Citi Field

Besides the new Yankee Stadium opening, the Mets opened their new stadium, Citi Field as well. Citi Field cost half as much to build as Yankee Stadium so you really can not compare the two. The stadium is great; however I do have a few criticisms regarding the field set up. The first fault I found is the field there is virtually no foul territory down the sides of the field. This is a problem because a ball is either in play or in the stands. Citi Field is supposed to be a “classic pitchers park” but, this makes it the opposite of what they were trying to achieve. The Mets wanted to give their fans an experience where they would be right on top of the field but this aspect of the park hurts their pitchers. The reason, fielders have no place to move in foul territory to possibly get a foul out. I understand that it goes both ways because each team will deal with the same problem but this could have been avoided by just adding a few feet to each foul line. The only other fault I found with the new Citi Field, goes hand in hand with the first. There is also no room behind home plate. This was a problem as shown in yesterday’s game. A Mets pitcher threw a wild pitch with a man on third but the runner could not come home because the ball bounced back so quickly off the short backstop. The stadium is great and so far one positive part of the stadium is the shape of the outfield walls. Hitters such as Jose Reyes should have a great time hitting at the new ballpark because these strangely shaped walls should create many triples and a few inside the park home runs. The Mets split their exhibition series with the Red Sox 1-1 but it really doesn’t matter considering the games do not count. Mets fans don’t worry there will be plenty of actual wins to come at Citi Field when the real season starts.

Daniel Weberman

NYchalktalk.com