Changes coming to right-field wall at Camden Yards

The Orioles haven't necessarily had an overly productive offseason, but few fans can complain about the planned renovations for Camden Yards next year to honor the stadium's 20th anniversary. The major news -- the addition of six statues to honor the O's current Hall of Famers (Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken Jr.) -- was announced in November and is arguably something that should have been completed a while ago.

But some more recent renovation news, according to Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun, is that the O's are planning to alter the right-field wall. Connolly elaborates:

The flag-court wall in right, which is on top of the out-of-town scoreboard, will be altered. Basically, the wall portion that protects fans that stand there will be removed and be replaced by a railing. That way shorter people – and, specifically, kids – will have a better view of the field of play while standing on the flag court.

Makes plenty of sense. However, that means more balls may end up flying out for homers instead of bouncing off the top of the wall for doubles or long singles. I’m not sure exactly how many fly balls it will affect, but I’ll keep an eye on it next year.

Connolly mentions the possibility of a ball hitting the railing, but the O's aren't sure at the moment whether to make the ball in that scenario in-play or out-of-play (probably the latter).

I think the change is a good idea. If you've ever tried to watch part of the game while standing behind the wall or on the concourse, it's sort of difficult, especially if there's a lot of people (so, basically Yankees and Red Sox games). The move also seems to be rather kid-friendly, which is just fine.

For what it's' worth, Jeremy Guthrie had a pretty funny take on the wall being lowered:

Another poor offensive performance, another loss

The Orioles (1-6) wasted another decent start by Jeremy Guthrie -- seven innings pitched, eight hits, three earned runs -- and dropped their fourth game in a row (all at home) after a 5-1 loss to the Rays. Matt Garza threw eight strong innings, giving up only one run, and earned his second victory over the Orioles in this young season.

Garza allowed just six hits, with the O's lone run coming on a leadoff home run by Felix Pie. The Orioles had a couple of chances to score -- in the second and seventh innings -- but again couldn't put together another hit or two to put more runs on the scoreboard.

With the O's ahead 1-0 in the second, Matt Wieters led off with an infield single, and Luke Scott followed with a single of his own to right field. Unfortunately, Garrett Atkins came up next and hit a ground ball right to the shortstop for a double play. And in a sentence that will probably be repeated numerous times this season, Julio Lugo then struck out to end the threat.

In the seventh (the Orioles are trailing 3-1 at this point), with one out and Scott on first after a walk, Atkins hit a shot into the left center field gap, but the ball was caught on an outstanding running play by Carl Crawford. So with two outs, Ty Wigginton, pinch-hitting for Lugo, hit a flare to short right field that fell in for a single. With runners on first and second with two outs, Nolan Reimold was sent to the plate to pinch-hit for Cesar Izturis -- makes sense, right? Reimold, though, never got a chance to swing the bat -- on a ball in the dirt that got away from the catcher for a moment, Wigginton took off for second. There was just one problem: Scott stayed put. Wigginton was easily caught in a rundown, ending yet another scoring opportunity. Who does Wigginton think he is? Melvin Mora?

Pie, as stated before, led the O's offense attack with his solo home run. He also singled and walked. Jones, Wieters, Scott, and Wigginton each had a hit, and Scott and Wieters both drew walks. Nick Markakis went 0-3 and is now hitting .143, but he did walk again. And Miguel Tejada went 0-4 and saw just nine pitches in those at bats -- not exactly the kind of performance the O's are looking for from their cleanup hitter.

The Orioles have now scored just 20 runs in seven games. Get well soon, Brian Roberts.

By the way, if the team's recent play isn't bad enough, the 9,129 fans in attendance at Camden Yards tonight broke the "record" for the smallest crowd in the stadium's 19 seasons. Awesome.

Weekly Rundown: Roberts, Steve McNair Jr., Camden Yards

Weekly Rundown is a combination of links and brief comments on stories and topics that I couldn't get to during the week. If there's something important that I missed, don't hesitate to send an email or leave a comment.

I decided to play some pickup basketball yesterday, so that's why the Weekly Rundown is a day late. Anyway, here are some non-LeBron links that I thought were worth mentioning:

• Dave Trembley talking about Brian Roberts last week:
  

  
  "He hasn't played up to his expectations on a consistent basis, and I think that's bothering him. I think he's searching for an answer for that. I think he feels like he's let some factors get to him and affect the way he's played. He told me the other day that he accepts responsibility for that. He felt like he let me down, let his teammates down. I told him all he can do is go forward. You've got to put the past behind you and you've got to go forward."
  

  
  Roberts is still having a decent season, but his overall numbers -- .273/.339/.433 -- are down compared to the last few seasons. Still, he already has eight home runs (he hit nine last season), and he's driving in a lot of runs (42) out of the leadoff spot. I don't think he'll continue to hit as many homers, but hopefully he starts to walk a little more to raise his BB/K ratio from 0.63, which would be the lowest since his rookie season. [Orioles.com]


• WJFK (106.7) will broadcast Wizards games for the next few seasons. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• Apparently Oscar Salazar and Felix Pie are on the trading block. [Baltimore Sun]


• According to Jason La Canfora, who now works for NFL Network, Redskins veterans with four years or more NFL experience won't have to spend the night at training camp this year. That Jim Zorn is a nice guy. [Pro Football Talk]


• Steve McNair Jr. looks to carry on his father's football legacy -- at wide receiver. [FanHouse]


• Michael Lee on the Wizards and last season's attendance:
  

  
  ...[G]ate receipts for the Wizards declined more than $4 million last season, which put them among the 10 worst teams behind Sacramento ($9.7 million), Toronto ($9.1 million), Los Angeles Clippers ($6.8 million) and Miami Heat ($5.3 million). [Ken] Berger writes that Charlotte and Indiana also went down more than $4 million from the previous season.
  
  The Wizards finished 21st in attendance last season averaging 16,612 fans, which was a dropoff from the season before when the Wizards ranked 15th at 17,962. Overall, the Wizards had 55,344 fewer fans walk through the turnstiles (about 1,350 per game). [Wizards Insider]
  



• Mark Buehrle may decide to hang up his spikes when he turns 32, and his decision will have nothing to do with his pitching abilities. [Yahoo! Sports]


• Last Tuesday, in a tribute to Michael Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr. wore one white batting glove and came to the plate as "Billie Jean" played over the sound system. [Big League Stew]


• Want to see a "true baseball story" at the movies? Rob Neyer doesn't think it'll happen. [SweetSpot]


• LZ Granderson does his best to, sort of, defend Holly Robinson Peete, who wrote a few semi-controversial things on Twitter as the Steve McNair saga unfolded. I have an idea: If you don't want people to overreact at things you say/write on a social networking site, then don't write anything at all. [ESPN]


• Apparently JaVale McGee isn't a big fan of the nickname "Epic Vale." [Bullets Forever]


• And finally, apparently Camden Yards doesn't suck. Well, of course it doesn't. [Deadspin]