You don’t need an industrial engineering degree like the one Joe Girardi got from Northwestern to know something funny is going on at the Yankees’ swanky new stadium. But if your livelihood depends on winning games there, as his does, it certainly can’t hurt.
No sooner did the $1.5-billion baseball emporium open its doors last week than baseballs began flying out at a record pace. There were 20 by the time the four-game series against the visiting Indians ended Sunday with a split, the most ever during an opening homestand at a new park.
“It seems to be playing somewhat short. You don’t see this many home runs usually,” the Yankees manager said a day earlier, after watching his team lose the long-ball battle 6-2 and the game 22-4. “It’s too early to tell, but the early indications are the balls are carrying to right field.”
No kidding.
with Cleveland outfielder Trevor Crowe’s leaping stab at the ball. Even stranger might have been Girardi musing afterward that if the wind was gusting as strongly as the previous few days, a replay would have been unnecessary.
“The ball would have landed another six, maybe eight rows up,” he said.
It shouldn’t come as a shock that the wind would blow hard through any house that George Steinbrenner and family built. Exactly how hard, though, appears to have caught just about everybody by surprise.
Former Yankees star and current Cubs manager Lou Piniella brought his team to New York at the beginning of the month for two exhibition games and left grumbling about a “wind tunnel” after the home team hit seven homers and easily won both. Turns out he might have been on to something.
Architects sited the new stadium so some well-heeled fans could take the ferry across the Harlem River to get to the game. They also left the concourses open so that fans on their way to and from the pricey concession stands could follow the action. Unlike the old park, when a stiff breeze comes off the river on the third base side and blows out toward right, it meets little resistance.
Just before Sunday’s game, Cleveland manager Eric Wedge finished his own unscientific experiment confirming the same thing. Sitting in the visitor’s dugout along the third base side, he stuck up an arm and pointed behind him.
I think there’s something happening behind here,” he concluded.
It’s too early to say for sure. For one thing, New York’s lineup packed plenty of power even before adding Mark Texeira’s potent bat, and three of the Yankee blasts against the Cubs came off left-hander Ted Lilly, who gives up more home runs per nine innings pitched, on average, than any active starter.
For another, the Indians aren’t strangers to scoring in bunches, either. And Cleveland’s 14-run explosion in the second inning Saturday began against struggling starter Chien-Ming Wang and continued against just-called-up reliever Anthony Claggett, who was promptly optioned to Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre the next day.
Besides, it was a cool, windy couple of days in the Big Apple.
But either way, this much is certain: What would have made an interesting case study back when Girardi was finishing up his bachelor of science degree in 1986 could wind up costing him his job.
While the Yankees may be able to hold their own in a Home Run Derby most days, the organization’s blueprint has always stressed pitching. That’s why general manager Brian Cashman paid top dollar to lock up CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett for a combined dozen years, and bring Andy Pettitte back for one.
ting on to keep the staff strong for years to come. Plus, teams that play in stadiums that have become launching pads for homers – think Rockies, Rangers, Reds, Phillies or Astros – have had a tough time convincing free-agent pitchers to relocate there.
Pity the poor Yankees. Patience is always at a premium and it’s not like they haven’t spent plenty on the new ballpark already. A year ago, after receiving an anonymous tip that a construction worker from the Bronx – who happened to be a Red Sox fan – had buried a David Ortiz jersey in concrete near the clubhouse, the club spared no expense to get it out. Workers wound up jackhammering through two feet of the stuff to get it out.
But the time and effort that required could pale alongside getting rid of this latest curse. It’s not just engineers who know how hard it is to try and catch the wind.
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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org
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