One of the coolest things about baseball parks, and something not everyone realizes, is that playing fields do not have equal dimensions; This is part of baseball's unique character.

The distance between the bases is the same 90 feet in any Major League park, but the distance to the outfield wall varies, as does the height of the walls. This makes it so that some parks cater to contact hitters, while others encourage batters to swing for the home runs.

The playing surfaces of other sports are pretty much the same except for their decorations. Sure, the famous parquet floor of the Boston Garden is said to have some "dead spots" that the Celtics' players are able to remember to their advantage, and there are differences in the way players are able to run and cut from grass to artificial turf on different football fields, but the playing areas are basically uniform. Hockey and Tennis have standard surfaces as well.

Outfield walls have ranged in distance from home plate, from outfield corner walls 251 feet away, to centerfield walls nearly 500 feet from home. Fenway Park in Boston compensates for the short distance to the Left Field wall by including the 37-foot tall "Green Monster", which has turned many a hit that would've been a homer in another park into a double or a triple.

In addition, outfields can be irregularly shaped, or the walls can have odd angles that can sometimes create interesting ricochets of batted balls, often with hilarious results.

Other factors that influence hitting include wind interference, which can wreak total havoc on pitcher, batter, and fielder alike, and the differences between the humidity in the air from city to city. For example, it is believed that the thin air of Mile High Stadium makes it easier for Colorado Rockies players (and their opponents) to hit 4-baggers.

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