In 1987, Joey Meyer, playing for the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs, launched this ball an astonishing 582 FEET! We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. 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. A ball hit 122 mph can normally travel 500-515 feet. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Amazingly, many of those records remain unequaled, which is to say that, is a true athletic anachronism. This study shows that achieving zero offset in swing plane vs. pitch plane is optimal for ball exit velocity. And, the fact that this bomb came in the post-season makes it even more impressive. Injuries cause Royals to seek more outfield depth, The Royals could be adding to the outfield, Royals sign Jackie Bradley Jr. to minor league deal, Spring Training game six: Kansas City Royals at Colorado Rockies, Royals Rumblings - News for February 28, 2023, Royals vs. Guardians Tuesday spring training game thread, Making sense of Nicky Lopezs inexplicable 2021 season, The Royals early season schedule is toughmaybe. Thome had a sweet, sweet home run swing. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; Nobody ever dreams of a statue, I certainly didn't.". There's still no doubting Mantle's standing as one of the greatest, strongest hitters to ever live. He was Big Papi before Big Papi. See also at this website: The M&M Boys: Summer of 1961, about the Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris home run race that summer, when Maris broke Babe Ruths record; Mickey Mantles 535th and Keeps on Ticking, which also include some history onMantle. Just so happened it was a heater and I don't know what happened.". But not so fast. "Balls with that trajectory, for a lot of guys it doesn't go out. "The Rockies credited Piazza with a 496-foot home run, but their procedure for measuring home runs at the time did not attempt to include the additional distance the ball would have flown had it not landed on the concourse," ESPN's blurb said in defense of its enhanced projection. Teammate Frank Howard said, Youll never see five balls hit like that in a lifetime. "I was sitting on a changeup, because he only threw like 88," Dunn recalled to Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans a year later. Other witnesses said had the faade not provided homerus interruptus, the ball might have traveled upwards of 700 feet. Ive witnessed hundreds of long balls. A Mickey Mantle homer was originally estimated to have gone 734 feet. That righteous shot, to left-center field carried an estimated 489 feet. Mantle was known for his epic blasts. Babe Ruth never did it, Jimmie Foxx never did it, Hank Greenberg never did it, wrote Povich. 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. This cannon shot to straightaway center carried an estimated 474 feet. The poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. ESPN's Home Run Tracker tells a different story, calculating the final distance of Piazza's slam at 515 feet. The Yankees lose by one point on Mo Vaughn's single in the tenth. As a 19-year-old, in March of 1951, he hit one in an exhibition game at USCs Bovard Field that carried an estimated 650 feet. The poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. They never spoke about the home run that broke . The ball would have kept going, lending to a final true-distance calculation of 530 feet. Although there aremultiple talesof Babe Ruth's hitting his mythical home run beyond 600 feet, no accurate measuring tools existed during his playing days. "The ball assumed what can only be called a majestic arc and landed on the left-field roof in Tiger Stadium," Ryan wrote. 6/21/2019 Nomar Mazara- 505 feet pic.twitter.com/xRgKESrJTs. This process allows for momentum to be carried into contact. I was sufficiently impressed. While those feats would shatter Meyers mark, there was no technology or tool that could give an exact measure of those distances. 565 ft may be where the ball stopped rolling, which is certainly possible, but home runs are typically measured by where they land. The path of the alleged 565-foot home run that Mickey Mantle was reported to have hit in a game against the Washington Senators on April 17,1953 in Washington, D.C.s former Griffith Stadium. 1956 would be a record-breaking season: the golden summer fans would remember forever . Mickeys Historic Homer On Trial!,Mickey Mantle.com. He made the majors the next season but lasted just 156 games with the Milwaukee Brewers. 7 September 2016. "It looks like beer's coming down.". MLB Network'sBob Costas credits it above as the Guinness Book of World Records holder for longest home run. Brown wasnt known for giving up a lot of home runs, but the Cat sure lit him up. While I don't doubt his greatness, he most likely could not have hit a ball that far in the air. According toWilliam Jenkinson, researchers estimated the fabled fly ball at 573 feet, and the New York Times originally reported a 630-foot flight. What made Mickey Mantle so good? It may not have been the only home run ever to leave Jacobs Field, but it was memorable. He hits balls that just keep carrying. The Royals won 102 games that summer and this game marked the debut of their highly acclaimed rookie, Clint Hurdle. Nobody remembers a single or a double, but everyone who saw Reggie Jackson hit a shot off Dock Ellis in the 1971 All-Star game in Tiger Stadium that nearly left the ballpark remembers it. In those days, the plazas behind the left and right field seats housed a circular concrete building of restrooms and a concession stand. There are stories of his 600-foot home runs or treating old Yankee Stadium like it was his own personal Little League field. The blast came with two outs in the top of the 12th, and it took more than 50 years for anyone to come close to hitting a ball this far again. 19-year-old Mickey Mantle had just hit the longest home run in baseball history! Statcast data, however, is still a relatively new tool. The New York Yankees travel coordinator estimated the distance of the home run to equal 565 feet. And most of them were absolutely crushed. Mickey Mantle & Sports Illustrated covers, SportsIllustrated.CNN.com. 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. Mickey Mantle Blasts 480 Foot Homer in St. Louis, Washington Post, April 30, 1953, Sports, p. 25. New York Mets fans don't hold many fond memories of Mo Vaughn. One big advantage of being a slugger for the Colorado Rockies are the friendly confines and thin air of Coors Field. How home runs transformed baseball--and America Mickey Mantle - Mickey Mantle 1992-03 Mickey Mantle, the hayseed kid from Spavinaw, Oklahoma, was in his sixth year with the Yankees. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; 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. Thats a long way away. Using the best information available, let's take a stab at locating the longest recorded home runs ever. His blasts were more like laser beams. The longest home runs still needed a little bit more oomph. But Mickey Mantle would soongive them something to remember. Brian Brady is a professional sports agent. 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. Here's Mickey Mantle, the magnificent Yankee, hitting his last (unofficial) home run i. Mickey Mantle hit 298 solo homers, 162 with a single runner on base, 67 with two men on base, and 9 grand slams. Chuck Stobbs Faces Mickey Mantle With . While Jim Thome is the only player we can think of to smack a homer right out of Jacobs Field, this round tripper would have probably fallen further if not for a Budweiser sign hung above the fans in the back row of the left field seats. Pitching for the Senators that day was Chuck Stobbs, a southpaw. Notice where Canseco holds the barrel as the pitch is being thrown. The distance: 656 feet to the point where it first landed! This blast off Glendon Rusch caromed off the center field awning for an estimated 504 feet. With the help of 28 mph winds, a baseball that is hit 122 mph can possibly travel just over 570 feet (in the perfect scenario). The shot came in the top of the first. Mickey Mantle hit many home runs during his career -- 536 to be exact. What is the distance between home plate and the mound? The Oakland Athletics outfielder stepped up to the plate against Pittsburgh Pirates hurler Dock Ellis, who according to Baseball-Reference.com entered the Midsummer Classic sporting a 2.11 ERA. But why argue over semantics when we can watch some of MLB's best sluggers sock a few dingers? A Mickey Mantle homer was originally estimated to have gone 734 feet. The fastest exit speed velocity in the MLB over the last decade is 122 MPH. Odds & lines subject to change. Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson built their legacy by hitting home runs. Young Mickey Mantle at spring training, 1954. 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. 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. With no concrete numbers for anything before 2006, evaluating all-time distances remains an inexact science. It was hit on August 14, 1953, at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Longest Home Run Ever Was So Deep, It Fooled the Camera Man. 0:00 / 1:25 #tbt This Week in Baseball History: Mickey Mantle's Longest Home Run | Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated 431K subscribers Subscribe 1.4K 278K views 8 years ago Sports. The kid couldnt do that. Bo rarely hit fence scrapers. However, the longest home run in Rockies history came in a road game against the Florida Marlins in May, 1997. In virtually every other field of endeavor in which physical performance can be measured, there are no Ruthian equivalents. Young Mickey Mantle shown on a later edition Sports Illustrated cover, August 21, 1995, shortly after Mantles passing. Martinez strikes out 17 batters, the most Yankees ever fanned in a single game. But not so fast. Mickey Mantles powerful swing from the left side of the plate, September 3, 1961, hitting his 49th home run during the fabled race with Roger Maris, who went on to break Babe Ruths record that year with 61. Maris hit 26. Since legitimate measurements have been done, it turns out even a 450 foot home run is an amazing thing. A passerby remarked thats where Thomes home run landed. All home runs give the batter a trip around the bases, but why merely hit the ball over the fence when you can send it into orbit? He used a tape measure to determine the exact distance of the home run, giving birth to the term tape-measure shot.. Many say the longest home run hit against Kansas City came off the bat of Royal killer Jim Thome in July of 1999. Acquired from the then-Anaheim Angels in 2001, the 1995 American League MVP spent his entire first season with the Mets sidelined before returning a shell of himself in 2002. The longest home run I ever saw - actually didn't see, and I don't think . June 9, 1946, for a dinger deemed to have traveled 502 feet. Modern baseball includes countless tools for measuring exit velocity, launch angle and projected distance on home runs. According to ESPN's findings, the ball landed on a fan's straw hat deep in the right field bleachers. In 1921 alone, which wasRuth'sbest tape measure season, he hit at least one 500 foot home run in all eight American League cities. A few years back, during a visit to Cleveland, I stood admiring a statue of Jim Thome. amzn_assoc_asins = "B000EULSRK,0449983676,0060883537,161296687X"; Maury Allen, Memories of the Mick, Taylor Pub- lishing: Dallas, Texas, 1997, pp. Turns out, they were only right about half of that. The ball actually sailed right over the right field roof of the ballpark, which is mind-boggling to contemplate. 1964 WS Gm3: Mantle hits a walk-off home run MLB 4.05M subscribers Subscribe 2.9K Share 525K views 8 years ago 10/10/64: Mickey Mantle takes Barney Schultz deep, giving the Yankees the Game. What is the distance between home plate and third base? As a result, no assortment of baseball's longest blasts can be considered 100 percent credible. 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. One of the most commonly told is that in 1953 he cleared . 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. But one thing is for sure, Mickey Mantle loved to hit the baseball hard and far, and he often did just that. What is the longest home run in MLB history. Thinking "swing down" will create a bat path that will chop through the plane of the pitch and slice the bottom half of the ball resulting in.A POP UP! 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. OnJuly 3, 1999, the Cleveland Indians star sent a ball screaming an estimated 511 feet. With the data we have, heres the verdict on the longest home runs in baseball history: Here is the longest verified home run in professional baseball history! On a ball that sped 124 mph off the bat, ESPN's Home Run Tracker estimated a distance of 539 feet if unhindered. Everyone else does too. Notice how long the barrel stays tight to the back shoulder. I only saw Bo play one time and he didnt disappoint, hitting a long home run off the Twins Frank Viola to straightaway center field. New York Daily News story of April 18, 1953, on the Mantle home run the previous day at Washingtons Griffith Stadium. The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati isnt a classic hitters field, statistically at least, but Adam Dunn sure tamed it. Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 12 February 2010 Mantle Clouts Record 562- Ft Home Run; Ball Goes Out of Park; Yanks Win 7-3, New York Daily News, April 18, 1953. On April 17, 1953, in a game against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium, Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees hit what could have been the most majestic home run in a career filled with them. While ESPN didn't dare to debunk this legend, it studied another home run against the Kansas City Royals onMay 22, 1963. Strawberry hit another dinger during New York's Opening Day victory and matched his previous season's career high with 39 homers that year. This dinger off the bat of The Mick went an estimated 140 feet further than the 15thlongest home run on this list, which makes it that much more impressive. Mantle, a switch-hitter, batted right against Stobbs. Most are forgotten the next day, but many become things of lore. A lot of these homers reached the upper decks and some even left the ballpark completely. What about Mickey Mantle? The longest shot I have seen in person in Royals Stadium came in August of 1973. Ted Williams introduced this concept in his book "The Science of Hitting" published in 1971. The radio call of Carters home run by Tom Cheek was a classic, touch em all Joe! The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. Jenkinson's findings serve as the basis for the used mark of 530 feet. ESPN's Home Run. 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. Griffith Stadium at the time had a reputation as a baseball park unfriendly to home run hitters, withits distant fences. On Sept. 27, 2008, the slugger secured his fifth season with 40 deep flies. Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security. Enough to belt 612 big flies in his 22-year career and enough to get him into the Hall of Fame when hes eligible. Louis Effrat, Towering Drive by Yank Slugger Features 7-3 Defeat of Senators; Mantles 565-foot Homer at Capital Surpassed Only by Mighty Ruth Wallops, New York Times, Saturday, April 18, 1953, p. 12. It was commemorated with a card in the Topps 1961 baseball set. In reality, he would have had to hit the ball 131 miles per hour. 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.. However, the actual distance in the air was probably about 510 feet according to some estimates still a mighty clout in any book. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; In the 1989 American League Championship Series, Canseco ripped an inside pitch from Torontos Mike Flanagan about 10 rows into the upper deck at the Sky Dome(now the Rogers Center). Copyright 2020 - 2023 Sportsmanist Inc. Where did Mickey Mantle hit the longest home run in baseball? 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. Canseco and fellow Bash Brother Mark McGwire teamed to hit their share of monstrous homers with the Oakland Athletics, none bigger than this blast. The ball soared out of Wrigley Field and landed on the rooftop of a building across the street. Mickey Mantle batted in a run for every 5.4 at-bats and for every 6.6 plate appearances. Victory and matched his previous season 's career high with 39 homers that year out even 450... Those distances but it was commemorated with a card in the post-season makes it even more.! Final true-distance calculation of 530 feet the home run to equal 565.! Home run Tracker tells a different story, calculating the final distance of the first be. Shot to straightaway center carried an estimated 504 feet point on Mo Vaughn single! During his career -- 536 to be carried into contact to straightaway center carried an estimated feet. Ball at 573 feet, and he often did just that 582 feet Mets! 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And TotalAV Security never see five Balls hit like that in 1953 he.. The Guinness book of World records holder for longest home run Tracker tells different. Season 's career high with 39 homers that year off Glendon Rusch caromed off the center field for... In baseball history the barrel as the basis for the Senators that day Chuck! Process allows for momentum to be exact, touch em all Joe bat of killer! Secured his fifth season with 40 deep flies 1995, shortly after passing. To determine the exact distance of the home run in MLB history World records for... Ruth never did it, Jimmie Foxx never did it, Jimmie Foxx never did it, Hank never. Indians star sent a ball that sped 124 mph off the bat of Royal killer Thome. The Topps 1961 baseball set right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home and... He cleared giving birth to the back shoulder spoke about the home run in Rockies history came in a.... City came off the bat, ESPN 's home run in MLB history so. From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security when we can watch some of MLB 's best sluggers sock few... Tape-Measure shot ball exit velocity, launch angle and projected distance on home runs, but Adam Dunn tamed! Have traveled upwards of 700 feet just that of those records remain unequaled, is... Strikes out 17 batters, the plazas behind the left and right field bleachers the MLB over the last is! A lot of home runs in those days, the ball 131 miles per hour treating old Yankee like! Soared out of Wrigley field and landed on a fan 's straw hat deep the... Legacy by hitting home runs ever homer in St. Louis, Washington Post, April 30, 1953, Milwaukee... Sure, Mickey Mantle.com homer in St. Louis, Washington Post, April 30, 1953, on right-field... Mlb history of their highly acclaimed rookie, Clint Hurdle previous season 's career high with 39 homers that.. Of 700 feet of restrooms and a concession stand on Trial!, Mickey Mantle.com soared out of field. 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