© Kelley L Cox | 2020 Jul 10
The ball was flying out of Oracle Park on Tuesday night in a way we haven’t seen since the park opened 20 years ago. More home runs were to be expected with the elimination of Triples Ally, but that doesn’t totally explain the carry to right field, especially off the bat of right-handed hitters.
Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow has been in attendance for nearly every game in the history of the stadium, and noticed something last night that could make the park look a lot smaller this year.
“If you know the architectural history of this ballpark and you know it’s stunted on the right side because of the proximity to McCovey Cove, and they did two years of wind study and they designed that ballpark so it’s in the prevailing wind. It’s almost like you’re drafting behind a truck on the interstate on a bicycle. You get a free pass with the wind, but the wind wraps around you and that’s what the wind has always done at that ballpark. It wraps around the ballpark only with the unique design of the out of town scoreboard, with mesh fencing, and there’s a gate that’s open that allows the air to pass back from the right side of the field through the archway there, and back onto the field.
“When you stand there and shag during batting practice, you feel the wind at your back. It’s no secret as to why, since the doors opened in that ballpark, it’s so difficult to hit balls out to right field, especially for right-handed hitters. Balls get up there, the air hits it, and the ball drops like a turd from a giraffe. Straight down, done, see ya later.”
But now that wind is gone, as the Giants have covered up the archway since there are no fans present.
“They covered it up. They closed off the archway from the outside, by the port walk, and in doing so wind no longer comes through the archway back on the field. The effect I thought was pretty dramatic. We saw Chad Pinder hit a ball out to right field last night that in normal circumstances, that thing wouldn’t even reach the warning track.
“This is going to be a story this entire year, the way we see this ballpark play on the right side of the field, and I think it’s going to be something that we’ve never seen especially during the daytime. It’s going to be a live yard.”
Listen to the full interview below.