Looking for an explanation for all of the homers in Yankee Stadium? It's the walls, stupid:
After analyzing the 29 games played and the 105 home runs hit at the new Yankee Stadium, AccuWeather.com has determined that a portion of the home run derby that has taken place this season cannot be directly attributed to the weather. As it turns out, walls, not weather, are the homer helpers for 19 percent of the home runs thus far in the new Yankee Stadium.
The difference is in the dimensions. For someone attending a game at the new Yankee Stadium, or watching on TV, the size of the playing field appears to be the same. The dimensions at select corners of the field are identical - and the posted numbers on the walls reflect that. However, detailed schematics of the park reveal some nuances that have significant implications.
Specifically, AccuWeather notes that the change from a curved to a flat wall in right field to accommodate a new scoreboard causes the fence to jog in between four and nine feet. As a result, AccuWeather calculates that that 20 of the 105 home runs would not have flown out of the old stadium. Over the course of the season, that will account for 56 homers that would have fallen short of the fence in the old joint. That's not an insignificant number of home runs.
What to do about it? Well, returning the wall to Old Yankee Stadium dimensions would require removing a couple of rows of seats, it would seem, and if we know anything about the Yankees, we know that they're not about to sacrifice a revenue stream. And it's not as if there's much room to move home plate back, as it's already very close to the wall as it is.
Eureka! Remove the seats behind home plate! It's not as if anyone is sitting there anyway . . .
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why aren't there regulation measurements in all the parks so this would not happen?
Maureen- because if the stadiums were uniform it would be called Basketball, Football, or hockey.
No, it would be called fair!
Ahhh... comments from people who hate baseball and know nothing about it.
It IS fair - COMPLETELY fair! Both team play on the same field 100% of the time. The parks are different, but the dimensions don't change based on who's at-bat.
This is a throwback to Baseball's origins as a city game, played in stadiums that often had to fit odd dimensions created by streets, available property, etc. It is, undeniably, a big part of Baseball's charm through the years.
Although they do play on the same field, teams are built around their stadiums, and thus DOES give the home team an advantage. If right field is short, and the home team has a lefty lineup, that gives an advantage. If the dimensions are deep and symetrical, and the team has pitchers for those parks, it does give an advantage.
If all of the parks were the same dimensions (foul area, behind home plate, angles in the corners and space in the outfield, padding on the walls) then that actually would make a more level "playing field".
then... the only influences would be weather and altitude.
Actually, hockey surfaces have not all been historically identical, because many teams have had to make them fit the arena instead of vice versa. The rinks at Boston Garden and Chicago Stadium were legendary for their small size, and the corners at the Gahden were very tight (all the better to bodycheck you in!).
With the new-stadium boom the NHL has taken the opportunity to standardize, but international-size rinks are still significantly wider than NHL rinks, and college rinks are frequently smaller than "regulation."
And don't get me started on Canadian football...
w/r/t the Yanks, I believe the Steinbrenners knew what they were doing when they approved the walls - everyone building a new stadium gets measurements at many points. Point blank, they want the Yankees to hold the HR records again. And there's one righty hitter in specific who'll be making a run at Bonds, and what better help than some friendly dimensions...?
No, there are minimums of 325'down the lines, 400' to straight-away center field and 375' in the power alleys of left-center and right-centre. Any team can apply for a waiver from one or more of these minimum requirements if the space for the field doesn't give that much distance. That's why Camden Yards has a short right-field porch and Petco Park has a short left-field porch. These have been the minimum requirements since June 1, 1958, and they are specifically outlined in the rule book, as you can see here:
Strictly speaking, there are no maximum distances, nor are there regulations covering the height of the walls at any spot in a ballpark, or the distance from the wall behind the plate to the back side of the plate itself.
For a number of reasons, this isn't football. Yet, even in football, the size of the field depends on the league. The NFL fields are smaller, for example than are the fields in the Canadian Football League, which adds 10 yards to the distance between goal posts and is also, I believe, wider than an NFL field.
rpearlston,
good point, tho how you managed to make it without mentioning the Green Monster is beyond me.
How come I knew about this change in dimensions before the season even started, yet people have been blundering around trying to explain or deny the extra home runs in other ways?
As much as I'd like to complain how the HR haven now known as Yankee Stadium hurt my Rays over the weekend, the fact is that both teams have to hit there and if the Rays can't hit it to right field like Jeter and the Yankees, then they deserve to lose.
I like the fact that there are more home runs being hit. Bith teams get the same opportunity and the Yanks are definitely taking advantage of it. I live 12 - 10 ball games!
Both teams get the same opportunity but the Yankees play 81 games there, so it pads their stats throughout the entire season.
I agree with Tampa Lawyer (do I know you???) that both teams have the same advantage/disadvantage, but this new Yankee Stadium is a joke. If you like 12-10 games Crusher, then great. Personally I like baseball, and 4 or more HR's a games makes it seem a little like softball.
I went to a game at Macombs Dam Park where the Yankees now play and sat between the first base dugout and the right field foul pole on the first level in the "cheap" ($75) seats. As a long-time visitor of the original Yankee Stadium with my untrained eye from my seat I could clearly see that the right field wall at the new building did not curve to center field like the old ballpark. And the fences are shorter. The original landmark was like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The new ballpark? Like the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. What a disgrace!
Is nothing attributable to bad pitching?
Yes, but only if the team does the same in their own park -- i.e., if the Rays lose to the Yanks in NY, then lose to the Yanks in Tampa, that could be attributable to bad pitching, provided the same pitchers work both games.
Visiting teams have to play under the same circumstances as do the Yankees. Bad pitching will always mean lots of runs, but it doesn't necessrily include lots of home runs. That's because not everypitcher, not even every bad pitcher, has the kind of "stuff" that is amendable to being hit for a HR.
This is something that gets explained well by something called "park factor" or "park effect". It takes a number of things into account, including home/road splits, and does this in a few categories. A neutral park, or at least a part that is neutral in any given category will have a park factor of 1.0. Anything below that means that the park is amenable to pitchers in that category and anything above that means that the park is amenable to hitters in that category. The greater the variation, the more it is a pitchers or hitters park.
It will be interesting, at the end of the season, to check these numbers in all categores for the new Yankee Stadium. But this site:
gives these numbers for all 30 MLB parks through June 9, so you can get some idea of the differences.
Both teams during any one game will benefit, but since the Yankies play there more than any other team it will inflate their stats significantly.
Also even if you did create "identical" dimension ballparks, the home run counts would be different to to air density, that changes due to temperatures, altitude etc. I love the fact that baseball parks are all different.
both teams will benefit during any one game, but since the Yankies play there more than any other team, their stats will be inflated significantly.
The problem is the markings aren't accurate. Teams have done this before. There is no way it is 314 to left and 318 to right. It is about 300 feet. Jeter goes back on a pop up and he's at the warning track.
The left field wall in Fenway was listed at 315 for years then after someone went in there with a tape measurer its now 310
Geez...could you imagine Maris and Ruth there now?
Ruth and Maris played before the stadium was remodeled in the 70's. It was 296' to the right field wall back then. And don't think about it being 471 to center and monument park being in play. They were both dead pull hitters.
It was clear from before the stadium opened that the left-center and right center field measurements were closer than the old park was just by seeing the photos. As a lifelong Yankees fan very little, including the obscured view seats in the bleachers, were an accident!
wrote >Both teams during any one game will benefit, but since the Yankies play there more than any other team it will inflate their stats significantly.
This isn't logical. Both teams at every game at Yankee Stadium have the same short right field advantage. The Yanks do not have an advantage in any one game. Therefore, they do not have an advantage over a whole season.
re r spencer -
the yankee's play 81 games at the new stadium and opponents play (i think) a total of either 6 (inter-league) or 12 (intra-league) so wouldn't the yankee's have the advantage?
Your logic is flawed. If the same 2 teams played there all year, then both teams (one being the Yankees) would have equal opportunities. But, each team in the league plays there much less often than the Yankees, so the Yanks would hold an over-all advantage over every other team in the league. 81 games at the Stadium gives the Yankees the advantage over the rest of the league
Every team plays 81 home games. Every other team in the AL East will play at Yankee Stadium 9 or 10 times this season, as in that division, each team plays every other team 19 times in a season. Other teams in the AL will play 3 - 6 games there, depending on how their schedule falls. During interleauge play, no NL team will play there for more than 3 games, and most NL teams won't play at all in any given AL park in any given year.
So yes, over the course of a full season, the Yankees will have the advantage in home games with regards to HR's. What you want to look at is the teams' full-season home/road splits on that and any given category.
However, in any given game at any given park, both teams will, in theory, have equal opportunities in every category.
They may have an advantage in overall stats, but for the win/loss of any given game (the stat that matters), both teams theoretically have an equal advantage. So should teams who have adjusted to hitting home runs at their tougher home fields have an advantage against the Yankees who only have to adjust for the shorter wall distance at home? There may be some advantage here, but it won't be in record which is really the only thing that matters.
However, if we are worried about slightly padded individual stats then we should petition to have the walls at Coors Field pushed back due to the its elevation advantage for hitters or to have the ball humidor installed at Chase Field to reduce the lively action of the dry ball there.
Lets live with it. Move on. It is a great well designed park
The stadium is beautiful. The Yankees are in the Bronx.
Summer has arrived.
PLAY BAL!!!
Actually, the yankees are at Fenway Park getting spanked.
I am huge fan but I want to see some form of regulations. Can some one put a 250ft right field wall? A hill in straight center at 435ft. is stupid. If the green monster was not historical I would also say that is stupid, but it atleast is has the concept of it has to be a high powerful homerun to clear the wall, but its a warning track fly turned into a hit machine. Some regulations need to be included, minimum distances not uniform regulations just guidelines.
There are minimums of 325 feet down the foul lines for any new stadium built however the old Yankee stadium dimensions were grand fathered in so the new stadium was able to retain the field dimensions of the old.
Except that it didn't!
So the purists get all upset over someone taking steroids and breaking records. But if the Yankees (or anyone else) go and put an outfield wall at 114 feet, no problem. After all both sides are playing the same field. Sure that's fair, except for the current record holders (which is what the purists are nuts about.) If you tried to change it to 2 balls and 7 strikes, the purists would go nuts, but if you build a ridiculous ballpark, no problem. The inconsistency is absurd.
I'm sure DipRod appreciates the new field, he'll probably pass 800.
Ridiculous ball park? Have you actually been there?
And we should have domes set at 72 degrees for every football so weather isnt a factor (Arizona couldnt play in the snow, some players never even seen it before last year), we should get rid of grass and clay in tennis, every golf course should be exactly the same, and lets do away with time zones, too. If anything people like runs more than great pitching preformances (sad, yes), guaranteeing fans they will see a home run at yankee stadium should help bring in the much needed revenue
Why do you think Bills fans relish the thought of the Dolphins coming to Buffalo late in the season, every year. Bills fans (and I'm not even a football fan) refer to that game as "squish the fish".
Excellent point. Yankee haters need to STFU about dimensions. There's a good chance that these haters are Sawx fans, and your park is the worst abomination of distorted dimensions in baseball.
Waaaahhh.... it's historic... if it was so historic you wouldn't have put those ridiculous seats up on that wall. Give me a break. Pot calling the kettle black.
Differently shaped ballparks are one of the coolest things about baseball. I think the hill in center field at Minute Maid Park is awesome. It's different. Cookie cutter stadiums are boring, and if I were taking a trip to see all 30 stadiums but had to cut some out, the "standardized" type stadiums are the ones I would skip.
This article is a glowing example of irresponsible journalism. Sure, there's a slight difference in dimensions, but you're retarded if you don't think the orientation of the stadium was also part of the cause. The ball has never carried to right field this way. It is good for A-Rod, since his homers to left never need any help but an opposite field shot might need a little help from time to time. But I don't think this many people were outraged when the original Yankee Stadium was designed with Babe Ruth's hitting style in mind.
Again, Richman is right. The stadium and differences in playing conditions add a positive dimension of charm to all sports. Would Scott Norwood have missed that field goal from turf? Would Roger Maris have broken the record in Kansas City? Would Seve Ballesteros have recorded 13 birdies in one round if all golf courses were standardized? We'll never know, but having to speculate is good. Sports would be a little more boring if it weren't for freak occurences like midges at Jacobs Field or games with insane weather like the Ice Bowl and the Tuck Rule game.
Every baseball game is different, anyway. They're all at the mercy of the umpire's personal strike zone. You want to make part of the game uniform, here's the place to start. Players use different types of bats, different weights, different wood. How about trying to get all the players on the PGA tour to use the same golf clubs? Let's see what kind of corporate uproar that causes!
Red Sox fans have no room to talk. Too many homeruns have been wrapped around that ridiculous pole in the middle of right field. Nobody's talking about how far out that thing is. Oh yeah, that's right. It isn't marked.
Like that is a new thing Richman-007 the bull pens at Fenway park were put in to help Ted Williams with the excuse that the bull pens were needed to protect the pitchers warming up. Loks to me they still have to keep a heads up there. After being at the new stadium for a lot of games this year I did notice something else. The front gate gate 4 is right behind home plate. Maybe a litle to the left. The old stadium had the stadium store there and a wall around the back of the stands. The new stadium is wide open and there is a large hallway behind home plate out to gate 4.
You are all stupid, people who say that stadiums should all be the same are retarded. Thats like saying that all golf courses should be the same dimensions. It architecture, its a part of the game. Each city is unique in its own way just like a building.
bballboy, I'd vote this up but for the first sentence. Class up, man.
Another point - fences can be moved from season to season. When the Cleveland Indians were in the old stadium, I remember center field being moved from 400 to 405 feet. Hitting was weak that year, so I think the rationale was: if we can't hit home runs, we'll make sure nobody can. Can't remember how that worked out for them, tho since it was the 80s, I think it was one more pathetic season in a pathetic decade.
Waaahhhhh.waaaahhhhh.......its not fair....everyone should be the same...waaaahhhh, freaking waaahhhhh......in what alternate universe did some of you grow up. Fair? what the heck is that? everyone, everything, everywhere is different.....maybe we should all drive white cars, genetically engineer all of us so we are the same color, same eyes, same hair, make everyone live in the same size home, and eat the same thing for dinner, tear down every city in the world and rebuild them all to look the same, cause its not fair, ......it goes on and on, and on.......I'm sick an tired of people whining about fair or not.....give up already.....people are different, ballparks are different, everything is different, thats what makes life interesting-you never know whats gonna happen.....its the sometimes not so subtle differences and the way we as a species adapt and grow, that makes us use our brains, which a lot of people here are obviously not doing.
Who said anything about "fair"?
It's about artificially inflating home run totals. In a particular game, both teams have an equal advantage - it IS "fair."
But when A-Rod hits #763 we'll all be wondering whether Da Junior Bosses helped him with that, and that isn't any more good for the game than steroid speculation is.
Or maybe you're fine with steroids. Sounds like you might be.
And McCovey Cove was't added in with Bonds in mind?
If Mother Nature is a Bonds fan, sure. But if she is, careful what you say about him...
Plus, you do know that right-center at AT&T Park is 421 feet, right? And that Barry Bonds is a lefty...
Hey Spankee FANS 8-0 and 3 sweeps......Good season for you guys huh? We beat C.C., Burnett, and tow the hell out of ming-wang, maybe sports writers should bitch about spending a billion dollars on a staduim, a billion on tex, cc, and burnett, and arod juicing. maybe they can find out why "THE DYNASTY", sucks!!!! Maybe you guys should spend a billion bucks on something like buying off refs, mugging the opposing teams, or just plain beating them into submission. I mean hey you guys are already in stripes, and breaking all kinds of rules. Why the hell not. Wait you already do that.....burnett throwing at folks head, robbing Iwamura of his season by taking him out at 2nd, and Aroid(nuff said). Just face it no matter what the build the staduim out of yankee fans still have nothing in their PRESENT to be proud of. so lets set back and watch Boston take the season series yet again. In the words of the SOXNATION to aroid.....YOU DO STERIODS, YOU DO STERIODS....LMFAO