Artificial Turf Strikes Back in Baseball

Hall relented last year, agreeing to replace the grass at the Diamondbacks’ downtown ballpark with artificial turf. He changed his mind after finding a synthetic grass technology that he believes genuinely mimics the real thing in terms of how it plays and affects players’ bodies: the B1K—which stands for “Batting 1.000”—system from Georgia-based Shaw Sports Turf.

Artificial turf nearly disappeared from Major League Baseball. Now it’s suddenly back. After eight years with grass at their home in Little Havana, the Miami Marlins have switched to Shaw’s turf in 2020. The Texas Rangers will also use it at Globe Life Field, their newly constructed stadium in Arlington scheduled to open later this month.

Worcester approves about $30M more for new ballpark

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The Worcester City Council has approved a revised financing plan to address about $30 million in increased costs for a new baseball stadium being built in the city for the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate.

The plan approved Tuesday addresses an additional $9.4 million in construction costs and about $20 million in increased costs associated with the redevelopment of the neighborhood where the park will be located.

The team, currently based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and known as the Pawtucket Red Sox, will play one more season in Rhode Island before relocating to Worcester in 2021.

Given what MLB has been threatening lately, I’m not sure that investing more in minor league stadiums makes sense at the current time….

How exciting: Braves rename their ballpark ‘Truist Park’

Last year North Carolina-based BB&T bank bought SunTrust Bank, creating the sixth largest bank in the country. The bank’s new name: “Truist.” I don’t care about that, but given that the baseball team I root for plays in a place that was originally called SunTrust Park, I did wonder what the name of the park would be called going forward.

As of today, we have that answer: the Braves and Truist just announced the new name: Truist Park. Which is exactly what I guessed they’d name it last year. Hey, you pay millions for an advertising campaign, you’re gonna slap your name on it.

As I noted last year, “Truist” is not a real word, but it’s the 21st century, so I’m not sure that even matters anymore.

For those of you wondering why we ran that exercise for giving baseball stadiums alternative names a while back…..

Rangers honor retired jerseys with dimensions at new stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The dimensions at the new Texas Rangers’ ballpark will be similar to their old stadium, with slightly altered distances designed to honor the team’s retired jersey numbers.

The left field pole will be 329 feet from home plate, the 29 a reference to former third baseman Adrian Beltre’s jersey. It will be 407 feet to straightaway center field, honoring Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, and 410 at the deepest points to mark Michael Young’s No. 10.

Former manager Johnny Oates’ No. 26 will be marked by the 326 feet to the right field pole at Globe Life Field.

So, what do they do if they retire more numbers?

Former Marshall, MLB pitcher gives $1M for college ballpark

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former Marshall University and major league pitcher has donated $1 million to help build the school’s new baseball stadium.

News outlets report Rick Reed’s contribution will go toward a ballpark scheduled to open in March 2021 in Huntington.

Reed says Marshall has been in need of a new stadium for a long time and that he was happy to make the donation.

Very complex: Nats, Astros share spring site, meet in Series

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Asked how his Washington Nationals figured out Gerrit Cole in the World Series opener, Juan Soto didn’t have to look far for an answer.

“I’m glad I face him in spring training,” Soto said.

In fact, all of the Houston Astros and Nationals see a lot of each other starting every February — they share the complex at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

More than 200 days after breaking camp, they’ve ended the year on the same field with much more at stake.

Apparently, this is the first time this has occurred, for those interested in milestones.

The Las Vegas A’s? Baseball commissioner tells Oakland it could happen

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made it clear to Oakland officials that the A’s proposed waterfront ballpark and the team’s desire to develop at the Coliseum is an “all in one” proposition — and that the city needs to drop its lawsuit over the Coliseum land sale to the A’s or risk the team relocating to another city.

And apparently, everyone got the message.

“He kind of laid down the law,” said City Councilman Larry Reid, who also sits on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority. He attended separate meetings Manfred held last week with Mayor Libby Schaaf and council President Rebecca Kaplan.

“He talked about how it was five years ago that he became commissioner, how he had resisted the A’s moving to San Jose back then,” Reid said. “Then he talked about his frustration with the lawsuit and how the city needs to make it go away.”

There are things that could be said about this- I’ll leave it to all of you to have your thoughts…..

Two Playoff Teams, Two New Stadiums and One Great Divide

Two maps tell the story.

First, John Schuerholz stared into a camera and stunned a city. Unflinching, the Braves’ GM turned president, whose teams had won 14 straight division titles, explained to Atlanta baseball fans on Nov. 11, 2013, that the club was abandoning the area just south of downtown, its home since 1966. No longer would the Braves play at Turner Field, where skyscrapers looming over left center made it feel as if the entire city was watching. Instead, the franchise would build a stadium 14 miles north, in Cobb County. “This new ballpark,” Schuerholz said of what would come to be called SunTrust Park, “will be in the heart of Braves Country.”

Accompanying the announcement, the team released a map showing where, precisely, Braves Country was—and, notably, where it wasn’t. That view of the greater Atlanta area was speckled with red dots, each one indicating the home of a 2012 ticket buyer, including season-ticket holders. Only a smattering of red appeared to the east, west and south of Turner Field, while thousands of dots congealed into a ribbon above downtown that expanded into a wide swath in the half-dozen suburban and exurban counties to the north. The new stadium would be closer to the middle of that mass, which happened to embody an older, whiter and more conservative population than the city proper. Those northern suburbs were fast diversifying, yet many in Atlanta—particularly in its black population—felt slighted by the decision, their perspectives colored by decades of racial and political tension between city and sprawl.

Five months later MLS commissioner Don Garber, Falcons owner Arthur Blank and then-mayor Kasim Reed proclaimed in their own press conference that downtown Atlanta would be home to MLS’s 22nd franchise, and the new club, Atlanta United, would take the pitch in 2017, the same year the Braves headed to Cobb. The soccer team would play in the same new $1.6 billion stadium the Falcons would soon call home, but United would be no afterthought. The facility would be designed to accommodate the beautiful game from the start. Pushing back against skepticism and pointing to an influx of young professionals near Atlanta’s urban core, Blank assured MLS’s leaders he could fill the massive venue, even in a market known for lukewarm enthusiasm toward pro sports. Reed boasted that his city’s foreign-born (and, seemingly implied, soccer-loving) population was growing at the second-fastest rate in the U.S. Garber himself insisted these factors combined to make downtown an ideal MLS incubator. The city “embodies what we call a ‘new America,’” he said, “an America that’s blossoming with ethnic diversity.”

A consideration of sport and space- of interest for those who wish for a long-form read.