HR to CF at the Polo Grounds

[Claymaker52]

I was just curious if any of you have ever hit a HR to straight away center at the Polo Grounds. I am yet to accomplish the feat in any game mode (including HR derby). And I have a hard time believing anyone ever did it in real life either. But it still is one of my favorite stadiums ro play in, because anything in the gap is almost always an automatic inside the park HR, unless you have Yadier Molina running, then it's just a long single or double. haha

[CabreraMVP]

I don't think anybody ever has in real life. I could be wrong.

Baseball stadiums have such sentimental value to them, and Polo Grounds epitomizes that. You don't see variety in stadiums today, like there seemed to be back then.

[sydrogerdavid]

Nobody ever hit a homerun to dead center, but a handful of players hit it into the CF bleachers. Lou Brock was one of them.

[TripleThreat1973]

This is what is so amazing about the ball that Vic Wertz hit (that Willie Mays caught, spun around, and prevented a runner from tagging up multiple bases) ... it was estimated to be a 454-foot fly out.

I'm not sure how Polo Grounds plays in The Show, but in High Heat the OF were "programmed" to stand a certain distance from the fence. So, the CF started off playing 400-feet away from home plate ... yeah, lots of singles fell in. *grin*

[Ghostciv]

i love polo grounds. i hit 1 ball in hr derby into the batter eye in the stands in center but never to deep center.

[josh44]

I've tried in HR derby the closest i got was like 480 feet to the center. I've hit a few out of the stadium down the line HAHA. Even the corners are hard to hit a homer. Its like 450 feet to each corner.

[Sunjah_Khan]

In the entire time it existed, no one ever hit that back wall (the middle, farther back one) with a fly ball. That is documented fact. There is a legend that Josh Gibson hit a HR literally OUT of old Yankee Stadium, but being a Negro league game there was no filmed coverage and limited press (if there was any, I really do not know).

The quote from above was incredibly right about the Vic Wertz's hit in 1954 as well. The Indians had beaten the 5 (FIVE, yes, that is right, 5) -time defending World Series Champion NY Yankees with a record of 111 wins during the season, a new league record for AL Wins in a year at the time. The formality of game one, and the far inferior NY Winner, seemed only to be presented as storybook fodder for the vaunted and record-breaking Cleveland Indians.

It was their year, they beat the 5-time defending Champs (still a record), had the most wins ever in a season in the AL, and Wertz's 8th inning smash to dead center, with the scored tied at 2-2, would have given the Indians, at minimum, a 3-2 lead, though Rosen and Wertz likely could've scored as well, making it 5-2. It all seemed a fairly-tale come true, that is, until a young man named Willie decided to throw his 2-cents in...

Funny thing is, the guy on 2nd tagged and went to third (Doby), while Rosen had to retreat to 1st, and the Indians failed to score that inning. "The Catch" changed history right there, no one even scored that inning, and the Giants won the series in 4, after taking this game with the infamous Dusty Rhodes pinch-hit HR in the bottom of the 10th. The Say-Hey Kid changed the proper time-line, and this year simply became knows as:

"The Year the Indians ALMOST Took It All Apart!"

(then the whole LeBron thing happened; sorry Cleveland, you seem cursed and never even traded Babe Ruth)

[Claymaker52]

Quote: Originally Posted by josh44

I've tried in HR derby the closest i got was like 480 feet to the center. I've hit a few out of the stadium down the line HAHA. Even the corners are hard to hit a homer. Its like 450 feet to each corner.

Well it's only like 280 ft down the lines so.....That stadium has some wicked demensions, 280 down the lines close to 500 ft to CF.