Re: [Phys-l] TV technology, the World Series and physics

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

It is not as simple as "one" distance or even two.   You have distance at the foul poles, left field, center field, right field, etc.  Plus intangibles such as the "green monster" in Fenway, the long dead center in some parks but short right and left field... hogh walls, low walls, etc.  a lot of things like that.  Certain enclosed stadiums are easier to hit hr's because no wind swirlling around,  while some stadiums have prevailing winds blowing in or blowing out which affect hr's.  Many things which tend to normalize out over 162 games.

On Oct 20, 2011, at 6:49 PM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

> I don't have the park stats in front of me, but I wonder what the
> differential is between the "smallest" and "largest" baseball parks in
> terms of distance from home plate to the outfield walls. I imagine it is
> "significant" enough to affect the long balls, which definitely alters
> game outcomes. Nobody can really change the weather or crowd control, but
> park size for baseball (as in nearly all other sports)  should be uniform.
>
> Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
> > very good comparison..  even football stadiums are different in weather
> > and wind conditions.  home crowds affect a game, even with hockey and
> > basketball even though all basketball courts are the same all over. 
> > making a baseball stadium the same as every other stadium wouldn't matter
> > with the home crowd and weather unless you enclose every stadium and play
> > before no crowd at all.
> >
> > On Oct 20, 2011, at 3:58 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote: