Richie Sexson stood so tall in the batters box you would think that he was tall enough to play in the NBA. Jose Canseco's upper-deck blast helped the Oakland Athletics defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1989 American League Championship Series. (Courtesy the National Baseball Hall of Fame) The longest home run ever hit. July 3, 1999, the Cleveland Indians star sent a ball screaming an estimated 511 feet. Besides Dunn, only Mickey Mantle and Mark McGwire appear twice on this list, proving Dunn swings a mean bat. Some cite it as the longest home run in baseball history. For guys with a flatter swing path, they will need a pitch that is high in the strike zone. Hurdle, drafted in 1975, made quick work of the Royals minor league system. The surefire Hall of Famer was made to look like a minor leaguer, at least for one at bat. Despite the scarcity of film onRuth, we can still make definitive evaluations of the approximate landing points of all of his 714 career home runs. Kingman hit at 13:57. Patterson returned some time later with a scuffed-up ball claiming it had traveled 565 feet, a distance that would make it the longest home run ever measured. He smoked his longest career home run in Arizona off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Francis Beltran. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; When I watch video of Benchs home run, Im convinced that the McRae home run went further. Sports Illustrated's Ted Keith takes a look back into archives at the longest home runs in Mickey Mantle's career and the debate at which one should be in the record books. But Lemon gives up four runs without recording an out before being replaced by Joe Pepitone. "I was sitting on a changeup, because he only threw like 88," Dunn recalled to Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans a year later. Many say the longest home run hit against Kansas City came off the bat of Royal killer Jim Thome in July of 1999. Mantle is holding the home run ball he hit out of Washington, D.C.s Griffith Stadium, estimated to have gone a distance of some 562 feet. What is the longest home run in MLB history. Jack Doyle, Mantles Griffith Shot, April 1953, Baseballs best sluggers have embraced that philosophy and raised the bar for what it means to mash, crush and blast. Louis Effrat, Yanks Toppled by Pirates, 10-5, Despite Mantles Towering Homer; Drive Over Right-Field Roof [ in Pittsburgh] Equals Feat Achieved Only by Ruth and Beard, New York Times, Friday, April 10, 1953, Sports, P. 27. According to Statcast, someone soon to follow topped Mike Piazza's 496-foot homer from Sept. 26, 1997, as the longest home run in Coors Field history. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Strawberry hit another dinger during New York's Opening Day victory and matched his previous season's career high with 39 homers that year. A lot of these homers reached the upper decks and some even left the ballpark completely. Many coaches are against hitting the ball in the air because of the perceived "easy out.". In seven-plus seasons since Statcasts inception, three home runs have traveled more than 500 feet. Eleven years before the Milwaukee Brewers drafted his son, Prince, they watched Fielder punish a baseball. One Pirate later observed that \"giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. "The ball assumed what can only be called a majestic arc and landed on the left-field roof in Tiger Stadium," Ryan wrote. In 1921 alone, which was, best tape measure season, he hit at least one 500 foot home run in all eight American League cities. If not for hitting a transformer on Tiger Stadium's roof, the baseball would have experienced a further journey. Mickey Mantle 1967 - 500th Home Run as aired on WPIX-TV, 5/14/1967 YanksAtShea 6.23K subscribers Subscribe 12K 2.4M views 10 years ago YanksAtShea is very proud to present on its 45th. In the bottom of the 3rdinning, Jackson crushed an outside fastball that eventually rang off of a transformer at the top of the stadium. The casual fan might not fully appreciate the modest masher, who becomes eligible for Hall of Fame consideration next year. This blast off Glendon Rusch caromed off the center field awning for an estimated 504 feet. This measurement is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest home run ever measured. Mantle homered off 224 different pitchers during his career, connected most often while batting third in the lineup, and drove in 859 total runs when he went deep! Hal McRae, acquired the previous winter, had gotten off to a slow start, but by the time this game, against the Boston Red Sox rolled around, Mac was heating up. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Some say it was a dinger hit by Johnny Bench in the 1973 All-Star game. The New York Yankees travel coordinator estimated the distance of the home run to equal 565 feet. Bo was only in his second full season with the Royals. What was the distance of a home run in 1927. This list includes icons, Hall and Famers and rakers who wielded unquestionably elite power. Brown wasnt known for giving up a lot of home runs, but the Cat sure lit him up. 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.. The noted historian also backed ancient anecdotes of the Sultan of Swat's hitting one. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) It was here, on April 4, 1919, in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants, that Babe Ruth hit his longest home run ever -- 587 feet. Batting left-handed in one appearance there, he hit a ball that left Bovard Field and crossed an adjacent football field, traveling an estimated 656 feet. amzn_assoc_linkid = "2133531abc20bf49c266f610b6f2270d"; On a ball that sped 124 mph off the bat, ESPN's Home Run Tracker estimated a distance of 539 feet if unhindered. In addition to the five that reached the stands, another ball was hit by Boston's Dave Nelson against San Diego in an 11-9 Red Sox win on May 30, 1976. Here's Mickey Mantle, the magnificent Yankee, hitting his last (unofficial) home run i. Off-field problems derailed his path to superstardom, but his Montreal moonshot serves as a reminder of his off-the-charts power. As you see in the clip above, Longoria drops his shoulder a significant amount just to hit a ball that is at the top of the strike zone. Mr. October receives the benefit of the doubt for his July feat, but watch the ball rocket off his bat. Old-timers still talk about the April 1953 dinger he hit out of Griffith Stadium in Washington. Next stop would have been the Mass Turnpike. There's the 565-footer at Griffith Stadium or the prodigious blasts off the tops of the old Yankee Stadium facade. David Halberstam, October 1964, Villard Books, New York, 1994, 380pp. A record six balls have been thrown into the stands at Fenway Park during Red Sox games. 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. According to Statcast, someone soon to follow topped Mike Piazza's 496-foot homer from Sept. 26, 1997, as the longest home run in Coors Field history. Washington's Griffith Stadium. Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 12 February 2010 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. He had yielded just four homers during the first half, but Jackson took him deep for an unofficial fifth. 1. While those feats would shatter Meyer's mark, there was no technology or tool that could give an exact measure of those distances. While ESPN didn't dare to debunk this legend, it studied another home run against the Kansas City Royals onMay 22, 1963. But none of them came close to breaking the record he set in 1953. 6/21/2019 Nomar Mazara- 505 feet pic.twitter.com/xRgKESrJTs. Randall Swearingen, A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle, Sports Publishing LLC, 2007, 232 pp. Mantle's homer was part of an offensive outburst by the Yankees that day: New York beat Washington, 4-3, in 11 innings. "Yet again, we have an example of a genuinely epic home run that has been grievously overstated.". How is the pitching distance measured in Little League? As MLB.com's Ben Weinribnoted, the blast marked the longest homer since MLB installed Statcast in all stadiums in 2015. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; 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. As popular a player who ever donned a Cleveland Indians uniform, Thome victimized Kansas City Royals hurler Don Wengert for a homer that made it right out of Jacobs Field, to the amazement of the fans, TV commentators, coaches and teammates alike. Jorge Soler has stroked some epic home runs in his Royal career. Dunn finished the season with a career-high 46 long balls. 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. Mick said the hardest ball he ever hit came off the Kansas City Athletics Bill Fischer in May of 1963, a shot that nearly left Yankee Stadium, knocked out of its orbit when it hit the top of the right field faade. Bo to us. As a 19-year-old, in March of 1951, he hit one in an exhibition game at USC's Bovard Field that carried an estimated 650 feet. That righteous shot, to left-center field carried an estimated 489 feet. That shot, off the Angels Bill Singer, landed about five rows shy of the left field plaza. The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. Thats right, Mantle actually topped himself. "The Longest Home Runs Ever Hit" One of the most commonly told is that in 1953 he cleared . From interviews with the biggest newsmakers to discussions with our award winning writers and editors, SI Now is your spot for all things football, basketball, baseball and everywhere else around the world of sports:http://po.st/PlaylistSI-NowThe best of SIs award-winning video storytelling. ESPN's Home Run Tracker tells a different story, calculating the final distance of Piazza's slam at 515 feet. In reality, he would have had to hit the ball 131 miles per hour. His blasts were more like laser beams. , we can still make definitive evaluations of the approximate landing points of all of his 714 career home runs. Mickey Mantle, 1953, 565 Feet Seven years before Mickey Mantle hit the longest home run ever recorded in a baseball game, he hit what was then the longest tape measure shot. May 22, 2014. Notice where Canseco holds the barrel as the pitch is being thrown. What made Mickey Mantle so good? The As McGwire hit the ball so hard off of Clevelands Orel Hershiser that it caused the veteran pitcher to mouth the word wow as the ball sailed into the left field bleachers. 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. The Longest Home Run Ever Was So Deep, It Fooled the Camera Man. April 14, 1976. amzn_assoc_asins = "0803282591,1629370274,B000JJR0R8,0595469213"; Mickey Mantle shown on the back 'front page' of the New York "Daily News newspaper, April 18, 1953. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; As Sports Illustrated's Cliff Corcorannoted, Jenkinson also acknowledged The Bambino as owner of the three longest home runs ever hit in his book The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs. Either way, everyone can agree he hit the ball very far. In virtually every other field of endeavor in which physical performance can be measured, there are no Ruthian equivalents. It was his second home run of the game, and it still stands as one of the greatest disasters in baseball history. There were two outs. Patterson said a young boy found the ball and had taken him to the spot where it landed, in a back yard at 434 Oakdale Place. The slugger will either strike out or mash a hanging curve ball into the bleachers. Although the blast was touted at 529 feet,ESPN arrivedat 468 feet. Others claim the longest jack was hit by the Angels Mike Trout in June of 2014 off Jason Vargas. The noted historian also backed ancient anecdotes of the Sultan of Swat's hitting one over 600 feet atWilkes University'sArtillery Parkin 1926. Who hit the longest home run ever and how far did they estimate it to have Travelled? It may not have been the only home run ever to leave Jacobs Field, but it was memorable. The greatest confirmed home run distance in Major League Baseball is about 575 feet (175 m), by Babe Ruth, to straightaway center field at Tiger Stadium (then called Navin Field and prior to the double-deck), which landed nearly across the junction of Trumbull and Cherry. 19-year-old Mickey Mantle had just hit the longest home run in baseball history! After Ruth, several other players hit home runs that have been certified by the Hall of Fame as being at least 600 feet away from the center-field fence. In 2019 Jorge rewrote the Royals home run record book, blasting 48 long flys. Domo Arigato, Big Papi. It has yet to be topped in today's modern game. Mickey Mantle was no stranger to long home runs. 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. He also, however, said the team's PR director literally derived that number by using a tape measure, originating the term to describe huge homers now measured through more scientific methods. Skeptics will certainly be forgiven for doubting that distance, but others will prefer to simply believe. Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson built their legacy by hitting home runs. "You play the game as a kid, you progress through high school, you get drafted, you go through the minor leagues. In his penultimate 2000 season, Glenallen Hill registered a career-high 27 home runs for the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees. Maybe Mantle didn't quite hit it 565 feetWilliam Jenkinson suggested 510 feet as a better approximation. Yogi Berra was next, and Dobbs walked him. In the fifth inning of the game that day, with the Yanks up 2-1,Yankee Billy Martinhad led off, but popped out to second. Amazingly Aaron only won one MVP award, in 1957. While he hit .190/.323/.329 during 2003's sad swan song, the burly first baseman at least cleared the fences 26 times in 2002. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1961 Nu-Card Scoops Mickey Mantle Hits Longest Homer At Stadium PSA 8 #450 HOF at the best online prices at eBay! Notice how long the barrel stays tight to the back shoulder. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Not only did Big Mac hit this shot into the second deck of the Seattle Mariners former home, the Kingdome, he hit it off the back wall behind all the fans. The Straw Man was one of the best at it, as evidenced by his dinger that hit the lights on Opening Day at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in 1988. Oh yeah, that's not even Fielder's entry. HistorianWilliam J. 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