Last team not to hit a home run in their home ballpark for an entire season.

[kairos12]

1945 Washington Senators. Their only home run that season at home was an inside the park job by Joe Kuhel. Griffith Stadium was gigantic.

[John1956PA]

1. Pittsburgh's Forbes Field was big. It never saw a no hitter, since balls continually dropped in.

Thanks for posting!

I think the difficulty in hitting home run in Griffith stadium had to do with the height outfield wall.

From http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/griffith-stadium/ :

Griffith Stadium changed little throughout the rest of its life. Not only was it one of the smallest ballparks in baseball, but one of the hardest ballparks to hit a homerun at. Original dimensions were 407?-L, 421?-C and 320?-R with a 30 foot high fence stretching from the right field foul pole to center field that included the scoreboard. The fence in centerfield jutted into the playing field because the team was unable to purchase five houses and a large tree when the ballpark was constructed. Dimensions at Griffith Stadium were shortened slightly in 1956 when a 6 foot high fence was added in front of the left field fence shortening the distance to 388 feet.

Griffith Field:



As Forbes Field's dimensions, here is an excerpt from http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/forbes-field/:

One level of seating extended to both the left and right field foul poles and bleachers were located in left and center fields. The scoreboard was part of the outfield wall in left field. Original dimensions at Forbes Field were 360 ft. (left), 462 ft. (center), and 376 ft. (right). . . .

After the Pirates acquired slugger Hank Greenberg they moved the left field in 30 feet to 330 feet after World War II. This area became known as Greenberg Gardens and later Kiner’s Korner when Ralph Kiner became part of the Pirates. Forbes Field featured an ivy covered brick wall in left and left-center field.

Forbes Field:

[kairos12]

3. Great info. Thanks. I seem to remember players

hitting 450 outs at Forbes.

[John1956PA]

4. Willie Stargell was the slugger most disadvantaged because of Forbes Field's long distances.

Willie debuted with the Pirates at the end of the 1962 season. As you indicate, a lot of long outs were recorded at Forbes Field. Willie hit a number of those long outs through July 1970 when the team moved to Three Rivers Stadium.

[Docreed2003]

2. Interesting....

I thought Griffith Stadium was a hitters park. Somewhere I thought I heard that Josh Gibson had hit more home runs there than "the entire American Leauge"!

[Brother Buzz]

5. Demonstrating there wasn't a whole lot of talent playing ball during the war years

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?