Stadium remodeling

Dodgers historian Mark Langill is chronicling in photographs the redesign of Dodger Stadium's dugouts, foul territory and expensive seats. His photos are on the team's website. Construction crews must fear the approach of Opening Day, because they are working at night under lights. The renovation is intended to bring Frank McCourt more cash by adding premier seats he can sell, but statheads predict the new alignment may subtly help hitters. Pop flies that used to be caught for outs will land in the expanded stands, and if balls hit down the lines skitter more erractially than on the old predictable field, batters may collect more doubles and triples. Link via Dodger Thoughts.

Also in Dodgerland: Fans already seem to hate the hiring of former player Steve Lyons as a TV color man, and not just because he has no past connection to the team and played only 27 games in the National League. (He did play for the Red Sox, where the owner learned his baseball.) There's the recent suspension by Fox Sports for making a crack on the air about Shawn Green's Jewishness, the lawsuit alleging sexual assault that comes to court next month, and as Phil Wallace notes at LAist, he's "one of the worst color commentators in all of sports. He is a sportscaster who strives to be goofy more than insightful."