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Baseball park facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A baseball park, baseball stadium, or ball park / ballpark is a place where baseball is played. It refers to the field of play, seating areas (if any) and any other things added to it.

The flexible rules about baseball fields (aside from the rigid rules of sizes of basepaths and pitcher's mound) allow ballparks to have their own character and quirks. This happens at all levels of baseball, amateur and especially professional. This makes each stadium interesting and unique.

Field

The baseball field is a grassy field that is about 450 feet (140 m) or more in diameter, and is separated into the infield (the area nearest to the batter) and the outfield.

Baseball diamond
A diagram of the field dimensions.

The infield is a square (usually called a "diamond"), with each side being 90 feet (27 m) long. In each corner of the square, there is a "base", which is a square with sides of 15 inches (38 cm). One of the bases is called home base or home plate, and the sides of the square that touch home plate are extended beyond the two nearest bases until the outfield fence (which is 300 feet (91 m) or more away from home plate) to form the foul lines. Most of what happens in a baseball game happens in the area of the field in between the foul lines and the outfield fence, which is called fair territory. All other areas of the field (except the foul lines) are called foul territory.

Major League Ballparks

Below is a list of all current ballparks for teams of major league baseball.

Stadium Team City seats
Angel Stadium of Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Anaheim, California 45,050
AT&T Park San Francisco Giants San Francisco, California
Busch Stadium St. Louis Cardinals St. Louis, Missouri 46,861
Chase Field Arizona Diamondbacks Phoenix, Arizona 49,033
Citi Field New York Mets Queens, New York City 41,922
Citizens Bank Park Philadelphia Phillies Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 43,647 401′
Comerica Park Detroit Tigers Detroit, Michigan 41,782
Coors Field Colorado Rockies Denver, Colorado 50,445
Dodger Stadium Los Angeles Dodgers Los Angeles, California 56,000
Fenway Park Boston Red Sox Boston, Massachusetts 39,928
Great American Ball Park Cincinnati Reds Cincinnati, Ohio 365′ 325′ 52′
Kauffman Stadium Kansas City Royals Kansas City, Missouri 38,030
Marlins Park Miami Marlins Miami, Florida
Miller Park Milwaukee Brewers Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Minute Maid Park Houston Astros Houston, Texas 40,950
Nationals Park Washington Nationals Washington, D.C. 41,888
O.co Coliseum Oakland Athletics Oakland, California 35,067*
Oriole Park at Camden Yards Baltimore Orioles Baltimore, Maryland 48,876
PETCO Park San Diego Padres San Diego, California
PNC Park Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Progressive Field Cleveland Indians Cleveland, Ohio 43,570
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington Texas Rangers Arlington, Texas 49,115
Rogers Centre Toronto Blue Jays Toronto, Ontario 49,539
Safeco Field Seattle Mariners Seattle, Washington 47,116
Target Field Minnesota Twins Minneapolis, Minnesota 40,000
Tropicana Field Tampa Bay Rays St. Petersburg, Florida 36,973**
Turner Field Atlanta Braves Atlanta, Georgia 50,096
U.S. Cellular Field Chicago White Sox Chicago, Illinois 40,615
Wrigley Field Chicago Cubs Chicago, Illinois 41,118
Yankee Stadium New York Yankees Bronx, New York City 52,325

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