Jpiarull, Bernie Williams actually hit a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium a few years ago during batting practice. But he had to sneak it between the right field upper deck and the large back wall of the RF bleachers, in a spot where the back wall of the Stadium is only about 20 feet high (at the end of the current alley where the old bullpen was in the Old YS). Bernie was batting LH, and his shot would had to have curved quite a bit to reach the spot where it left the Stadium.
Look at Google Earth for overhead shots of the existing YS. There's no way to humanly hit a fair ball out of the Stadium anywhere except for RF. "Bernie's slot" would have to be the spot. Otherwise, someone would have to either hit one over the upper deck down the RF line (harder today than in Mantle's time, as 10 rows were added to the upper deck during the renovation), or power one over the back wall in RF (I think Strawberry supposedly hit the back wall during BP, and Mo Vaughn may have, as well, but they were not close to topping the wall).
The new Yankee Stadium seems a slightly better bet for an "out of the Stadium" home run, as the distances to the back wall in LCF should be smaller (currently, these are over 500 feet), and the same sort of "slot" will exist in the new Stadium that Bernie reached, but now there will be two, once each between the center field wall and the tiers down each line.
If you are interested in Yankee Stadium and Yankee history, you should read Bill Jenkinson's "The Year Babe Ruth hit 104 Home Runs". Supposedly, Ruth cleared the 70-row bleachers in RF during BP thereby leaving the Stadium entirely, and hit 9 HRs of more than 500 feet in Yankee Stadium. Overall, Jenkinson estimates that Ruth hit 51 500-foot+ home runs during his career.
Since you are a engineering student, maybe you can answer one for me:
How much farther will a pitched ball travel than a self-hit ball, when both are struck with the same bat speed? Assume 80MPH bat speed, and an 80-MPH pitch incoming, to keep things simple.
ETA: YankeeDean, I read an article in one of the NY tabloids (correction: ESPN) the day after Bernie hit his BP shot out of the Stadium.
As to Bonds' shot, I'm not sure it would have reached the facade, but it would have been close. Jenkinson (who is the closest thing we have to a "tape-measure home run historian") estimates Bonds' shot off Ted Lilly at 460 feet (the Yankees estimated 385 at the time, which obviously was an "impact point" estimate, not a landing estimate).
ETA: Here is the text of the Bernie Williams article, from July 24, 2001:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2001/0724/1230253.html
Tuesday, July 24
Williams hits ball out of Yankee Stadium
NEW YORK -- It was a shot that will live in Yankees' lore for quite some time, and it came in batting practice.
The epic blast came Sunday off Bernie Williams' bat. The ball left Yankee Stadium, going through a gap near the subway tracks in right field.
"I didn't see it," Williams told The New York Post. "But I noticed that it never came back, so that should have been some indication it was out. Batting practice is a great relief and release of tension for me. I've had a lot of tension this year, so it's kind of like hitting a punching bag. I always try to hit the ball hard, but that's as hard as I've ever hit one. That's a long way."
It's a feat that no Yankee slugger had ever accomplished before -- not Babe Ruth, not Mickey Mantle, not Reggie Jackson.
According to The Post, there are disputes about Josh Gibson and Frank Howard home runs leaving the park, but neither has been confirmed.
"I know I never saw it happen," Whitey Ford said. "The best shots I ever saw were from (Mantle). He hit the one off the facade and a couple off the back of the bleachers, but no one ever hit it out, even in practice."
Yankee Stadium is configured differently now than it was during Ruth's and Mantle's days.
"It was much higher back then," Ford said. "But Bernie's must have been quite a shot. He's got great power. After they changed the stadium, though, I figured someone would eventually do it."
If this pic posts, you can see "Bernie's slot" just above the "HIP" ad in RF, where you can see the apartment building:
http://cephas.net/photos/nyc2002/DSCN0443.JPG
Here's an even better pic:
http://www.randyrants.com/images/bleachers.jpg