Quote:
Originally Posted by STL
Yeah, that short porch in Yankee stadium was such a bear to put the ball over. 285 foot in Left, 295 foot in Right. There are high school fields bigger than that.
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First, wireman noted that the short dimensions in Ruth's time were only directly down the lines; once you got away from those the park was quite spacious. According to
Green Cathedrals by Philip J. Lowry, the dimensions were:
Left Field: 255, 280.58 (1924); 301 (1928)
Left Field: left side of bullpen gate in short left field 395, 402 (1928); right side of bullpen gate 415 (1937)
Left Center: 474, 461 (1924); 451 (1937)
Deepest Left Center (left of dead center): 500, 490 (1924), 461 (1937)
Center Field left side of screen: 466 (1937)
Center Field: 487, 470 (1924), 449 (1937)
Left of Right Center: 423, 417 (1924), 407 (1937)
Right Center: 423, 417 (1924), 407 (1937)
Right Field: left side of bullpen gate 367 (1937); right side of bullpen gate 344 (1937)
Right Field: 255, 295 (1924), 296 (1930)
You can see overhead diagrams of the original Yankee Stadium at Clem's Baseball. Take a look at the park's shape in 1923 and 1928.
Then there's this from the preface of
Green Cathedrals:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Green Cathedrals by Phil Lowry
Second, ballpark geometry really matters when you analyze the game. Before 1931, fly balls down the foul lines were ruled fair or foul by where they landed rather than where they left the field of play. Bill Jenkinson's excellent forthcoming book "The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs" examines in detail the landing spots for every long ball hit by Babe Ruth, projecting that had he played in ballparks with 2006 dimensions, he would have had 104 homers in 1921 rather than just 59. Jenkinson also projects that had fly balls been judged to be homers based on where they left the playing field rather than where they landed, Ruth would have had 75 additional homers over his career, so Henry Aaron would have been chasing a Ruthian record of 789 rather than 714. Remember, Yankee Stadium's right field stands were simply 70 rows of wooden bleachers in Ruth's time, before the 1936-38 reconstruction of the upper decks, so when one of his long curving fly balls passed the foul pole way fair, it had another hundred feet or so of wide open bleachers in which to curve foul.
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