Wednesday, March 26, 2008

201 Feet to Left, 440 Feet to Right

The NYT's Alan Schwarz takes a look at baseball in the L.A. Coliseum:
The Dodgers are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their move to Los Angeles by crashing for a night at the Ping-Pong parlor that put them up for their first four seasons. Some 92,000 fans will fill the gargantuan seating bowl; another 20,000 or more will pay simply to stand and mill and gawk. The players will enter majestically in uniform through the fabled stone arches beyond right-center field, see the Little League left-field line and be overcome with ... um, emotion? . . .

. . . “They’re going to walk in and be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Juan Pierre thought someone was. Pierre, the Dodgers’ probable left fielder (rather, deep shortstop), said he did not believe the dimensions when he was told of them a few weeks ago. He gradually feared for his safety. “I’ll be like 180 feet from the hitters, and those Boston guys hit the ball pretty hard,” Pierre said. “I might have to wear a cup.”


I'll give Juan Pierre the benefit of the doubt on fear of getting racked up as "being overcome with emotion."

(link via ShysterBall reader Dre)

3 comments:

dubbschism said...

considering that pierre might have a hard time reaching that short porch with a batted ball, i'd suffice it to say he doesn't need a cup.

Anonymous said...

Even Pierre should be able to throw it back to the infield there.

Anonymous said...

If it's supposed to be so damn nostalgic, why the hell are they playing the Red Sox? The Red Sox have never played in the Colosseum before, being an American League team that sucked in the 1950s and 1960s and all. I know the Giants are a minor league team now, but I can't believe this isn't a Dodgers-Giants exhibition.