Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-05
GROUNDS THAT WIN FOR
THE HOME TEAM
BY HuaH S. FULLERTON.

BY HUGH s. FULLERTON
Fans who follow base ball day In and
day out neglect one feature OF the game
which is vital. They never take into con-
sheraton the fact that In most cases the
home team has 30 per cent advantage
OF the visitors. They understand, in gem
eTai way, that almost ali teams win a ma
jority of their games on the home grounds.
They blame the umpire. the psychological
influence of the home crowd and every
thing else except the physical condition of
the grounds themselves II is true that
eight out OF ten umpres are "homers," ana
that the influence of the home crowd counts
much against the visitors. but the main rea-
son that home teams win Is that they are
familiar with conditions on the grounds
In my experience l have found but two
fair grounds-that is. grounds where the
nome team had as much chance as the Wis
ltors ana no more. They were the old
Eastern Park grounds In Brooklyn and the
West Side grounds in Chicago.
Chicago. VIGOROUSLY. is fair. and nom
partisan. 1t appreciates q good play of the
opposing team. and appiauds that play.
The boiSterous. unreasoning. senseless par
tIsanship of Louisville. Baltimore, New
YORK and other towns is missing. In the
Old Brooklyn days conditions were much
the same The crowd came to see base
ball. and 1t made little difference which
team made good play
But physically the grounds were as fair
ior the visitors as for the home team and
the West Side grounds in Chicago still are
the same
The most unfair grounds ever constructed
was that OF Baltimore. and at the same
time that town was the most partisan. The
team that won three championships there
Of Zoe.
and clever base runners. The ground was
Stopping toward right field. where Keller
played. and right field always was ragged
and full of weeds. rough spots holiows and
Nils. Besides. the base lines were filled In
with cementlke substance which was
whetted down and tamped hard. The edges
OF the base lines were banked up like bill
1ard cushions to keep hunts from rolling
ioui. the pitchers box was a foot higher
than the plate The runways We're down
hill TO first base. down hill to second UP a
steep grade to third and down hill to home.
In right field Keller had lot of runways.
Ike rabbit paths. that no one except him
self knew. and he knew the angles OF
throw when the ball rolled down the hill.
out into FOUL ground and into the deep
gulley against the stand.
A team visiting Baltimore had a 90 per
cent handicap imposed before It started.
and the grounds. adapted perfectly to the
home teams style of play. did more to win
pennants than anything else.
The Boston National League grounds is
almost Illegal in its unfairness. 1t is a
bandbox, with the right and left field
fences short, the stands too close to the
plate, and low field seats In right center
Because OF that formation of the grounds
the Bostons won a lot of pennants and
pulled off dozens of victories by home run
drives which merely were short flies drop
Qla he hnF fap~ OH he
lines
That the home players practiced hitting
to the short fences is certain, for they made
In every season practically twice as many
home runs as did the visitors. until one
afternoon Jim Ryan dropped three in sue
cesson over the fences Then they howied
hard luck"
The Polo grounds give the Giants a big
handicap. The right field is low-almQst
twelve feet below the home plate-and back
of the fielder is tier of bleachers, guarded
only by four-foot fence. over which the
ball frequently jumps Left field Is low
and always wet and slippery Center field
Is on ridge and the ground slopes both
ways from the home plate. A player I'M
familiar with the grounds labors under a
big handicap both in fielding hits and
gauging his throws, whereas the home
player. familiar with the angles has little
trouble.
Griffiths grounds up on the Highlands is
so fast that 1t fools the visitors The ball
shoots OF the hard surface like a shot, and
1t Is certain to become ''wingy" after be-
ing in play fer q short time The fast
ground puzzles visiting outfielders even more
than it does the infielders. Grif is forced
to take on outfielders who could double In
the infeld. and every man who plays in his
outer garden must be able to pick them up
as well as catch them. Because Eddie
Hahn couldn't do this Griffith let him go.
Angles of the fences are another source
of trouble to the visiting felders and a
handicap in favor of the home team that
knows them. The way the ball bounds
from fence means the difference between
a home run and triple. or a double and a
triple. In Boston. on the National grounds,
the Boston players head off drives and get
them as they carom off the fence while the
visitors chase. The same is true of the
stone and brick walls that surround the
Philadelphia National League Park The
outfield walls have six separate angles and
the player who does not gauge the bound
correctly is likely to chase half way around
the outfield before he catches up with the
sphere. In Cleveland there are two difficult
fence angles, and hits against those fences
give unfamiliar with the grounds a lot
of trouble.
The Cincinnati grounds are laid out pecu-
liarly and the home team a dozen times a
year gets a base more on long hits than the
visitors would have got simply because of
the wall banked up under the fence. There
is a big advantage for the home team in
Pittsburg. and one of the chief sources of
trouble is the angle which the ball takes
when 1t goes down the right-feld line That
angle is almost a duplicate of the queer
one on the South Side grounds In Chicago
and balls hit in the same direction on these