BP - Hard Choices for Houston

[taxman]

If that short porch in LF is "315 ft.", then I'm Johnny Appleseed.

It doesn't even take a tape measurer to tell it's not that far.

Hello Johnny.

The distance was verified by several different Illuminati members, using advanced measuring tapes that are kept at the studio where the moon landing was filmed, under guard of The Second Shooter and Bigfoot.

[mikechamp]

Well, believe what you want, but when current players have commented that there's no way it's 315 ft., I'll take their word for it.

[jim]

I don't know how common it is today, but not telling the truth on the fence distance has been pretty common in baseball. I have no idea if it's 315, longer, or shorter, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's not 315. It wouldn't be the first time.

[ghostrunner]

Well, believe what you want, but when current players have commented that there's no way it's 315 ft., I'll take their word for it.

This isn't the most scientific way to go about this but, I got the aerial image from Google and played around with it a little. It appears to be very near 315 ft.

If you assume Houston's not cheating on the pitchers mound, and it's a regulation 60 ft.

315 divided by 60 = 5.25. So the distance from home to LF should be exactly 5.25 times the distance to the pitchers mound.

I took this image into a word processing program and drew a line straight from home plate down to the end of the left field line. The left field line came out to 2.48 inches in the program.

So, if you divide 2.48 by 5.25, you should get a line that will go directly from home plate to the pitchers mound. That number came out to .47, so I drew a line exactly that long and put one end at home plate. It looks pretty much correct.

It's plausible it might be off 5 ft or so, but even at 310 I think the point still stands that most balls traveling far and fast enough to go over a 19 ft wall 310 feet away could probably clear an 8 foot wall 20 feet further back.

Here's how it looked:

[Hungary Jack]

Well, believe what you want, but when current players have commented that there's no way it's 315 ft., I'll take their word for it.

This isn't the most scientific way to go about this but, I got the aerial image from Google and played around with it a little. It appears to be very near 315 ft.

If you assume Houston's not cheating on the pitchers mound, and it's a regulation 60 ft.

315 divided by 60 = 5.25. So the distance from home to LF should be exactly 5.25 times the distance to the pitchers mound.

I took this image into a word processing program and drew a line straight from home plate down to the end of the left field line. The left field line came out to 2.48 inches in the program.

So, if you divide 2.48 by 5.25, you should get a line that will go directly from home plate to the pitchers mound. That number came out to .47, so I drew a line exactly that long and put one end at home plate. It looks pretty much correct.

It's plausible it might be off 5 ft or so, but even at 310 I think the point still stands that most balls traveling far and fast enough to go over a 19 ft wall 310 feet away could probably clear an 8 foot wall 20 feet further back.

Here's how it looked:

Technically, you should have used 60.5 ft in determining your multiple (it comes out to 5.2066). This makes your leftfield line estimator about 1.3% longer. If your origninal estimate shows 310, then the revised estimate would show 314ft.

Maybe someday some baseball researcher will examine the number of homeruns hit into Crawford Boxes and determine using visual evidence how many of these balls would have stayed in a park with more conventional dimensions.

[Fan_In_NY]

Well, believe what you want, but when current players have commented that there's no way it's 315 ft., I'll take their word for it.

This isn't the most scientific way to go about this but, I got the aerial image from Google and played around with it a little. It appears to be very near 315 ft.

If you assume Houston's not cheating on the pitchers mound, and it's a regulation 60 ft.

315 divided by 60 = 5.25. So the distance from home to LF should be exactly 5.25 times the distance to the pitchers mound.

I took this image into a word processing program and drew a line straight from home plate down to the end of the left field line. The left field line came out to 2.48 inches in the program.

So, if you divide 2.48 by 5.25, you should get a line that will go directly from home plate to the pitchers mound. That number came out to .47, so I drew a line exactly that long and put one end at home plate. It looks pretty much correct.

It's plausible it might be off 5 ft or so, but even at 310 I think the point still stands that most balls traveling far and fast enough to go over a 19 ft wall 310 feet away could probably clear an 8 foot wall 20 feet further back.

Here's how it looked:

Technically, you should have used 60.5 ft in determining your multiple (it comes out to 5.2066). This makes your leftfield line estimator about 1.3% longer. If your origninal estimate shows 310, then the revised estimate would show 314ft.

Maybe someday some baseball researcher will examine the number of homeruns hit into Crawford Boxes and determine using visual evidence how many of these balls would have stayed in a park with more conventional dimensions.

I dont have an electronic version of The Hardball Times Annual for this season (I dont know if they make one), but I know I read an article particularly looking into the Biggio's performance at Minute Maid Park. Unfortunately I lent my Annual to a friend and can't write an accurate summary right now, but I am sure someone else who posts here has the Annual and will be kind to do a little summary.

[ghostrunner]

Technically, you should have used 60.5 ft in determining your multiple (it comes out to 5.2066). This makes your leftfield line estimator about 1.3% longer. If your origninal estimate shows 310, then the revised estimate would show 314ft.

Maybe someday some baseball researcher will examine the number of homeruns hit into Crawford Boxes and determine using visual evidence how many of these balls would have stayed in a park with more conventional dimensions.

Actually I started with 315. So if I multiply the line from home to the mound by 5.2 instead of 5.25, then the 315 line doesn't even reach the wall.

[GatewaySnayke]

The left field wall is 315 ft

Rumor has it that its not that far.

Rumor has it that Pujols is actually 5 years older.

Rumor has it that Jennifer Anniston is a pothead.

I don't place much credence in rumors.

Jennifer Aniston is/was a pothead. That ain't a rumor.

[New Pagodi]

Technically, you should have used 60.5 ft in determining your multiple (it comes out to 5.2066). This makes your leftfield line estimator about 1.3% longer. If your origninal estimate shows 310, then the revised estimate would show 314ft.

Maybe someday some baseball researcher will examine the number of homeruns hit into Crawford Boxes and determine using visual evidence how many of these balls would have stayed in a park with more conventional dimensions.

Actually I started with 315. So if I multiply the line from home to the mound by 5.2 instead of 5.25, then the 315 line doesn't even reach the wall.

If anyone is interested, I examined this as an algebra problem here. From the picture, I would estimate that the distance is between 310 and 320 feet. 315 is probably a good measurement.

[ghostrunner]

Technically, you should have used 60.5 ft in determining your multiple (it comes out to 5.2066). This makes your leftfield line estimator about 1.3% longer. If your origninal estimate shows 310, then the revised estimate would show 314ft.

Maybe someday some baseball researcher will examine the number of homeruns hit into Crawford Boxes and determine using visual evidence how many of these balls would have stayed in a park with more conventional dimensions.

Actually I started with 315. So if I multiply the line from home to the mound by 5.2 instead of 5.25, then the 315 line doesn't even reach the wall.

If anyone is interested, I examined this as an algebra problem here. From the picture, I would estimate that the distance is between 310 and 320 feet. 315 is probably a good measurement.

Cool. Sounds a bit more precise than my method.

I don't think you can take players' words on these kinds of things. They think they know, but they bring prejudices and good or bad experiences into their judgements. I seem to recall Edmonds saying Busch's CF measurements were off, so it'd be interesting to test that one too.