wordygurdy wrote:
And Bill Madden in the New York Daily News did a piece earlier this year about Chuck Klein and how his stats were grossly inflated because he played his home games in the Baker Bowl, which apparently had very hitter friendly dimensions.
Dimensions: Left field: 335 ft. (1921), 341.5 ft. (1926), 341 ft. (1930), 341.5 ft. (1931); center field: 408 ft.;
right-center: 300 ft.; right field: 272 ft. (1921), 279.5 ft. (1924), 280.5 ft. (1925); backstop: 60 ft.
Fences: Left field: 4 ft. (1895), 12 ft. (1929); center-field clubhouse: 35 ft. (with 12 ft. screen on top, 1915); right field: 40 ft. (tin over brick, 1895), 60 ft. (40 ft. tin over brick, topped by 20 ft. screen, 1915).
ballparks.com
Note that Klein, a left-handed hitter (.320 lifetime), played two-plus seasons with the Cubs and five-plus in Shibe Park after the Phillies abandoned the Baker Bowl in the middle of the 1938 season. When he was traded to Chicago in 1934, his average dropped from .368 to .301 and his doubles from 44 to 27. (He'd had earlier seasons of 59 and 50 doubles.) After he returned to the Phillies in 1936, his numbers were never the same.
baseball-reference.com
Anyway, asking if somebody will hit .400 is similar to pre-election polls that ask who will win — except those do have a shred of usefulness. Poll respondents have been known to vote, but they have little influence over batting averages.