Oakland’s Nick Swisher (above) hit a pair of home runs (the 2nd being a 9th inning game-tying solo shot) and scored the winning run in the 11th inning on a Bobby Kielty sprint-off single in the A’s 3-2 win over the Rockies. Despite the Swisher blasts, there’s still some consternation over the way the ball travels at Pete Coors Hate Fuck Field, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser.
Ken Macha’s statement Tuesday that there should be “an investigation” into the humidor-stored baseballs at Coors Field didn’t go over well with Major League Baseball’s executive vice president for baseball operations.
Macha’s comments weren’t altogether serious, but that didn’t mollify Jimmie Lee Solomon.
“How about foot in mouth?” Solomon told the Rocky Mountain News when it was suggested that Macha’s remarks were somewhat tongue in cheek. “I don’t know why people would say things without knowing the facts. They have balls stored at Rawlings’ suggested storage level of 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity. It’s the same levels that Rawlings (uses to store) the balls at its plant in Missouri. The balls are taken out at game time and rubbed up. Every Friday the Rockies taken out a random dozen baseballs and they are tested and they send the test results to us. … I think this is the wave of the future. We will talk about (putting humidors in other parks) at our major league operations meetings.”
Macha said that the humidor topic was getting a little old, but that the balls certainly feel as if they have more moisture. Macha mentioned that the A’s used balls they’d brought with them for batting practice, and they were flying out of the stadium.