For Home Runs, the Place to Go Is Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium

No team has done more to contribute to the 1987 home run onslaught than the Baltimore Orioles.

First of all, Memorial Stadium has now become a home run haven, the construction of a giant scoreboard in left-center field having significantly altered the wind currents.

There were 141 homers hit there in the first 42 games this year. If the last 39 produce 107, Memorial Stadium will match the major league record of 248, hit at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles in 1961, the first year of the Angels.

The once-distinguished Baltimore pitching staff is also working on a record. The Orioles had allowed 124 homers through 85 games, giving them a shot at the major league record of 220 allowed by the Kansas City A’s in 1964.

The hitters, too, are not to be left out. The Orioles had hit 118 homers through 85 games, one fewer than Detroit and one more than Oakland. The major league record for homers in a season is 240, set by the 1961 New York Yankees.