Today at Citi Field, the Mets announced that they are moving in portions of the outfield wall at Citi Field as much as 12 feet and lowering the height of the home run line to 8 feet throughout the outfield.
“We wanted to make Citi Field fair to both pitchers and hitters,” Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson said in a press release.
In addition, the outfield wall will become blue in 2012 concurrent with the Mets 50th Anniversary season. The home run line and distance markers will remain orange.
“We decided to change the outfield wall from black to Mets blue, which many of our fans have wanted,” Jeff Wilpon said.
Here are other images the team sent along in the press release:
Matthew Cerrone: I love it, and I love the blue walls. As I’ve said before, the people hitting the baseball are significantly more important than the color of the wall in front of them. However, it looks cool, it’s like Shea Stadium, and it’s more on point with the team’s brand, and I just feel it’s how it should be. Far more significantly, however, is the dimensions, which, almost seem specifically designed to help Jason Bay (in left field) and David Wright (in right field). If nothing else, perhaps this changes how these two players look and think about the ballpark, which could help them from a psychological point of view, if it doesn’t actually impact where the ball physically lands. That said, while Wright and Bay will certainly like this news, I wonder how Johan Santana and RA Dickey feel about it? But, I guess that’s Sandy’s point. It shouldn’t matter. It’s about making the ballpark ‘fair,’ and so it all comes out even and makes it easier for the front office to accurately evaluate talent in a relative manner.
Updated at 3:17 pm:
To see other graphics provided by the team, detailing the Mo’s Zone and seating in left field, check out this presentation from SNY.TV: