A bandbox -- and, yes, I had to look it up -- is one of those old-style cylindrical hat boxes from way back in the day. We actually have one at home, filled with hundreds if not a thousand unsorted buttons, a keepsake from my late Depression-era mom.
A relic from a bygone era, to be sure. But the term bandbox lives on in Baseball, which still clutches to the archaic even in its most gleaming of new cathedrals. Despite its overall massiveness, the new Yankee Stadium is certainly playing small. Apparently, the Bombers have moved from The House that Ruth Built to the Bronx Bandbox. At least that's what we think.
After one four-game series -- and a collective 20 home runs -- commentators are already saying something may have to be done. "The New York Yankees ," ESPN's Buster Olney wrote, "might have a serious problem on their hands."
Sure appears that way ... so far. Five home runs a game translates to more than 400 a year, 250 more than 2008? Yeah, even with this small sample, something is definitely going on.
(For a breakdown of every home run hit in the new stadium, go to http://www.hittrackeronline.com/index.php?b=New%20Yankee%20Stadiu m&sortm=date&sort=desc. Thank you, Deadspin.com, for the heads up.)
Something's going on, but what?
Is it the fence distances, which create an extremely short porch in right, where 14 of the homers have been hit and apparent routine flies have turned into four-baggers? (One Web site maintains that while the dimensions are the same as the old park, in some places in right the fence is closer).
Maybe it's just that the wind was blowing that way -- a 15 to 20-mph wind, no less -- led to the Cleveland Indians' 22-4 softball win Saturday.
You can't blame it all on Chien-Ming Wang, since two of his starts during a stellar campaign (0-3, 34.50 ERA) came on the road. Factoid: New York has been outscored 44-14 in his three starts. Which brings us to ...
The Yankees will be hard-pressed to go anywhere in any ballpark with this middle relief corps. Of the 10 pitchers to come out of the pen this year, five have an ERA of 6.75 or better. If New York insists on keeping Joba Chamberlain in the rotation, maybe Nick Swisher (no runs in an inning of mop-up duty) can be the eighth-inning man. Or not.
The point is there are too many variables to pinpoint a reason just yet why balls are flying out of The Stadium. A scary thought, since conventional wisdom holds that once we get to the warmer, humid months, the ballpark will truly turn into a video game producing NFL-worthy scores.
Back to wind. Meteorologists at AccuWeather.com surmise the shape of the new ballpark, more gently sloped than the old Yankee Stadium, might be a factor in accelerating winds and creating an updraft inside the field of play.
But winds were coming out of the west (toward right) only on Saturday. And the gusts should die down during the summer months before picking up again in the fall, AccuWeather reported: "The calmer weather during the summer should lead to a smaller number of home runs."
Or not. Senior meteorologist Tom Kines readily admits in an interview "we are going to have to wait the full season to see if (the wind theory) pans out." In short, four games is not enough to determine whether the new $1.5 billion stadium is already in need of fixing up.
"It may just be bad pitching," Kines said.
Mark McGuire can be reached at 454-5467 or by e-mail at mmcguire@timesunion.com Visit his blog at http://blogs.timesunion.com/mcguire.
