New Stadium Strikes Fear in Mets Foes

National League teams visiting Shea Stadium this summer can’t help looking past the outfield with fear at the New York Mets’ new home, Citi Field, which opens next year. “It is the ballpark that could make the Mets financially untouchable,” Rich Hofmann writes in the Philadelphia Daily News, urging his hometown Phillies and others to get their swings in now.

Historically, franchises quickly plug revenue into player payroll, and, despite the ascendancy of cash-strapped teams recently, more expensive players usually mean more wins. “A financial deficit against the Mets is soon to become a chasm,” Hoffman writes. “That is the message with each pounding hammer outside the centerfield fence. To ignore it is to ignore the truth.” (More baseball stories.)