December 22, 2005

Associated Press Death Valley at Petco Park will be a bit smaller in 2006. Major League Baseball has approved the Padres' request to shorten the distance to right-center – a change that will knock 11 feet off the distance to the deepest point of the right-field

Major League Baseball has approved the Padres' request to shorten the distance to right-center – a change that will knock 11 feet off the distance to the deepest point of the right-field power alley.

The change will be accomplished by bringing in the see-through fence in front of the "beachers" in right-center. The realigned fence will run directly from the corner of the right-field scoreboard to the right-field corner of the green-canvassed fence in front of the batter's eye.

The fence will be moved in time for the inaugural World Baseball Championships March 18 and 20.

"We did some computations which showed the change would have resulted in perhaps a dozen more homers last season with a net positive of around five homers for the Padres," said Sandy Alderson, the club's CEO.

"We wanted to address the concerns of some left-handed hitters without making a radical change to the ballpark. And I wanted to eliminate the easy triple where the ball just kept rolling toward that 411-foot sign. Fast guys will still get their triples."

(to read the entire article, use the link provided above)