Petco Park East or Petco East (Citi Field nickname)

Citi Field is the ballpark for the New York Mets that opened in 2009. Even before it opened, fans noted Citi Field’s cavernous dimensions and speculated that it might be a difficult park to hit home runs. San Diego’s Petco Park opened in 2004 and has been known as a pitcher’s ballpark. By at least 2006, a baseball park allowing few home runs was dubbed a “Petco Park East” (or simply “Petco East”). Citi Field was called “Petco Park East” by January 7, 2009.
 
Yankee Stadium (the home of baseball’s New York Yankees, also opened in 2009) developed a reputation of having too many home runs and has been called “Coors Field East” or “Coors East” (after the Colorado Rockies’ home-run-friendly ballpark).
     
   
Wikipedia” Citi Field
Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. Completed in 2009, it is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the adjacent Shea Stadium, which was constructed in 1964 next to the site of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair. Citi Field was designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport), and is named after Citigroup, a financial services company based in New York that purchased the naming rights. The $850 million baseball park is being funded by the sale of New York City municipal bonds which are to be repaid by the Mets plus interest. The payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park.

The first game at the ballpark took place on March 29, 2009, with a college baseball game between St. John’s Red Storm and the Georgetown Hoyas. The Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and April 4, 2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular season home game was played on April 13, 2009, against the San Diego Padres. The Mets are considered likely to win the rights to host the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citi Field, which would bring the game to the Mets’ home field for only the second time; the first was at Shea in its 1964 inaugural season.
 
Wikipedia: Petco Park
Petco Park is an open-air ballpark in downtown San Diego, California. It opened in 2004, replacing Qualcomm Stadium as the home park of Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres. Before then, the Padres shared Qualcomm Stadium with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers. The stadium is named after the animal and pet supplies retailer Petco, which is based in San Diego and paid for the naming rights.
 
The ballpark is located between 7th and 10th Avenues, south of J Street. The southern side of the stadium is bounded by San Diego Trolley tracks along the north side of Harbor Drive (which serve the adjacent San Diego Convention Center). The portion of K Street between 7th and 10th is now closed to automobiles, and serves as a pedestrian promenade along the back of the left and center field outfield seating (and providing access to the “Park at the Park” behind center field), with the stadium’s two outfield entrance areas located at its intersections with 7th and 10th Avenues. The main entrance, behind home plate, is at the south end of 10th Avenue (at Imperial) and facing the San Diego Trolley light-rail terminal at 12th and Imperial.
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Petco Park has been described as being an “extreme pitcher’s park”. At the end of the 2008 season, Petco Park ranked 29th in hits and 30th out of 30 in home runs per Major League ballpark.
 
San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune
Rockies pound out 18 hits as Thompson feels brunt of avalanche
By Bill Center
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 26, 2006
DENVER – So much for Coors Field turning into Petco Park East, humidified baseballs and the demise of offense in the rarefied Rocky Mountain air.
   
Amazin’ Avenue
Citi Field: Where Homeruns Go To Die
by Eric Simon on Jan 7, 2009 8:00 AM EST
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COMMENTS
I look forward to seeing how CF plays out. Anecdotally, the Phillies have had trouble luring top pitching talent to Philadelphia; it’ll be interesting to see, in the event CF is Petco Park East, if the Mets have trouble bringing bats in.
by WholeCamels on Jan 7, 2009 12:32 PM EST
 
Chop-n-Change
March 17, 2009
Five Questions: The 2009 New York Mets
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I’ve seen some things that suggest Citi Field could be Petco East, but you never really know until the games begin (especially since there was no way to accurately determine the impact of the wind while Shea Stadium was still standing).
     
Mets Merized Online
Game Recap: Santana, Mets Fall 2-1 To Marlins
Posted by Joe D on April 12, 2009
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COMMENTS
Matt says:
April 14, 2009 at 4:45 pm
The way CitiField is playing out to be, the Mets will need to spend more on free agent hitters than ever before.
I hate the dimensions of Citi Field. It’s like Petco Park East.
Petco Park is where hitters go to die.
I wish the Mets kept the park balanced like Shea Stadium.
 
The700Level.com
The only thing I’m worried about is Citi Field, which was built to stop the Phillies. I really think that was the mentality behind it. It’s like PETCO Park East, which is the exact opposite of the Bank. They are going to have to learn to hit doubles instead of home runs, and that might be a tough lesson to learn for this club. Time for Jimmy “Babe” Rollins to stop trying to hit homers and just get on base.
Posted by: Danny | Friday, May 01, 2009 at 11:14 AM
   
Baseball Prospectus
May 7, 2009
Prospectus Hit and Run
Cinco do Samplo, NL
by Jay Jaffe
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The Mets, who have infamously punted playoff spots on the final day of the past two seasons, appear bent on sparing their fans the late-season heartbreak this time around. While their offense ranks fourth in the league in Equivalent Average and the rebuilt bullpen has been effective as advertised, the rotation aside from Johan Santana has been a disaster, ranking 14th in the league in SNLVAR. Even with their new home playing as Petco Park East, no other starter has an ERA below 5.20, and all have issues.
   
New York (NY) Daily News - Surfing the Mets
wafdawg
May 21, 2009
9:19 AM
And this team has no pop because of Citi Field or Petco East. No Met will hit 15 HRs at home this year making it a stretch if anyone hits 30. Botch everything you touch, thats the Met way.