall will be 8 feet high.
At its highest point, parts of the outfield wall are currently 16 feet.
There are no uniform rules for outfield wall dimensions, making each ballpark unique.
The corner left field wall will remain 335 feet away from home plate and the right field corner will stay at 330 feet, the team said.
Citi Field’s current dimensions give an advantage to pitchers: long fly balls recorded as outs in the stadium are usually home runs in other Major League Baseball parks.
Only 1.33 home runs per game were hit at Citi Field in 2011 — third-lowest among the 30 Major League stadiums, according to statistics.
“We wanted to make Citi Field fair to both pitchers and hitters,” said Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson.
The dimensions have been criticized since Citi Field opened in 2008 as being tough for hitters.
The existing fence will not be torn down and the Flushing franchise said it would install 140 additional seats in-between the old fence and the new one in left field.
An outdoor seating area will be added to the Modell’s Clubhouse in right field that can hold about 40 more fans, the team said.
Besides the dimensions, Mets fans have also complained that the outfield fence is black — Shea Stadium’s fence was blue — which is not tied to the team’s traditional colors of orange and blue.
“After conferring with Sandy and all members of his staff, ownership concurred with the recommendations to change the dimensions at Citi Field,” said Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon, son of Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon. “We decided to change the outfield wall from black to Mets blue, which many of our fans have wanted.”
In a portion of left-center field, the dimensions will shrink from 371 feet to 358.
Another portion of left-center field closest to center field will be 1 foot farther away from home plate, from 384 feet to 385 feet.
The fence at that part of the field is 16 feet high, but under the new dimensions the fence’s height will be cut in half.
Dead center field will remain at 408 feet, while part of right-center field will go from 415 feet high to 398 feet.
The other part of right-center field will be moved 3 feet closer to home plate to 375 feet.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
