A mile high and dry: Why Albuquerque is a home run hitters paradise

Ryan Zimmerman is 39 years old.

The 16-year major leaguer — who hit 284 career homers all while playing with the sea-level Washington Nationals — hasn’t swung a bat in a game since he hung up the cleats and called it a career nearly three years ago on Oct. 3, 2021.

When Major League Baseball called Zimmerman to ask “Mr. National” to be one of the former big league stars participating in this year’s barnstorming Home Run Derby X, the league’s relatively new fast-paced 3-on-3 home run hitting contest, the organization was prepared to do some arm twisting. But the pitch didn’t take as long as they thought.

When Zimmerman found out he was being asked to try to hit home runs at Isotopes Park — the Triple-A ballpark with a reputation for being a slugger’s dream — he was all in.

“Yeah, I knew what I was doing,” Zimmerman joked. “It’s just science.”

Zimmerman and three other former MLB sluggers — Manny Ramirez, Johnny Gomes and Ian Desmond — will headline the teams playing in Friday’s highly anticipated Home Run Derby X at Isotopes Park and will surely give the crowd a show in a ballpark home pitchers have not-so-affectionately described as a place that’s “like pitching on the moon” because routine fly balls never seem to come back to earth.

Sure, great pitchers have occasionally come through the Duke City, but you might not know it by looking at their stats.

“There’s no question that you can pitch well here and have bad results,” former Isotopes pitching coach Glenn Dishman said in a 2014 interview when the team was still affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“When you play at altitude, sometimes good pitches end up being home runs.”

So, what exactly is the science behind Albuquerque and Denver (home of the Isotopes’ MLB parent club Colorado Rockies) being home run hot beds? Do balls really fly out of that ballpark at a rate higher than at other stadiums? Is it all in our heads?

Let’s ask someone far more knowledgeable than a sportswriter.

The ‘science’ of it all

While baseball junkies, scouts, managers and players in recent years have grown enamored with statistical measurements like launch angle and exit velocity of a ball coming off the bat, those numbers aren’t affected by geographical location.

Then there are factors such as elevation (the thin air argument) and humidity (the dry air argument).

Albuquerque is on the outer edge of both with its elevation of 5,312 feet being the highest of any Triple-A or MLB city and its average annual relative humidity of 44% being well below the vast majority of Triple-A and MLB teams (Reno and Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League each have lower annual relative humidity, but neither are at Albuquerque’s elevation, giving the Duke City a double whammy in this discussion).

“The dry air argument is that dry air causes balls to be harder and more elastic,” according to Rishi Pathak, a graduate student in UNM’s Department of Physics & Astronomy.

“Imagine more elastic as the ball having large springs on every side of it. So, when you hit the ball, it goes farther. Also, drier balls would be lighter and easier to send to larger heights.”

This is recognized by MLB.

Initially, Denver’s Coors Field in 2002 — and then places like Isotopes Park in 2013 — stored baseballs in a humidor to insert moisture into them. This was in an effort to put more moisture into the balls so they would align with balls used across the country.

Today, all 30 MLB teams have humidors set to 72 degrees and at 57% humidity.

“The thin air argument is simply this: Whatever fluid (air here) the ball travels in has some friction against the ball’s movement,” Pathak said. “Friction is the amount a fluid can oppose the motion of the ball; you can call it a stopping force. This friction is large when you are in a dense fluid and less when the fluid is less dense (thin).

“This is why if you throw a ball while underwater, it won’t go as far as it goes in the air, because a lot of friction is trying to stop it from moving. So when you make air thin, less friction occurs and balls go farther in distance.”

As for Albuquerque: “Higher altitude cities have air that is both drier and thinner,” Pathak noted. “So both of these would help the ball go farther when hit, hence more home runs.”

The numbers

So what exactly are the home run numbers at Isotopes Park?

From the start of the 2005 season through Friday’s contest, there have been 6,339 home runs hit in Albuquerque Isotopes games — 3,111 by Isotopes players, 3,228 by opposing players.

Of those, 3,700 homers have been in Isotopes Park — 1,809 by the Isotopes, 1,891 by opponents.

That adds up to 58.4% of all home runs in Isotopes games occurring in Albuquerque.

The extreme seasons include Isotopes pitchers in 2009 allowing just 133 homers all season, but 90 of those (67.7%) were at Isotopes Park.

In 2017, Isotopes hitters hit 84 of their 130 homers (64.6%) at home.

Since 2005, there has never been a year the Isotopes hit or allowed more homers on the road. Also, each year in that time span, Albuquerque sluggers hit more homers in Isotopes Park than any other Pacific Coast League team’s players did in their home park.

Head games?

Baseballs fly out of Isotopes Park at a higher rate than at most places, which makes it a great back drop for the Home Run Derby X.

But does that knowledge get in the head of the hometown pitchers, dooming them even before they take the mound? After all, the other team’s pitcher has to throw in the same environment, albeit not on a regular basis.

“I think that’s a valid, man,” said former Isotopes manager and current Rockies third base coach Warren Schaeffer. “But, I mean, that’s a separator, right? There’s pitchers that have performed at Coors Field and have performed for a long period of time. ... It can be done. Pitchers can pitch well here. You know, the separator is are you going to dwell on it? Or are you going to go out there and get the job done. That’s all it comes down to.”