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After watching the Tigers belt eight HRs on the second, third, and fourth, the Browns use the off day to erect a screen in front of the RF pavilion. The screen stretches 156 feet from the foul pole toward CF, 310 feet down the line from home. In the next day's game, Heinie Manush will hit three balls off the screen against the Yankees' Waite Hoyt, while Ruth will hit two off it in the series. This screen will remain in place into the 1940s, the only stadium with extended OF seating where it is impossible to catch a HR ball.
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Bunch of cheapskates!!!! Why not save the money from the screen and invest in better pitching?!?! -
Originally posted by JACKIE42
Can you imagine how many HRs that mustve cost The Babe and others over the years?? That might have cost Ruth 20-25 career HRs!! Maybe 30 [or more!] for Gehrig! You figure Ruth played 50+ more games in Sportman's Park before going to the Braves,that might even be a conservative number....not TOO outlandish to think that he might have hit 30 HRs out to that area...especially considering the sorry state of Browns pitching ...Gehrig probably played another 100 games there over the next nine seasons.....wasn't Sportsman's Park Ruth's favorite park on the road? I have never seen his home runs broken down by ballpark...and lets not even get into Jimmie Foxx...Comment
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Maybe, I'm misinterpreting the original post, but I think the balls hit into the screen still counted as homeruns, it's just that they couldn't be caught by the fans. Am I misinterpreting that?Originally posted by sultanofswat3Comment
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Originally posted by sultanofswat3
All-time HR Leaders at Sportsman's Park-Visitors:
Babe Ruth 58
Lou Gehrig 52
Joe DiMaggio 45
Jimmie Foxx 44
Eddie Mathews 41Comment
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Are you sure the screen came down in the '40s?
I grew up in St. Louis. Went to my first game at Sportsman's Park in 1956. It was called Busch Stadium by then.
There was a screen covering the entire seating area that extended from the right field foul pole at least 150 feet into the power alley in right center field. The seats were benches just like the ones in the uncovered left field bleachers. The right field seats had an awning that covered the fans; so that part of the park was called the "Pavilion." A homerun to right field required batters to hit the ball out of the Park - literally. Balls hit into the screen usually resulted in doubles. If a ball was hit hard enough, the batter sometimes would be held to a single.
The screen remained there until they tore the stadium down after the Cardinals moved into the new stadium part way into the 1966 season.
I had always wondered when the Browns had put up the screen. I knew it had not been up in 1927 because Ruth was known to have hit a number of his homers into the short "porch" in right field. (I believe it was 310 - 315 feet down the right field line. 330 - 340 feet to left field.) It made sense that the Browns would put up a screen there. They were never a strong team after 1922 (narrowly losing the penant to the Yankees) except for 1944 when they lucked into the AL penant because their players weren't fit enough or were to old to fight in WW2 and the good players from the other teams were.
I've always wondered how many balls that Stan Musial hit into that screen during his more than 20 years playing in that park, starting in late 1941. He hit over 600 doubles in his career. He had 475 homeruns in his career. If you assume one half of the doubles he hit were in Busch Stadium (he had 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 hits on the road during his career) and one half of those were hit into the screen for doubles (he was a left handed line drive, in the gap hitter with good speed) that would have meant 150 additional homers for Musial over his career. He'd be the fourth most prolific homerun hitter ever with 615 total.
Anyway, I'd be surprised if the screen came down in the '40s. The Browns were just as bad as they had been in 1929. The screen helped them a lot more than their opponents.Last edited by smeister; 09-06-2006, 06:36 PM.Comment
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Musial had 725 doubles IIRC.
It is plausible to think that close to half of his doubles were at home, but is not correct to assume that half of those were hit off the screen. Perhaps not even 25% were, but he certainly ripped many balls deep to right and right center. One of his home runs hit off the clock in right center, above the roof, and to the CENTER field side of the screen. A monster shot.
I do think that he would have increased his HR total by at least 25, probably close to 50 or so.....which is all he needed to reach the magical 500 HR's. If this had happened, there is no doubt that Musial would be less forgotten than he is today...."Herman Franks to Sal Yvars to Bobby Thomson. Ralph Branca to Bobby Thomson to Helen Rita... cue Russ Hodges."Comment
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Eddie Stanky had the screen taken down for the '55 season. The Cardinals hit 28 home runs into that part of the pavilion (that is, balls that would have hit the screen, if there was one, staying in play), and opponents hit 24. Musial had seven of those home runs, which in the statistical record helps to mask the first signs of a post-peak decline. He also said in his autobiography that pitchers made a bigger effort that year to keep him from pulling the ball.
With Stanky out as manager and Frank Lane in as the general manager, the screen was reinstalled for the 1956 season. Even though the Cardinals had gained a few more homers than the opposition in '55, the feeling was that the easier home-run target was working against the team's young pitchers.
The screen did indeed remain up through the rest of the stadium years, right up to the final game in May '66. I sat in the pavilion for a couple of games in the last week of the '64 season, as the Cardinals defeated the Phillies and overtook them for the pennant. Saw a handful of other games in the '60s from that location as well.
And to answer The Commissioner, no, balls that hit the screen remained in play. To hit a home-run, the batter had to hit the ball at least onto the roof of the pavilion (or into the pavilion in deepest right-center; the screen did not run the full length of the pavilion, just across the lefty-dead-pull portion). A long home run would clear the roof and the low fence at the back of the roof and sail onto Grand Avenue, much as a long home run at SBC today will clear the seating area and land in the water, or clear the bleachers at Wrigley and land on whatever street it is (Sheffield or Waveland?)Comment
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