Phantastic

I had a trip to Veterans Stadium for today's game penciled in about three months ago. You see, over the winter my daughter received an invitation to the Phillie Phanatic's last birthday at the Vet. She's only four but is already on mailing lists. I had planned on going but delayed in buying the tickets, and then a family obligation cropped up. So of course, today ends up being the day that Kevin Millwood ends up pitching a no-hitter against the Giants, no less, winning 1-0.

I have never seen a no-hitter live and in its entirity.

Millwood seemed to pitch well but had a few lucky breaks. Jose Cruz hit a monster shot to right field that went just foul in the second. Barry Bonds also hit a ball hard that was caught by Abreu in right in the fourth. Marquis Grissom smacked a ball to center in the seventh and Ricky Ledee made a nice running catch on it.

It occurred to me that Millwood, though he pitched a gem, may have been aided by the newly home run-stingy Vet. Here are the teams with the stingiest home parks sorted by homers by at-bat. The team's own home runs and opponents homers are broken out:

Team           Home    Opp.  Total
              HR  AB HR  AB HR   AB   HR%
Pittsburgh     6 471 10 487 16  958 1.67%
NY Mets        8 415  9 445 17  860 1.98%
Kansas City    9 314  4 326 13  640 2.03%
Philadelphia  13 504  8 518 21 1022 2.05%
Detroit        2 242  9 280 11  522 2.11%
Chicago Cubs  14 413  4 419 18  832 2.16%
NY Yankees    12 290  2 300 14  590 2.37%
San Diego      4 338 12 334 16  672 2.38%
Toronto       10 375 10 414 20  789 2.53%
Seattle       10 495 16 521 26 1016 2.56%
Arizona        6 342 12 355 18  697 2.58%
Florida       14 473 11 493 25  966 2.59%
San Francisco 10 308  7 334 17  642 2.65%
Oakland       14 477 11 466 25  943 2.65%
Tampa Bay      9 559 22 557 31 1116 2.78%
Boston        12 309  6 316 18  625 2.88%
Los Angeles    6 299 12 311 18  610 2.95%
Atlanta       13 500 17 516 30 1016 2.95%
Cleveland      9 346 12 353 21  699 3.00%
Houston       12 304  7 309 19  613 3.10%
Anaheim       13 478 18 494 31  972 3.19%
Baltimore     15 437 13 438 28  875 3.20%
St. Louis      8 279 10 283 18  562 3.20%
Minnesota      6 345 19 368 25  713 3.51%
Colorado      18 397 12 396 30  793 3.78%
Cincinnati    21 463 16 511 37  974 3.80%
Texas         28 512 14 489 42 1001 4.20%
Montreal      20 490 23 534 43 1024 4.20%
Milwaukee     14 352 19 381 33  733 4.50%
Chicago Sox   22 396 17 406 39  802 4.86%
Avg           12 397 12 412 24  809 2.97%
Phil (2002)  165    153    318      2.89%
               5523    5481   11004

Note that the Phils are fourth but their HR rate is nearly a third less than 2002 (last line).

The explanation may be that the construction of a stadium right next door set to open in 2004, may have changed the air flow to the outfield. Something similar was said to have happened in Fenway after some boxes were added a few years ago. It'll be interesting to see if the low home run totals continue for the Phils, who were considered by many to have had the most potent offense in the NL coming into the season. One thing to keep in mind with the 2003 Phils is that they are still fifth in baseball, and third in the NL, in runs scored. This may have been due to the Phils being second overall in walks and fifth in on-base percentage (while just 17th in slugging and 12th in batting average).