Arizona Diamondbacks to Install Humidor at Chase Field, and Phoenix's Hot, Dry Air Is the Reason | The Weather Channel
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Arizona's Major League Baseball team needs to get a grip – on the baseball.

By

Sean Breslin

April 19, 2017


Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, is seen before a game on July 5, 2013.

(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)


The Arizona Diamondbacks have been playing baseball in the desert for 19 years, enduring the dry heat that bakes Phoenix every summer. Now, the franchise wants to make it a little easier on pitchers.

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The team announced plans to install a humidor at Chase Field in an effort to add grip to the baseballs, according to the Associated Press. In an interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall said former pitchers complained they couldn't grip the ball as easily in the dry Phoenix heat, ranking as their biggest complaint about the stadium.

This will make Chase Field the second Major League Baseball stadium to have a humidor; Denver's Coors Field had one installed in 2002 to weigh down the balls in the high altitude to make it slightly less of a hitter's ballpark. While Coors Field sits at a mile above sea level, Chase Field is only 1,100 feet above sea level, according to the Arizona Republic, so it's not the altitude – it's the dry heat.

"(The pitchers) all talked about the grip," Hall told the radio station. "The one thing you don't really want to do is negatively impact the offense because that's part of the fun of Chase Field or Coors Field. But I don't think (a humidor) really did diminish the offense at Coors Field. We don't know if it's going to make much of a difference, but it's probably a necessity."

Inside the large humidor, baseballs will be stored at 50 percent humidity and a temperature of 70 degrees, the AP report added.


Pictured here is the humidor used by the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)


Members of the franchise said they're hopeful the humidor may prevent a situation where a pitcher loses grip on the ball and throws an out-of-control pitch, which could be a danger to the hitter. It's a preventative measure that could make the game safer on those summer days when humidity is extremely low.

“We’ll see what happens,” Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin told the Republic, “but hopefully the ball just feels better, you get a better grip, and when a pitcher can have a better grip, that makes the game safer as well.”