Ballpark

In amateur parks, the dugouts may be above-ground wooden or CMU structures with seating inside, or simply benches behind a chain-link fence.

Major League Baseball Rule 1.04 states that it is "desirable" (but not required) that the central axis run east-northeast (about 22 degrees north of east).

Distinctive from "goal games" such as football and basketball, which have fixed-size playing areas, the infield is the only rigidly laid-out part of the field.

One of the most famous examples is the original Yankee Stadium, whose odd-shaped plot of land caused right field to be over 100 feet (30 m) shorter than left, although this difference lessened over time.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, when set up for baseball, had a 23-foot (7.0 m) right field "fence" that was actually a relatively thin blue plastic sheet covering folded up football seats.

[citation needed] Milwaukee's Miller Park was designed, with the help of former player Robin Yount, to promote extra base hits.

With the beginnings of professional baseball, the ballfield became part of a complex including fixed spectator seating areas, and an enclosure to restrict access to paying customers, as with a fairgrounds.

Seating area design of stadiums is affected by many variables, including required capacity, audience access, and road traffic.

[1] Many professional ballparks were built either near the city center, or in working-class neighborhoods, based on the expected economic level of the average fan.

Consequently, the classic ballparks typically had little space for automobiles, as it was expected that most fans would take mass transit to the games, a situation that still prevails at Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field, for example.

Some early ballparks, such as Brooklyn's Eastern Park, were abandoned because the trolley lines did not go out far enough and the team was not performing well enough for people to tolerate the inconvenience.

The modern "retro" trend seeks to cover all the bases: an urban location, with plenty of parking and public transportation available like grey hound busses.

This problem, along with the popularization of baseball and expectations for long-term use of the parks were major factors that drove the transition to the new standard materials for ballparks: steel and concrete.

Due to the rectangular shape needed for football or soccer, outfield dimensions were generally symmetrical, and even seats at field level down the lines could be far from the action.

The first ten rows of the football configuration were practically at field level, and fans in those sections often stood up on their seats to get a better view.

This, coupled with the usually dull white or gray roofs that could camouflage a fly ball, causing what Twins fans called a "dome-field advantage".

Another notable park was the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, which instead of a rigid masonry roof was covered by inflatable fiberglass sheeting, held up by air pressure.

A drawback to this design, at least in Minnesota's severe winter climate, was revealed when the dome collapsed three times in its first three years of operation due to accumulated snow.

Tropicana Field is the only indoor-only or fixed-dome park built specifically for baseball and the only one left hosting a Major League Baseball team, and is scheduled to be replaced in the near future with a new indoor ballpark, which similar to current indoor stadiums, will feature windows which allow natural light to enter the playing field.

The most notable influences were the cantilevered upper decks, the use of seating colors other than green, fairly plain concrete exteriors, and symmetrical outfields.

It managed to succeed where Olympic Stadium failed, building a multi-section roof that folded upon itself, retracting over the hotel in center field.

HOK Sport, now known as Populous, designed Sahlen Field in Buffalo to attract a major league franchise to the city.

The most important feature was that they were built primarily for baseball, although these venues have also hosted football, soccer and ice hockey games.

Despite the absence of MLB history in the Phoenix area and an overwhelming roof design, much of the interior was still built with all of the hallmarks of retro, similar to Progressive Field.

Five years later, Nationals Park built off Cincinnati's design, making yet more liberal use of glass along with white concrete that would not clash with architecture in the District.

Its cantilevered glass on top of a limestone base was designed partly to functionally fit the tiny 8-acre plot in the middle of a bustling transportation interchange.

But the principal architect of Target Field, Earl Santee of Populous, said that the exterior was also an artistic interpretation of the culture of Minnesotans: a dichotomy of cosmopolitan and natural.

Yet, in the stands and on the field they still have the familiar classic feel while implementing the marks of retro (i.e., unique-shaped fences, forest green or other singular color scheme, etc.).

[23] ‡ denotes stadium is also a retractable-roof ballpark Prior to the start of the 2012 baseball season, USA Today noted that new Marlins Park would "perhaps provide a coda to the postmodern Camden Yards era".

This latest style's purpose is to make the fan experience the present-day culture of the stadium's surrounding city or area, and rejects the basic notion of retro.