Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-09-11

sions of the st. Louis baseball park.
one OF the scribes travelling with
the Giants wired home to his paper
an alibi for Art Nehf's failure to shut
the Cards, out during the final series
between the two pennant rivals at
st. Louis. We quote part of it. 1.-TWO
homers into the dinky right field stand
gave the Cards a handsome start.
Mann's circuit hit and Ainsmith's poke
would have been child's play for
Young on anything but an understood
miniature ball field"
St. Louis Has Dinky Stand
AS for the right field stand at st.
Louis it certainly is "dinky'' in size
and appearance by comparison with
the double decker at the Polo grounds.
But it is harder to knock home runs
into it than into the right field stand
at Gotham because it is farther away
from home plate. The. Giant booster
palpably was ignorant of that fact.
He also was unaware that the "un-
dersized. miniature ball field at the
Mound City is quite a bit larger than
the arena on the banks of the Har-
lem.
This is not at all a matter of opin-
ion or hearsay. Official measure
ments stop all arguments. The dis
lance from home plate to the right
field stand In New York is 256 feet
n a few inches. In St. Louis it is
315 feet, making it practically sixty
feet harder to knock a home run into
the "dinky stand" than into the NAM
moth Brush stadium. At White Sox
park the distance is 362 feet.
Looking in the other direction-to-
ward left field-it is just a little less
than 2S9 feet from home plate into
the bleachers at the Polo grounds and
$40 feet from the Cards home plate
to the fence back of left field. which
is higher than the barrier in front of
the, Gotham bleaeher.
In fact New York has the shortest
fields, both right and left, Of any ball
park in either major league. And still
the scribes try to coddle the home
fans into the belief that the Polo
grounds is not an "undersized, minia-
ture ball field" 1t is true that only
the Boston Braves field has a greater
seating capacity than the Giants
stand, but the stands are not part OF
the ball field"
Naturally it is easy enough to fool
Gotham fans hat way, because SO
few of then ever travel farther from
Manhattan. island than to Coney. So
ball parks are made out of cigar
boxes.
St Louis Sluggcrs Lead
That salVes the feelings of New
York rooters, too, for the fact two st
Louis sluggers, Williams n Horns.
by. are quite likely to beat out the
former sultan of swat in the number
Of home runs this year. They will
always have the alibi that the Brown
and Cardinal kings of swat neve,
could have done it but for that "dink,
right field stand" because they dom
know it is almost sixty feet farther
awxy than the stand which was re.
sponsible for a lot Of Babe Ruth.
b record breaking home runs.
This is no attempt to belittle BAN.
bino's e a OF tear off any of his hare
earned laurels. Ruth has smashed
, home runs farther over the farthesr
: fences In all the American leagu.
parks than any other player ever has
and everybody takes his hat off to tina,
unique prowess with the bludgeon
! It does no harm to point out, however
; that Ruth probably could hav,
: made f1fty-nine home runs in one sea,
I son on any other park than the Pole
grounds because both right and lef
field are shorter than anywhere els,
3 in either major circuit.
But, gosh, how New York scribe.
. hate to rear any one talk about tn,
miniature" home runs ut the Pol,
oun E