EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S WINDY
THERE’S no crying in baseball, especially when it comes to wind-aided home runs. The Yankees, their fans, their pitchers and everybody else connected with the club had better accept as a fact of baseball life that the new Yankee Stadium has its own living, breathing Green Monster.
It’s not in left field, it’s in right field and it’s the Wind Monster that aids balls hit to right. If you build it, home runs will come.
There were 20 home runs hit the first four games at the new park, the most for any stadium for its first four games, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland did not pull any punches yesterday when asked how his pitchers will have to deal with the situation. “You have to make your pitches and you can’t worry about the wall, just like you can’t worry about the wall in Fenway,” Eiland told me.
“It’s not going to change. It’s there. It’s there forever. We’ve got to deal with it. Early indications show you are going to give up some cheapies, deal with it. You just have to execute your pitches and you have to use the big part of the ballpark. That was the same theory at the old stadium.
“We can’t worry about it, complain about it or cry about it. Get your mind right, execute your pitches, that’s all you can do.”
According to Accuweather.com, this Wind Monster could be caused by the fact the new stands are less vertically stacked, which could create a down-sloping flow to right. I’m no engineer, but I did my own aerodynamic research after last night’s Yankees-A’s game was washed away. I stood directly behind home plate on the 100 level and the wind was whipping in, but as I made my way to right field and the front row of Section 105, that wind was now in my face as I faced home plate.
Going up to the next level, Section 205, the wind was even stronger in my face, even though the flags in left pointed toward home. The flags over my head were blowing from center to right, yet the wind was in my face as I faced home plate.
Walking back toward the plate the wind blew even harder into my face once I passed the right-field foul pole. Somehow, with the configuration of the new stadium and perhaps with the much wider concourses, wind that was blowing toward home was funneling itself back out toward right, a pinstriped wind tunnel.
I went to left and stood in Sections 134 and then 234 and felt no wind on my face or my back.
Four games in April is a small sample, but it’s clear the wind is pushing toward right, even on this chilly day when the flags in the ballpark told a completely different story. More evidence of the wind blowing out to right, the down-sloping, is how foul balls that are hit toward the left-field stands are now blowing back onto the field of play, something the Yankees have noticed.
Essentially, hittable pitches that are up will get up into the Wind Monster. That’s what’s happening.
“Let’s wait a few months and see how it plays out,” said Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner.
There is nothing the Yankees can do about it now. Consider it Yankees weather. Unless you surrender 14 runs in the second inning, you are never out of a game. You can be sure Alex Rodriguez will love it when he returns. Pitch him away and he can go Wind Monster.
Yankees pitchers are going to have to deal with this new fact of life just as they have to deal with the Green Monster. Keep the ball down. Against right-handed hitters, they will have to pitch inside more. They can pitch away from lefties or bust them in, but they can’t let the ball drift over the middle of the plate.
The Yankees have to deal with their own monster now.
