Here's why it pays to have a girlfriend who enjoys baseball.* I can't think of everything, as much as I'd like to pretend. We were talking about the excessive amount of home runs that pop into the new Yankee Stadium seats, specifically into the right-field stands.
(* - Of all the standards one should have, it may sound shallow, but a girl has to enjoy going to a baseball game. They don't need to watch it on TV, or even remember any of the players' names. I can handle that part. Going to baseball games should really be part of the American citizenship test. Liking it should be an automatic exemption.)
She came up with a great idea. "Why don't they just build a wall in right field?"
Well, hell, why not? Fenway Park has one. Their left field wall's only 310 feet from home plate, so that thirtysomething-foot wall equalizes the place from featuring 11-10 games every night.
And they're by no means a home run-friendly park. Eight home runs in Boston have traveled less than 370 feet. A couple of those landed near perhaps the most intimate home plate-foul pole combo in baseball, Pesky's Pole. The rest were skyrocketed over the Green Monster, very close to the left field foul pole.
The New Yankee Stadium, by comparison, has seen 22 home runs clear the walls but go less than 370 feet. All but three of those were in right field. With 23 games already in Yankee Stadium, eliminating those home runs would practically decrease the homers-per-game by one whole blast. (You're good at math.)
So what kind of wall are we talking about? Would a 10-foot wall be enough? Probably not, since only nine of those 22 home runs cleared the fence by less than that much. A 20-foot wall would probably take care of another 11 home runs, which means about 20 homers would have been taken away.
Article comments
1 - Tony
Nice in theory but the short porch has always been there, going back to the "actual" original Yankee Stadium and this was never an issue.
The problem is the wind effects. The rightfield power alley is a wind tunnel and Mark Tiexiera hit a broken bat home run to left field.
2 - Andy
instead of a chain link, they could use plexiglass like Minnesota used in the Metrodome in left field up until a few years back.
3 - Ira
The equalizer in the original (1973 and earlier) Yankee Stadium was the 402-457-461-407 dimensions that spanned the outfield from L to R. New YS is a band box. Steinbrenner has no sense of Yankee tradition. AND its all about cry baby power (steroid?) hitters bellyaching that they cant hit home runs. That's what gives us places like the new YS, Philly, Cinci, Cleveland etc! I for one don't enjoy watching 340 foot pop ups sail out in the power alleys!
4 - James T.
My 13 y.o. daughter immediately suggested plexiglas. What's wrong with that idea?