Ralph Kiner
Positions: Leftfielder and First Baseman
Bats: Right • Throws: Right
6-2, 195lb (188cm, 88kg)
Born: October 27, 1922 in Santa Rita, NM us
Died: February 6, 2014
30 or more Home Runs: 36 times at home, half that on the road. Sammy Sosa 30/30 3 times. Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Single digits on the road:
Kiner led NL in HR SEVEN times, twice hitting 50:
1947: 51 home/road split: 28/23
1949: 54 home/road split: 29/25
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Kiner's 1948 home/road AB splits were almost identical. But Kiner hit 78% of his 40 HR at home in Forbes Field.
https://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ballparks/forbes-field/
On June 30,1909, with future Hall of Fame member Honus Wagner at shortstop, the the Pirates hosted the Chicago Cubs in the first game at Forbes Field in front of 30,388 fans...
The scoreboard was part of the outfield wall in left field. Original dimensions at Forbes Field were 360 ft. (left), 462 ft. (center), and 376 ft. (right)...
After the Pirates acquired slugger Hank Greenberg they moved the left field in 30 feet to 330 feet after World War II. This area became known as Greenberg Gardens and later Kiner’s Korner when Ralph Kiner became part of the Pirates...
It was known as one of the hardest ballparks to hit a home run at.
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https://ballparks.com/baseball/national/forbes.htm
Dimensions: Left field: 360 (1909), 356.5 (1921), 356 (1922), 360 (1926), 365 (1930), 335 (1947), 365 (1954)
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https://www.baseball-almanac.com/stadium/st_forbes.shtml
Left Field
1909 360'
1921 356.5'
1922 356'
1926 360'
1930 365'
1947 335'
1954 365'
Left Center
1942 406'
1947 355'
1954 406'
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Both Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and Ralph Kiner batted right handed.
But why did Kiner hit so few home runs on the road in 1948?
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Ralph-Kiner/
In 1947 the Pirates acquired 36-year-old Hank Greenberg from Detroit. Greenberg had once hit 58 home runs and had led the American League in 1946 with 44. In spring training Kiner met the man he would call “the single biggest influence of my adult life.”4 On the first day, Greenberg suggested they take extra batting practice. That was Kiner’s first lesson: Hard work is the way to succeed. The young slugger and the old one became friends and roommates on road trips. Kiner said Greenberg made him a pull hitter and built up his confidence. Greenberg also gave him a wardrobe makeover after he spotted Kiner wearing brown shoes with a tuxedo.
Greenberg’s arrival made a more tangible contribution to Kiner’s development as a home-run hitter: To make Forbes Field friendlier for the veteran, the club built a bullpen in left field, cutting the 365-foot foul line to 335. The left-center power alley shrank from a formidable 406 feet to 376. The new bullpen – actually about average home-run distance for a big-league park – was dubbed “Greenberg Gardens.” ...
(1947) Kiner ... (and) The Giants’ Mize ... finished tied for the league lead with 51.
By then sportswriters had renamed Greenberg Gardens “Kiner’s Korner.” (Greenberg, in his last season (1947), hit 25 homers.) ...
The Pirates’ home attendance spiked by 71 percent over 1946. Kiner was the main attraction on a club that finished tied for last place. The owners tripled his salary to $30,000 for 1948.
Kiner fell off to 40 home runs in 1948, again tying Mize for the league lead...
Pittsburgh attendance grew 18 percent to another record, 1.5 million. The 1948 season was the peak of the postwar baseball boom; major-league teams drew nearly 21 million fans, the most until 1962 ...
The club bumped Kiner’s 1949 salary to $40,000...
At that time Kiner was still living with his mother in Alhambra (near Los Angeles). The singer Bing Crosby, a minority owner of the Pirates, drew the young, single star into his Hollywood circle, even arranging for Kiner to escort 17-year-old actress Elizabeth Taylor to a movie premiere. He built a house in Palm Springs, California, then just emerging as a golf and tennis resort for the Hollywood set; Kiner was an avid golfer. Friends and neighbors included Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball and her husband and co-star, Desi Arnaz. Kiner dated other Hollywood starlets, but on October 13, 1951, he married 22-year-old tennis star Nancy Chaffee, the sixth-ranked American player. Greenberg served as best man at the wedding.
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1948 was Kiner's first MLB season after having Greenberg as his roommate on the road. Maybe Ralph got distracted on the road with lots of money and being the star of his team, away from his mother. Maybe.
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