Oakland Park Baseball

Playing on a regulation field was so great today!!! I know there's the appeal of hitting homeruns at Defremery, but I for one would like to make the best effort to play on a regulation field as often as possible.


Dorian and I were talking about it on the car ride home and Defremery always felt "fake" because neither of us would have considered ourselves power hitters. That's actually an issue that bothered me a lot over the months that I've been playing...

LOL.... I started this post last night at my girlfriend's house and had to walk away from the computer before I finished my thoughts. I was planning to come back to it later but never did! Apparently someone decided to just post it how strange

Yea, I like a real basball field, eversince I played there that my thoughts were the Defremery field was too small for us, yet I like Defremery because that's where I really started to play..Were're growing ass mens, so it's time for a change...

I personally like the other park, it feels like more real baseball, which I like. However, I think a large draw for Defremery was the fact that it wasn't true baseball, it was more like batting practice, and well... everyone likes to hit homers. Personally I'd like to start playing on the other field, but there's scheduling issues to be resolved if nothing else.

TheLegend wrote:I for one would like to make the best effort to play on a regulation field as often as possible..

I think I see the benefit in trying to do that. I know Raimondi is regulation-size, and I suppose that provides some intangible psychological benefit in terms of feeling like a "Real Baseball Man" or something like that.

But, guys, do you really want there to be no Homeruns anymore? I'm talking none, zero, zilch Home Runs?! No Grand Slams? No Walk-Off HRs? And do you really want there to be no more hits off the fences? What kind of fun is it when runs are scored on single after single? Maybe we'll see more extra base hits in the future. We only had 2 extra base hits at Raimondi yesterday though (Cuong - 2B, Anthony - 2B).

And the basepaths being so long, it makes the no leadoffs rule hard to maintain. The forceout at 2nd is almost guaranteed on any ground ball. Yet, without a pitcher to hold the runner to a reasonable lead, allowing leadoffs would be hard to constrain to a reasonable level, especially when you take into account the fact the runner can go on contact.

I think DeFremery has benefits. Obviously some people (though not all, it's worth pointing out) can hit Home Runs there. And the LF fence was measured to be 275 feet at DeFremery.... that's not actually that small! CF and RF at DeFremery are similar to Raimondi, probably 15-20 feet shorter.

But it's not just the ability to hit HR's. Slapping hits off the fence (a la Fenway Park in Boston) is fun too. And, as an outfielder, it's really fun to play a ball off the fence. Also, while fielding out there, it's cool to be able to cover the gaps in left-center & right-center. We will not be able to cover-the gaps at Raimondi. I think the fact that you can cover the gaps at DeFremery helps to make up for the shorter distance to hit out the HR. I bet the run scoring difference over time will only be maybe 20% higher at DeFremery.

Triples------getting a Triple at Raimondi (never mind an inside-the-park-HR) seems totally implausible, unless the outfielder falls down and it rolls all the way to the RF corner. Triples are one of the most exciting plays in baseball, most agree.

Now, some benefits of Raimondi:
Double Plays: I'm sure we'll begin to see some 6-4-3 and 4-6-3 double plays. For those who don't follow that terminology, i'm talking about double plays where you get the forceout at 2nd, and then throw to 1st in time to get the out there too. But, I think we are on the verge of being able to do that at DeFremery. Most times it's been pretty close at 1st. Clearly, it will be more doable at Raimondi.

Anyway, this might all be moot depending on what the schedule availability actually is for these fields. More info on that as I become aware of it.

And, I should say, even though I think overall I prefer DeFremery, I think if given the chance we should play at Raimondi as well. I like the idea of diversifying our playing grounds, giving people the opportunity to excel in different parts of the game. That would be fun to alternate playing at either field in some sort of manner.

I think the more general question is:

Do you want 30-27 games, or 7-5 games?

If Defremery is only 15-20 feet shorter than Raimondi, what makes you so certain that there will be no homeruns at the new park?

Also, I definately think our pure power hitters (Carlos, Paul, maybe Anthony) will be able to jack one every now and then. I remember games at Defremery that were flat out boring because every other pitch was rocketed across the street. Very few people in baseball should be a threat to homer in every atbat. At Defremery, we all are. Honestly, I don't see any benefits to playing at Defremery if Raimondi is available.

At Defremery the basepaths are so short that I've grounded out fewer than 5 times in all the months I've played there... and I tend to hit the ball pretty solidly and right at defenders (and for the record, I'm not really that fast ) so this is flat out rediculous. At Raimondi, a hard hit ball at a infielder will almost always be an out, the way it should be.

Also, back to the point of homeruns- homeruns at Defremery are so common that they barely even feel special... think about how exciting it would be smack one out of Raimondi!!!

Anyway... if we have the choice of Defremery or Raimondi, I would 100% support playing at the bigger field... I would even like to abandon Defremery as a location alltogether and if Raimondi isn't available, simply research other baseball fields.

TheLegend wrote:If Defremery is only 15-20 feet shorter than Raimondi, what makes you so certain that there will be no homeruns at the new park?

I think that you misunderstood me. It's only 15-20 feet shorter in Center Field and in Right Field. In Left Field, where the vast majority of homeruns are hit, it's more like 50 feet shorter. And, sure, Carlos could hit it out at Raimondi, but who thinks we'll see him again? I don't personally.

TheLegend wrote: I remember games at Defremery that were flat out boring because every other pitch was rocketed across the street. Very few people in baseball should be a threat to homer in every atbat. At Defremery, we all are.

I think you're over-stating the likelihood of HRs at DeFremery. There are many players that have never hit it out at DeFremery. And, really, how many times have you jacked one? I personally get one maybe once every 4 games, at the most. Even the best power hitters certainly haven't hit a HR in "every atbat" as you stated. Take the 1/30/05 game, played entirely at DeFremery.... only 3 HRs.... far from the HR binge you're implying.

When you say this though: "At Raimondi, a hard hit ball at a infielder will almost always be an out, the way it should be. "---I find that to be a much more persuasive pro-Raimondi argument.

I think that we should play at the new field just because of the realness of it. It's fun to keep a game going for four hours at De Freemey, but what about playing regulation baseball. Baseball is suppose to be tough, it's supposed to be hard to get doubles and triples and we can see who is the real power hitters who can actually hit 325 in LF. I know i'm not a power hitter, but playing at a regulation field helps me learn more. I wouldn't mind playing at De Freemey, but we got to get off the field at two for the football practice, so maybe once a week at De Freemey and three times a week at the other one.

I think Ramondi will actually make people better hitters as well, it won't be just a try to smack it as hard as you can any more, it will be more of, ok, where's the hole in the infield right now?

Ramandi is the shit. That is all.

I definantly dig Raimondi... I will probably never get one out... (WTP) I've only ever hit one out at DeFremery so I'm not missing any homers. I believe it is true Rai' makes you a better hitter. Insead of aiming for the fences we were faking bunts, slap hitting, and looking for holes.

One note though... Raimondi will be inundated with Little Leaguers, Latino Baseball players and ohers... perhaps squeezing us out. I'm down with either DeFrem' or Rai' or with switching between fields it's all for the fun of Baseball.

BostonMike wrote:I wouldn't mind playing at De Freemey, but we got to get off the field at two for the football practice, so maybe once a week at De Freemey and three times a week at the other one.

Mike, I'd love it if I could play baseball 3 times a week.

Do they make fields with 75 foot basepaths?

I say that cuz there are valid arguments on both sides. I think we're way too good to play at DeFremery Park (though I like it there) but not good enough to play at Raimondi.

For me, part of the appeal of this group is that we get to play baseball that is closer to a higher level. Part of why I hated high school baseball was that we played on fields that had 400 feet to left! The gameplay was mostly singles and errors.

Not to say how we play at DeFremery Park is realistic.... It is far from that. But we could keep in mind that this is part of the appeal: its just fun! I kinda feel that if we want a real challange, there are leagues for that.

I have never hit a real HR, so that's not so much of an issue....

My vote is to find a field with fences perhaps further than those at DeFremery Park, but with a full infield.

As for leads, its silly to think that we should make baserunners run 90 feet.... like scott said, it's way to easy for force outs. I propose that we have a marker... maybe 4-5 feet, you can't go past that.

Ok, my 3 cents

I like them both -- it'd be cool to switch off.