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Miguel Sano hit a long home run last night. Wait. No. That’s just what everybody thought.

Miguel Sano hit a baseball really hard. It would have been a home run, a very long home run, except it hit one of Tropicana Field’s catwalks and fell back down to the field of play for a double. The play was costly as it drove in one run instead of two, Sano was then stranded at second base, and the Twins went on to lose by one run.

Needless to say, the baseball world is freaking out because apparently no other stadiums in baseball have quirks that alter the true intentions of a baseball.

Here is the flight of the ball. This ball was probably going to clear the left-center field wall by 50-100 feet. Notice where Kevin Kiermaier is standing when the ball returns to Earth.

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Here is the video.

Let’s ignore the outrage in Minnesota today. Their anger is understandable. They are in the middle of a pennant race and just lost an important game on what is essentially technicality.

Rather, let’s look at somebody like our old friend Peter Gammons.

Hypocritical much, Pete? Catwalks at The Trop come in to play about half-dozen times a year. They rob a player of a home run about once every year or two (I honestly cannot remember the last time this happened, maybe somebody else can in the comments). How many times a year does The Green Monster at Fenway rob a player of a home run or turn a routine fly ball into a home run? Once a game? At least.

Of course, baseball “purists” will argue that this is different. It is part of the field of play, which is a bunch of horse poop. The only reason the Green Monster was built was because there wasn’t enough room to fit a normal-sized field into that lot. The only reason The Trop has catwalks is because people in MLB decided a stadium in Tampa-St. Pete would need a roof. They are both just construction necessities. And we aren’t even getting into ridiculous things like Coors Field or the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium or the hill in center field in Houston or the dozen other ballpark features around MLB that alter the true intention of a baseball far more often than the god damned catwalks.

Hey, the Rays need a new stadium. That new stadium probably needs to be in Hillsborough. So yes, the Rays probably do need to get out of St. Pete. But if we are going to make a list of reasons why the Rays need to leave St. Pete, the Catwalks fall somewhere behind the “stains on the turf from David Price’s dog Astro” and just ahead of “not enough seating for dolphins.”

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8 Comments

  1. Jeff says:

    It's a shame how they've been discriminating against those dolphins.

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  2. Michael says:

    Bravo. Great post!

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  3. AJNO says:

    man! even peter gammmons tweeted about this one?!?!?! I mean, that makes... one instance of this being mentioned, or cared about, by the national media...

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  4. Gus says:

    It is kind of funny that it is robbing the Twins, since they played for 30 seasons with a Hefty Bag in RF and a roof that was much more difficult to field under, and also because Ron Gardenhire was such a prick about it 3 or 4 years ago.

    Tell Old Man Gammons to go sit of the CF ladder in Fenway (hanging in the field of play without any function -- just for quaintness these days) and suck it.

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  5. Amanda says:

    This. Thisthisthisthisthis! Hit the nail on the head, Cork!!

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  6. Matt says:

    I remember about 5 years ago a game against the Twins where Jason Bartlett hit a game tying grand slam and then maybe an inning or two later Jason Kubel hit a mile highs pop up in the infield which would have been caught but it hit the catwalk and a run scored which was the difference in the game, so chill out Minisota the catwalk has screwed us too

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  7. Richard from TX says:

    Indignance reigns! What can you say? Hicks love the long ball.

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  8. Bert says:

    I guess it's okay when a ball "get's lost in the sun" and drops for a hit, at outdoor stadiums...Funny how that works.

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