Mammoth Home Runs

[billny33]

Well I can tell you what was supposedly the farthest ball ever hit (however legit you may consider this, you cannot believe they perfectly measured all of Ruth's blasts if they even recorded them at all) but Mickey Mantle supposedly hit a 565 foot blast out of Washington's Griffith Stadium which as far as anyone knows is the farthest ball hit for a homerun in a major league baseball game. At least one homerun record the steroids havent eroded yet.

[billny33]

oh yeah as for the upper deck in right field at Yankee Stadium, if its real good I guess it could go about between 430-465 if you hit it way up there, that would be about more accurate in real life. I have ASB99 too, sometimes the measurements are way off but its not a bad game with Sterling and Kay at the mic

[BobCollier]

Hello again, Bill

Thanks for enlightening me! 430-465 feet sounds a bit more credible.

I picked up ASB99 in a sale for $20 (about 10 of your dollars). My 7-year old son has a GameCube as well as the N64 and, including the computer games, has about 50 games to choose from, so he's always playing different games - he keeps asking me, "Why do you keep playing that same game all the time?" Some people just don't understand.

Have a great day!

Bob

[J W]

I just read about this one...

Longest distance traveled by a HR ball: app. 200 miles

Story goes, Chief Zimmer hit a home run once in Boston, which after clearing the fence landed in a passing coal car. The ball stopped a while later in Fall River.

It's in the Historical Abstract, and Bill James didn't disprove it.

[Chadwick]

Originally posted by billny33
Well I can tell you what was supposedly the farthest ball ever hit (however legit you may consider this, you cannot believe they perfectly measured all of Ruth's blasts if they even recorded them at all) but Mickey Mantle supposedly hit a 565 foot blast out of Washington's Griffith Stadium which as far as anyone knows is the farthest ball hit for a homerun in a major league baseball game. At least one homerun record the steroids havent eroded yet.

My reading on this matter would lead me to believe that it's either the Mantle homer (above) or the Josh Gibson blast that cleared Old Yankee Stadium, something no other player has done in recorded memory.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Originally posted by Chancellor
My reading on this matter would lead me to believe that it's either the Mantle homer (above) or the Josh Gibson blast that cleared Old Yankee Stadium, something no other player has done in recorded memory.

There has never been any verification that Gibson (or anyone) ever hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium. I don't recall the date but either the New York World Telegram or The New York Times covered that game. One of these news papers gave a recap and a box score the very next day and made no mention of Gibson hitting a ball out of the stadium. It would be unusual for an event like this to happen and have no mention of it in the newpaper the next day. Too bad this guy never got to play MLB because of skin color. He most likely would have enriched the history of the game.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Originally posted by billny33
Well I can tell you what was supposedly the farthest ball ever hit (however legit you may consider this, you cannot believe they perfectly measured all of Ruth's blasts if they even recorded them at all) but Mickey Mantle supposedly hit a 565 foot blast out of Washington's Griffith Stadium which as far as anyone knows is the farthest ball hit for a homerun in a major league baseball game. At least one homerun record the steroids havent eroded yet.

Unfortunately tape measure jobs by Ruth and Foxx never got that much coverage in those days. Being a MLB history nut I have poured over some newspaper archives and can give a few long ones that Foxx and Ruth hit that can be verified to be very long because of the height they were at when the left the park. Foxx and Ruth hit dozens of balls into distant points of bleachers but these are hard to give a measurment of.
Here are some that we can some what judge as being very long because we know where they left the park.
1919 Polo Grounds: Ruth hit a ball over the roof in right and the ball landed in Manhhatten Field across the street. From 1916-1919 Ruth is credited with hitting at least 12 balls that cleared the roof in right: Source, N.Y. Times
1927, August 16, Ruth hit a ball over the double decked stands and roof at Comiskey Park. There were over a dozen sports writers present at tha game and all said the ball cleared the 52 foot wide roof with room to spare. In the winter of 1926 Chicago owner Charles Comiskey added second decks in the outfield and remarked "Your not going to see any more balls knocked out of this park."
1930s. Not sure of the date but Jimmy Foxx hit a ball over the double decked roof in left field at Comiskey. Described in a recap the next day in the Chicago Tribune as "A monster shot".
1930 May 21, The Yanks play a double header at Philadelphia. On that day, Jimmy Foxx hit a ball that struck the fence in dead center, at the 468 foot marker and got a triple. Foxx then hit a home run that landed on top of the roof in left field, never done before. In the first game Ruth hit 3 home runs, one was the longest ever at Shibe Park. It was hit out of the park in right field, across North 20th street, over the roofs of the first row of houses and landed on top of the second row of houses.
1935 May 25. A tired old Babe Ruth hit number 714 at Pittsburghs Forbes Field. On that day, Ruth hit a single and 3 home runs. The last home run was hit over the roof and out of the park, never done up to that time. His legs were bad and he was very sick and after he hit that home run he went and sat in the opposing teams dugout. The pitcher that gave up that last long home run was interviewed after the game and said " I kinda felt sorry for the Babe, he looked old worn out, but I was not going to give him anything to hit. I threw my best and I have never seen a ball hit so far, so high. When he rounded third I had to tip my hat to him and I said, I've seen it all now Babe". the pitcher was Ruth's chief tormentor when he was a Chicago Cub at the famous "Called Shot" game in the 1932 WS, Guy Bush.
Sorry guys, once I get started on Ruth, it's hard to stop. Any way we will probably never know who ever hit the longest. I did see Mantle hit some a mile, then there was Frank Howard, Harmon Killebrew and Dick Allen hit some shots and then as of late Mac, Sosa and Barry.

[Coach Landon]

Longest Home Run?

Does anyone know the longest home run ever hit?

[The Commissioner]

There's an excellent article on this exact topic right here at the Baseball Almanac: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/art_hr.shtml

[Catch22]

On April 17th in 1953 Mickey Mantle hit a ball off of pitcher Chuck Stobbs out of Washington's Griffith Stadium that went an estimated 565ft... This was the home run that coined the phrase "Tape measure home run"... It is also listed in the Guinness Book of Sports Records as the farthest home run hit during a regular season Major League game...

BUT!!!

Mickey most likely hit 6 other balls during games that went even longer... Like the ball he hit out of Tiger Stadium in 1960... Eye witnesses marked the point where the ball landed at 643 ft away from Home Plate... And, maybe the longest ever hit didn't end up over 100 ft away from home plate in Yankee Stadium... May 22nd 1963 in the 11th inning Mickey hit what he said was the hardest ball he'd ever hit... He was batting left handed and hit a line drive into the top of the Facade (decorative facing on the roof) in right field of Yankee Stadium... Now the Facade was 370 ft from the plate and 118 ft high... Witnesses at the game say that the ball was still climbing when it hit... It hit so hard it bounced all the way back to the infield... Using Geometery if the ball were to rise another 20 ft (in other words if it hadn't hit the roof) it would have landed an estimated 734ft away...

http://www.themick.com/10homers.html

[Zito75]

I was at a Mariners game about 7 or 8 years ago and Mc Gwire hit a Randy Johnson fastball into the upper deck, dead center field in the Kingdome. That damn thing had to have been as far as Mantle's.

[confuseddave]

how about Glenallen Hill hitting it onto the rooftop of that building across the street from Wrigley in left field. That thing must have traveled WELL over 500 feet. Some say it went at least 600 or more. I have the video on my computer and it amazes me everytime I watch it.

[Hammerin Hank]

Where did you get that video?

[confuseddave]

i think i got it from cubs.com a while back... i think it happened in 2000. i just saved it from the website. you cant do that now i dont think.. you have to pay or something... but i can share it with you guys

[abolishthedh]

In every respect I can think of, there is something wrong with the methodology in the Tale of The Tape. Mantle's 565' blast might be the accepted record, but I suspect it has been broken several times in decades past and present. There would have to be separate methods used for separate trajectories. A McGwire-esque homer might have extreme height, but it would not travel too far past the fence because it would be dropping quickly at that point. A line drive home run might easily travel just as far without making anyone's mouth gape open.

I teach high school math, and I'll be brief on this. The use of calculus and a formula for a parabola would provide a good model for a McGwire-esque homer. The use of trigonometry would be more useful for a line drive home run, although the "line" drive would still have an arc.

I'd love to know the methodology(s) used by MLB, or by individual teams in arriving at their Tale of The Tape numbers. If anyone has an idea on where this can be found, please share.