2006-06-26

Edmonton's search for an MLB Franchise

Trying desperately not to think of Chris Pronger, my buddy and I went to the Edmonton Cracker Cats game at Telus Field yesterday. We ended up talking about the loss of the Edmonton Trappers...and of course then onto Pronger again anyways.

Regardless, Telus Field is a beautiful ballpark...built back in the Trappers days [of course, "those days" ended just a mere two years ago -ed]. A remarkably deep field too: 420 feet to the back wall (and a real green monster of a wall out there), 340 to the left field wall, and 320 back behind first base. While there we started to ponder how it compared to other major league parks. Well, here we go:

Telus Field, Edmonton: 340L,420C,320R
Angel Stadium, Anaheim: 330L,400C,330R
Dell Diamond, Round Rock: 330L,400C,325R
Fenway Park, Boston: 304L, 420C, 302R
Rogers Centre, Toronto: 328L,400C,328R
Wrigley Field, Chicago: 355L, 400C, 353R
Busch Stadium (2006), St. Louis: 336L,400C,335R
Safeco Field, Seattle: 331L, 405C, 326R
Coors Field, Colorado: 347L,415C,350R
Yankee Stadium, Bronx: 318L,408C,314R
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles: 330L,400C,330R
CanWest Global Park, Winnipeg: 325L,400C,325R
Olympic Stadium, Montreal: 325L,404C,325R
Ameriquest Field, Arlington: 332L,400C,337R
Petco Park, San Diego: 334L,396C,322R
Minute Maid Park, Houston: 315L,436C,326R
Turner Field, Atlanta: 328L,400C,328R
Jacobs Field, Cleveland: 325L,405C,325R
Knights Stadium, Charlotte: 325L,400C,325R
U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago: 330L,400C,335R
Citizen's Bank Park, Philadelphia: 329L,401C,330R
Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay: 315L,404C,322R

So in other words, only Minute Maid Park's monsterous 436 feet centrefield (some sources claim only 435) is longer than Telus Field's 420 (cough cough), and Coors Field matches Telus's dimensions fairly well (347/415/350-340/420/320) except for the right corner. But Minute Maid doesn't have the giant wall in the middle of centre field that Telus does, and Edmonton's elevation of 668 metres doesn't compare to Denver at 1,609. Telus Field doens't have a Park Factor published anywhere I could Google, but I suppose somebody with more time and energy than me could compute the Park Factor based on the Trappers win/loss record.

Bonus link: BallParkWatch needs to update their rundown of the beautiful old girl