Tal’s Hill in its final season
On more than one occasion this season, visiting teams at Minute Maid Park shared the same thought Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter did in late May.
“I thought they were getting rid of that thing,” Showalter said, looking through the third-base dugout toward Tal’s Hill.
That was the plan, though renovations to Minute Maid Park’s center-field area were pushed back after the Astros reached the playoffs last season. Tal’s Hill stayed put in 2016, but on Thursday the team confirmed plans to proceed with the renovations at season’s end.
“Our plans haven’t really changed,” said Reid Ryan, the Astros’ president for business operations. “This was more a formality than anything today.”
The planned $15 million renovations of the centerfield area are scheduled to begin immediately following this season and slated to be completed in time for the 2017 season.
The Astros originally announced the renovations in June 2015, but the team’s playoff push and first postseason appearance in a decade wouldn’t allow the work to be finished before the 2016 season. The Astros hosted Game 4 of last season’s American League Division Series with the Royals two weeks after the last regular-season home game.
From 436 feet to 409
The Astros’ final home game this season is Sept. 28, but the club believes its plan can be implemented even if there’s a playoff run.
The renovations include a field-level club section, mezzanine seats and a redesigned concourse in center field that will feature concession areas.
“When we looked at the real estate in Minute Maid Park, the only area that we really hadn’t maximized was the center-field area,” Ryan said.
The Astros will remove Tal’s Hill, the 30-degree center-field incline that was named after former team president Tal Smith and includes a flagpole in the field of play. The distance from home plate to the center-field fence will be reduced from 436 feet, presently deepest in the majors, to 409 feet.
“Really, it was a very well thought-out plan of how do we take this space that’s not very active right now and how do we better utilize that and help the overall fan experience?” Ryan said. “And then on top of that, from a playing perspective, we looked at the game today, what’s happening with home runs, how few balls had been hit out on Tal’s Hill over the last couple years, and we felt that being able to take in that real estate and go from 436 to 409 was probably a ballpark that played more fairly.”
More bang for the buck
This season, the Astros have hit about 10 balls to Tal’s Hill that resulted in extra bases but would have been home runs with the new dimensions.
After the renovations, the Astros will have the sixth-deepest center field in the majors.
Currently, Detroit’s Comerica Park has the second-deepest center field at 420 feet. The shallowest is Boston’s Fenway Park at 390 feet, though it has a 17-foot-high wall.
“At the end of the day, the overall consensus was that we were better off utilizing that space, improving the fan experience and giving players a distance, which at 409 is not short,” Ryan said. “But I think a fair representation of a ballpark of what should be a home run and what shouldn’t.”