Area of fair territory: 113,000 sq. ft

Area of foul territory: Larger than average

Fences: LCF - RCF is 8 ft.

             Foul poles to the bullpens in LF and RF 

             corners are 3.75 ft. "The Dip" (where corner

             wall meets the bullpen fence) is 3.5 ft.

Elevation: 340 feet

General Information

Address:
1000 Elysian Park Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
For ticket information call: (213) 224-1448

Tenant: Los Angeles (NL)
Opened: April 10, 1962
Surface: Santa Ana Bermuda grass; Prescription Athletic Turf (PAT), installed by the Motz group in 1995.

Architect: Captain Emil Praeger
Owner: Los Angeles Dodgers
Cost: $23 million

History

   Dodger Stadium was built in 1962 for the Brooklyn Dodgers - I mean, the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The team played it's home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum between 1958 and 1961, while waiting for construction to be completed.  Dodger owner Walter O'Malley had a hard time getting the land containing Chavez Ravine, and had to survive numerous court challenges before getting ownership.  Still, the park was an instant success - in it's first year, it drew 2,755,184, over a million more fans than any other major league team, and it became the first to cross the 3 million fan mark in 1978.  As of 2001, seven of the top 25 single-season NL attendance marks belonged to the Dodgers.

     Dodger Stadium is one of only two ballparks in the 20th century to be completely financed privately (for the other one, click here); in 2001, Pac Bell Park in San Francisco became the third operating park in the majors to boast private financing.

     The ballpark has offered spectators views of the green, tree-lined Elysian hills to the north and east (and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond) and of downtown Los Angeles to the south.  In typical LA fashion, the 56,000 seat ballpark offers parking for 16,000 automobiles on 16 terraced lots adjacent to the entry gates.

     In January 1999, the Dodgers began a series of selective renovations to make the old ballpark more economically competitive; by the start of the 2000 season, the team added new field level seats down the foul lines beyond the dugouts, and a new expanded dugout section with an adjacent club area.

     The ballpark has had a terrific run of luck with rain - prior to 1976, the Dodgers were rained out only once, against the St. Louis Cardinals, on April 21, 1967.  That rainout ended a streak of 737 consecutive games without a postponement.  The second home rainout, on April 12, 1976, ended a streak of 724 straight games.  No rainouts occurred between three straight games from April 19-21, 1988, and April 11, 1999 - a major league record of 856 straight home games without a rainout.   

Click here for major league attendance by team

Analysis

   They used to say of this of the glove of Shoeless Joe Jackson - it was the place where triples went to die. The Shoeless One would have been right at home in Dodger Stadium's center field: although the dimensions of the park don't look too bad in straightaway center (395 ft) or in the corners (335 ft), Dodger Stadium is one of the best pitcher's parks in the game because of it's gruesome power alleys.  At 385 ft, they are simply graveyards for flyballs, especially at night - the ocean is just 20 miles away, and the cold, damp night air hangs heavy and holds balls up.

   Dodger Stadium has the lowest triple factor in the majors, in part because of the depth of the alleys but also because of the symmetrical walls with no odd corners. In addition, there is plenty of foul territory so that foul pops that would be in the seats elsewhere are caught for outs.  Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Valenzuela, Hershiser, and now Kevin Brown - all have benefited from the alleys, which cause Dodger Stadium to yield the fewest homers and runs and lowest batting average of any major league park.

   Finally, batters take fewer walks here than average (third lowest walks factor in the NL in 1999) than average.  With the difficulty of hitting a home run or getting an extra base hit, pitchers are probably more willing to challenge hitters and less willing to concede.

Defense: The infield dirt tends to be hard and dry, because of L.A.'s desert climate, and that usually means a lot of sharp, tough hops.  Dodger Stadium produces some additional errors over other parks in the infield, though not appreciably so.  The large outfield puts a premium on outfielders with range.

   In 2000, a new warning track was introduced with a hard synthetic surface.  This had two major effects: first, a lot more ground rule doubles (more than a few bounced off the hard surface and went into the stands); and second, less aggressive outfield play (any outfielder who dared to slide on that surface did not do it again).

Who benefits: Flyball pitchers benefit the most because they can feel free to get the ball up in the strike zone, but all pitchers love it here.     The breeze typically blows from left to right, giving left-handers a slight edge, though the numbers don't bear that out.  Hitters who hit sharp grounders and can leg out infield hits also benefit, as the hard infield often turns well-hit grounders into singles. 

     Ismael Valdes was a great beneficiary of this park - he went 28-15 with a 2.35 ERA at home, and 24-25 and 4.12 on the road before getting traded in 1999.  Last season, James Baldwin went 6-4 with a 3.76 ERA at home, and 4-7 with a 5.43 ERA on the road.  

     Another very successful pitcher here is Chan Ho Park - in 2000, Chan Ho Park was 10-4 and posted a 2.34 ERA at home, and was 8-6 with a 4.29 ERA on the road.  Last season, he was 10-4 at home again, with a 2.36 ERA, versus 5-7 on the road with a 4.83 ERA.  Park's success here is due to his style - he has wicked stuff, but often hangs his slider, and in confined parks those pitches will leave the yard.  He also tends to give up on his curve ball too quickly if he doesn't get a good feel for it early; he may feel more comfortable with the curve in the cool, dense, moist LA air. 

     Kevin Brown is simply devastating at home - in Dodger Stadium, he feels more confident deploying his 95-mph four-seam fastball to work the upper half of the strike zone and complement his nasty sinker, wicked slider and occasional split-finger.  In 2000, he was 7-1 at home with a 1.79 ERA, versus 6-5 on the road with a 3.38 ERA.  In 2001, he was 4-2 at home with a 2.43 ERA, versus 6-2 with a 2.91 ERA on the road. 

Who gets hurt: Power hitters and home run guys, especially moderate ones.  Teams without a good running game or a center fielder with great range suffer as well.

     Shawn Green hit 30 of 49 homers on the road last year; Gary Sheffield hit 20 of his 36 dingers on the road.  

The story of Sandy Koufax: At his peak, Dodgers lefty Sandy Koufax was perhaps the best pitcher baseball has ever seen.  His record in the five-year period from 1962 to 1966 was an astonishing 111-34 over 181 starts; he averaged 7.6 innings per start, and his ERA was a measly 1.95.  He gave up 0.696 hits per inning, and just 0.229 walks per inning (HWIP = 0.925) - amazing for a power pitcher who struck out 1.049 per inning and led the league in that department in each of those 5 years.  He won the Cy Young Award (then awarded to just one pitcher in both leagues) in each of the three full seasons in which he pitched. Perhaps most amazingly, Koufax pitched 100 complete games in those 5 seasons, including 33 shutouts.

   But Koufax got a lot of help from his home park.  Notice that as dominant as Koufax was, his performance at home in spacious Dodger Stadium helped him to generate his astonishing stats:

 

Sandy Koufax at his peak
Year	W-L	Pct.	ERA	LERA	RERA	Home	Road	IP	K's	Avg.
1961	18-13	.581	3.52	4.03	0.87	4.29	2.78	255.2	269	.222
1962	14-7	.667	2.54	3.94	0.64	1.75	3.53	184.1	216	.197
1963	25-5	.833	1.88	3.29	0.57	1.38	2.31	311	306	.189
1964	19-5	.792	1.74	3.54	0.49	0.85	2.93	223	223	.191
1965	26-8	.765	2.04	3.54	0.57	1.38	2.72	335.2	382	.179
1966	27-9	.750	1.73	3.61	0.48	1.52	1.96	323	317	.205
Total	129-47	.733	2.19					1,632.2	1,713	.197

Bold indicates that he led the league

Park Factors

© 2001 STATS, Inc.

Seating Chart

Chavez Ravine, CA. The park sits on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles. The left field, to the northwest, touches Glendale Boulevard; third base, to the southwest, runs along Sunset Boulevard; home plate is in the south and carries the address of 1000 Elysian Park Avenue. First base (SE) is on the Pasadena Freeway; right field (NE) overlooks the Los Angeles Police Academy, Elysian Park, and Golden State Freeway/Interstate. Stadium Way encircles the park.

Left field and right field foul poles: 330 (since 1962)

Power alleys: 380 (1962), 370 (1969), 385 (1983)

Center field: 410 (1962), 400 (1969), 395 (current)

Backstop: 65 (1962), 68.19 (1963), 75 (1969)

Foul territory: larger than average

• Second lowest run factor in the NL in 2001
• Highest walk factor in NL in 2001
• Lowest triples factor in the NL in 1998, 1999
• Third-lowest hit, batting average factor in the NL in 2001
• Second-lowest doubles factor in the NL in 1999, 2001
• Third-lowest walks factor in the NL in 1999

• There is parking available for 16,000 cars.
• Hosted 1984 Olympic competition
• In 1991, the stadium hosted the Opening ceremonies for the United States Olympic Festival and later that summer showcased the top amateur baseball players from around the world in the second annual International Baseball Association World All-Star Game.
• There were no drinking-water fountains when Dodger Stadium was first built.
• Original design had a huge fountain in center field, like that in right-center at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium.
• The see-through "peekaboo" windows in the bullpen fence were installed in 1974.
• There is no "400" sign in dead center field (it was taken down in 1980) - the two "395" signs are just left and right of straightaway center field
• The stadium is expandable to 85,000 seats.
• When foul poles were installed in 1962, it was discovered that they were positioned completely foul. A special dispensation was received from the National League so that they were recognized as fair, but the next year the plate was moved so that the poles are now actually fair.