Fair Territory
by Corey
In my last post I made passing mention of a Travis Hafner home run that landed somewhere in the vicinity of every Clevelander's favorite Canadian town: Port Burwell, Ontario. This got me to wondering just what feats of geography our man Travis is capable of achieving. Using Google Earth, I was able to determine, for example, that Port Burwell lies in Jacobs Field fair territory, a quick 91 miles past section 109. What other exotic locations lie fair? Toronto? Detroit? Wawa, Ontario? I decided to find out.
The first map shows Jacobs Field fair territory extended over downtown Cleveland. The pink and turquoise areas are fair (click to enlarge):
As it turns out, almost all of Greater Cleveland is foul ground. Travis could, however, hit homers to such popular destinations as Burke Lakefront Airport, Playhouse Square, Slyman's, and the Dawg Pound at Cleveland Browns Stadium (the fair/foul line almost perfectly bisects Browns Stadium).
Getting to the matter at hand, though, here's a map showing Jacobs Field fair territory (once again, in pink and turquoise) extended over the entire Great Lakes region (click to enlarge):
So Toronto is just fair; Detroit is just foul. I was shocked to learn that a sliver of Wisconsin actually lies in fair territory.
In fact, if you extend the fair/foul lines even further, you discover some very surprising facts. Due to the curvature of the Earth, we usually distort the shapes of the landmasses in the far northern regions in order to depict the world map on two-dimensional surfaces. Thus, simply extending the fair/foul lines as straight lines on a two-dimensional map would skew the situation quite a bit. Thanks to Google Earth, though, we are able to see the lines drawn correctly (click to enlarge):
Surprise! Most of Alaska is in fair territory. It doesn't appear to be so on a two-dimensional map because Alaska gets pushed to the left due to the extreme enlargement of that region. Nonetheless, Travis could indeed hit home runs to Prudhoe Bay, AK. By the same token, Iceland and even a sliver of Scotland are in fair territory! Komdu sæll, Travis!
Now, it occurs to me that prevailing global winds would exert a huge influence on any baseball traveling across the North American continent. Some quick research shows that, if anything, the wind would push batted balls to the east and possibly, eventually, even a little bit south. This would probably allow Travis to hook home runs around the right field foul pole and into--for example--Nova Scotia. It also makes it that much harder for Travis to hit a homer into Alaska, let alone his hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota (not that he isn't up to the task).
Of course, this entire discussion is pretty ridiculous, you have to admit. After all, any spot on Earth is technically in Jacobs Field fair territory. Take Buffalo, NY. On the Great Lakes regional map above, it appears to be in foul ground, just a little bit too far to the right. However, a Travis Hafner home run could land in Buffalo if it were hit down the left field line hard enough to travel about 24,500 miles, almost orbiting the Earth once.
Believe me, it could happen.
The first map shows Jacobs Field fair territory extended over downtown Cleveland. The pink and turquoise areas are fair (click to enlarge):
As it turns out, almost all of Greater Cleveland is foul ground. Travis could, however, hit homers to such popular destinations as Burke Lakefront Airport, Playhouse Square, Slyman's, and the Dawg Pound at Cleveland Browns Stadium (the fair/foul line almost perfectly bisects Browns Stadium).
Getting to the matter at hand, though, here's a map showing Jacobs Field fair territory (once again, in pink and turquoise) extended over the entire Great Lakes region (click to enlarge):
So Toronto is just fair; Detroit is just foul. I was shocked to learn that a sliver of Wisconsin actually lies in fair territory.
In fact, if you extend the fair/foul lines even further, you discover some very surprising facts. Due to the curvature of the Earth, we usually distort the shapes of the landmasses in the far northern regions in order to depict the world map on two-dimensional surfaces. Thus, simply extending the fair/foul lines as straight lines on a two-dimensional map would skew the situation quite a bit. Thanks to Google Earth, though, we are able to see the lines drawn correctly (click to enlarge):
Surprise! Most of Alaska is in fair territory. It doesn't appear to be so on a two-dimensional map because Alaska gets pushed to the left due to the extreme enlargement of that region. Nonetheless, Travis could indeed hit home runs to Prudhoe Bay, AK. By the same token, Iceland and even a sliver of Scotland are in fair territory! Komdu sæll, Travis!
Now, it occurs to me that prevailing global winds would exert a huge influence on any baseball traveling across the North American continent. Some quick research shows that, if anything, the wind would push batted balls to the east and possibly, eventually, even a little bit south. This would probably allow Travis to hook home runs around the right field foul pole and into--for example--Nova Scotia. It also makes it that much harder for Travis to hit a homer into Alaska, let alone his hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota (not that he isn't up to the task).
Of course, this entire discussion is pretty ridiculous, you have to admit. After all, any spot on Earth is technically in Jacobs Field fair territory. Take Buffalo, NY. On the Great Lakes regional map above, it appears to be in foul ground, just a little bit too far to the right. However, a Travis Hafner home run could land in Buffalo if it were hit down the left field line hard enough to travel about 24,500 miles, almost orbiting the Earth once.
Believe me, it could happen.
16 Comments:
Props for creativity.
Thank you both for all the great work, and for this latest fanciful piece. Magnificent!
First-time caller, first-time reader. Megaschmegaprops for originality and application of geographical analysis! Could you plot a similar chart for Ryan Howard?
So, if everywhere is fair on a far enough ball hit, could Pronk hit a ball so hard that it approached the speed of light, orbit the planet at such speed, and then hit himself in the head just before his homerun swing, thus preventing the ball from being hit in the first place?
Great post, fellas, even if it has nothing to do with the Browns.
I sure hope so.
Yes, Coriolis would have a strong effect, depending on the hang time of the blast.
Once airborne, the ball will be affected by prevailing winds, but the Earth will continue to rotate underneath it in an easterly fashion. This could give the illusion that the ball is travelling westward and an opposite field shot COULD be called foul, somewhere in Nebraska, for example.
Of course, a real towering blast could achieve excape velocity and leave orbit, but calculating fair territory in outer space is dicey, for me at least.
I once saw Steve Balboni hit a popup that reached the tropopause before beginning its descent. Once they burst through into the stratosphere, all bets are off.
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