Fair ball? How tough it is for hitters at Safeco

Edgar Martinez remembers taking a tour of Safeco Field a year before it was finished, looking at the outfield walls seemingly a million miles away from home plate, and thinking, "It's going to be tough in here."

Asked five years later if Safeco had lived up to that first billing, Martinez cracked a slight smile and said "Yep."

So, you're thinking, where's the news in that? Don't we all know Safeco Field is among the toughest places to hit in the major leagues?

Well, we think we do.

But nothing in baseball can be proved without looking at the numbers. And after four full seasons, there was a representative enough sample to produce some meaningful numbers.

And there is enough of a separation from the opening of Safeco Field — you had to have forgotten by now that Butch Huskey was the Mariners' starting left fielder when the park opened on July 15, 1999 — to take another look at how Safeco came to be.

Who decided, for instance, just how Safeco Field would be laid out, and why? And did they — like Martinez — really know it would turn into what Baseball Prospectus called this year a "severe pitchers' park?"

But before Safeco opened, people seriously thought that it would not only be possible to hit a ball completely out of left field and onto Royal Brougham Way, but might even be a regular occurrence, such as happens at Wrigley Field and Waveland Ave.

This very newspaper, for instance, wrote in an editorial lauding the pending completion of the park on Aug. 29, 1998, that "people will gather on Royal Brougham Way to watch in awe as a Griffey or A-Rod long-ball sails effortlessly over the left-field fence."

That, obviously, proved to be as big a fantasy as hoping each July 31 that the Mariners might make a blockbuster deal.

On the eve of the park's opening, even then-general manager Woody Woodward said he was uncertain how the park would play.

"The reality is that we have no idea how the park will handle deep balls," he said. "We're going to have to wait and find out. It might be too big, it might be too small, although my guess is it is just about right."

Ask Mike Cameron, however, if Safeco Field is "just about right."

Since being acquired before the 2000 season, Cameron has hit .294 with 57 home runs in road games for the Mariners, and .222 and 28 home runs at Safeco Field (through Aug. 10).

Cameron has grown weary of talking about the subject, but has said in the past his biggest problem with Safeco isn't necessarily the distance of the fences but the batters' eye in center field that players have said creates a glare that makes it hard to see during day games. The Mariners' latest attempt at correcting the problem was installing a black honeycomb surface on the wall to deflect the glare during the All-Star Break and a subsequent road trip.

"Before, we couldn't see at all," Cameron said this week. "It just so happened it took this long for something to get done, or at least try. ... It makes it a little bit better now."

Still, it has already been rumored that Cameron's inability to hit well at Safeco Field could play a key part in his decision to either stay in Seattle or leave after this season as a free agent.

"I'm not really thinking about that right now," Cameron said. "That's too far down the road."

As far, Cameron might have added, as looking at center field from the batter's box.

The numbers game

Mariners president Chuck Armstrong likes to throw off those who believe Safeco is the worst hitters' park in the majors by asking this question.

"Of these three parks — Safeco, Fenway Park (in Boston) and Pac-Bell (in San Francisco) — which one yielded the most home runs last year?" Armstrong asked one night.

The answer, Armstrong said proudly, was Safeco Field. And that's despite the fact that the Mariners don't have a home-run hitter such as a Manny Ramirez in Boston or Barry Bonds in San Francisco.

In fact, since the 2000 season — the first full year for Safeco Field — more home runs have been hit by opponents at Safeco (292) than in four other American League parks — Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Fenway, Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland and Comerica Park in Detroit.

Of course, opponents' batting average and runs scored per game are lower in Safeco than any other AL park. That, however, could have as much to do with the quality of the home team as anything.

"The main problem hitting here is that pitching staff and that bullpen," said Yankees slugger Jason Giambi when New York was here in May.

Added Yankees manager Joe Torre: "It's a fair ballpark. It's big in center field, but it's not like Detroit where you have to hit it, then pick it up and hit it again to get it out."

Those who play for the Mariners, however, often sing a different tune.

Alex Rodriguez, for instance, once called Safeco Field "the hardest park in the history of baseball" to hit in.

For the record, Rodriguez hit .273 at Safeco in a season and a half with the Mariners, and is hitting .284 at Safeco with the Rangers. He has hit 33 home runs in 523 at-bats in the park.

"I used to hear (players talking about how hard it is to hit in Safeco) every day when I played for the Mariners," said Charles Gipson, a Mariner from 1998 to 2002.

And there's no questioning that the Mariners' offensive numbers have been demonstrably better on the road than at home since Safeco opened.

For instance, since Safeco opened, the Mariners have scored 1,684 runs at home, 1,889 on the road (through Aug. 10).

The Mariners have more than 400 more hits on the road than at home since Safeco opened — 3,402 to 2,981 — or an average of more than one per game.

The drop in offense at home, however, hasn't affected the team in the standings. Since Safeco opened, the Mariners have been a better home team than road team, going 210-134 at home compared to 198-136 on the road.

Why, then, does it seem like the Mariners can't embrace Safeco the way it is, realizing that if it's a tough park for them to hit in, it's tough for the opponents as well, the way, say, a cold-weather football team embraces its elements, unpleasant as they may be?

Maybe it's as simple as this comment from Mariners first baseman John Olerud: "When you hit a ball that you think is going out and it doesn't, that can be demoralizing."

And in a sport in which failing 70 percent of the time is means for stardom, maybe they feel they have enough demoralization already.

Why, oh why?

So who decided that Safeco Field should be designed the way it is, and why?

Essentially, it was a joint effort between the Mariners and the Public Facilities District, the group put in place to oversee the construction of the park after the legislation of 1995 to pay for it was approved.

In a nutshell, the thinking of the two groups was that the kind of baseball that was played in the Kingdome was more sideshow than real thing. There was also a feeling of wanting to go against the grain. At the time, most of the new parks that were opening — Coors Field and The Ballpark in Arlington to name two — were regarded as hitters' parks.

"There was a sense that some of the new parks that were being built were too friendly to the hitters," said Ken Johnsen, who ran the PFD. "We wanted to get back to a pure baseball end of things, the excitement of infield hits, not putting the pitcher in such a defensive mode. That you could play the game with that (pitching/defensive and offensive) balance. We thought that was important."

That was apparently a majority, if not consensus, opinion among the seven members of the board.

Bill Gerberding, the former president of the University of Washington and a member of the board, said there was little controversy along the way. At one point, the design called for a slightly longer fence in left field with an irregular wall. When some players complained, the Mariners asked the board to change the design, and the fence was moved in 9 feet.

"We didn't want a park where home runs were that easy," Gerberding said. "Speaking only for myself, I think baseball is a much better game where the home run isn't as dominant and there is more strategy and more running of the bases, and a game where pitching has a slight advantage over a park where home runs are easy. I just think it's a better game that way.

"I had that bias to begin with, and apparently so did a number of other people on the board, because the only design we ever saw from the architect's was generally a pitcher-friendly park."

Still, the Mariners say they tried to be sensitive to the feelings of the player who was their star at the time — Ken Griffey Jr.

"Frankly, it was designed with Ken Griffey Jr. in mind," Armstrong said. "He, for some reason, didn't perceive that the ball carried all that well. But as you've seen, the ball flies out to right field whether it's cold or warm."

Certainly, right field is the easiest place to go to hit a home run in Safeco. This season, for instance, 56 percent of all home runs have been hit out to right or right-center field, compared to 31 percent to left and left-center field.

Armstrong acknowledged, however, that the ball doesn't carry as well in some sections of the park as was initially thought.

"I think we thought the ball would carry better to left-center," he said.

Instead, players quickly found out that area of the park is a graveyard for potential home-run balls.

"You have a lot better chance of hitting a home run to right than to left," Olerud said.

That's in part because of a slightly shallower wall in right than left — 327 down the line, as opposed to 331. But wind also is a factor.

On warm days, the winds come out of the northwest, blowing in from left field. While a 5 mph breeze can take 15 feet off a 400-foot blast, the winds can help carry balls hit to right field over the fence. Cool, wet weather has southerly winds that can push a ball out to left field, but the air is more dense.

The Mariners actually thought the wind might have more of a pronounced effect in sending balls out to right-center.

"But what we didn't figure out is that when the wind is blowing like that, the roof is usually closed because that means it's going to rain (thus negating much of the effect of the wind)," Armstrong said.

Martinez doesn't know the particulars of any studies. He simply says that on the days when it is windy "the balls in the gap just die."

As for the oh-so-contentious glare, Gerberding said there wasn't much choice over where to put home plate.

"Almost all parks have home plate in the southwest corner because that's the way the sun moves," he said. "If you put it anywhere else, you have the sun in the batters' eye or have weird shadows."

Armstrong said the one thing he would change about the park is to flip the batters' eye slightly, which he thinks would reduce the glare. But doing so would mean redesigning seats in the outfield.

A difference in mentality

One obvious question is why Safeco Field seems to bother hitters who play there every day, while a guy like Rafael Palmeiro comes to town for about 10 games a year and treats it like it's Coors Field.

Former Mariner Mike Blowers, now an announcer for KOMO-AM, thinks the answer lies in the difference in mentality between being the visiting team at a tough hitters' park as opposed to playing in one 81 times a year.

"It's a lot different coming in here for a three-game series than playing here all year," Blowers said. "You come in, you play three games, then you are out of there. Say maybe one of those three games the wind is blowing out and you hit a home run and you feel good about it the rest of the time you are here. You also have the luxury of knowing that you're going back to Arlington when you're done."

Blowers played briefly for the Oakland A's, who often play as many as half of their games during the day. Blowers said he felt the constant switch in going from a night game to a day game, then back to a night game was a disadvantage for the A's compared to opponents. He said he thinks hitting in Safeco is comparable.

"When you are a visitor, you don't have to worry about the grind," Blowers said. "They know they are getting out of here. It's a different thing, totally."

A pitcher's paradise

Whom you won't hear complaining about Safeco Field are the pitchers.

All five of Seattle's starters have better earned-run averages at home than on the road, in several cases by wide margins.

Gil Meche, for instance, has a 3.28 ERA at home in his career compared to 4.76 on the road.

The most extreme example of a pitcher who benefited from Safeco Field was Paul Abbott. When Abbott went 17-4 in 2001, he had an ERA of 5.30 on the road — going 9-3 in those starts, anyway — and 2.90 at home.

Sterling Hitchcock, who had one relatively unhappy season with the Mariners in the Kingdome in 1996, just laughed when asked if he'd rather pitch in Safeco.

"Are you kidding me?" Hitchcock said.

When Hitchcock was a Mariner, word was the team couldn't develop young pitchers like they are doing now with Meche, Joel Pineiro and others. Hitchcock wonders if some of the young Mariners pitchers of his era might not have had different careers had Safeco been in place then.

"At the Kingdome, from the first pitch guys were intimidated," Hitchcock said.

That intimidation led to trepidation. Worried about giving up home runs over short fences, or artificial-turf singles, Mariners pitchers of the time tended to play it cautious, which inevitably led to walks.

"Here, there is no nibbling," Hitchcock said. "You can go right after them. You don't have to try to go at the corner on the first pitch, or low and away. It's easier to get into good pitching counts."

And though they defend Safeco as a hitters' park, the Mariners knew immediately they'd be playing a different game there than in the Kingdome, and began preparing for it immediately.

As early as 1997, for instance, the Mariners drafted 14 pitchers among their first 19 picks in the June draft, including Ryan Anderson and Pineiro.

When trumpets fade

The big question could be whether Safeco Field's pitchers'-park status will have its same charm if the Mariners start to lose. Will losing 3-2 at Safeco be as entertaining as losing 12-10 in the Kingdome?

The departures of Griffey and A-Rod have led to a general feeling that hitters will be reluctant to come to Seattle because of Safeco Field and will mean the Mariners will always be a team based on pitching and defense.

Armstrong isn't so sure.

"Ballplayers are willing to come here because it's a good place to play and a fair park," Armstrong said. "I would think a left-handed pull hitter would really want to come here. If I were a gap hitter, I think I'd like to play here, too. There are a lot of openings out there."

Armstrong also disputes the theory that no one will ever hit 50 home runs playing half his games at Safeco — A-Rod's 41 in 2000 are the most since Safeco opened.

"We haven't really had a real power hitter here (other than Rodriguez)," Armstrong said. "We've had some guys who could hit home runs like Bret Boone, but not guys who are real power hitters. I'd like to see what a Palmeiro or Giambi or Mo Vaughn would do here (in a full season)."

For what it's worth, considering the fact that he has five years left on a seven-year, $120 million deal he signed before last season, Giambi said, "I wouldn't mind it if I played here."

Asked if he could envision anyone hitting 50 home runs at Safeco, Giambi — whose performance in the Home Run Derby at the 2001 All-Star Game may long rank as the most impressive display of power in Safeco history — said, "I don't think that's true at all. I think it's a good hitting park. I've always liked hitting here."

Olerud, though, isn't so sure, saying he thinks hitters "might be scared away" by Safeco.

Johnsen, however, thinks anyone scared off by Safeco will be missing a good thing. He and Gerberding attended a game earlier this season — a night on which three home runs were hit — and decided they had gotten it just about right.

"There was a sense at the time that it was going to be a new baseball experience," Johnsen said. "That it would be outside, baseball as it was meant to be played. Baseball wasn't meant to be simply a home-run fest. It was also supposed to be about defense and baserunning and all the things that you get more (of) from a park that is balanced. I think we are seeing that here at Safeco."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com