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Houston Astros should have Kept Tal’s Hill

By Josh Sippie

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The Houston Astros announced on June 4th that the infamous Tal’s Hill in center field was to cease to exist following the 2015 season. While the majority of the baseball world will be okay with this news, I, for one, am not. If I were a betting man, I would say that our partners over at Climbing Tal’s Hill can not be too pleased either. 

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Baseball fields are supposed to be unique. Every stadium has something that separates it from all the rest. The Brewers have that goofy slide, the Red Sox have the Big Green Monster, the Giants have McCovey Cove. It’s fun stuff like those little things that make a stadium memorable.

Minute Maid Park had several things that made it memorable and one by one, they are all being destroyed. First, there was the train tracks in left center. Every time the Astros belted one over the wall, a train full of oranges would leave the station and choo-choo across the tracks towards the left field foul pole.

It was cute, it was memorable, it added a little extra theatrics to a long ball like the Brewer’s mascot slide or the Marlins bizarre shrine to fish. But now that’s gone.

Tal’s Hill had the potential to become one of the most memorable stadium aspects in the major leagues. An incline in deep center field with a flag pole in play? That is certainly unprecedented. But despite all the injury concerns, as NPR points out, no injuries ever occurred. There is the potential for injuries anywhere on the field and while Tal’s Hill technically heightened that risk, you could make the mathematical argument that since zero people were ever hurt on Tal’s Hill, that it is therefore the least likely place in all of baseball to get injured.

I have seen players tear ACL’s when landing on a base, I have seen concussions from hitting a wall, but no one has ever seen an injury on Tal’s Hill.

Aside from the injuries argument, people called the hill a circus. Have you seen the nooks and crannies along Fenway’s fence? That is a bit like a circus too. And the deep alcove in front of the brick wall guarding McCovey’s cove? There’s some pretty circus-like stuff all around baseball. Have I mentioned the Marlins shrine to fish?

The Houston Astros did something completely different with Tal’s Hill and it became memorable, albeit mostly in a negative light. I do not and never will see why it was such a negative thing. Most times, when something new is introduced, they are not accepted right away. Tal’s Hill was one victim of this trend. It has had a decade of life and already it is being stricken down for being too gimicky and too risky.

Why it is so wrong to do something unique and be out of the ordinary is beyond me. There have been so many memorable moments on Tal’s Hill, from Lance Berkman‘s puma-like reflexes to Michael Bourn and even now to Jake Marisnick; the Hill was entertaining and it made for some amazing moments.

No longer. Now, Minute Made Park is slowly conforming to look like the nondescript stadiums that speckle the great United States of America. All they have left is the Crawford Boxes and if you ask me, those are far more gimicky than Tal’s Hill. Most professional hitters could hit a ball 315 feet one-handed.

It’s a shame that Tal’s Hill is getting the axe. Particularly because, as the Chron points out, the Astros have not won since it was announced.

Justice.

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