Jacobs Field and the Fabric of the Cosmos

Here is something interesting that seems to me requires an explanation. As Dave Studeman pointed out in one of his excellent "Ten Things" columns Jacobs Field in Cleveland appears to induce more ground balls than other parks.

The following is the raw data from Baseball Info Solutions for the past three years.

Jacobs Field
         BIP grnders  flysof  flysif  liners grnders  flysof  flysif  liners
2004    4642    2096    1427     182     859   45.2%   30.7%    3.9%   18.5%
2003    4589    2019    1261     161    1010   44.0%   27.5%    3.5%   22.0%
2002    4483    2044    1259     181     923   45.6%   28.1%    4.0%   20.6%

Indians Road Games
2004    4808    1974    1667     214     880   41.1%   34.7%    4.5%   18.3%
2003    4754    1953    1439     186    1061   41.1%   30.3%    3.9%   22.3%
2002    4571    1917    1431     176     951   41.9%   31.3%    3.9%   20.8%

Ratios
     grnders  flysof  flysif  liners
2004   1.100   0.887   0.881   1.011
2003   1.071   0.908   0.897   0.986
2002   1.087   0.897   1.049   0.990

So the numbers have been consistent over the past three years and average out to around 1.086, or 8.6% above average.

So the question of the day is, what factors could conspire to make one ballpark induce more ground balls than another? Or should the question be reversed and are the additional ground balls really a suppression of fly balls?

I've thought a bit about this and nothing really comes to the forefront in terms of explanations. Could it be something about the park (prevailing winds?) that pushes foul popups into the stands and provides more chances for ground balls? Could it be the hitting background that induces hitters to hit the top half of the ball? Is the mound a little higher or lower? Could it be an anomaly in the fabric of spacetime that creates an area of concentrated gravity in the vicinity of the infield at Jacobs Field? I'm up for any other explanations as well...

By the way, I've checked the BIS data against another data source and although the scoring guidelines differ between the two sources the second source confirms the well above average ground ball rates at Jacobs Field.

Look for complete batted ball park factors in The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2006.