Balls sent flying at cricket ground
When a baseball fan first lays eyes on the diamond that has been carved out at Sydney Cricket Ground, the first thing that jumps out is the acre of foul territory surrounding the infield.
It’s reminiscent of the Oakland Athletics’ O.co Coliseum, and so the immediate assumption is that this will be a pitcher’s park.
But then the Los Angeles Dodgers took batting practice.
At one point Tuesday afternoon, third baseman Juan Uribe launched three consecutive pitches way out for home runs, including a couple to left-center field that flew well over a sign that read 370 feet.
“I want to get a tape measure and measure that,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said later. “That 370 seems a little generous.”
A few minutes later, Uribe returned to the dugout and teammate Justin Turner approached him with a smile.
“You can put up Nintendo numbers in these two games,” Turner told him. “The grass is fast and the ball flies.”
The Arizona Diamondbacks, opting for a lighter day after their long flight to Australia, did not take batting practice Tuesday but did hold a brief workout on the field. It provided plenty of time for center fielder A.J. Pollock to make a firm declaration about how the grass would play.
“That is, by far, the fastest I’ve ever been on,” Pollock said.
That could make for two very high-scoring games in this unusual environment.
“I kind of wanted all my pitchers to just have blindfolds out there when they were shagging,” Ellis said. “I was just going to yell, ‘Heads up,’ if something was coming at them. I didn’t want them to see the balls flying.
“It definitely had that feel of a ballpark that’s going to favor the hitters. We’ll have to see how it plays out.”