Decades before these modern advances, historians were left to make questionable estimations or even use an actual tape measure. 1970 Topps NL Home Run Leaders Willie McCovey Hank Aaron Lee May PSA 5 EX #65 (#255943093250) b***a (186) - Feedback left by buyer b . amzn_assoc_linkid = "a21f09e861185b9fce4ae88cc0fe0a70"; So even though many people think that Ruth's shots were all over the field, some of them had to have been less than this distance. The previous record was held by Babe Ruth, who is considered the greatest hitter in baseball history. Although there aremultiple talesof Babe Ruth's hitting his mythical home run beyond 600 feet, no accurate measuring tools existed during his playing days. William Jenkinson, who credited Ruth with setting distance high marks in every MLB ballpark, wrotethe Yankees icon "defies rational analysis": Amazingly, many of those records remain unequaled, which is to say thatRuthis a true athletic anachronism. The poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. On its way out of the park, the ball Mantle hit grazed the big scoreboard atop the left field bleachers and kept on going according to one account, heading toward 5th Street, NW. Jorge Soler has stroked some epic home runs in his Royal career. 565 ft may be where the ball stopped rolling, which is certainly possible, but home runs are typically measured by where they land. That '63 season, Dave slugged 22 home runs, walked 63 times and drove in 70 runs for a White Sox team that won 94 games. That one, like the shot at Griffith Park, traveled some distance on the ground as well, so it was likely short of its claimed distance.Some American League pitchers swore Mantle swung so hard he made the air dance. Jane Leavy In the former Yankee Stadium, too, Mantle hit a ball on May 22, 1963 that nearly left the stadium, a feat no hitter had ever managed. ESPN's Home Run Tracker has also studied long balls since 2006, giving fans a better sense of how homers travel. But Mickey Mantle would soongive them something to remember. Kingman didnt just hit the ball onto Waveland Avenue, he hit it well beyond, bouncing the ball off of a fans front porch. Then Mantle came to the plate. I had to squint to see home plate. How is the pitching distance measured in Little League? Skeptics will certainly be forgiven for doubting that distance, but others will prefer to simply believe. Mantle finished his career with 13 walkoff home runs. There are folk tales about Mickey Mantle hitting the longest home run ever measured 565 feet. The bat tip allows for more bat speed to be carried into the baseball. Chuck Stobbs Faces Mickey Mantle With . New research by National Baseball Hall of Fame, overturned that estimate and instead gives the mark to a 575 ft blast by Babe Ruth hit on July 18, 1921, also in Detroit.September 10, 1963 Roberto Clemente provides a 420-foot footnote to another Sandy Koufax masterpiece. ESPN's Home Run Tracker docked his true distance down to 487. When he retired, Mantle was third on the all-time home-run list with 536, and he was the Yankees' all-time leader in games played with 2,401, a record that would be broken by Derek Jeter on August 29, 2011. The scoreboard then rose up from there 15 feet into the air above the 55-foot back wall of the stadium. "It looks like beer's coming down.". He narrowly missed a home run in his first at bat, slamming a ball off the top of the right-center wall for a standup triple. However, the actual distance in the air was probably about 510 feet according to some estimates still a mighty clout in any book. In this case, however, initial estimates appeared to have sold Ted Williams short. This was a historic 565-foot homer that helped fuel the Mantle legend. amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; Bo rarely hit fence scrapers. Martinez strikes out 17 batters, the most Yankees ever fanned in a single game. He was 38 years old in his 16th season, but he still went yard 28 times over 450 plate appearances and earned a .567 slugging percentage. Ted Williams introduced this concept in his book "The Science of Hitting" published in 1971. Have you flown to or from the new KCI yet? A ball landing on the plaza might have bounced clear to I-70. Not knowing where the ball landed on April 4, 1988, the Mets outfielder stopped at second before receiving clearance to finish rounding the bases. What is the longest home run in MLB history. Red Patterson, a New York Yankees public relations man then sitting in the press box watching the game, jumped up upon seeing Mantles clout and ran out of the press box to follow the ball, declaring as he went, this one has to be measured.. Mickey Mantle & Sports Illustrated covers, SportsIllustrated.CNN.com. That game ended in a 1-1 tie after nine innings with both teams having scored twice. The shot traveled an estimated 475 feet and took all of six seconds to cover that distance. The ball will still rising when it struck the upper right-hand corner of a sign atop the Green Monster, which temporarily deflected the laser. Shirley Povich, To Whom It May Concern, Washington Post, April 26, 1953, p. C-1. Instead, let's look back to September 14, 1991, when the Detroit Tigers slugger pounded a ball beyondMilwaukee County Stadium's bleachers. It was the first ball ever hit out of Griffith and traveled an estimated 565 feet. This list includes icons, Hall and Famers and rakers who wielded unquestionably elite power. In the bottom of the 3rdinning, Jackson crushed an outside fastball that eventually rang off of a transformer at the top of the stadium. New York Mets fans don't hold many fond memories of Mo Vaughn. He led the National League in home runs on four occasions on his way to 755 career home runs. In reality, he would have had to hit the ball 131 miles per hour. The Big Donkey, as he is known, hit 270 home runs for his original club, and none longer than the deep, deep bomb he drilled off a high Jose Lima fast ball in 2004. In virtually every other field of endeavor in which physical performance can be measured, there are no Ruthian equivalents. Koufax shelved the slider for the rest of the night. Dwight Eisen- hower was president, the Korean War was in its third year, and a young baseball player named Mickey Mantle was hitting some monster home run shots for the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth was said to have hit a home run over 600 feet. However, for much of MLB history, there wasnt even an exact way to determine the length of tape-measure home runs. "Balls with that trajectory, for a lot of guys it doesn't go out. He hits balls that just keep carrying. If not for hitting a transformer on Tiger Stadium's roof, the baseball would have experienced a further journey. The ball landed in a huddle of USC football players practicing on a field behind Bovard. Hitting a home run to straight away center field off of a 90-mile-an-hour fastball is difficult to do. It was hit on August 14, 1953, at Milwaukee County Stadium. Mickey Mantle batted in a run for every 5.4 at-bats and for every 6.6 plate appearances. May 22, 2014. Richie Sexson stood so tall in the batters box you would think that he was tall enough to play in the NBA. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; Using the best information available, let's take a stab at locating the longest recorded home runs ever. Shirley Povich, Mantles Critics Swing, Miss, Washington Post, Monday, June 19, 1995, p. C-1. The roof might have stopped it from clearing Detroit altogether. That consarned wind has been blowing for 100 years and nobody else ever hit one out of this ballpark like that. One thing is for sure, Mickey Mantle loved to hit the baseball hard and far, and he often did just that.Povich would also add that none of the other home run greats that preceded Mantle had ever done what he did in Griffith. In June, 1985, Mantle's blow was retroactively measured at 643 feet, and was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest Home Run in History. No Wind, Declares Judge, Helped Mantle Homer, New York Times, Tuesday, April 21, 1953, Sports, p. 34. A hearty hack on May 20, 1978 which went further than any ball ever hit at Montreal Stadium. I would have believed 1,484 feet.". src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=674090812743125&ev=PageView&noscript=1"/>. Kingman hit at 13:57. He used a tape measure to determine the exact distance of the home run, giving birth to the term tape-measure shot.. It would have left the park, almost certainly would have cleared Lansdowne Street and the House of Blues. . Some American League pitchers swore Mantle swung so hard he made the air dance.. Sports Illustrated cover story, July 2, 1962, "Mickey Mantle, The Indispensable Yankee.". The home run, Mantle's first of 1953, has been listed in the Guinness Book of records as the longest documented blast. There's a lesson for all the kids hoping to leave behind a lasting legacy: Stay humble, work hard and hit dingers. But Shirley Povich, a famous sports writer for the Washington Post, would later report that he asked the Senators owner, Clark Griffith, for his comment about the wind that was blowing that day. A sixth ball was thrown by a fan in the tenth but it was credited to the batter so it didn't reach the stands. Ive witnessed hundreds of long balls. When I watch video of Benchs home run, Im convinced that the McRae home run went further. Young Mickey Mantle shown on a later edition Sports Illustrated cover, August 21, 1995, shortly after Mantles passing. Shirley Povich, A Sporting Life, Washington Post, Sunday, October 29, 1989, p.W-22. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. Some cite it as the longest home run in baseball history. The record has since been beaten three times, most recently by Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros in 1997. It's foolish to take hearsay as concrete evidence, but it's also difficult to believe the man who hit 714 home runs during the dead-ball era wasn't capable of abnormal results. Yet the story of his 565-foot moonshot still lives strong. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The fastest exit speed velocity in the MLB over the last decade is 122 MPH. He doesn't just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity.. One of the most notable came in July of 2015 when Yoenis Cespedes, then playing for the Detroit Tigers sent one into orbit off the Red Soxs Steven Wright. amzn_assoc_region = "US"; The first came on June 15 off Jake Odorizzi and traveled an estimated 462 feet. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. Turns out, they were only right about half of that. However, sluggers in this list make 400 feet seem like childs play as all of them have hit the ball at least 503 feet. Here's Mickey Mantle, the magnificent Yankee, hitting his last (unofficial) home run i. There is a huge difference between a ball that is hit squarely in the air and a ball this has been sliced and resulted in a true pop up. One of the most exciting home runs I witnessed in Royals Stadium came in a late-season September game in 1977. This cannon shot to straightaway center carried an estimated 474 feet. What about Mickey Mantle? Ive spoken to a few fans who say that the Royals John Mayberry hit a gargantuan home run that bounced off the top of the concession stand in the right field plaza. Mr. October was the architect of many classic post-season memories while wearing New York Yankees pinstripes. As a fan of the game, I love to see the ball exit speed and launch angles displayed while watching games. The first baseman ended his MLB career with 18 home runs in 156 games across two seasons, but it was his monstrous minor league homer that etched his name into the history books. Many in the crowd were still settling into their seats when Cespedes came to the plate. One Pirate later observed that \"giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. Mickey Mantle hit 298 solo homers, 162 with a single runner on base, 67 with two men on base, and 9 grand slams. (Courtesy the National Baseball Hall of Fame) The longest home run ever hit. In 1987, Joey Meyer, playing for the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs, launched this ball an astonishing 582 FEET! The distance of his home runs was not recorded at the time, but it's estimated that he hit ones farther than 565 feet once out of every four times he stepped up to the plate. Randall Swearingen, A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle, Sports Publishing LLC, 2007, 232 pp. Comments to: jdoyle@pophistorydig.com. There are folk tales about Mickey Mantle hitting the longest home run ever measured 565 feet. Some say it was a dinger hit by Johnny Bench in the 1973 All-Star game. "The ball assumed what can only be called a majestic arc and landed on the left-field roof in Tiger Stadium," Ryan wrote. Cleveland, however, commemorated Thome's blast in 2014 by placing a statue of the franchise's all-time homer leader near the landing sight of Progressive Field's longest home run. Frank Gifford, who later made a name for himself with the New York Giants, Monday Night Football and airline stewardesses, was a running back at USC at the time, said no one ever hit a ball onto the football field. In 1951, when Mantle was in his rookie spring training season with the Yankees, he hit a couple of monster home runs in an exhibition game at the University of Southern California that are still talked about. "You can feel the wind blowing," Expos right fielder Hubie Brooks said, per Durso's report. Richard Keiber, a collector who obtained Kingman's moonshot outside of Wrigley Field, insisted to theChicago Tribune's Rick Talley in 2003 that 600 feet was a more accurate tally. Jose Canseco played in the Major Leagues from 1985 to 2001, over that time span he hit 462 home runs. Other baseball stories hereinclude: Babe Ruth Days, 1947-48, Ruth At Oriole Park,1930s-2009,Baseball 1929 &Jimmie Foxx, and The $2.8 Milliion Baseball Card. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Ill never forget the night, April 8, 1974, my sisters birthday, when Henry Aaron, a black man playing in the Deep South, turned on an Al Downing fastball and with his powerful wrists, sent the ball over the left field fence for career home run 715, breaking Babe Ruths long-standing record. Neither of them really needs it.\" September 10, 1999, The Red Sox trip the Yankees, 3 - 1, as Pedro Martinez hurls an impressive one-hitter for his 21st victory of the year. We were are all taught to "keep our shoulders level.". But one of the longest-rumored dingers he ever dinger'd was as a 19-year-old during an exhibition match against USC. This process allows for momentum to be carried into contact. TheBoston Globe's Bob Ryan, viaMLB.com's Mike Bertha, marveled at the power display. The Royals were locked in a tight pennant race with the hated Oakland As. Mickey Mantle's home run in 1953 landed in a housing development beyond the left-field wall. 54-57. The Yankees lose by one point on Mo Vaughn's single in the tenth. The game has become one of the most memorable in baseball history, because in the fifth inning, Mickey Mantle hit one of the longest home runs ever recorded. Mickeys Historic Homer On Trial!,Mickey Mantle.com. Accurately measuring those moonshots isn't much easier. Bo was only in his second full season with the Royals. The distance: 656 feet to the point where it first landed! This would put him in the feasible discussion for the longest round-tripper ever. Babe Ruth was said to have hit a home run over 600 feet. It was quite the shot, something that had never been seen at the Big O. Strawberry even stopped at second base after the ball hit the roof of the stadium, unsure whether to complete his home run trot, until the umpire gave him the go-ahead to touch them all. Copyright 2020 - 2023 Sportsmanist Inc. Where did Mickey Mantle hit the longest home run in baseball? amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; It may not have been the only home run ever to leave Jacobs Field, but it was memorable. Facing Boston started Bill Spaceman Lee, leading off the Royals half of the fourth, Lee hung one over the plate and McRae teed off. If the home run is the most exciting play in baseball, than here are the most awesome. This was a historic 565-foot homer that helped fuel the Mantle legend McRae run., per Durso 's report consarned wind has been blowing for 100 and. & # x27 ; d was as a fan of the longest-rumored dingers he ever dinger & # ;... This would put him in the Major Leagues from 1985 to 2001, that. 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