White Sox Move Plate to Make Homers Tougher

Here’s a final good Jeopardy answer for baseball fans who have been sitting around trying to keep warm in the Hot Stove League:

“It has the only movable home plate in the major leagues.”

A movable home plate? It’s a trick, right? Wrong.

The correct final Jeopardy question is Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox.

The White Sox are moving home plate again--eight feet, to be exact--due presumably to Ken (Hawk) Harrelson’s decision the club’s pitching will be stronger this year than in the past. The shift increases the distance to the left field stands, a break for pitchers.

Home plate in the early 1980s was located in about the same area as in the previous seven decades of baseball’s oldest park.

But the White Sox gained some home run punch with players like Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines and Ron Kittle. So, instead of taking the conventional route and moving the fences closer, they decided to move home plate closer to the left-field bleachers.

The result was a surge of home runs, including some roof shots, a division title and some frowns from opposing teams. Greg Luzinski, the former designated hitter for the White Sox, was the first to take advantage of the cozier distances. Kittle followed with some roof shots.

Last year, the club could still hit those long home runs. But a funny thing also happened; the opposition found that it could reach the cozier fences much more easily against the weakened White Sox pitching staff. Those roof shots that once were the exclusive domain of a Luzinski and Kittle were suddenly being launched by the opposition. And they don’t shoot off the fireworks at Comiskey Park after an opponent belts one out.

Presto. Harrelson, who served as color announcer for the White Sox the past couple of years, was brought down from the booth to the front-office. One of his initial decisions was that home plate had to be moved back to the pre-division-winning distances, circa 1982.

Harrelson’s move seems to foretell the White Sox pitching won’t be that much stronger than last year. By pushing back the distance, some of those gopher balls that barely made it into the stands might be caught.

In addition, the White Sox may not have as much punch as they have had in recent years. Fisk is still around. So is Kittle. But Luzinski has long since retired and the new-look White Sox plan to be a leaner, meaner bunch of guys.

Further, the question marks surrounding Kittle and the rest of the suspect White Sox hitting might make it a better choice to go for line drives in the spacious gaps of Comiskey Park rather than home runs.

The only thing that seems a little odd about all of this is that teams can move their distances around each year depending upon the makeup of the team.

It doesn’t seem right that clubs be allowed to move distances, either via the home plate transfer or adjusting portable outfield stands.

But until the league offices step in, it seems like a good ploy to make the best of your home field.