Longest Home Runs Ever by Ballpark

[TJH1923]

That was some bomb. Anyone remember that inter-league game when the Giants played the Yanks at Yankee Stadium, might have been in 2002.

Barry Bonds hit one in that upper deck right by the exit ramp in right field, hit a mile. I began to think, that ball was in orbit and then wondered what did Mantle's blast look like. I'm looking at that ramp and then looking at the facade, looks to be about 25 or 30+ feet higher than the ramp. Too bad there is no footage of that one.

I never left the room when Mantle, killebrew or Frank Howard came to bat, always a chance of seeing one of those monster drives these guys could hit.

If I recall Frank did not have quite the uppercut swing that Mick and Harmon had. He hit some of the quickest home runs I ever saw. Hard to believe anyone could hit a line drive as far as he did, gone in a second.

Barry Bond's home run at Yankee Stadium was indeed a bomb. That shot had more of an arc to it. One of Mantle's facade shots was, by many accounts, still rising upon impact. Some things to consider: home plate in the old stadium was set back further than the new stadium; ten rows were added to the upper deck for cantilever purposes so the steel beams could be removed (not sure if I phrased that properly); the ramp or portal was set lower in the old stadium; the roof on the old stadium was much wider and obviously the facade hung below it.

[RichardLillard1]

To my knowledge the rows weren't added for cantelevering the deck, they were added to make up for loss of seating from the bleachers and parts of the outfield grandstand being removed. TJH, any idea how much farther back the plate is now compared to before the renovation? The new ramps are located directly above the the old ones (which are used for storage now). And so far as I can tell the frieze wouldn't have hung down far enough to block it in its current position, especially if the ball was arcing downward.

Below is a newspaper photo depicting one of Mantle's rising homers.




Richard

[TJH1923]

To my knowledge the rows weren't added for cantelevering the deck, they were added to make up for loss of seating from the bleachers and parts of the outfield grandstand being removed. TJH, any idea how much farther back the plate is now compared to before the renovation? The new ramps are located directly above the the old ones (which are used for storage now). And so far as I can tell the frieze wouldn't have hung down far enough to block it in its current position, especially if the ball was arcing downward.

Below is a newspaper photo depicting one of Mantle's rising homers.




Richard

Rich, I was pointing out the physical differences of the old and new stadium in reference to shoelessjoe3's post regarding the lack of footage of Mantle's home run off the facade and how Bond's home run would have translated to the old stadium. Bond's home run would not have come close to the facade, but I would have liked to see it in the old stadium.

I believe I read somewhere that the reason for the extra ten rows in the upper deck was to stabilize the cantilevering to make up for the removal of the steel beams. Maybe Elvis can shed some light on this.

I read the twenty feet difference between the position of home plate in the old and new stadiums in a previous post. I am not sure if that is an accurate distance. All my Yankee books are down south and I don't have access to them. I will try and confirm it. If anyone else knows for sure, chime in.

[sflnyc]

Speaking of Shea Stadium, I think both Shea Stadium and Dodger Stadium (Elvis, are you out there?), because of their designs, have had only 1-2 home runs ever hit in the Upper Deck.

I know Willie Stargell hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium over the RF Pavilion and has been mentioned before, Agee hit the Upper Deck at Shea.

Personally, I don't get wrapped up in the home run distances because its too subjective, especially when there are decks of outfield seats. Too much talk about arc of the ball, etc. etc. and where "it would have landed".

If it was a flat surface and had nothing beyond the fences besides the scoreboard (like the old Anaheim Stadium), and lines with distance markers, then maybe I woudl get more excited like a tape measure of a javelin through, etc. But I've seen too many shots on where the the HR looked massive and they announce it as only 430 feet, meanwhile another shot that wasn't as impressive was measured at 450 feet.

But that's just me.

[Astros]

Here are some notable homers at Minute Maid Park, including the longest hit by Lance Berkman (464').

[SultanOfWhat]

Mantle's facade HRs could not have been rising when they hit the facade (actually "frieze"), as outlined by Bill Jenkinson, in the articles I linked above in this thread. The reason is that the facade, in relation to the height at which a ball is struck, is at an angle well below an "optimal" trajectory for take-off to achieve maximum distance. If Mantle was able to hit a ball that was rising when it hit the facade, he would have been able to hit a ball (when struck at a close to 45-degree, optimal angle) that would have passed 80 feet above the facade. Obviously, he never did, nor did anyone else.

I read that home plate in the old YS was 20 feet behind where it is today in "Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Glamor, Drama and Glory".

[elmer]

Hearing from Mantle himself that he didn't hit it all that good truly emphasizes how powerful he was...It just adds to the prestige of its legendary blast off the facade in Old Yankee Stadium back in 1963, when he called it the hardest ball he had ever hit.

Mickey pounded his bat on the ground after he hit this home run, if it had not been for a strong breeze that day it would likely have been a 450' out.

Speaking of that blast, he someone knows for sure how far the facade was set back behind the right field fence, please let me know. The various distances from homeplate that have been given for this homerun are very confusing. From the different sources I got (whether NY Times or books that have been written), I have either 374, 370 or 367 feet. Which one is right? And more importantly, was it the horizontal distance or the distance from the ground to the point of impact (hypothenus)???

367 is the closest and 360' is even closer according to hittracker and Andrew Clem

About the homeruns SultanofWhat stated, I remember the one Buhner exploded back in early 90s...I clearly recall him flipping his bat toward the pitcher on his follow through, wow! And what about Piazza's shot at Shea (I was watching the game on TV when he connected and the ball landed on the tent behind the back wall in right field. Holy cow! Great memories...

And about Charboneau...one thing that I don't understand is why they said it was only the third ball hit in the LF Upper Deck up to that time, when you know Mantle hit quite a few hitting right-handed in the Upper Deck there...Strange...Anyways, it was certainly a great blast!

13 feet behind the 353' corner.
Mickey hit 4 up there. his longest 450 linear feet from home plate to the
20th row. There were 23 rows in the old YS GS. in both outfields.

[TJH1923]

Oh my...............that was some shot that exploded off the bat of A-Rod into the left field upper deck (9/4/07). There are fewer players who have it a home run into the left field upper deck at Yankee Stadium (renovated version) than into the black in center field.

[gator92]

Oh my...............that was some shot that exploded off the bat of A-Rod into the left field upper deck (9/4/07). There are fewer players who have it a home run into the left field upper deck at Yankee Stadium (renovated version) than into the black in center field.

Unusual, yes. Extremely long, no. A-Rod's blast was a very high-arching fly ball, leaving the bat at about 44 degrees by my reckoning, and landing in the upper deck at a point "only" about 380 feet horizontally from home plate. Because it was descending so steeply, it would have only picked up another 28 feet had it made it all the way back down to field level - 408 feet.

This was a notable home run in that it is very unusual to get that much elevation on a ball pulled so sharply - most homers hit down the LF line by righties are flatter, and thus never make it into the upper deck in YS, which is around 50 feet above field level at the lowest point...

Don't get me wrong, I was very impressed by that homer. However, most of its majesty was in the vertical direction...

http://www.hittrackeronline.com/hrde...?id=2007_20547

This issue was made even more clearly by Travis Hafner last night in Minnesota. He hit a homer in the 1st inning that went 10-12 rows deep in the RF upper deck, but which only went 403 feet, and later in the 9th inning hit a bomb to dead CF that covered 437 feet, but which didn't clear the fence by nearly as much...

[TJH1923]

Unusual, yes. Extremely long, no. A-Rod's blast was a very high-arching fly ball, leaving the bat at about 44 degrees by my reckoning, and landing in the upper deck at a point "only" about 380 feet horizontally from home plate. Because it was descending so steeply, it would have only picked up another 28 feet had it made it all the way back down to field level - 408 feet.

This was a notable home run in that it is very unusual to get that much elevation on a ball pulled so sharply - most homers hit down the LF line by righties are flatter, and thus never make it into the upper deck in YS, which is around 50 feet above field level at the lowest point...

Don't get me wrong, I was very impressed by that homer. However, most of its majesty was in the vertical direction...

http://www.hittrackeronline.com/hrde...?id=2007_20547

This issue was made even more clearly by Travis Hafner last night in Minnesota. He hit a homer in the 1st inning that went 10-12 rows deep in the RF upper deck, but which only went 403 feet, and later in the 9th inning hit a bomb to dead CF that covered 437 feet, but which didn't clear the fence by nearly as much...

Wow....very interesting. Watching the home run was so majestic. The science of it takes away from the mystique of the moment. Maybe I've seen "The Natural" too many times, but I like the lore and fantasy of some of the more majestic distance home runs in history.

[gator92]

Wow....very interesting. Watching the home run was so majestic. The science of it takes away from the mystique of the moment. Maybe I've seen "The Natural" too many times, but I like the lore and fantasy of some of the more majestic distance home runs in history.

I know what you mean. A few years back, my wife and I realized that she had a print of Van Gogh's Starry Night mounted above her desk, and I had a print called "Map of the Sky", essentially an astronomer's view of the heavens. I have to try to remember that...

[Brandon]

Jermaine Dye's 464ft shot in Kauffman Stadium



Jose Guillen's 455ft shot



The diagram is slightly out of date due to renovations (there's no videoboard, for one)

But if the diagram is correct, it would be really damn hard to hit the scoreboard. Basically you'd need to hit it to center, have it go 450ish ft, and be 40+ ft plus in the air at 450ft.

Other long home runs
475ft - Bo Jackson in 1986
480ft - Johnny Bench in the 1973 All-Star Game

Basically anything that's close to 500ft in Kauffman Stadium will leave the stadium. But the stadium is lower than the ground around it, and that complicates things.

[StanTheMan]

"Holy Thread Resurrection Batman!!!"

Batman and R.jpg

[csh19792001]

Oldest thread I found in my cursory search just now. Can anybody dig up anything earlier?

[elmer]

Garcia Lumber yard homer May 1999