Results tagged “homeruns”

The dimensions of the new Yankee Stadium may not appear as they seem. A new report on what a hitter's park they've landed in is suggesting that the abundance of homers might simply come down to closer fences and lower walls. With over a third of their home games in the books, the early prognosis of the new stadium as a homer haven has certainly remained true. Monday night's game marked already the tenth time this season (out of 29 played there) that five or more home runs were hit. If the current pace keeps up, the team is looking at 293 balls leaving the yard this season—just ten shy of the record in Colorado's Coors Field in 1999. It's also an 83 percent increase from last year's total of 160.

Four games into the Yankees' tenure at their new ballpark and already we're trying to crack the code of why there have been so many home runs. The 20 home runs in the Cleveland series this weekend were the highest number hit out of the first four games in any new ballpark. AccuWeather wonders if the different shape of the new stadium's shell could be generating a wind tunnel, specifically towards right field, where 14 of the 20 homers landed. While the dimensions of both parks are the same, the new stadium's tiers are less stacked, leading to the possibility of more circulation on a windy day. AccuWeather says, "This shape could enable winds to blow across the field with less restriction. In addition, the slope of the seating would also lead to a 'downslope' effect in the field which, depending on wind direction, would tend to cause air to lift up in the right field." Of course, before you run out and offer Grady Sizemore and Roy Holladay in a fantasy trade for Mark Teixeira, it could just be a fluke due to a limited sample size. But who would call into sports radio stations over that?