April 6, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Opening Day 2009 has arrived!

After several dark, bleak months of waiting, as of today, baseball fans finally get to enjoy life once again: PLAY BALL!!!

Actually, last night was Opening Night, as the Braves beat the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies 4-1. The Braves scored two runs in each of the first two innings, while Phillies didn't even get on the board until the bottom of the ninth. Chipper Jones went 2 for 4, getting a quick start to match his phenomenal performance of last year; he finished the 2008 season with a batting average of .364, just ahead of Albert Pujols and way ahead of the rest.

ESPN (or ESPN2) will be broadcasting several games today, starting at 1:00 with the New York Mets at Cincinnati.

Candlestick Park update, at last

While mainstream baseball fans have been waiting forever for Opening Day to come, ballpark fans who frequent this Web site have been waiting forever to see an update to the Candlestick Park Candlestick Park page. As of today, I am proud to announce, it now has new diagrams that conform to my "state-of-the-art" standard, as well as some hypothetical diagrams portraying what I think should have been done when Candlestick Park was expanded in 1972. Any comments, feel free to put them on this blog post.

This means that all major league stadiums since 1909 can now be compared to each other on the Side-by-side and Overlay comparison pages. I still have a few other stadiums to do, some of which you've probably never heard of...

COMMENT by: Brian Hughes, of Edison, NJ on Apr 06, 2009 17:29 PM
Finally! I've been pestering you for how long about that? :) Also, of note is that the right-center field corner at Citi Field has a marked distance of 415. I meant to add that comment yesterday but got sidetracked. >_>

COMMENT by: Andrew Clem, of Staunton, VA on Apr 08, 2009 13:02 PM
Well, as the Tortoise said to the Hare (who lost the race in a big upset), "I may be slow, but I'm sure." Thanks for your patience.

COMMENT by: Andrew Clem, of Staunton, VA on Apr 08, 2009 13:03 PM
About Citi Field, yes I saw the new distance markers and will be updating that diagram soon, right after New Yankee Stadium.