Taking in BP

I know that I rant about this fairly regularly, but I really enjoy getting to the ballpark early to take in batting practice. There was a nice feature about BP in today's USA Today which I thought I would share. The article gives a lot of nice information about what goes on during batting practice, including the most thorough description of the methods behind the madness (at least the most thorough written description that I've ever seen - I think my only formal exposure to the nuances of BP has been through osmosis).

There's also about an interesting anecdote about how Frank Thomas used to experiment during BP with an aluminum bat. It's too bad that MLB outlawed that. The Sox could have sold tickets to that show.

I also found the table at the bottom of the story to be quite interesting. Sixteen teams allow their fans into the ballpark earlier than the Florida Marlins. The Marlins are also one of only six teams (of 30, of course) that do not allow their fans into the stadium in time to see the home team take batting practice (everyone will allow fans inside in time to watch the visitors hit). That doesn't seem like a very fan friendly policy to me (and spare me the commentary about how the Marlins don't own the stadium and can't control the timing of when the stadium is opened as it's up to someone else's discretion - that's weak).