It's always fun when you read a quote by some guy dissembling so desperately, he can't keep his stories straight and contradicts himself in two consecutive sentences. It seems to happen in sports a lot. Here's the son of the NY Mets owner, COO Jeff Wilpon, both (i) denying that there has been any difference in the difficulty of hitting a home run in their new ballpark, CitiField, and their old ballpark, Shea Stadium, and (ii) claiming that the difference has benefitted the Mets. From the New York Times:
In six games [at CitiField], there have been only 10 home runs, and the ballpark plays particularly deep from left-center to right-center. Balls that probably would have left Shea Stadium, like the one Milwaukee’s J. J. Hardy ripped to deep left-center Saturday that was caught by Carlos Beltran, have been outs. …
Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer said, … “A lot of people have said balls hit to left-center or right-center would have been out at Shea, but I don’t agree with it. I haven’t looked at any charts, but I think we were helped the other day when Beltran easily got over to catch Hardy’s ball.”