GaryMrMets
04-02-2004, 08:27 PM
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/sports/s040204c.htm
Phillies ready to put new park through a test run
Friday, April 2, 2004
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
The Phillies are eager to make Citizens Bank Park their home field, and not for any home-field advantage created by the cut of the grass or the angle of the outfield wall. It's not even a clubhouse in which the ceiling doesn't leak, or a dugout that doesn't smell funny.
Everyone keeps envisioning the people in the stands.
"I don't know that we'll have any home-field advantage when we first get there," Bowa said. "It's going to be the first time we'll be playing there, too. The home-field advantage is going to come from having 35-40,000 people in the stands.
"Oh, I'm sure there will be a game where we're losing 8-0 and it'll be: `E-A-G-L-E-S.' But the fans are pretty excited, and that will be big for us."
Historically, new ballparks do not provide much benefit on the field. The last 12 teams to move into a new place (not counting Seattle, since the Mariners moved in midseason) have increased from 80.3 wins to just 81.7 wins - and that despite a routine effort by those teams to ramp up for the new ballpark (as the Phillies, too, have clearly done).
The Phillies have deliberately avoided the mistakes of the Astros in 2000, when they moved into Enron Field and fell from 97 wins to 72 in large part because the dimensions of the park were so crazy. Citizens Bank Park will have some interesting bells and whistles, but the dimensions aren't skewed in any particular direction.
"It's going to be a fair park," Bowa said.
One wrinkle is what the Phillies are calling "The Angle," a point in left-center where the wall juts out to create some weird bounces and some triples for players who can run (like, for example, Marlon Byrd, Bobby Abreu and Jimmy Rollins).
But the Phillies haven't tried to tailor the park to this team, since the park will endure for years and the players in red and white will invariably change. Despite the presence of lefty swingers Jim Thome and Abreu, for example, the wall in left field is a foot shorter from home plate and five feet lower than the wall in right.
The advantage of Citizens Bank Ballpark, should the Phillies choose to exercise it, is that grass and dirt can be changed. If the Phillies want a shorter, quicker infield and harder, faster base paths, they can have that. Or they can slow the infield down. At the Vet, the turf was the turf and there was nothing that could change it.
"Basically, we want the players to be comfortable," head groundskeeper Mike Boekholder said. "It's like your office - you want it how you want it. This is no different; this is their work space. If the infielders want it a little firmer, or a little softer, we can do that."
Base-running should also be more aggressive at Citizens Bank Park. On turf, singles reached the outfielder so fast that going first-to-third was risky business.
"Well, a lot of base-running is genetic," said Thome, with a grin. "I don't think things will change much for me. But for guys who can run, you'll see a lot more extra bases."
Thome, who will turn 34 in August, is also looking forward to the health benefits of being on grass. Asked if he was looking forward to getting off the turf and playing on grass, Abreu laughed and said: "Biiiiiiiiig tiiiiiiiiiiiime."
"Playing on turf is hard on you," Abreu said. "Grass is so much better."
Abreu has never played fewer than 151 games as a Phillie, and last season played 157. Thome set career highs last year for games and at-bats. But both players often took the field with nagging back or leg soreness - a common side effect of playing on turf.
"It'll be better on their bodies," Bowa said.
Say this for the Vet - the Phillies had a home-field advantage there. The Phillies - great, good, bad and abysmal - were 1,414-1197 at the Vet and 1,156-1,446 on the road. Reds first baseman Sean Casey last season said that may have been in part because opposing players so disliked playing there. He theorized that advantage might disappear, since players will now be eager to play in the lush new surroundings of Citizens Bank Park.
But the team that will really be happy to play there will be the Phillies.
"It's going to be an exciting time to be a Phillies fan," Randy Wolf said. "This is going to be a fun team to watch, and I know people are excited about the new park. There's going to be a lot of energy, and as a player you always feed off that."
Phillies ready to put new park through a test run
Friday, April 2, 2004
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
The Phillies are eager to make Citizens Bank Park their home field, and not for any home-field advantage created by the cut of the grass or the angle of the outfield wall. It's not even a clubhouse in which the ceiling doesn't leak, or a dugout that doesn't smell funny.
Everyone keeps envisioning the people in the stands.
"I don't know that we'll have any home-field advantage when we first get there," Bowa said. "It's going to be the first time we'll be playing there, too. The home-field advantage is going to come from having 35-40,000 people in the stands.
"Oh, I'm sure there will be a game where we're losing 8-0 and it'll be: `E-A-G-L-E-S.' But the fans are pretty excited, and that will be big for us."
Historically, new ballparks do not provide much benefit on the field. The last 12 teams to move into a new place (not counting Seattle, since the Mariners moved in midseason) have increased from 80.3 wins to just 81.7 wins - and that despite a routine effort by those teams to ramp up for the new ballpark (as the Phillies, too, have clearly done).
The Phillies have deliberately avoided the mistakes of the Astros in 2000, when they moved into Enron Field and fell from 97 wins to 72 in large part because the dimensions of the park were so crazy. Citizens Bank Park will have some interesting bells and whistles, but the dimensions aren't skewed in any particular direction.
"It's going to be a fair park," Bowa said.
One wrinkle is what the Phillies are calling "The Angle," a point in left-center where the wall juts out to create some weird bounces and some triples for players who can run (like, for example, Marlon Byrd, Bobby Abreu and Jimmy Rollins).
But the Phillies haven't tried to tailor the park to this team, since the park will endure for years and the players in red and white will invariably change. Despite the presence of lefty swingers Jim Thome and Abreu, for example, the wall in left field is a foot shorter from home plate and five feet lower than the wall in right.
The advantage of Citizens Bank Ballpark, should the Phillies choose to exercise it, is that grass and dirt can be changed. If the Phillies want a shorter, quicker infield and harder, faster base paths, they can have that. Or they can slow the infield down. At the Vet, the turf was the turf and there was nothing that could change it.
"Basically, we want the players to be comfortable," head groundskeeper Mike Boekholder said. "It's like your office - you want it how you want it. This is no different; this is their work space. If the infielders want it a little firmer, or a little softer, we can do that."
Base-running should also be more aggressive at Citizens Bank Park. On turf, singles reached the outfielder so fast that going first-to-third was risky business.
"Well, a lot of base-running is genetic," said Thome, with a grin. "I don't think things will change much for me. But for guys who can run, you'll see a lot more extra bases."
Thome, who will turn 34 in August, is also looking forward to the health benefits of being on grass. Asked if he was looking forward to getting off the turf and playing on grass, Abreu laughed and said: "Biiiiiiiiig tiiiiiiiiiiiime."
"Playing on turf is hard on you," Abreu said. "Grass is so much better."
Abreu has never played fewer than 151 games as a Phillie, and last season played 157. Thome set career highs last year for games and at-bats. But both players often took the field with nagging back or leg soreness - a common side effect of playing on turf.
"It'll be better on their bodies," Bowa said.
Say this for the Vet - the Phillies had a home-field advantage there. The Phillies - great, good, bad and abysmal - were 1,414-1197 at the Vet and 1,156-1,446 on the road. Reds first baseman Sean Casey last season said that may have been in part because opposing players so disliked playing there. He theorized that advantage might disappear, since players will now be eager to play in the lush new surroundings of Citizens Bank Park.
But the team that will really be happy to play there will be the Phillies.
"It's going to be an exciting time to be a Phillies fan," Randy Wolf said. "This is going to be a fun team to watch, and I know people are excited about the new park. There's going to be a lot of energy, and as a player you always feed off that."