Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Home Run Sculpture in Miami

This Home Run Sculpture at the Miami Marlins baseball park showed up frequently last night during the Home Run Derby. When Tim, Tony and I saw the Marlins beat the Nationals 3-2, back in 2015, we heard some of the controversy about the Sculpture. But, since the Marlins didn't hit a HR in that game, we didn't get to see it in "action". With a little "research" this afternoon, I was able to find this image and "play" it to see the display. It is quite impressive with fish flying around flushing fountains but not really what you expect when the Home Team gets a HR.
The sculpture doesn't get much use because the stadium is the toughest in the majors to hit a home run because of the size of the playing field. The power alleys are 384 feet to left-center and 422 to center. It is 335 feet down the right field line. The wall is also high at 13 feet plus the ball doesn't carry well under a retractable roof that is almost always closed. Aaron Judge of the NY Yankees, winner of the Derby last night hit 2 shots over 500' so the size of the park didn't stop him. I have never been a big fan of the HR Derby which attracts people to see the ball fly. Not enough credit is given to the pitchers.

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