# Why Are Baseball Dugouts "dug out"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-baseball-dugouts-dug-out/205464>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-baseball-dugouts-dug-out/205464 "2003-10-03T23:53:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-baseball-dugouts-dug-out/205464/1 "2003-10-03T23:53:45Z")

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Why are they below field level? Is it for protection from hard hit foul ball line drives?

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-baseball-dugouts-dug-out/205464/2 "2003-10-04T02:28:44Z")

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It’s primarily so that you can fit more seats behind them with unobstructed views, thereby giving you more prime location seats you can sell at a high price.

Not all ballparks have had dugout benches; the old Kingdome in Seattle, for instance, did not.