Retro Alonso

[Edgy MD]

Pete Alonso hit his celebrated 200th career homerun this weekend. Announcer Gary Cohen termed the shot a "no-doubter." While he indeed crushed the ball, it was a low drive that, as I remember it, landed among the party seats beneath the Modell's sign (the Mo's Zone?). If memory serves, further, then, the ball would have been in play within the confines of Citi Field's original dimensions. Ninety-one of Alonso's 200 career homers have been hit at Citi Field, but it seems worth asking how many of those would have failed to clear the ballpark's original fences.



When he passes David Wright on the team's all-time list, as he seems likely to do if the team is able to secure his continued employment, it'll be with some irony that the same edifice that was taking homers away from Wright is being more generous (or, at least, less miserly) to Alonso.



[FIMG=600]https://mlblogssnaggingbaseballs.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/8_new_modells_zone.jpg[/FIMG]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Those original dimensions were a bad idea. I'm glad they didn't stick with it for very long.

[Frayed Knot]

The RF dimensions/shape got the most attention early on but LF was much worse IMO.

Make the wall far OR make it high. They did both.



P.S. how many of Pete's HRs would have been swallowed up by early dimensions CitiField (or at least a reasonably accurate estimate) is probably a findable number.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

What would be more fun to find out is who authorized that setup.



At first it seemed like a park made for Reyes, instead it was a punishment for Wright

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't remember how many seasons it was that those dimensions were in effect. Was it just 2009? Or did it extend beyond the first season?

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: P.S. how many of Pete's HRs would have been swallowed up by early dimensions CitiField (or at least a reasonably accurate estimate) is probably a findable number.

And I hope it is. At the same time, one can find how many homers David Wright presumably would have had with the current dimensions.

[metsmarathon]

that used to be a thing that existed, didn't it?

[Centerfield]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: What would be more fun to find out is who authorized that setup. At first it seemed like a park made for Reyes, instead it was a punishment for Wright

https://metspolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/jeff-wilpon.jpg>

[batmagadanleadoff]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: What would be more fun to find out is who authorized that setup.

The idiot tyrant failson. He probably thought he would distinguish himself by designing a pitcher's park to such an extreme degree, that it would stand out and be deemed "interesting", "clever". And in turn, he himself would be deemed "interesting" and "clever". He had no idea about what he was doing and I'd bet everything that he ignored the advice of everyone and bullied and steamrolled anyone who dared to disagree with him.

[G-Fafif]

Mets brought in fences in 2012, then more in 2015. Slight adjustments made in 2023 for Payson Club replacing Mo's Zone.

[Benjamin Grimm]

So three seasons at the original configuration. It might easily have cost David Wright a chance at being Mets Home Run King.