Why are major league baseball fields not standard in size?

[SyrNy1960]

Good article. I never understood why football fields, hockey rinks, basketball courts, etc. are all the same size/dimensions, yet baseball fields aren't. Seems like individual baseball stats wouldn't be fair to compare to others, depending on where you played. I personally don't think it's fair, but I get it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2...ndard-in-size/

[DennyH]

That's a great point about comparing stats across different baseball fields. It does seem unfair, but I guess that's just part of the game's charm and history.

[Butch7999]

Not disputing nor disagreeing with the overarching sentiment of anything said above, but just for the record,
NHL rinks weren't completely standardized until the 1990s -- Boston, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh among those
long deviating from the otherwise uniform 200x85'.
Wasn't a 1930s NFL Championship -- maybe the infamous 1940 game? -- played indoors on a drastically
shortened field?

Edited to add: To actually address the original question, we'd guess it largely had to do with the situation
that the 19th Century rules provided exacting specifications for dimensions of the infield but said little
about the outfield nor about the amount of space allotted for foul territory. Given the availability or
unavailability of existing venues and the expense of building a new stadium. and estimating the volume
of potential spectators, clubs went with whatever dimensions they deemed the best fit for their team
and for their budget.

[JustinD]

As I remember, the teams were building these oversized parks to attract top pitchers that thought it would help their stats. The opposite was true with smaller parks and power hitters.

While it does seems the smaller parks have attracted some hitters more so than parks with a huge porch. The pitcher attraction of a big park seems to have been more overshadowed with location and money.

I think it's a questionable practice as I have a hard time comparing home run stats from Fenway vs Comerica Park (Coors field is a whole different bag of worms).

I would be ok with uniformity but I can't see it ever happening. What I would like to see is a minimum size for some of these, even if it costs some seating.

[commishbob]

I don't know why ballparks have always been so irregular but quirky dimensions, weird angles, and various wall heights in the same park...it's one of the things I enjoy most about watching baseball And as for the arguments all that causes when comparing player stats...meh. There's a reason they blew up the boring circular stadiums built in the 60s/70s.