Home runs are strictly prohibited at the most Toronto baseball field ever
The home run is perhaps the most exciting part of baseball and softball, but Toronto has found a way to strip this fun away from the beloved summer pastime.
A local public park's baseball diamond features a curious sign, warning parkgoers with a list of rules that severely restrict how they can play — including an outright ban on home runs.
The MacGregor Playground baseball diamond is actually described by the City as a "ball diamond," because you technically can't even play baseball there.
According to a list of rules posted by the City of Toronto, the use of hardballs is not permitted, limiting visitors to softball games.
However, even a proper game of softball is severely restricted at MacGregor Playground, with rules prohibiting aluminum bats, competitive/high-level play, and, perhaps most curiously, home runs.
Taken from last weekend at McGregor. This is what happens when you build a condo in left field. No home runs! It is what it is but also kinda annoying to play softball with wood bats pic.twitter.com/EXsikMlHDe
— Nope SZN (@Lesley_NOPE) August 26, 2023
So, why would the city prohibit something as important to the sport as home runs?
The short answer is simply: condos.
Toronto has a long history of ruining fun things with petty rules, and just as long a history of favouring the interests of the wealthy over those of the public.
The City has accomplished both in one shot at MacGregor Park, evidently in response to the 2016 completion of a condominium development that looms just beyond the diamond's outfield.
I posted the wrong thing in the previous tweet. This vid shows how shallow left field is pic.twitter.com/OheLq2UcL3
— Nope SZN (@Lesley_NOPE) August 26, 2023
Known as Enigma on the Park, the nine-storey condo building with its distinctive (but not universally beloved) chevron-patterned exterior has created conflict between parkgoers and condo residents since even before the project completed construction.
One time when the building was under construction, a guy on my team hit a home run that bonked off a worker’s helmet
— peever ⛺️ (@aaronpeever) August 27, 2023
Things came to a head in 2019 when a permit for a softball league was revoked.
Yeah this makes me so mad. That whole saga was/is ridiculous. If you don’t want your condo to get hit by baseballs, don’t build it in left field of a baseball diamond! Just another example of private owners of wealth being prioritized over public use of space.
— Tyler Shipley (@le_shipster) August 26, 2023
Trees and even a net were since added in left field to prevent damage to the building from errant home runs, though power-hitters have managed to penetrate these defences, resulting in a no-home-run policy that is not sitting right with players.
There’s high netting . Big hitters using wooden bats are able to hit hard homers into it. Possibly through it with aluminum?
— Nope SZN (@Lesley_NOPE) August 26, 2023
So, next time you venture out into the city with fun on your agenda, make sure you read the corresponding rules and regulations.
