RED SOX MAKE CHANGES AT FENWAY PARK IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEW MLB SEASON
It’s finally here! Today is opening day at Fenway Park. Kids are skipping school, adults are bunking work, it’s always a great day. Along with it being opening day, it’s also the 1st day of the new Fenway renovations.
This year the new renovations include the nets behind home plate down to the dugouts, new TV’s in the dugouts of the two bullpens, and what might affect the players the most is the signs in the clubhouses that remind the players that smokeless tobacco aka Dip is now banned in Fenway park.
The nets being extended down to the dugouts is a good idea. With the way the people act in those seats, they’re usually looking down at their phones and not the game. When a foul ball is going over there, they’re going to want that net to protect them. For the baseball purest that don’t like it and don’t want to look through a net, I do feel for them as it is the biggest pain in the ass to look through that net but still the safety of the fans around you should be a win. If they get hit by a foul ball, there will be lots of activity around you and paying attention to the game will be more difficult.
On the smokeless tobacco side, the new law that went into effect on April 1, 2016, it bans the use of all smokeless tobacco products at Boston sporting venues, professional and amateur. So the players at Fenway will no longer be able to dip during games. Boston mayor Marty Walsh says that they are trying to make Boston a healthier city.
With all due respect to the mayor, these guys are adults. They’re going to do what they want. If they want to dip, they’re going to dip. For the amateur fields around the city, I agree with the law. For the high school kids who are playing ball, they don’t need to be dipping. Even thou they are under the age of 18, they still get it. Even the over 35 softball player, they shouldn’t be dipping for the sole reason it’s disgusting especially if they’re spitting on the ground.
At Fenway you have people paid to clean up the ballpark so it’s always clean but at the other ballparks where a bunch of guys are playing some pickup game, it should be banned for them because other people play on those fields and the city does not provide enough upkeep of those fields for it to be clean like Fenway.
Is what I’m saying a double standard, yes. But the professionals are playing with only other professional adults and the fields are clean. For the other people, it’s just a curtesy to other people because dip spit is absolutely disgusting. You don’t want to be walking around that the field when you’re playing ball or whatever game you’re playing.
