| Yankees Stadium a launchpad? |
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Written by Bjoern Hartig (Contact & Archive) on April 19, 2009
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ESPN's Buster Olney has noticed the many home runs that were hit in new Yankees Stadium. The New York Yankees might have a serious problem on their hands: Beautiful new Yankee Stadium appears to be a veritable wind tunnel that is rocketing balls over the fences. This was in evidence again on Saturday, when the Indians posted six homers, including 14 runs in the second inning. Cleveland eventually won 22-4 -- and the Yankees and Indians have combined for 14 homers in the last two days. "With the way the wind has been the last couple of days, right field is a joke," one official said. "I would say at least three or four home runs in this series would be routine outs in nearly every park." There have been five games played in new Yankee Stadium, including two exhibitions against the Chicago Cubs, and so far there have been 25 homers -- including 17 in the first three games in the Yankees' first home series against the Indians. That's an average of five home runs per game and, at this pace, there would be about 400 homers hit in the park this year -- or an increase of about 250 percent. In the last year of old Yankee Stadium, in 2008, there were a total of 160 homers. ... already there have been a number of fly balls that seemed to be routine outs, before almost leaping out of the park. Mark Teixeira lifted a pop to right field off the end of his bat in the first inning Saturday, and players on both teams appeared to be completely surprised when it carried over the wall. Even if the Yankees wanted to make an adjustment, there is nothing they could do structurally to alter the park this season. They would have to petition for a change going into the next offseason, before doing any reconstruction. ... First, bonus points to Olney for naming his article "New Yankee Stadium on steroids?", good stuff. Second, considering the pitchers that gave up multiple homers so far (Wang, Marte, Claggett, Ramirez, Carmona, Reyes), the effect - if any - is probably not nearly as dramatic as it appears right now. Then again, A.J. Burnett also gave up two homers today. |
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