I have been unable to confirm this, but if that is accurate, that blast would have more mileage that either Benchs or Trouts. 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. ESPN's Home Run Tracker yielded a projected true distance of 443 feet. 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. ESPN's Home Run Tracker docked his true distance down to 487. "The ball assumed what can only be called a majestic arc and landed on the left-field roof in Tiger Stadium," Ryan wrote. They never spoke about the home run that broke . As a result, no assortment of baseball's longest blasts can be considered 100 percent credible. 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. Adam Dunn played in the Major Leagues from 2001 to 2014, over that time span he hit 462 home runs. Skeptics will certainly be forgiven for doubting that distance, but others will prefer to simply believe. This particular home run came off of a pitch by Senators' right hander Chuck Stobbs in Washington D.C. in April, 1953. On a ball that sped 124 mph off the bat, ESPN's Home Run Tracker estimated a distance of 539 feet if unhindered. In those days, the plazas behind the left and right field seats housed a circular concrete building of restrooms and a concession stand. Mickey Mantle was a much loved baseball player, typically humble about his hitting abilities and notthe boastful type when it came to claiming records or distance. Great American Ball Park's second season on Aug. 10, 2004, when he crushed a Jose Lima offering well beyond the fence in center field, which stands 404 feet out. It was one of five home runs Baseball Almanac listed as going at least 500 feet in 1998's record-setting season. It has yet to be topped in today's modern game. "You play the game as a kid, you progress through high school, you get drafted, you go through the minor leagues. He also blasted what may have been the longest home run in Major League . Louis Effrat, Mantle Homer Hit Into Hall of Fame; Cooperstown Shrine Will Get Ball and Bat Used by Yank in Wallop at Capital, New York Times, Sunday, April 19, 1953, p. S-1. In September 2008, Dunn crushed a fastball from Colorado lefty Glendon Rusch that hit the Jumbotron at Chase Field. AP photo. Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security. When I watch video of Benchs home run, Im convinced that the McRae home run went further. There were two outs. He crushed it. Estimates have the blast traveling at least 600 feet. "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. Bo was only in his second full season with the Royals. Smarter,Every,Day,Science,Physics,Destin,Sandlin,Education,Math,Smarter Every Day,experiment,nature,demonstration,slow,motion,slow motion,education,math,science . There should be no doubt about the authentication of these conclusions. According to Allied News Jim Sankey, via MLB.coms Matt Monagan, the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder submitted seven of 18 balls to clear Forbes Fields 86-foot high roof in right field. In 565 feet, Mickey Mantle (1953). 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 poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. Instead, let's look back to September 14, 1991, when the Detroit Tigers slugger pounded a ball beyondMilwaukee County Stadium's bleachers. Mickey Mantle holding the ball he hit out of Griffith Park, April 17, 1953. On April 17, 1953, Mickey Mantle's blast against the Senators was billed as the "the longest home run in the history of baseball." On this date in Philadelphia in 1972, the adventures of "Kiteman . 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. If we take a closer look at the swing of Jose Canseco, we can begin to understand why he was able to hit a baseball 540ft. Joe Dimaggio Hails Mantle, Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1953, p. C-1. The shot traveled an estimated 475 feet and took all of six seconds to cover that distance. Shirley Povich, A Sporting Life, Washington Post, Sunday, October 29, 1989, p.W-22. Enough to belt 612 big flies in his 22-year career and enough to get him into the Hall of Fame when hes eligible. The stadiums dimensions, though varying over the years with changes to its structure, were roughly 400 feet down the left field line, 420 to center, and just under 330 to right. And most of them were absolutely crushed. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; The longest home run I ever saw - actually didn't see, and I don't think . In 1921 alone, which was, best tape measure season, he hit at least one 500 foot home run in all eight American League cities. 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! However, for much of MLB history, there wasnt even an exact way to determine the length of tape-measure home runs. Longest Home Run Ever Hit, Baseball Almanac .com. The poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. Most are forgotten the next day, but many become things of lore. According to Greg Maddox, chicks dig the long ball. Willie Stargell scorched plenty of moonshots over his career. Many think the longest home run in Stadium history came off the bat of one Vincent Edward Jackson. City of Denver engineer Jerry Tennyson was able to verify the distance of the home run at 582 feet. 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. Yet the story of his 565-foot moonshot still lives strong. 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. Bo to us. Whether because of overinflated estimations or technical questions of eligibility for a list of MLB home runs, these notable exceptions missed the cut: Joey Meyer, a minor league first baseman for theDenver Zephyrs, hit a long ball onJune 3, 1987, which reportedly went a staggering 582 feet. 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. Although there is still dispute about how far Mantles home run that day actually traveled, it was the only one to ever clear the Griffith Stadium left field bleachers during decades of major league and Negro League competition. Ive witnessed hundreds of long balls. 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? That game ended in a 1-1 tie after nine innings with both teams having scored twice. The optimal launch angle for a home run distance is 28 degrees. 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). While the Miami Marlins slugger doesn't need a ballpark's help to punish a baseball, he collaborated with the high-altitude venue to produce a 504-foot homer on Aug. 6, 2016. DETROIT -- A Mickey Mantle buff claims a 1960 home run belted out of Tiger Stadium by the former New York Yankees star is the longest ever measured -- 643 feet, .0069 inches. The front of the card featured an aerial view of cavernous Griffith Stadium in Washington and showed the purported flight of the ball. A Mickey Mantle homer was originally estimated to have gone 734 feet. Another five feet and the ball would have cleared the bullpen and landed in the grass aside the plaza. ESPN's Home Run Tracker has also studied long balls since 2006, giving fans a better sense of how homers travel. But experts say the flight of the ball observed by fans that day was an optical illusion and that the ball Mantle hit was already on its way down when it hit the roof, though still a singular accomplishment and memorable home run. The Yankee's PR director measured it at 565 feet using a tape measure, while later researchers have suggested it travelled a somewhat shorter distance. We now present to you the 15 longest home runs ever hit. In the bottom of the 3rdinning, Jackson crushed an outside fastball that eventually rang off of a transformer at the top of the stadium. Aaron never hit 60 in a season but was a model of consistency. Ruth, Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Willie Stargell and Adam Dunn have all hit blasts well past 500 feet in their careers. The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. Without a closer look from ESPN at this Adam Dunn dinger, the lofty 535-foot approximation receives the benefit of the doubt. 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. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; The surefire Hall of Famer was made to look like a minor leaguer, at least for one at bat. Hitting a home run to straight away center field off of a 90-mile-an-hour fastball is difficult to do. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Jack Sackman Nobody could do that, said Turner. Modern baseball includes countless tools for measuring exit velocity, launch angle and projected distance on home runs. The longest verified home run in American professional baseball history didnt even happen in the majors. 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. 1. Heady days for Royal fans, having the best team in baseball plus the best rookie. ESPN's Home Run. Historian Mark Gallagher estimated that the home run Mantle hit in September of 1960 at Tiger Stadium traveled a whopping 643 feet. Thank you. 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. There's the 565-footer at Griffith Stadium or the prodigious blasts off the tops of the old Yankee Stadium facade. The ball would have kept going, lending to a final true-distance calculation of 530 feet. When Adam Dunn strides to the plate, it is usually a 50-50 proposition. In his first five seasons in New York, Mickey averaged 144 hits, 24 home runs and 89 RBI and starting in 1952, earned his first of 20 All-Star selections. On May 31, 1997, Andres Galarraga cleared the full bases by sending a souvenir into Pro Player Stadium's empty upper deck. The roof might have stopped it from clearing Detroit altogether. Hard to say how far this ball would have traveled. For Royal fans, George Brett provided plenty of home run drama, most of it against the Yankees. The ball. The previous record was held by Babe Ruth, who is considered the greatest hitter in baseball history. The kid couldnt do that. 6/21/2019 Nomar Mazara- 505 feet pic.twitter.com/xRgKESrJTs. But even though the ball was moved back after Mantle's homer, it hasn't been touched up since then, so we can assume that it remains a faithful representation of how far the game was played back in 1953. In 1987, Joey Meyer, playing for the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs, launched this ball an astonishing 582 FEET! 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 sixth ball was thrown by a fan in the tenth but it was credited to the batter so it didn't reach the stands. The longest shot I have seen in person in Royals Stadium came in August of 1973. 1. What was the distance of a home run in 1927. Just for reference, the upper deck at Target is the third deck. 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. He smoked his longest career home run in Arizona off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Francis Beltran. (Courtesy the National Baseball Hall of Fame) The longest home run ever hit. Canseco later admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. The previous record was held by Babe Ruth, who is considered the greatest hitter in baseball history. 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. June 9, 1946, for a dinger deemed to have traveled 502 feet. Youll never hit a bigger home run in your life! In fact, the announcer's calls of each of those home runs, Thompson, Mazeroski and Aaron are classic moments in baseball history. Many say the longest home run hit against Kansas City came off the bat of Royal killer Jim Thome in July of 1999. One of the most exciting home runs I witnessed in Royals Stadium came in a late-season September game in 1977. The new system pinpointed a 115.8-mph exit velocity with a launch angle of 18.3 degrees. 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. Mickey Mantle & Sports Illustrated covers, SportsIllustrated.CNN.com. What is the longest home run wall in the MLB? In his penultimate 2000 season, Glenallen Hill registered a career-high 27 home runs for the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees. Mickey Mantle's home run in 1953 landed in a housing development beyond the left-field wall. Notice how long the barrel stays tight to the back shoulder. He doesn't just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity.. 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. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "thpohidill-20"; Some statisticians and baseball experts believe that Mickey Mantle's 565-foot (approximately 172 meters) blast off Chuck Stobbs of the Senators in Washington in 1953 was the longest batted baseball ever. There should be no doubt about the authentication of these conclusions. This writer trusts the newer, in-depth data (Statcast) over a ballpark number given without much supporting evidence, so Piazza makes the cut over other tape-measure hits reported at greater distances. amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; Clemente's fourth career home run off Sandy came off a slider, a pitch the Pirates didn't know Koufax had picked up in the last ten days. Alan Marchese holds a 1956 Sports Illustrated with Mickey Mantle on the cover. Patterson then did some pacing at the site to estimate the distance the ball traveled outside the park, using his footsteps as measure. 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. Babe Ruth was said to have hit a home run over 600 feet. Not a long fly ball, a true pop up to the infield is caused by the swing plane slicing too far downward in relation to pitch plane. A Mickey Mantle homer was originally estimated to have gone 734 feet. In October, Mantle announces his retirement due to chronic knee problems. Boh logo. However, sluggers in this list make 400 feet seem like childs play as all of them have hit the ball at least 503 feet. This one traveled 493 feet (147 m) but it was not measured so there is no confirmation that it went out of Fenway. Ball hit by Mickey Mantle on April 17, 1953 at Griffith Stadium to set a new distance record for home runs. Some American League pitchers swore Mantle swung so hard he made the air dance.. And as of that moment, nobody ever had. Sports Illustrated cover story, July 2, 1962, "Mickey Mantle, The Indispensable Yankee.". Standard center field walls in the major leagues stand between 400-410 feet away from home plate. 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