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Maybe They Should Play in Yellowstone

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In Denver, where major league baseball begins next season with the expansion Colorado Rockies, theorists and scientists are already imagining the possibilities: Mile-long home runs launched from Mile High Stadium.

The combination of power hitters playing at altitude even has scientists wondering if houses in Wyoming are safe from airborne baseballs. Tom Stephen, a University of Denver physicist, recently released a 17-page study that, among other things, predicts that someday a Jose Canseco-type will hit a ball farther than anyone ever has. Another finding is that a ball will travel 10% farther in the rarefied air than in, say, the other expansion city of Miami.

“If they ever get a guy who hits 30 home runs, he might hit 50 in Denver,” San Francisco Manager Roger Craig was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald. “You aren’t going to see many 2-1 games there.”

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Added Bill Campbell, pitching coach for the triple-A Denver Zephyrs: “You are going to get some cheap home runs here. It doesn’t take much. We’ve got guys with no power hitting them out. Every club that comes here leaves with a high ERA. The high fly balls just keep going. The Rockies are going to need to get a lot of speedy outfielders and sinkerball pitchers.”

Add launching pad: The stadium configurations won’t help, either. The left-field wall is 335 feet away and can’t be moved because Mile High was built for football. So using the 10% theory from the Denver study, someone could hit the equivalent of a 305-foot home run.

On top of that, Stephens said, a pitcher who normally throws a curveball or knuckleball that breaks 14 inches will lose three inches on that pitch.

Trivia time: What was the only team to win the NBA title one season and fail to qualify for the playoffs the next?

$huffling off: The Buffalo Bisons, a triple-A baseball club, have sold 1 million tickets for the fifth consecutive season. To commemorate the milestone, the team has offered a $1-million prize to the fan whose name is drawn in the same inning that a player from the home team hits a grand slam.

The Bisons had the same promotion last year, with the lucky fan getting a 40-year annuity of $25,000 per. Eddie Zambrano was the only Bison to bat with the bases full, and he missed a home run by 25 feet, flying out to right.

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The other day, Zambrano came up again with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Louisville. Then, Brian Dorsett was picked off second before the third pitch.

“Everyone was standing on their feet, stomping and giving a standing ovation, hoping for the grand slam,” said Mark Miles of the Bisons’ baseball operations staff. “It was crazy here. Then, when he got picked off, they started going even more crazy.”

P.S.: Zambrano hit a foul-ball homer the next pitch, then struck out. He did win $200 for a fan with a two-run homer in the first game.

Open and shut: As New York prepares for the U.S. Open, tennis players prepare for New York.

“At the single court just behind the stadium, you’ve got people coming up and down the stadium walkways all the time,” Jim Courier told Tennis magazine. “I remember playing there a few years ago and I couldn’t even see my opponent half the time because so much smoke was being blown across the court from concession stands.”

Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, who won the championship in 1968-69 and went 34-48 in 1969-70.

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Quotebook: Washington Redskin receiver Terry Orr, noting the importance of teammates Desmond Howard, Darrell Green and Jim Lachey signing contracts and reporting to training camp: “Now I can get a loan without going to a bank.”

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