Below is a letter I’ve sent to the Padres stating my displeasure with Petco Park’s dimensions.  I strongly urge everyone to write the Padres and voice their opinion on any and all topics.

You can E-mail the Padres here. 

You can send a letter to:

San Diego Padres

P. O. Box 122000

San Diego, CA 92112-2000

You can even call the Padres at (619) 795-5000 or (619) 795-5555

To whom it may concern,

Over the last 7 seasons Padres fans have endured some of the most boring games in the history of the franchise.  Winning or not, extremely low scoring games are boring.  Offense brings most people to the ballpark, not pitching.  Yes, everyone loves a pitcher’s duel, but not when it’s every single game.  Power hitters are the best paid players in the game for a reason.  Power hitters are more exciting.  Last year Mr. Moorad said, “During the interviews (with prospective GMs) that I've had, they think the ballpark is a tremendous advantage, that we can build a competitive advantage in the ballpark.  It's my conclusion that we have an inherent competitive advantage at Petco. Our challenge is to exploit that.”  I don’t understand how anyone can think we have a tremendous advantage at Petco Park.  In fact, the numbers prove that we do not.

I have made calculations that rank each teams "home field advantage."  First of all, every single team had more wins at home than on the road during this particular time period. The calculations are simple. I added each teams home wins from 2004-2010 and subtracted it by their away wins for the same time period (2004-2010). Meaning the higher number, the more wins they had at home compared to the road, and the more that team benefited from playing in their home ball park. The ranking is from 1-30. #1 being the team that benefited most from their home park and #30 being the team that benefited least from their home park.

Not only do these statistics show that the Padres do not have a tremendous advantage, they prove the Padres have had a tremendous disadvantage at home since the ball park was built.  This year, the Padres were 6^th in stolen bases in Major League Baseball and 2^nd in the National League.  Did this help us make Petco Park a tremendous advantage?  It sure didn’t make us any more advantageous than on the road since we had identical home and road records.  Even with this added speed and a more athletic team, the Padres were dead last in baseball for the home field advantage differential. Does a more athletic and speedy team give you an advantage at home? Probably but, if you get speed at the expense of power it gives you a disadvantage in hitters parks where you are already at a disadvantage on the road.  You can’t steal first and you don’t steal home.  You have to have players that can drive runners in.  I’m not even suggesting moving in all the fences.  All I would like to see is the right field wall moved in from the gap to the line.  Petco could still be a pitchers park, but not so extreme.

Mr. Moorad has said he wants to make games more appealing for the fans.  Doesn’t this involve listening to the fans?  The attendance in 2010 should tell you all you need to know about how entertaining it is to watch a boring team win 90 games.  Despite those 90 wins, the Padres were in the bottom half in attendance.  We’ve heard several times since the new ownership and front office took over that they would rather move the fences back than in.  We have heard that Mr. Moorad has also said the payroll is going to depend on the fans supporting the team.  So why should the fans go to the park to see boring baseball?  If you don’t put an interesting product on the field, the attendance is only going to get worse.  My family and I are all diehard fans.  We have purchased bricks both when the park was built and for Gwynn’s statue in right field.  My family has supported the Padres since 1969, but find ourselves going to fewer and fewer games each year.  When John Moores purchased the Padres, he made a lot of promises he did not keep.  Is Jeff Moorad going to be another carpetbagger only looking to turn a profit or does he really care about what the fans think and want?  Several Padres players have stated publically their displeasure with Petco’s dimensions including our recently traded superstar first baseman.  Do you expect us to bring in or retain any hitters or are we going to be a revolving door franchise with no history or tradition?  Is Tony Gwynn going to be the last Padre inducted into the hall of fame because no hitter is going to want to spend his career in this park?

The Home and Away splits are ridiculous since the ball park was built.  I’m sure these stats have already been presented to you so I won’t bore you with the endless statistics I have compiled.  One that sticks out to me and says it all was in 2007 when we were 25^th in baseball at home for extra base hits and 1^st on the road.  Even the speedy “Petco type player” Will Venable hit much better (.262 .345 .427) away from Petco this year than he did at home (.226 .300 .387).  It is well documented that Petco Park suppresses all offensive statistics, and not just for power hitters.  Is it right that our own players feel more comfortable hitting on the road than at home?  Even if we gain a tremendous advantage at home I don’t want to win that way.  I don’t want to win because of some gimmick.  I want to win because we are the best team on the field that day.  How about a balanced team with speed at the top and some power in the middle?  We can still focus on pitching like we always have since the alterations I am suggesting would make Petco a more fair pitchers park.

I was excited when Mr. Moorad bought the Padres because of the Diamondbacks willingness to draft and sign the best player available.  As much as I liked KT, I was also very excited to see Hoyer brought in as our GM because of the Red Sox success in the draft and player development.  The Padres have failed in the draft for many years and for me, home grown players are the most exciting.  I like that we are going after more athletes instead of solely focusing on numbers.  I like that you aren’t afraid to take a high upside high school player in place of a safer pick.

I’m hoping that the fences aren’t being moved in because of money.  We were told that payroll would rise gradually.  Well, how gradually?  We were told that the 2010 payroll would start with a four and it didn’t.  Why does it look like the payroll will only rise by a few million and still be near the bottom in 2011?  I realize that Petco gives us the advantage when signing pitchers, but it gives us an extreme disadvantage when signing or extending position players.  What’s wrong with having a fair park that pitchers and hitters would be indifferent towards?

Respectfully,

Brian Koke

This is an example of how I would like to see the dimensions changed.