Homerun Distribution

A question came up this week on the SABR list as to the distribution of homeruns. Using the 1992 play-by-play data from Retrosheet I ran a couple of queries:

HR by field

Left  1654 55%

Center 718 24%

Right   51 22%



HR by batter

L 1116 37%

R 1909 63%



HR by field and batter

L 7   80 3%

R 7 1574 52%

L 8  445 15%

R 8  273 9%

L 9  591 20%

R 9  60 2%

Retrosheet also includes more sophisticated data including homeruns down the line. For example, of the 1654 homeruns to left they were distributed as:

Fly ball down the line: 273
Other fly balls: 1110
Line drive down the line: 77
Other line drives: 194