Dirt. You probably stopped caring about dirt when you were — what? — maybe 4 years old. But it’s time to care about dirt again — in baseball, at least.
Thanks to Major League Baseball’s new shift rules, dirt is suddenly a big thing again. We’ll cover all the down and dirty details momentarily. But trust us: Dirt now matters, maybe more than ever before, because starting next season, that dirt dictates where infielders can stand.
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Before this, nobody in baseball has ever cared much about dirt. You can find a thousand works of great literature that rhapsodize about those emerald blades of grass all over the field. But never dirt.
Why is that, anyway? Maybe it’s because all those renowned authors are scarred by all the dirt they couldn’t get out of their pants in the laundry.
But now it’s time to bring you the inside dirt on, well, dirt — because we learned something incredible recently:
You know all those baseball diamonds you’ve been staring at all your life? You would think every one of them had the same amount of dirt in their beautifully manicured infields. But if you thought that, boy, would you be wrong.
It turns out that all big-league infields are not created equally. In fact, they’ve never been created equally. This sounds crazy, right? But multiple sources have confirmed it’s true.
There is an obscure rule in baseball’s official rulebook that mentions what those infields are supposed to look like and where you’re supposed to find — and not find — the infield dirt. But guess what?
According to sources familiar with all of this, that rule has never been thought about much, let alone enforced. So in some major-league parks, the infield dirt extends deeper than in other parks. We promise we’re not making this up.
And there is no rule in the books dictating where the inner edge of the infield dirt should be located. So in virtually all parks, that inner edge of the dirt takes on a slightly different shape and location, based more on aesthetics than math. Seriously.
The Red Sox ground crew waters the infield before a game. Across baseball, grounds crews have some license in how they set up the infield. (David Butler II / USA Today)
Oh, and one more thing. You know the dirt/grass line around the bases? That can be placed pretty much anywhere and sculpted however the grounds crew enjoys sculpting it. This really happens. And you would be amazed how many people who work in baseball are completely unaware of it.
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Oh, they’re aware all ballparks look different, with their unique and funky outfield angles and depths. That’s one of everyone’s favorite cool things about baseball. Plus, the teams helpfully paint big signs on the fences to let you know they’re not the same in Detroit as in Chavez Ravine. Thank you!
But who knew the dimensions of the infield weren’t the same everywhere? Lots of people! The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was asked a question about it on his podcast the other day. He’d never noticed. Can’t blame him. And when we asked a high-ranking executive of a National League team about this Wednesday, there was a moment of silence. Then he replied:
“Wow. I had no idea that was a thing.”
Well, it is now. But the time has arrived for every one of these ballparks to, um, come clean. That’s because of the new rule banning the shift, starting next season.
That rule requires all infielders to have both feet on the infield dirt as every pitch is thrown. Which sounds pretty standard until you learn stuff like …
That infield dirt isn’t necessarily located in quite the same place tonight as in that park in Pittsburgh you played in last night.
So here is how MLB is about to start dealing with that dirty little secret:
• Let’s start with the rule itself. It says the outer edge of the infield dirt is supposed to extend no more than 95 feet from the center of the pitcher’s mound. OK, good to know.
• So MLB now does plan to enforce that rule, beginning next season. That makes sense.
• But it does not plan to enforce the rule literally, according to sources. It will allow up to a foot of leeway in either direction, to account for what one source described as groundskeeping “error.” So it’s still possible the back edge of the dirt in various parks could extend anywhere from 94 to 96 feet from the center of the mound.
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“Interesting,” one AL executive observed, when we updated him on that leeway. “If they’re allowing for error, why do I think that everyone is going to err on the larger side?”
Ha. We know why he’d suspect it, but would teams really do that sort of thing? Ha again. That answer is: Why wouldn’t they?
In a world in which infielders no longer will be allowed to set up on the outfield grass, the deeper they can find safe, legal haven on that infield dirt, the happier they’ll be. A foot may not seem like much, but if baseball is really a game of inches, who wouldn’t want to order 12 more of them?
Nevertheless, preparation for enforcement of this rule has begun. MLB officials recently began measuring the depth of infield dirt in all 30 parks. Sources say only one park — it’s not known which one — is in violation at the moment. That violation will be rectified by the 2023 season. So that seems like a good thing.
Also, in the future, MLB has informed clubs that the depth of the infields will be checked regularly, much like officials have always checked the height of the mound. Likewise, a good thing. But …
That still doesn’t mean the infield dimensions in all parks will be exactly the same. And that, according to one of the executives quoted earlier, “doesn’t make any sense — because it kind of means you’re playing by different rules in different parks.”
So is that true? MLB would dispute that because, at least moving forward, those dimensions will be more similar — and closer to the rule — than they’ve ever been. Still, it’s fair to wonder about this.
The Reds’ Donovan Solano rubs the infield dirt in Washington. (Nick Wass / Associated Press)
Is this dirt disparity just part of the charm of baseball? Or in these shift-restricting times we’re about to live in, is it, ahem, muddier than that?
A difference in outfield dimensions and heights of assorted Green Monsters? No problem! That’s just quirky. And fun.
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But a difference in infield dimensions, especially now that defensive positioning is specifically tied to those dimensions? Still kind of quirky. But suddenly, more confusing than fun.
“Can you imagine if the 3-point line had a foot of leeway in basketball?” one exec wondered. “Or with the lane, you can make it a foot wider depending on what style of ball you want to play?”
Well, of course, no one can imagine those things. But somehow, baseball has always been different like that. Nobody has ever seemed to mind that your team’s park looks different from our team’s park. But if your team’s infield is sculpted differently than our team’s infield, should someone be, well, digging into that?
Oh, wait. We just did. And you’re welcome. It was a dirty job. But somebody had to do it.
Also see: Joey Votto loves the MLB rule changes
(Top photo of the Fenway Park infield: Billie Weiss/ Boston Red Sox /Getty Images)
