As you may know there was one noticeable change at the Dodger Stadium. As mandated by the league, they have extended the netting behind the plate to go from dugout to dugout. In the past, they left a section on each side open to the elements. Now, the fans sitting there will have some protection.
BTW, per
Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider, this recent change has already yielded a positive result.
In the eighth inning of last night’s game, Scott Van Slyke fouled off a
Huston Street pitch. His bat splintered. A large, sharp chunk flew
rapidly in the direction of the Lexus Dugout Club seats next to the
Dodger dugout, but was stopped by netting.
...
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Dodger manager Dave Roberts
on the way Van Slyke’s bat broke. “I’ve seen a lot of broken bats, but
to see a bat splinter in half like that that was different. It was very
fortunate the screen was extended because at that point it was very
dangerous. Kudos to Major League Baseball.
Photo above via
David Vassegh on twitter. Below are more links to check out:
- Via Variety, "Vin Scully on His Early Career, 67 Years of Calling Dodger Games." (Link Here)
Q: How did college prepare you to become a sportscaster?
VS: I was thinking I would probably be a writer, maybe a sportswriter. And then I went into the Navy, and when I came back, there was an FM station just about ready to go on the air. So I thought, “Wow, I could do that and write.” That was a big break, that they had not a campus station, but a true FM station, which to this day is doing very, very well in the New York area. That was probably one of the biggest breaks I could have gotten.