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 There's something in the air at Coors
Posted: Tuesday July 07, 1998 08:22 AM
By Irv Moss The theories on the effects of Denver's mile-high elevation on baseball games are almost as plentiful as the home runs that zoom out of Coors Field. Just when the 10 percent theory had become an unofficial consensus, three professors at the University of Colorado at Denver are contending something very different.
They say the ball travels 6.5 percent farther, and for reasons in addition to elevation. "Low air density is the reason the ball flies farther in Denver,'' said Brian Page of the University of Colorado at Denver. "According to the flyball data that we compiled, the ball doesn't fly 10 percent farther.'' Page and Frederick Chambers conducted their study for UCD's geography department with Clyde Zaidins of the physics department. The original consensus grew from studies conducted by Robert Adair at Yale University. Adair contended in the book Physics of Baseball that a baseball will travel 10 percent farther in Denver than at sea level. His example was that a Dave Winfield homer of 400 feet in New York would travel 440 in Denver. The UCD trio conducted their study in two parts. First, data was gathered on average home-run distances and average fence distances in the 14 National League parks from 1995-97. An elaborate weather-testing system also was set up in Coors Field for the 1997 season. "We tried to find out exactly how we could relate flyball distances in terms of weather variables,'' Chambers said. Temperature, humidity, wind and barometric pressure were considered. Their findings suggest that the true elevation advantage in Denver is really 6.5 percent when using the average distance of flyballs and factoring in the average elevation. They claim that the three-year average distance of a flyball in Coors Field is 303.7 feet. When factoring in the average fence distances, the advantage is reduced to 2.8 percent. According to their studies, Coors Field has the largest outfield expanse in the N.L. The average fence distance in Coors is 375.4 feet. Pro Player Stadium, where the Florida Marlins play, is second at 369.8 feet. 3Com Park in San Francisco has the smallest average distance at 358.6 feet. Mark McGwire aims at fences at Busch Stadium in St. Louis that average 361.8 feet and Sammy Sosa aims at fences in Chicago's Wrigley Field that average 368.8 feet from home plate. Chambers said that the only weather factor that had any bearing was vertical wind. "We found that a downdraft into the park was responsible for cutting down the distances of flyballs,'' he said. "We don't know if downdrafts are peculiar to just Coors, and we don't know what causes them when they appear.'' According to Stats Inc., Coors Field has yielded 856 home runs in 548 games since the start of the 1995 season. No other park is within 100 of that total. Wrigley Field in Chicago is the closest N.L. rival with 639, or 2.27 a game. Coors Field has given up 3.12 per game. While the ball carries here, part of the reason for the high home-run numbers is that hitters see better pitches. That's because another byproduct of thinner air is less break on breaking balls. That can strike fear into the hearts of pitchers trying to throw their best stuff. "It's not scary . . . it sucks,'' Greg Maddux, baseball's stingiest pitcher, said of pitching in Coors Field. Denver's 5,280-foot elevation is roughly five times higher than the nearest N.L. elevations in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Phoenix. Baltimore's Camden Yards was the most prolific home-run park for an outdoor stadium in the American League. A total of 714 homers have been hit there since 1995, a total of 556 games. It should be noted that designated hitters are used in the A.L. With McGwire, Atlanta's Andres Galarraga and all the other big league thumpers due here for today's Home Run Derby and Tuesday's All-Star Game, some distances in Coors Field are worth noting. Best estimates indicate that a drive of 617 feet is required to reach the top row in the Rockpile Section. If a hitter was to hit a line drive to the top of the scoreboard in left field, it would travel 574 feet before it hit the ground. Copyright 1998 The Denver Post
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