New Yankee Stadium construction

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by NYYfan09

I wish there was film of this. Imagine Rizzuto or Sterling calling this shot!!!

With Sterling you don't have to imagine it... he does the same home run call every time!!!!!

[Kentucky Bomber]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

With Sterling you don't have to imagine it... he does the same home run call every time!!!!!

Well, for that matter, so did Mel Allen, who I assume made the call that night. I have to assume since I turned that game off when it went into extra innings, because when you're 12 years old you have to go to school the next day. Mel did a recreation of the call some years later, but that, of course, was rehearsed.

[Jalper79]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

With Sterling you don't have to imagine it... he does the same home run call every time!!!!!

and you don't think Cohen does the same!

"and its outta here!"

Every broadcaster has their own signature call for HR's.

doesn't matter if its for the Yankees- "It is High, it is Far, ITS GONE!"

Or the White Sox- " You can put it on the Board, YES!"

[Urbanshocker13]

I remember the Bond's shot, It was a hell of a shot but I doubt that it would have hit the freeze of the old stadium. It was what every Yankee fan wanted when the Giants came to the Bronx, Bonds hit a moonshot and the Yanks won.

It was hit far up into the upper deck to the 2nd section, but from what I have seen from pictures from the old stadium it wouldn't have left. I remember seeing simular shots hit at the stadium. Canseco in his brief stint with the Yanks hit a HR that went far up the LF uper deck.

Where Bernie hit his shot in BP, is the only place I can think of where someone could hit a ball out of Yankee stadium. I guess we will see at the HomeRun Derby at the next All-Star game.

BTW, does everyone think A-Rod will be in the Derby next year? He could have last year, but said he didn't want the screw up his swing. You would think he would think he would jjust about have to next year because it being at Yankee stadium. But, lots of players don't like doing the Derby because it mess with their swing for the season.

[YankeeDean]

Greetings. I'm not a BOnds fan (my favorite among the suspect threesome of McGuire, Bonds and Sosa was Sosa) but based on the plans I have of the renovated stadium, which include cross-sections allowing you to see exactly how high the facade was, and given the fact that the new field is 5' lower than the original (to improve the lower level sight lines), Bond's "shot", which was much closer to the foul pole than Mantle's, would have definitely at least hit the facade.

It bears repeating that it is "only" 440' to the base of the end of the scoreboard in right, so that to clear the 75-80' "new facade" it would take a shot of about 490-500'. Because of its angle, the last 20-30' of scoreboard is in that range. reggie once hit one duing a game to the next to last row in right center, about 460' but someone should ask him if he ever hit the board in BP.

Also, all the books I have seen say that the longest home run during a regulation game at the Stadium was a Mickey Mantle shot to dead center at 502', but I agree that the Babe must have hit a few that when unrecorded (maybe he was taken for granted at under 600'!)

[Kentucky Bomber]

On the Josh Gibson HR: Like so much else about the Negro Leagues it is unverifiable and collquial. And no one claims it left the ballpark. What I've read is that the claimants say it crossed over the point of the roof in left and landed in the back of the old LF bullpen (the current storage area) or in the LF bleachers. When you consider that I never saw a ball hit into the upper deck in left and shots up there by Jimmie Foxx are the stuff of legend (though verified) I find it hard to believe that a ball could have crossed over the roof 402 ft from the plate and 120 feet up.

On the Frank Howard HR: I was watching the TV broadcast of that one. Howard crushed the ball down the LF line into a low hanging cloud on a rainy miserable night. It was hit so hard that it just disappeared. Many balls were hit out of the Stadium foul in those days and it was 302 down the line. That night everyone just looked at each other and shrugged and the game went on.

[monkeypants]

Originally Posted by Urbanshocker13

It was hit far up into the upper deck to the 2nd section, but from what I have seen from pictures from the old stadium it wouldn't have left.

I don't know if it would have gone out or not, but people should realize that it was easier to hit the ball out of the old stadium than it is now, at least if we are talking about the decks. They lowered the field eight feet when they renovated, so the upper deck was lower in the old days. They also added many rows to the back of the upper deck, so it extends higher now. Finally, the frieze/facade hung at the front of the upper deck, overhanging already cozy dimensions down the line (295') as are as the bullpen in RF (344'). Basically, a VERY high fly ball HR, which would now land in the middle of the upper deck, would have had a chance to land on the roof of the old stadium.

Hitting it into the bleachers, on the other hand, is now much easier since home plate has been moved forward several feet. The front of the black bleachers in CF is now about 420' to 430' away, not 461'.

[COLTS7]

Mantles top 10 longest hr's (some are estimations of how far the balls would have traveled). See link below for full story on each HR.

1. 734 ft. – 5/22/63, vs. Kansas City, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Bill Fischer

2. 660 ft. – 3/26/51, vs. USC, at Bovard Field, USC, Pitcher: Unknown

3. 650 ft. – 6/11/53, vs. Detroit, at Briggs Stadium, Pitcher: Art Houteman

4. 643 ft. – 9/10/60, vs. Detroit, at Tiger Stadium, Pitcher: Paul Foytack

5. 630 ft. – 9/13/53, vs. Detroit, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Billy Hoeft

6. 620 ft. – 5/30/56, vs. Washington, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Pedro Ramos

7. 565 ft. – 4/17/53, vs. Washington, at Griffith Stadium, Pitcher: Chuck Stobbs

8. 550 ft. – 6/05/55, vs. Chi. White Sox, at Comiskey Park, Pitcher: Billy Pierce

9. 535 ft. – 7/06/53, vs. Philadelphia A's, at Connie Mack Stadium, Pitcher: Frank Fanovich

10. 530 ft. – 4/24/53, vs. St. Louis Browns, at Busch Stadium, Pitcher: Bob Cain

http://www.themick.com/10homers.html

[The Monument]

Great stuff. A few comments. Thanks nyyfan09 for those renovation elevations. I'll get in touch with you about those.
As for the tape measure HR's. Obviously Whitey is a little confused, thinking that the old Stadium was much higher. I think he was protecting Mick's legacy.
I think Bond's HR would have landed on the old roof. I'm researching this and I'll let you guys know what my findings are.
I didn't realize that home plate has been moved out a few feet. That would explain why there is only a short distance between the current CF wall and the old wall, which was 461'-463'. This has been driving me crazy for the past few years as I've gone around the Stadium taking pix from everywhere, of everything. I was starting to think that 461' was a myth.

[monkeypants]

Originally Posted by COLTS7

Mantles top 10 longest hr's (some are estimations of how far the balls would have traveled). See link below for full story on each HR.

1. 734 ft. – 5/22/63, vs. Kansas City, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Bill Fischer

2. 660 ft. – 3/26/51, vs. USC, at Bovard Field, USC, Pitcher: Unknown

3. 650 ft. – 6/11/53, vs. Detroit, at Briggs Stadium, Pitcher: Art Houteman

4. 643 ft. – 9/10/60, vs. Detroit, at Tiger Stadium, Pitcher: Paul Foytack

5. 630 ft. – 9/13/53, vs. Detroit, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Billy Hoeft

6. 620 ft. – 5/30/56, vs. Washington, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Pedro Ramos

7. 565 ft. – 4/17/53, vs. Washington, at Griffith Stadium, Pitcher: Chuck Stobbs

8. 550 ft. – 6/05/55, vs. Chi. White Sox, at Comiskey Park, Pitcher: Billy Pierce

9. 535 ft. – 7/06/53, vs. Philadelphia A's, at Connie Mack Stadium, Pitcher: Frank Fanovich

10. 530 ft. – 4/24/53, vs. St. Louis Browns, at Busch Stadium, Pitcher: Bob Cain

http://www.themick.com/10homers.html

This list is famous, if a bit bogus. Many of the distances include not only how far the ball "would have travelled", but also the distance it rolled after hitting the ground. Still, no one would argue that the Mick didn't have some sweet power.

[monkeypants]

Originally Posted by The Monument

Great stuff. A few comments. Thanks nyyfan09 for those renovation elevations. I'll get in touch with you about those.
As for the tape measure HR's. Obviously Whitey is a little confused, thinking that the old Stadium was much higher. I think he was protecting Mick's legacy.
I think Bond's HR would have landed on the old roof. I'm researching this and I'll let you guys know what my findings are.
I didn't realize that home plate has been moved out a few feet. That would explain why there is only a short distance between the current CF wall and the old wall, which was 461'-463'. This has been driving me crazy for the past few years as I've gone around the Stadium taking pix from everywhere, of everything. I was starting to think that 461' was a myth.

They lowered the playing field and then extended the lower deck. Notice on old pictures how the middle and upper decks seem almost vertical, directly overhanging the lower deck. But now, the first bunch of rows ("field level") extend out well beyond the upper deck. This shoved home plate forward several feet. I think they also *slightly* changed the angle of the base paths, so that direct CF is aimed at a somewhat less distant point. When the stadium was first reopened in 1976, CF was 417', with the wall situated a few feet in front of the old CF bleachers. So the distance from home to CF bleachers appears to be around 425' or 430' or so, meaning that home is something like 30' closer to CF.

This also explains why RCF is "only" 385', when it was 407' in the old days even though the wall follows more or less the original path of the bleachers. The 20' or so difference is a combination of the inner wall being closer and home being pushed out relative to the RCF gap.

[Jpiarull]

Originally Posted by SultanOfWhat

Jpiarull, Bernie Williams actually hit a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium a few years ago during batting practice. But he had to sneak it between the right field upper deck and the large back wall of the RF bleachers, in a spot where the back wall of the Stadium is only about 20 feet high (at the end of the current alley where the old bullpen was in the Old YS). Bernie was batting LH, and his shot would had to have curved quite a bit to reach the spot where it left the Stadium.

Look at Google Earth for overhead shots of the existing YS. There's no way to humanly hit a fair ball out of the Stadium anywhere except for RF. "Bernie's slot" would have to be the spot. Otherwise, someone would have to either hit one over the upper deck down the RF line (harder today than in Mantle's time, as 10 rows were added to the upper deck during the renovation), or power one over the back wall in RF (I think Strawberry supposedly hit the back wall during BP, and Mo Vaughn may have, as well, but they were not close to topping the wall).

The new Yankee Stadium seems a slightly better bet for an "out of the Stadium" home run, as the distances to the back wall in LCF should be smaller (currently, these are over 500 feet), and the same sort of "slot" will exist in the new Stadium that Bernie reached, but now there will be two, once each between the center field wall and the tiers down each line.

If you are interested in Yankee Stadium and Yankee history, you should read Bill Jenkinson's "The Year Babe Ruth hit 104 Home Runs". Supposedly, Ruth cleared the 70-row bleachers in RF during BP thereby leaving the Stadium entirely, and hit 9 HRs of more than 500 feet in Yankee Stadium. Overall, Jenkinson estimates that Ruth hit 51 500-foot+ home runs during his career.

Since you are a engineering student, maybe you can answer one for me:

How much farther will a pitched ball travel than a self-hit ball, when both are struck with the same bat speed? Assume 80MPH bat speed, and an 80-MPH pitch incoming, to keep things simple.

ETA: YankeeDean, I read an article in one of the NY tabloids (correction: ESPN) the day after Bernie hit his BP shot out of the Stadium.

As to Bonds' shot, I'm not sure it would have reached the facade, but it would have been close. Jenkinson (who is the closest thing we have to a "tape-measure home run historian") estimates Bonds' shot off Ted Lilly at 460 feet (the Yankees estimated 385 at the time, which obviously was an "impact point" estimate, not a landing estimate).

ETA: Here is the text of the Bernie Williams article, from July 24, 2001:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2001/0724/1230253.html



Tuesday, July 24

Williams hits ball out of Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK -- It was a shot that will live in Yankees' lore for quite some time, and it came in batting practice.

The epic blast came Sunday off Bernie Williams' bat. The ball left Yankee Stadium, going through a gap near the subway tracks in right field.

"I didn't see it," Williams told The New York Post. "But I noticed that it never came back, so that should have been some indication it was out. Batting practice is a great relief and release of tension for me. I've had a lot of tension this year, so it's kind of like hitting a punching bag. I always try to hit the ball hard, but that's as hard as I've ever hit one. That's a long way."

It's a feat that no Yankee slugger had ever accomplished before -- not Babe Ruth, not Mickey Mantle, not Reggie Jackson.

According to The Post, there are disputes about Josh Gibson and Frank Howard home runs leaving the park, but neither has been confirmed.

"I know I never saw it happen," Whitey Ford said. "The best shots I ever saw were from (Mantle). He hit the one off the facade and a couple off the back of the bleachers, but no one ever hit it out, even in practice."

Yankee Stadium is configured differently now than it was during Ruth's and Mantle's days.

"It was much higher back then," Ford said. "But Bernie's must have been quite a shot. He's got great power. After they changed the stadium, though, I figured someone would eventually do it."

If this pic posts, you can see "Bernie's slot" just above the "HIP" ad in RF, where you can see the apartment building:

http://cephas.net/photos/nyc2002/DSCN0443.JPG

Here's an even better pic:

http://www.randyrants.com/images/bleachers.jpg

I am sure I can figure out the difference in distance a pitched batted ball being hit out versus a soft "toss" to oneself. I would think that the pitched baseball may travel farther, since this is going with Newtonian Physics stating with any action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Transfer of energy occurs between bat and ball occurs, spring-like action induces momentum on the ball and it goes. On the other hand, with a toss, the player supplies all energy without any previous momentum in the x and z axes, so I tend to think on a hunch without using calculus and analytical physics that the pitched ball will go farther. However guys, correct me if I am wrong, please, precision matters in my field. I will collaborate with my colleagues and teaching assistants, and a professor on that topic and we more than likely will be able to come up with a reasonable and realistic conclusion on that matter.

[Jpiarull]

Back to my post as well, it also depends more on how the players actually swings his baseball bat versus pure bat speed and strength alone. For one, with the biomechanics behind a major league swing, in order to produce enough torque to generate enough kinetic energy, the centripital and centrifugal forces in which the player displaces into the baseball as energy, his swing has to be almost perfectly level, with a minute up-angle motion to produce a home run swing. Also, the player can not "cut off his swing" when doing this (meaning he can not try to treat it like chopping down an oak tree like Gary Sheffield), he would have to maintain a full, fluid-motion swing with the whip-it-like action swing. In layman's terms, think about Alex Rodriguez's long swing with how he uses his shoulders, forearms, hips, legs, knees, and calves to produce his swing. When he does that, it is not only low torque(less stress on his lower-back), he also generates more energy, even though it is spaced out over a longer period of time (by practically a nano or microsecond, which I believe equates to about 1 times 10 raised to the minus 9 or 12 if I am not mistaken). Anyway, when A-Rod swings his bat, he also produces a maximum effort of centrifugal force outwards which allows more energy to hit the ball with more authority (which is why many batting instructors tell you to slow the swing down, try not to swing like you are trying to hit it 500 feet). When this happens, long, long home runs are not uncommon, albeit with the bat slightly top heavy. Now, the only player I would think on the top of my head who would fit the criteria on the left side is Ken Griffey Junior. If he makes it to the home run derby, I believe he would have a decent shot. Players like Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield do not hit their home runs hurculean distances because with their mostly shoulder and back swings, they pull off the ball and waste much of their effort, due to displacement of centrifugal forces (to better understand this, take a stick, add light weight on both ends of it and try to twist it with your wrist, do the same thing again, only this time move the weight closer to the center, that physics principle applys here with the swing.) So guys, it not only about pure strength, its having the perfect fluid swing. I haven't taken fluid mechanics and Orbital Mechanics, but I can make an educated hypothesis that, yes it is plausible to hit it out of Yankee Stadium, but unlikely. Again, I can be wrong, even with my crazy idea of the event occurring, it just seems too unrealistic with all the factors and odds working against oneself.

[COLTS7]

Granted all this talk is way off point about the stadium construction, I’ll just add this; I have never seen anyone hit the ball harder or for greater distances than Mickey Mantle, you had to see him in his prime to truly appreciate just how great a power hitter he was. As a switch hitter he lost many Hr’s playing in the old Yankee stadium. When Mantle was on and healthy he was a God, he was a real life Roy Hobbs. I was lucky to have seen him play.

[stejay]

Ill miss the old Yankee stadium. So many memories. The world series watched there, hr derbies, other events. I will miss the place.

[Yankeefan90]

Originally Posted by Jpiarull

Back to my post as well, it also depends more on how the players actually swings his baseball bat versus pure bat speed and strength alone. For one, with the biomechanics behind a major league swing, in order to produce enough torque to generate enough kinetic energy, the centripital and centrifugal forces in which the player displaces into the baseball as energy, his swing has to be almost perfectly level, with a minute up-angle motion to produce a home run swing. Also, the player can not "cut off his swing" when doing this (meaning he can not try to treat it like chopping down an oak tree like Gary Sheffield), he would have to maintain a full, fluid-motion swing with the whip-it-like action swing. In layman's terms, think about Alex Rodriguez's long swing with how he uses his shoulders, forearms, hips, legs, knees, and calves to produce his swing. When he does that, it is not only low torque(less stress on his lower-back), he also generates more energy, even though it is spaced out over a longer period of time (by practically a nano or microsecond, which I believe equates to about 1 times 10 raised to the minus 9 or 12 if I am not mistaken). Anyway, when A-Rod swings his bat, he also produces a maximum effort of centrifugal force outwards which allows more energy to hit the ball with more authority (which is why many batting instructors tell you to slow the swing down, try not to swing like you are trying to hit it 500 feet). When this happens, long, long home runs are not uncommon, albeit with the bat slightly top heavy. Now, the only player I would think on the top of my head who would fit the criteria on the left side is Ken Griffey Junior. If he makes it to the home run derby, I believe he would have a decent shot. Players like Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield do not hit their home runs hurculean distances because with their mostly shoulder and back swings, they pull off the ball and waste much of their effort, due to displacement of centrifugal forces (to better understand this, take a stick, add light weight on both ends of it and try to twist it with your wrist, do the same thing again, only this time move the weight closer to the center, that physics principle applys here with the swing.) So guys, it not only about pure strength, its having the perfect fluid swing. I haven't taken fluid mechanics and Orbital Mechanics, but I can make an educated hypothesis that, yes it is plausible to hit it out of Yankee Stadium, but unlikely. Again, I can be wrong, even with my crazy idea of the event occurring, it just seems too unrealistic with all the factors and odds working against oneself.

Yea I have no idea what you wrote. All this physics and stuff, it's hurting my head lol.
Anyway, this really shouldn't be in a ballpark forum, and especially it shouldn't be in the new yankee stadium construction thread.

[Yankeefan90]

Hey I have a question, can someone change the seat color to like light green in the new Stadiums rendering? You know to see if the green would go better than the blue. Although I like the shade of blue they're using in the new stadium, but I want to see if it'll look more like the old Stadium.

[alpineinc]

Green instead of blue.

07Yankee8a.jpg

[Jalper79]

The blue still looks better, but the green isn't terrible

[NYBase]

Originally Posted by alpineinc

Green instead of blue.

Attachment 34478

No way! Gotta have that Yankee blue

[Yankeefan90]

Yea, I don't like it as much as I thought I would. The blue is much better. Yankee Stadium hasn't really had that greenish turqouise color in over 40 years, why change it back now. And straight green doesn't really look right. I like the Yankee blue clor they have planned now.

[jimmyjimjimz]

Originally Posted by alpineinc

Green instead of blue.

Attachment 34478

the green looks horrible in my opinion

[YankeeDean]

Thank you SparkyL for the seating spreadsheet and to others who posted blueprints. They are priceless. I guess I was wrong that they added some rows to the mezzanine. 53,000 capacity with standees, less than 51,000 permanent seats. That's too bad. Thank God its still above 50,000. each of us will have to pump up the volume to give the Yankees the noise they are used to.

Looking at the structure, what I call the "V" columns that hold up the back of the upper deck should be able to support about 5 rows extra rows of cantilevered seats if (the current stadium's upper deck has 8 rows cantilevered out). I look forward to hearing from the engineers about that. At about 800 seats per row, that would add about 4,000 seats, bringing the total to the 57,000 we are used to.

I agree with fans that wish the lights were separate from the facade, which is really the only thing that makes the new park feel like Yankee Stadium. Our engineer friends tell us they can't put them higher up on the roof, but you could put them on towers rising from pillars behind the new upper deck. If future economics moves the Yanks to build out the upper deck, they could decide at that time to put the lights behind the rebuilt roof. It looks like a small roof anyway, only about 30' deep.

[NYYfan09]

I'm in my late 30's, so to me Yankee Stadium is Blue.

Would look like almost every other stadium in green.

[alpineinc]

Turquoise.

07Yankeeturq.jpg