Los Angeles has decided to shorten the height of its home run fence, possibly in an effort to boost the Angels newcomer’s power numbers. The ten-foot reduction, from eighteen to eight, seems to coincide conveniently with the team’s signing of star international slugger Shoehei Ohtani.
It should be noted that the change likely won’t affect the top two sluggers in the lineup, because both Mile Trout and Albert Pujols are right-handed hitters. The fence is only being lowered in right field, where it will primarily benefit left-handed hitters.
As it happens, Shoehei Ohtani hits from the left side, another convenient coincidence. Indeed, the ploy may help Ohtani’s home run production, but it could also backfire on the Los Angeles Angels’ fortunes.
Look back twenty years, for example, to the Cincinnati Reds. After a decade during which the team won a World Series and multiple division championships, the Reds put their future in jeopardy by altering their ballpark. In that particular case, Cincinnati made the dimensions of ho!e run more appealing to a player they didn’t already have.
In fact, the guy belonged to a team three thousand miles away in a completely different league, where he was one of the biggest stars in the game. However, Ken Griffey, Jr. had expressed a desire to be traded by the Seattle Mariners.
It made sense that Junior would identify the Reds as the club he most wanted to join, given that he grew up in Cincinnati. Also, the Reds had just made the postseason in 1999, and the city had approved funding for a new ballpark to replace what had been Riverfront Stadium before a recent name change to Cinergy Field.
Of course, Cincinnati coveted Griffey even more than it coveted the Reds, especially General Manager Jim Bowden. He was willing to do almost anything to bring Junior home, including dismantling a team that had just won 95 games.
Bowden and the Reds were also keen to design the new stadium to heavily favor home run hitters, especially those like Griffey, who hit from the left side of the plate. That consideration was probably the main reason Great American Ball Park was erected to favor hitters, so much so that it soon earned the nickname Great American Small Park. Fans and the Reds front office alike expected to see Griffey break Henry Aaron’s career home run record while he was in a Cincinnati uniform.
The Angels probably harbor similar grand plans for Ohtani, who they lured from Asia before many other major league clubs. Los Angeles, however, certainly hopes to have a much more satisfying result than the Reds of the early years of the century.
Cincinnati got Griffey, but he never came close to eclipsing his career home run record. During most of his years with the Reds, Griffey suffered from injuries, which caused him to spend a lot of time on the disabled list.
The team’s fortunes also suffered, and some might argue that the Reds are still suffering from that decision made twenty years ago. Since they built that hitter-friendly stadium to lure Griffey, Cincinnati hasn’t made the playoffs for ten years, and has had exactly zero postseason wins to this very date.
Due to the welcoming setting of Great American Ball Park, no big-name pitcher has been willing to sign with the Reds. The latest was Eric Milton, a dominant southpaw who had averaged fourteen wins a year over the previous five seasons before signing a lucrative free-agent deal with Cincinnati. Milton was eight and fifteen years old with an earned run average of close to seven in his initial season with the Reds, and would win a total of nine games over the next two seasons.
The lesson Cincinnati learned was not to alter or design stadiums to favor a particular player. The Angels, who missed the playoffs by a few games last year, may suffer the same lesson as the Reds of the early 2000s.