Last week's print column pondered the playing characteristics of Target Field and warned against jumping to conclusions.
A fresh case in point: The Associated Press on Saturday moved an article on Yankee Stadium, which has already had more homerless games this year than all of last season.
Or you can take the Dick Bremer analysis. Bremer on Saturday opined that Target Field looks like a much better home run park in the day than at night.
Let's see ... The Twins have played one official night game at home so far. There's been a lot of talk about the gaps playing long at Target Field — both Mike Cameron and David Ortiz hit balls that they thought "should" have gone out —and those came in day games.
Yeah, Rick Ankiel (above) hit two homers Saturday. So far, I've noticed one cheap-looking homer at the new park — a Michael Cuddyer flyball down the left field line that just got over the fence. I've seen a lot more drives to the power alleys that died before reaching the wall.
But Bremer sees a four-homer day game and decides the park is homer-friendly in the daytime.
Maybe it will work out that way over time. We don't really know yet.
And Bremer shouldn't pretend that we do. He certainly ought to know that almost all that we've seen of Target Field — including the Cameron and Ortiz drives that died—has come in the daytime.
You here the theory that the ball travels better during the day at pretty much every ballpark and yet the HR rates in the NL (which has no domes) last year were virtually identical for day and night games. There were .95 homers per day game last year and .96 homers per night game.
ReplyDelete