Triples
Jim Albright
Park 1B 2B 3B HR K BB FO
Green Stadium +4% -14% +3% -13% +3% -1% -17%
Tokyo Dome (YG) -5% +1% +19% -11% -3% +5% +22%
Tokyo Dome (NHF) +- -7% -24% +18% +6% +6% +11%
Lions' Stadium -7% +4% -9% +33% +3% -2% -9%
Fujiidera +4% -2% -37% +23% -4% -6% -6%
Chiba Marine -1% +16% +32% -16% +1% +6% +29%
Fukuoka Dome -1% +4% +39% -37% -10% -2% -5%
Nagoya Kyujyo -1% -10% -30% +28% +5% +2% -21%
Hiroshima Muni. +7% -11% -39% +13% +2% -7% -16%
Jingu Kyujyo -4% +2% +40% +13% -1% -3% +34%
Yokohama Stadium -2% +24% +16% -8% -4% +5% -2%
Koshien +5% -5% +8% -36% +1% -5% -9%
FO = Foul Outs
It appears that Chiba Marine Stadium, Fukuoka Dome, and Jingu Kyujyo (?!?) were the biggest triple stadiums in 1996. Chiba Marine has Candlestick-like winds that kill home runs and play havoc on outfielders. That may account for it there. Fukuoka is just plain big all around. But what's this with Jingu? That's one of the smallest parks in either league. Was it the team's agressiveness that accounted for it? Any explanations for that one would be appriciated.
Notes:
Tokyo Dome is shared by the Fighters and Giants, with two different results. The Giants were a very different team in 1996 (when these effects were calculated for). The 2000 Giants would have most likely had a positive home run effect. I think that this shows the flaw in just taking data from a single year for each stadium.
Green Stadium Kobe is now called Yahoo BB Stadium, but I don't believe that any significant changes have taken place to the park since 1997. I thought that the positive triple effect might have been due to Ichiro playing there, but checking his stats, it doesn't appear that he really hit that many triples while in Japan.
Lions' Stadium has undergone major construction to accomidate the Dome placed over it, and I believe that the field dimensions have been altered. Can anyone confirm this?
For those of you new to Pro Yakyu, Fujiidera is where Kintetsu used to play before Osaka Dome was built. Not much meaning now, but ...
Nagoya Kyujyo is the previous home to the Chunichi Dragons. It was a very small part, literally requiring a rebuilding of the team to fit the much more spacious Nagoya Dome.
Judging from the infrequency of triples, it seems that you were pretty fortunate to have gotten to witness two in 12 (11 and a quarter?) games.
Related to this thread, this is a major reason why hitting for the cycle is such a difficult thing to do.
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It seems to me that nearly every park in Japan is not conducive to triples. No park has very deep gaps so the balls don't roll past the outfielders very far. Also, the fences are relatively high so the ball bounces back quickly. And the stadiums don't have odd corners that allow for strange caroms.
Does anyone else concur? The two triples I saw occurred when players hit drives that bounced close to the top of the outfield fence and then dropped down.