encyclopediabrownRob Neyer should wear a detective hat and charge $.25 to solve mysteries now that he’s solved The Case of the Multitude of Home Runs!  That’s right, the boy detective is on the case and he’s not going to stop until he cracks the case wide open.  Did you know that penguins don’t live in the Arctic?  And that there are only 30 days in the month of June?  Well there’s also something fishy about the New Yankee Stadium that is stuck in his craw.  You see, just because the dimensions look the same it doesn’t make it so.

The meteorology company said Tuesday that 20 of the 105 home runs hit at the $1.5 billion ballpark would not have gone out of the old Yankee Stadium.

“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,” AccuWeather meteorologist Tim Buckley said in a statement Tuesday. “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.”

First of all, is AccuWeather doing the study because weathermen are all frauds?  Was AccuWeather presented with the task of determining whether there was a wind tunnel at Yankee Stadium and they went, “Shit man, there’s no way to tell.  Let’s change the story quick before they realize that predicting that it’s going to be hot in the summer and cold in the winter isn’t too hard.”

What did they discover?  Well it turns out that the Yankees designed themselves a ballpark that gives all the benefits of the steroid era without any of their players being allowed to use steroids anymore.*

“The wall structure is slightly different than the old park,” AccuWeather said. “The main difference involves curvature. The gentle curve from right field to center field seen in original Yankee Stadium has largely been eliminated at the new stadium. This is due in large part to the presence of a manual scoreboard embedded within the wall. Losing this curvature has resulted in a right field that is shorter by four-to-five feet on average, but up to nine feet in spots.

“Not only is the famed short porch even shorter in the new stadium, but the walls themselves are not as tall. In the old ballpark, the walls in right field stood at a height of approximately 10 feet. At this height, it was difficult for outfielders to scale the wall and attempt to rob a home run over the fence. Fast forward to 2009, and the outfielders have been scaling the wall without any trouble. The result? The new outfield fences only rise to a height of eight feet, adding to the ease hitting a home run to right.”

There’s no way this is accidental right?  There’s no way that their team of engineers didn’t see this coming?  Aren’t they paid to examine the domino effect that occurs when the slightest change is made to the design?

Here’s the layouts, side by side (sort of):

yankee_stadium_2004_dia

newyankeestadium

See, to the untrained eye, the numbers match perfectly but the other changes that were made allowed them to increase the chances for their left handed hitters to drive the ball out of the park with their pop flys to right field.

Were they trying to dupe us?  Did they think it could work?  Did they think no one would notice the influx of home runs in New York?  How many questions do you think I could ask in a single post?  100?

No matter the reason, the fact that there are almost twice as many home runs in this park so far (as compared to last year) is a joke.  They need to move the fences back (if that’s even possible) in order to make sure the Yankees aren’t the laughing stock of baseball.

*Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure most of the Yankees are still using steroids but they’ve probably found a new brand that is currently untraceable.  They’re so crafty in New York.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • email
  • Facebook
  • PDF
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon