I read an interesting article on ESPN by Tristan Cockcroft entitled Shea It Isn’t. The piece is well written and well researched and is a fair comparison of the two parks.
One of the interesting parts of his article was the following chart which shows exactly which non-homers would have been homeruns at Shea Stadium.
Hitter | Team | Date | Pitcher | Team | Result |
J.J. Hardy | MIL | 4/18 | Johan Santana | NYM | Fly out |
Justin Maxwell | WAS | 4/25 | Brian Stokes | NYM | Double |
Josh Willingham | WAS | 4/26 | Oliver Perez | NYM | Fly out |
Brett Carroll | FLA | 4/27 | Sean Green | NYM | Fly out |
David Wright | NYM | 4/27 | Renyel Pinto | FLA | Triple |
Gary Sheffield | NYM | 4/28 | Ricky Nolasco | FLA | Triple |
Cameron Maybin | FLA | 4/29 | Johan Santana | NYM | Triple |
Brian Bixler | PIT | 5/8 | Sean Green | NYM | Double |
Carlos Delgado | NYM | 5/10 | Ian Snell | PIT | Double |
Carlos Beltran | NYM | 5/10 | John Grabow | PIT | Double |
David Wright | NYM | 5/11 | Derek Lowe | ATL | Double |
Chipper Jones | ATL | 5/12 | Mike Pelfrey | NYM | Fly out |
David Wright | NYM | 5/12 | Jair Jurrjens | ATL | Triple |
Chipper Jones | ATL | 5/13 | Jonathon Niese | NYM | Double |
Kelly Johnson | ATL | 5/13 | J.J. Putz | NYM | Double |
Jose Reyes | NYM | 5/13 | Mike Gonzalez | ATL | Double |
Austin Kearns | WAS | 5/25 | John Maine | NYM | Fly out |
Adam Dunn | WAS | 5/27 | Johan Santana | NYM | Fly out |
Daniel Murphy | NYM | 5/27 | Jesus Colome | WAS | Double |
Jorge Cantu | FLA | 5/30 | Tim Redding | NYM | Double |
Brett Carroll | FLA | 5/30 | Ken Takahashi | NYM | Double |
Dan Uggla | FLA | 5/31 | John Maine | NYM | Double |
Hanley Ramirez | FLA | 5/31 | John Maine | NYM | Double |
Pedro Feliz | PHI | 6/9 | Johan Santana | NYM | Double |
Gary Sheffield | NYM | 6/9 | J.A. Happ | PHI | Single |
Fernando Tatis | NYM | 6/9 | J.A. Happ | PHI | Double |
Mike Pelfrey | NYM | 6/10 | Cole Hamels | PHI | Double |
Jayson Werth | PHI | 6/10 | Mike Pelfrey | NYM | Single |
David Wright | NYM | 6/11 | Jamie Moyer | PHI | Single |
Luis Castillo | NYM | 6/11 | Jamie Moyer | PHI | Double |
Evan Longoria | TB | 6/19 | Fernando Nieve | NYM | Fly out |
Ben Zobrist | TB | 6/19 | Fernando Nieve | NYM | Fly out |
David Wright | NYM | 6/19 | A. Sonnanstine | TB | Double |
Evan Longoria | TB | 6/21 | Mike Pelfrey | NYM | Double |
David Wright | NYM | 6/21 | Lance Cormier | TB | Double |
Ryan Church | NYM | 6/24 | Brad Thompson | STL | Double |
Poor David Wright seems to have had six homers lost to the spacious Citi Field. I think most fans would be less concerned with his power outage, if Wright had 10 homeruns and 51 RBIs, instead of 4 homeruns and 39 RBIs.
The author recognizes David Wright for adapting so quickly to his new surroundings.
One must applaud Wright for putting up the numbers he has, adapting as quickly as he has to his new home park. In addition to his nine-homer pace, he’s batting .351 and is on pace for 213 hits, 50 doubles and 43 stolen bases, all of which would easily represent new career highs. He’s also on track for 88 RBIs and 107 runs scored, and if you go back into baseball’s annals, only one player in history had a season of at least a .340 batting average, 50 doubles and 40 steals with 10 home runs or fewer: Tris Speaker in 1912, the year he won his only MVP award.
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