Giants’ drought — no splash homers this year
Splash hits. Remember them?
In Barry Bonds’ days, they were commonplace. He hit eight one season, 35 in all, and each generated electricity throughout China Basin, prompting pandemonium among Giants fans, a water cannon discharge and kayak chaos in McCovey Cove.
Now we’re on the verge of a splash-hit shutout.
The Giants are seven games from their first splash-hitless season in the 16-year history of their park. The counter on the right-field wall is stuck on 68. Splash hits, defined as Giants home runs landing in the cove on a fly, have become as endangered as Rusty the Mechanical Man. “The velocity of the pitch doesn’t really matter — that just helps you not have to swing as hard to get it,” Bonds said at a recent Giants game. “It’s a mechanical thing. You
work on just hitting the ball. Major-league players can all hit home runs. They can all hit the ball hard. It’s just that some can do it more often than others.”
Once bustling with activity, a daily flotilla free-for-all, the cove has less traffic these days. In the final weeknight game of the last homestand, a handful of kayaks were seen moving into position for baseballs that never came.
Only one for visitors
Is it a trend toward opposite-field hitters? The drought? A gravitational force on Earth that altered the wind speed and direction at AT&T Park?
“A lot more players have an up-the-middle approach,” said first baseman Brandon Belt, who got the last splash hit, a year ago Friday. “It’s not a team that will hit a ton of home runs anyway. The emphasis is on line drives.
“Daytime, you obviously have a better chance, and later in the season when it gets a little warmer. When you hit it straight down the line, it doesn’t seem to get knocked down by the wind that much, but we don’t have a lot of guys who hit down the line.”
Last year, opponents hit a record eight homers that reached the cove on a fly, including Bryce Harper in the playoffs, so it wasn’t just a peak-of-the-steroid-era phenomenon. This year, however, only one visitor did it: Philadelphia’s Cody Asche off Ryan Vogelsong on July 11.
“There’s a lot of patience involved,” said McCovey Cove Dave, a.k.a. Dave Edlund, 59, who started seriously patrolling in 2010 and retrieved a record 12 splash hits and another five Giants homers that bounced into the cove, plus nine opponents’ homers including five that landed on a fly. “It’s the longest drought for Giants splash hits in the park’s history.”
Weather’s influence
McCovey Cove Dave cited injuries to left-handed hitters such as Brandon Crawford, who had two of last year’s five splash hits, and cool earlyseason weather.
“Because of the warmer weather last year, the ball carried further,” he said.
A retired Hewlett-Packard executive, McCovey Cove Dave joined much of the rest of baseball and employs sabermetrics to gauge where a batter would most likely hit a ball into the water, including tracing landing spots of hitters’ home runs in recent years.
“I take a slightly different position for most every hitter,” he said. “Most kayakers hang along the foul line too much. Most home runs hit into McCovey Cove land 100 feet off the line. That’s the area I spend the most time.”
The Giants rank 27th in the majors in home runs with 131, just 48 at home. Of Belt’s and Crawford’s 38 homers, 12 came at home. It has always been one of the worst parks for power hitters. The 2007 Home Run Derby featured left-handed sluggers Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau, and none reached the water.
The exception, of course, is Bonds, who passed on the ’07 derby. He needed no further substantiation that he was king of the cove.
“When I hit it, I know where it’s going to go. I know if it’s going to make it or not,” said Bonds, who hit the first nine splash hits and 23 of the first 25. His first was May 1, 2000, against the Mets’ Rich Rodriguez, and last was Aug. 8, 2007, against the Nationals’ Tim Redding.
Bonds admits now splash hits had a bit more pizzazz.
“I’m a hometown boy,” he said. “My family’s been entertaining San Franciscans since 1958. Willie (Mays) is my godfather. So going back to 1958 and bringing it up to the years my father (Bobby) played and me coming back home, we’ve been playing in these stadiums since 1958.
“My biggest thrill was playing in front of the hometown fans. Having the opportunity to excite them with splash hits, that just made the opportunity even better.”
Pitcher’s velocity
Some unlikely splash-landers include Tyler Colvin, John Bowker and Fred Lewis. Heck, Felipe Crespo hit two.
No right-handed hitter has reached the cove. It’s only for lefties who make perfect contact, usually on misplaced fastballs. Unlike Bonds, Belt and others rely on a pitcher’s velocity to generate power, which explains why balls don’t generally reach the cove even in batting practice.
It’s 309 feet down the line, but the 24-foot wall jets out to right-center, making triples in the alley more common than homers in the water. Pablo Sandoval ranks second behind Bonds in splash hits with seven. Belt is third with four.
“It’s pretty tough to get it out there,” Belt said. “You have to catch it at the right spot, at the right time. You have to hit the absolute crap out of the ball. You’ll definitely take a normal, everyday home run, but if you hit it in the water, with the cannons going off and the fans going crazy, it’s a little more special.”