July 21, 2009 [LINK / comment]
New Yankee Stadium update
Not again!!? Well, prompted by yesterday's news that Yankee Ballpark New Yankee Stadium will host a Notre Dame-Army college football game next year, I decided to come up with a football version diagram of it. Actually, I needed to make some minor corrections anyway, so this was a good opportunity. The left field fence is about five feet closer than I estimated before, as the point at which the straight portion of said fence intersects with the curved portion is about ten feet closer to the left field corner than I had thought. Right field is unaffected, so the enlarged overlay diagram that I posted on June 16 remains valid. I also updated my suggested alternative diagram, pushing the outfield fences back by about 10-15 feet. It shows the true "power alley" dimensions, not the artificially enhanced (too close to center field) dimensions as marked in New Yankee Stadium.
That reminds me, for more explanation on how the power alleys should be measured, see the new Outfield trigonometry page.
Even though the gridiron just barely fits within the existing playing field, they would still have to fill in the dugouts and remove the fences in front of the bullpen in order to create a "safety zone." Then I had an intriguing thought, which I posted on baseball-fever.com:
What about this possibility? Perhaps the Notre Dame-Army football game is at least partly an excuse for the Yankees to move the outfield fences back so that there would be enough room for the gridiron, and ALSO to create more reasonable outfield dimensions for baseball in right center field, so as to cut down on the flood of home runs. It would be a "graceful retreat" by the Yankees front office.
Hey, whatever gets the job done. 
League Park lives!
Even as demolition workers finish their grim work in putting old Tiger Stadium out of its misery, hopeful news comes from Cleveland: Historical preservationists are pushing ahead with plans to restore League Park, making it an attractive place to visit and recreate. They are planning a special event there on September 12. Go to leaguepark.org, and if possible, go to Cleveland! Thanks to Russ Haslage for the heads-up.
Memory Lane
Stashed away in my hoard of baseball memorabilia I recently found two tickets to Baltimore Orioles games that I saw thirty-odd years ago: April 20, 1979 (vs. the Milwaukee Brewers); and Oct. 4, 1981 (vs. the New York Yankees). What a revelation! I had forgotten exactly when it was that I saw games at Memorial Stadium, but I will duly correct that page forthwith. The latter game was the final game of the strike-shortened 1981 season, when they decided to split the divisional standings into two halves. That is how the Yankees made it to the postseason and then advanced to the World Series (losing to the Dodgers, 4 games to 2), even though they finished in third place in the AL Eastern Division for the year as a whole! See baseball-almanac.com, from which I also found out the scores of those two games: BAL 6, MIL 3; and BAL 5, NYY 2.