Thread: Need help figuring area of outfield of a baseball field

I am trying to get accurate square footage of the outfield on our local fields. I don't remember how to find the are of an object with two different radius'. The fence From backstop to the foul pole is 230'. The back radius is 333' long. The infield radius that separates the grass from dirt is 194'. The the section of fence that start behind third base and first base where the grass starts to the outfield fence is 144'.
I hope this makes sense. I'm just trying to figure out how much grass seed to buy.

Hey Willyjoe0118.

I'm not an American and I don't know much about baseball, but is the field something like this:

File:Baseball diamond.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If so, do you need to buy seed for the grass past the home plate and before the dirt (but not crossing the foul line)?

Originally Posted by chiro

Hey Willyjoe0118.

I'm not an American and I don't know much about baseball, but is the field something like this:

File:Baseball diamond.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If so, do you need to buy seed for the grass past the home plate and before the dirt (but not crossing the foul line)?

According to that diagram I would need to figure just the area that is labeled "grass line" . Our fields do not have grass in the infield.

Bump...... Please help

Anyone??????

Hi Willyjoe

Could you clarify a few points (for someone else not that familiar with the game) ?
The outfield fence and the grass line, are they both arcs of circles (or are they just approximately so in some way) ? And if they are, do the circles have the same centre or are the centres offset by some amount (and if they are by how much) ? What I'm asking I suppose is, say I take, from a point on the grass line, a line out to the outfield fence along a radius do I get the same value for all points along the grass line (144') ?
It would appear from the diagram supplied by Chiro that the two foul lines are at right angles. Is this actually the case ?
Where does the foul pole fit in ? Is it on the foul line at the outfield fence or only part way to the fence ? The reason for asking that is that I don't see how the 230' fits in. (If it's at the outfield fence, why isn't it something like 330' away ?)

Both the outfield fence and the infield grass line are indeed arcs of a circle. However, they have different center points. The outfield fence's center point is home plate and the infield grass line is the pitchers mound.
I'm not sure if the outfield fence is at a 90 degree angle, but I don't think so because our fields are equal distance from all points on the outfield fence to home plate. A lot of fields are staggered and have deeper spots but ours is equal distances.
The reason it is not 330' if because it is a little league field.
I think I could use the below equation:
Pie/4 (R2^2-R1^2). Which result in 45186 sq.ft. But I don't have confidence in that number.

Sorry WillieJoe, I've been a little busy but I'm going to take a look soon.

Thanks for the help..... I need it.

You said that you have two arcs with different centre of points. Can you list the two arcs with the centre points and the radius?

I'm guessing the grass line arc has the centre of its circle at the home plate (call that radius R1) but what about the other arc?

Also are the two foul lines at a 90 degree angle, or is the angle different (i.e. the angle as if the two lines intersected at the home plate)?

Since you have two different arcs with different centres, this will turn into an integration problem: if they had the same centre then it would be a lot easier but if they are offset in a significant way, then you need to resort to integration.