question: Why is there no standardization of the dimensions of Baseball fields outside of the infield?
comment: I would imagine that it has to do with the space a ball park sits in. Major league stadiums are massive and there are plenty of older ones that are in the middle of major metropolitan areas so space now is at a premium. My best take at it.
passages: However, with the opening of Baltimore's Camden Yards (1992), the "minimum distance" rule began to be ignored. One factor may be that the quaint, "retro" look of Camden Yards, with its irregular measurements, proved to be very popular, along with a traditionalist backlash against the symmetrical, multi-purpose, "cookie-cutter" stadiums. Since the opening of Camden Yards, many other "retro" stadiums have been built, each with asymmetrical fences. These distances vary from park to park, and can even change drastically in the same park. One of the most famous examples is the original Yankee Stadium, whose odd-shaped plot of land caused right field to be over shorter than left, although this difference lessened over time. The rectangular Polo Grounds had extremely short distance down the lines, . to right and . to left. In contrast, the deepest part of center field was nearly . from home plate.
   Older ballparks, such as Fenway Park, were grandfathered in and allowed to keep their original dimensions. Also, new parks have sometimes received special dispensation to deviate from these rules. For instance, the second Yankee Stadium, built 2009, used the same dimensions as the original Yankee Stadium.
   However, since the requirements for baseball and football are significantly different, the trend has been toward the construction of single-purpose stadiums, beginning with Kansas City in 1972–1973 and accelerating in the 1990s. In several cases, an American football stadium has been constructed adjacent to a baseball park, to allow for the sharing of mutual parking lots and other amenities. With the rise of MLS, the construction of soccer-specific stadiums has also increased since the late 1990s to better fit the needs of that sport. In many cases, earlier baseball stadiums were constructed to fit into a particular land area or city block. This resulted in asymmetrical dimensions for many baseball fields. Yankee Stadium, for example, was built on a triangular city block in The Bronx, New York City. This resulted in a large left field dimension but a small right field dimension.
   Today, in Major League Baseball, a multi-tiered seating area, a grandstand, surrounds the infield. How far this seating extends down the baselines or around the foul poles varies from park to park. In minor league parks, the grandstands are notably smaller, proportional to expected sizes of crowds compared with the major leagues.
   To prevent "cheap" home runs, baseball leagues may specify a minimum distance from home plate to the outfield fences. Generally, the higher the skill level, the deeper the minimum dimensions must be, to prevent an excess of home runs. In the major leagues, a rule was passed in 1958 that compelled any new fields built after that point to have a minimum distance of from home plate to the fences in left and right field, and to center. (Rule 1.04, Note(a)). This rule was passed to avoid situations like the Los Angeles Coliseum, which was . down the left field line.
   A detailed plan of the new ballpark was published in the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" for January 3, 1912, p.21. The right field line was to be 298 feet from home plate, the left field line 401 feet, and to the front of the intended triangle-shaped center field bleachers the plan said 407 feet "+ or -". 
   The Kingdome was somewhat problematic as a baseball venue: foul territory was quite large, outfield dimensions were quite small, and seating areas were set back far from the playing field, with seats in the upper deck as far as from home plate. Part of the problem was that the Kingdome was not a multipurpose stadium in the truest sense. Instead, it was built as a football stadium that could convert into a baseball stadium. For instance, most fans in the outfield seats on the 300 level were unable to see parts of right and center field; these areas were not part of the football playing field.
   There is little consistency in the choice between "Field" and "Park". For example, Houston's Minute Maid Park was originally named "Enron Field".
  
  Section::::Settings.
  
  Organized baseball has been a popular spectator sport from its beginning. Seating area design is affected by many variables, including required capacity, audience access, and road traffic. Early ballparks like Elysian Fields were far from the city center. Each game was an event, and fans traveled by public transit to watch the game.
   Distinctive from "goal games" such as football and basketball, which have fixed-size playing areas, the infield is the only rigidly laid-out part of the field. Like its English relative, cricket, there is significant flexibility in the shape and size of the rest of the playing area.
   "Note: To reduce redundancy, this table does not list the indoor stadiums of the multi-purpose era in this section. However, all of the indoor ballparks of North America, which are listed in their own section, were also built as multi-purpose stadiums."
  
  *A baseball-only ballpark converted to a multi-purpose stadium.
  
  **A football-only stadium converted to a multi-purpose stadium.
  
  Section::::Types of baseball parks.:Modern ballparks.
   The large capacities of multipurpose stadiums were usually more than adequate for football. However, baseball crowds tend to be much smaller than football crowds, resulting in baseball games at these stadiums being swallowed up in the environment. This was especially true if a baseball team were not doing particularly well either on the field or in the box office. This was another reason some baseball teams closed sections of the upper level during the regular season.
   Like the jewel box parks, the outfield fences were angled rather than the gradual curve of the newer parks, and often had quirky dimensions. The requirements for minimum distance to the outfield fences were frequently waived during this time.
   coincides with the home plate. The batter’s box has a square shape of 3 meters (10 ft.) per side. It is placed outside of the fair 
  
  territory and is built on the extension of the two foul lines crossing each other at the home plate 
  
  corner.
  
  Ideal shape and size of all bases is a square of 50 centimeters (1,6 ft.) per side. In order to avoid collisions, the first base is “double”. The ideal height of the fences is 100 centimeters or 3 feet. However, every league/tournament 
   While multipurpose stadiums were intended to easily accommodate both American football and baseball (and in some cases, association football), the fundamentally different sizes and shapes of the playing fields made them inadequate for either sport. When used for baseball, the lower-level boxes were usually set back much further from the field than comparable seats in baseball-only parks because they swiveled into position for American football and association football. In the case of stadiums that hosted both baseball and Canadian football, the lower boxes were set even further back than their American counterparts, because Canadian football fields are 30 yards longer and considerably wider than their American counterparts. Likewise, attempts to build stadiums without support columns to obstruct spectators' views, as was the case with sport-specific "jewel box" stadiums, resulted in upper decks being placed very high above the field—as far as 600 feet away in some cases. Several teams closed off sections of the upper level and only sold them during the playoffs, as they were too far away to be of any use during the regular season. For football, the seats nearest the field were set farther back than at football-only stadiums to accommodate the larger baseball field. In some cases, the seats closest to the field, normally prime seats for baseball, were almost at field level for football. In general, spectator sightlines were not optimized for either sport, i.e., seats were angled towards the center of the field rather than towards the logical center of the game action (home plate for baseball and the 50-yard line for football).
   In the very early part of the 20th century, known as the "dead-ball era", baseball rules and equipment favored the "inside game" and the game was played more violently and aggressively than it is today. This period ended in the 1920s with several changes that gave advantages to hitters. In the largest parks, the outfield fences were brought closer to the infield. In addition, the strict enforcement of new rules governing the size, shape and construction of the ball caused it to travel farther.
   By the early 1930s, distance markers were posted: left field line, 364 feet; left-center against the outer wall, 372; left center, corner of bleachers, 364; deep center field corner, 440; right center, 354; right field line, 321.
   The original dimensions were: Left Field – , Left Center Field – , Center Field – , Right Center Field – , Right Field – . The power alleys are now posted as and right field as .
  
  Section::::Other events.
   These two types of ballpark are distinct because of their use, not their design. Because of this, a temporary or converted ballpark can also be any of the other types: jewel box, modern, multi-purpose, etc.
  
  Section::::Types of baseball parks.:Indoor ballparks.
   Individual leagues at levels below MLB are free to set their own rules governing the dugouts as is appropriate for their league's ballparks and playing level. For example, the rule governing reaching into dugouts to catch fly balls would not apply in leagues where the dugouts are separated from the field by a chain-link fence that is taller than the players.
  
  Section::::Basketball.
   Populous's designs across Major League Baseball have become so prevalent that some critics have asserted that the distinctiveness that was originally found in early "retro" ballparks is impossible to maintain: "There are nearly 20 [new ballparks] around the league, [so] their heterogeneity has come to seem altogether homogenous." Whereas "classic" ballparks like Fenway Park were given strange dimensions simply because of the limitations provided by the plots of land on which the parks were built, new stadiums do not feature such restrictions. One sportswriter said the attempt to emulate the old parks in this way is "contrived."
   An ingenious expansion that took place from 1975–1977 raised the capacity to 75,103 by extending the upper deck that was along the north side and building movable, triple-decked stands along the east side. When fully retracted toward the field, the stands would form a horseshoe for football, appropriate considering the team was the Denver Broncos. Yet when fully extended by 145 feet (44 m), the stadium could still fit a normal-sized baseball field with outfield distances of 335 feet down the left-field line, 375 feet to left-center and 423 to center field.
   Two-tiered grandstands became much more prevalent in this era. These decks were typically held up by steel pillars that obstructed the view from some seats in the lower level. However, because of these supports, the upper decks could come very close to the field, giving the ballpark a more intimate feel. Two tiers was the standard for decades, until the New York Yankees built Yankee Stadium. To accommodate the large crowds Babe Ruth drew, Yankee Stadium was the largest ballpark in baseball and was built with three tiers. This became the new standard until some recently built parks reverted to two, including PNC Park in 2001.
   Major League Baseball has defined a set of "universal ground rules" that apply to all MLB ballparks; individual ballparks have the latitude to set ground rules above and beyond the universal ground rules, as long as they do not directly contradict each other. Additionally, a set of universal ground rules exists for the six MLB stadiums with retractable roofs, with the individual ballparks able to set additional rules.
   When the stadium reopened in 1976, the distance in straight-away center field was . The deepest part of the outfield was in left center at . The most recent field dimensions were reached primarily by moving the Yankee bullpen to left-center from right and making a few other changes so as to bring the left-center field wall in. The 1973-era left-center field wall locations could still be seen in 1976, as this is where the outfield bleacher seats began.
  
  The following is a partial list of the stadium's dimensions throughout the years:
   During its 87-year existence, Yankee Stadium's dimensions were changed several times. The many photographs taken throughout the stadium's history serve as references, especially as the Yankees were among the first to post distance markers on the outfield walls, doing so beginning in 1928.
  