I Must Be In The Front Row
Chase Field's Friday's Front Row restaurant is a bit of a misnomer, isn't it? Second 
deck, perched twenty five or thirty rows behind the lower deck's first row. When I've had the misfortune of dining there, I sometimes fixate on birds nesting in the intricate roof structure because they're so much closer than the players.
Another tape measure stretch is the fairy tale that Eric Byrnes' moon shot yesterday, in the vicinity of "Friday's", traveled the same distance as Scott Rolen's 1999 crush off Omar Daal. If the initial claim that both went 473 feet is true, I'll eat my hat. Heck, I'll even buy a red hat and chew on that.
That would make Byrnes' homer the longest in MLB this year, when it appeared, to this viewer at least, it might not even be the longest of homer of the day, or even of this particular game.
Eric's bomb landed in the second row of balcony seats in front of Friday's Front Row Grill, a certifiable tape measure shot, but Rolen's ball traveled farther, probably by twenty feet or so. It struck the concrete facade of the restaurant itself, beyond and above the balcony section, essentially the front wall of the restaurant. For several years now, a white "Open 365 Days a Year" banner has covered Rolen's spot, but in April 1999, it was bare concrete.
I was there, and remember being surprised that it carried to the wall without the looping trajectory of Mark McGwire's 500 foot batting practice bombs. Rolen, the Phillies third baseman at the time, hit a line drive, which is not to say it was "still rising" on impact, but it assuredly didnt sink much either, a critical variable in estimating projected distance. Byrnes certainly hit his ball far and hard, but it was a low pitch tailing outside that he appeared to get under somewhat.
Finally, Byrnes' ball was closer to the LF pole than Rolen's, further suggesting that the earlier blast traveled farther.
I eagerly anticipate what these guys have to say about the issue, as they utilize triangulation, ball speed and vectors to arrive at their estimates.
The triangulation presented so far seems to be straight out of Bermuda.
( photos courtesy of mlb shop and mysterieszone.com )
Ate at Friday's Front Row on Saturday night(Mets)for the first time. Sat outside and watched BP.
Gotta say it was surprisingly good on all fronts:
quality
price
service
location
I'm not one to spend big bucks on ballpark fare - much rather eat at a restaurant (or at home) before. This was a nice mixture of ballpark ambience (as much as you get at Chase)with decent food and prices. I'd eat there again....
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I havent eaten there in years, but glad to hear it's turned the corner since the odious Colangelo era ;-)
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Well, it *is* still a Fridays. But if you go in with that expectation there really isn't much to be disappointed about.
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Well, looks like the hit tracker boys say Byrnes smacked it 470 feet. Not a bad shot, not bad at all.
But dwarfed by Tony's. Of which we've heard nothing about. Must be a race thing.
Somebody get Al Sharpton on the phone.
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Hit Tracker estimates Sexson's Jumbotron fly at 469 ft, a ******** 34 ft shy of the official 503 figure. Clark's homer is the longest they've calculated at BOB, however Greg Rybarczyk from Hit Tracker also advsd he doesnt have a video of Rolen from which to derive an estimate.
The longest, IMO, were Rolen and Clark, in that order.
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