Not every regulation in the Official Rules of Major League Baseball gets followed to a tee.
Rule 1.04 is one example. Tucked between hard-and-fast mandates like the required distance of 90 feet between bases and white material delineating the baselines, a sentence reads, “It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitcher’s plate to second base shall run East Northeast.”
That recommended orientation of a ballpark has to do with the sun, which, under these guidelines, sets behind third base and shines on right field. Everybody wins in that scenario — the pitcher, the batter, the fans — except the right fielder. Perhaps the rulemakers deemed the position unimportant — or, more likely, the position least frequented by baseballs. So, same thing?
Whatever the case, a majority of ballparks, in both the Major Leagues and Minors alike, open up to the northeast. But there are exceptions.
AT&T Field was an exception.
A bird’s eye view on Google Earth tells the story. The former home of the Lookouts faced northwest, meaning the sun set into the eyes of fans seated down the first base line — and the first baseman and the first base dugout, too.
Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said that wasn’t the initial plan.
“The city asked us to put a walkway around the outside of it,” he said in an interview. “In order for the walkway to go in, it literally had to shift about 45 degrees, so it was always going to be generally that direction, but instead of 75% of our fans looking into (the sun), it would’ve been about 25% of our fans.”
The sun problem was one of the top priorities to address at Erlanger Park, the Lookouts’ new stadium in the developing South Broad district.
“We can confirm that it will not be an issue at this stadium, that’s hugely important,” Mozingo said. “But it was a huge part of how we started the whole process. I mean, before drawings were done and all that kind of stuff, we talked about just that — where’s the sun going to be, and what it’s going to look like for us.”
As the Lookouts were wrapping up their final season at AT&T Field in 2025, Mozingo was revisiting the Erlanger Park site live camera to gauge the sun’s placement. He found that most fans won’t have to grapple with the sun at all, even during summer’s dog days.
How the Lookouts are solving AT&T Field’s sun problem in the move to Erlanger Park
“When we throw our first pitch basically on the Fourth of July, so the middle of the summer, about 85% of these seats are already in the shade,” he said.
That’s because the stadium will be facing (you guessed it) northeast, leaving pretty much only the right fielder to contend with that bright orb in the sky. Mozingo doesn’t much sympathize with him, anyway.
“He didn’t have to pay to come in,” he said.
See our full guide to Erlanger Park at timesfreepress.com/stadium.
Contact Cameron McKeon at cmckeon@timesfreepress.com.