How powerful is Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton? The limit does not exist, folks. That’s certainly the case for all 30 of the current big-league ballparks. The same can be said for ballparks from the past, as well.
During New York’s 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night, MLB.com’s Sarah Langs shared an awesome overlay on Twitter. You can see it below, which is Stanton’s home run spray chart overlayed with the dimensions of the Polo Grounds.
inspired by the convo @dcone36 & @RealMichaelKay were having just now…
here's Giancarlo Stanton's HR spray chart since 2015, overlaid on the Polo Grounds pic.twitter.com/YcInVKp2aN
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 4, 2023
Entering Wednesday, Stanton has hit 226 home runs since the 2015 season. And as we can see, the Polo Grounds would’ve only contained his power slightly more than some of today’s ballparks. For the balls that wouldn’t have gone out, though, Stanton probably would’ve racked up some inside-the-park home runs in the process.
The Polo Grounds were uniquely famous for their ridiculous dimensions. The key to hitting a ball over the fence easily was to pull it down either the left-field or right-field line, which were both less than 300 feet away. Instead of making more of an oval shape across the outfield, the fence looked more like a box.
If a player wanted to hit one over the fence to one of the gaps, it’d take a blast of 450-plus feet to get it done. Straightaway center field was the most ridiculous of all, as there was an extra box that put the fence 483 feet away from home plate.
As we can see from the spray chart, some homers from Giancarlo Stanton would’ve challenged even these crazy dimensions. Oh, and the moonshot he hit over the weekend against the Giants? That 485-foot missile would’ve cleared the fences at the Polo Grounds.
This kind of picture doesn’t really mean anything. But, it’s still cool to see how home runs and general power from certain players would look at ballparks that are no longer around.
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You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
