Lost and found
After watching Evansville right fielder C.J. Henry lose a fly ball in the lights -- or sky -- Friday that went for an inside-the-park home run by Washington's C.J. Beatty during the Wild Things' 6-1 victory, I was reminded of a post on this blog from July of 2009, which might give some insight into why so many fly balls get lost by visiting right fielders at Consol Energy Park.
From that previous blog entry:
Washington's Grant Psomas hit a routine two-out fly ball to right field that River City's Matt Houin couldn't locate. The ball dropped for a double and led to the go-ahead run for the Wild Things.
It was the second time in three series at Consol Energy Park this year that a visiting right fielder couldn't locate a routine fly ball. Both times the ball dropped for an extra-base hit. It will happen again this season. You can bank on it. At least three times every year visiting right fielders lose track of fly balls. Most drop for doubles or triples. A few have been caught by hustling center fielders or second basemen.
So why all the trouble locating the fly balls? Washington right fielder Matt Sutton gave this explanation Saturday night:
"They're not losing balls in the lights or the setting sun. They're losing the balls in the sky. When it's still twilight here, it's very difficult to locate the ball in right field because of the background. Left fielders don't have as much of a problem because there are some tree tops over by the Interstate that give you a background for finding the ball. In right field, all you have is sky. There's no park in the league that's tougher to pick up a fly ball in."
Sutton said that in Washington you have to find the ball coming off the bat against the background of the third-base stands or pick it up in the lights. If you don't, then what happened Saturday night will be the result.
From that previous blog entry:
Washington's Grant Psomas hit a routine two-out fly ball to right field that River City's Matt Houin couldn't locate. The ball dropped for a double and led to the go-ahead run for the Wild Things.
It was the second time in three series at Consol Energy Park this year that a visiting right fielder couldn't locate a routine fly ball. Both times the ball dropped for an extra-base hit. It will happen again this season. You can bank on it. At least three times every year visiting right fielders lose track of fly balls. Most drop for doubles or triples. A few have been caught by hustling center fielders or second basemen.
So why all the trouble locating the fly balls? Washington right fielder Matt Sutton gave this explanation Saturday night:
"They're not losing balls in the lights or the setting sun. They're losing the balls in the sky. When it's still twilight here, it's very difficult to locate the ball in right field because of the background. Left fielders don't have as much of a problem because there are some tree tops over by the Interstate that give you a background for finding the ball. In right field, all you have is sky. There's no park in the league that's tougher to pick up a fly ball in."
Sutton said that in Washington you have to find the ball coming off the bat against the background of the third-base stands or pick it up in the lights. If you don't, then what happened Saturday night will be the result.
posted by Chris Dugan at
9:01 PM
6 Comments:
If CJ Henry's "performance" last night is what is acceptable for Frontier League caliber talent, I'd be a perennial all-star.
Anybody notice that there are 6 bulbs burned out on the right field light standard?
CJ Henry got $1.6 million from the Yankees. How much did you get Nick?
SZ is afraid of high places. Mostly because he has never been there before!
What is missing more than fly balls to right field is fans in the stadium!
There are numerous lights on all the either burnt out or misaligned. This has been that way for years.
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