Bill Veeck's Banned Plan To Have A Movable Fence
What if teams could move the fence based on who they were playing?
Bill Veeck was one of baseball’s most notorious owners and characters, and one of his most daring ideas took a few tries to get off the ground. First, as the owner of the AAA Milwaukee Brewers, Veeck introduced a portable outfield fence that he moved in for Milwaukee's hitters and out for the opposition -- though that was banned by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
There is some debate over if this even happened, but Veeck wouldn't be deterred. After becoming owner of the Indians in 1946, he did not like how big Cleveland's Municipal Stadium was, so he brought in a chicken wire fence to shorten the outfield. Depending on the team he was playing, he would move the fence in or out, and he had to be sneaky to knowing this would upset the commissioner.
As he wrote in his book, the Indians made it appear that the fence was permanent, with sleeves placed over the wire fence and fence poles inserted into the ground. However, they also had "five or six sets of sleeves, nicely spaced so that we could move the fence in or out as much as 15 feet." They then would move the fence in the dark of night to avoid the ire of the Commissioner.
So, if a power hitting team like the Yankees came in, the fence would be moved back just as far as it would go. If a team that didn’t have much power like the St. Louis Browns came in, they would move the left-field fence in as far as they could and keep the right-field fence as deep as they could.
The Indians went 80-74 that year in 1946, but while they played .545 baseball on the road, they finished a game under .500 at home. So maybe it wasn’t as beneficial as thought, and of course, the Commissioner eventually caught on and the plan was outlawed.
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