4 games into the season and the Yankees’ new $1.5 billion dream house has a fatal flaw. The 20 dingers hit in the stadium’s first 4 games are by far the most ever in any new ballpark’s first 4 games. Including 2 preseason games, 27 homers have been hit in 6 games at the new park. Even after a series of wind tests, team officials are clueless as to why longballs are leaving the yard at a steroid-esque rate of 4.5 home runs per game. If that pace keeps up throughout the regular season, 365 home runs will be hit, as compared with 160 home runs hit last year at the old Yankee Stadium. Is the Steroid Era giving way to the Wind Tunnel Era?
Meteorologists at AccuWeather may have solved the mystery of the disappearing longball. On Monday, Gina Cherundolo released this report on AccuWeather.com:
“The old Yankee Stadium had more stacked tiers and a large upper deck, acting like a solid wall in effect, which would cause the wind to swirl more and be less concentrated. The new Yankee Stadium’s tiers are less stacked, making a less sharp slope from the top of the stadium to the field. 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 the wind direction, would tend to cause air to lift up in the right field. Fly balls going into right field during a gusty west wind would be given more of a lift, thus carrying the ball further out to right field.”
If this theory is correct, Gina goes on to say that only games played during westerly winds above 10mph will be affected, and that these conditions only occur during the spring and middle-to-late fall.
Baseball fans will just have to wait and see if the summer’s calmer weather leads to fewer Yankee Stadium home runs. Either way, Yankee officials have some serious redecorating to do next winter. According to league rules, the team would not be allowed to make any changes to the stadium until the season is over.
Hey, $1.5 billion can’t buy everything.
