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. Mantle had a number of other long home runs credited to him both before and after his Griffith Park shot. There's no video evidence or official measurement of his monumental feat, but Negro League star Josh Gibson allegedly smacked a home run580 feetout of Yankee Stadium on June 3, 1937. Mickeys Historic Homer On Trial!,Mickey Mantle.com. Randall Swearingen, A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle, Sports Publishing LLC, 2007, 232 pp. He hit for a career .263 batting average and earned 3 silver slugger awards. Despite the scarcity of film onRuth, we can still make definitive evaluations of the approximate landing points of all of his 714 career home runs. One Pirate later observed that \"giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. I have been unable to confirm this, but if that is accurate, that blast would have more mileage that either Benchs or Trouts. Griffith Stadium, despite its physical expanse,was also major league baseballs smallest park in terms of audience capacity, then capable of accom- modating a maximum of about 32,000 fans. And on this day inmid-April,fewer than5,000 fans were on hand to watch the Senators battle the Yanks. That much is known. 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, 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. Big Mo struggled with injuries late in his career, but youd never know it witnessing this moon shot he hit as a member of the New York Mets. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Chuck Stobbs Faces Mickey Mantle With . Lets take a look at some of the longest home runs ever hit. The back shoulder must drop to the height of the pitch. The noted historian also backed ancient anecdotes of the Sultan of Swat's hitting one over 600 feet atWilkes University'sArtillery Parkin 1926. Gene Woodling swore that Mickey Mantle's prodigious 565-foot home run at Washington's Griffith Stadium on April 17, 1953 considered to be the longest homer in major league history wasn . One of baseball's most unheralded sluggers, Jim Thome retired with the quietest 612 home runs and .956 OPS ever. According toWilliam Jenkinson, researchers estimated the fabled fly ball at 573 feet, and the New York Times originally reported a 630-foot flight. Mantle was known for his epic blasts. 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 Longest Home Run Ever Was So Deep, It Fooled the Camera Man. The late Ed Browalski of the Polish Daily News and veteran. The previous record was held by Babe Ruth, who is considered the greatest hitter in baseball history. Jenkinson's findings serve as the basis for the used mark of 530 feet. He narrowly missed a home run in his first at bat, slamming a ball off the top of the right-center wall for a standup triple. In seven-plus seasons since Statcasts inception, three home runs have traveled more than 500 feet. Mcgwire later admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. Mantle hit some of the longest home runs in Major League history. It was mid-April 1953. The angle of incoming pitch will effect our ability to optimize both exit speed and launch angle. Pattersons number more or less became what was reported, which even Mantle doubted. 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. Willie Stargell scorched plenty of moonshots over his career. The shot came in the top of the first. So take any urban legends about someone's 600-foot homer with a grain of salt. Young Mickey Mantle shown on a later edition Sports Illustrated cover, August 21, 1995, shortly after Mantles passing. Want to know whats up with Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Tom Brady and more? 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. Baseballs best sluggers have embraced that philosophy and raised the bar for what it means to mash, crush and blast. Amazingly, many of those records remain unequaled, which is to say that, is a true athletic anachronism. Ruth, Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Willie Stargell and Adam Dunn have all hit blasts well past 500 feet in their careers. For everyone's entertainment, Miami should loan Stanton to Colorado and see how much damage he could inflict during a full season at Coors. Accurately measuring those moonshots isn't much easier. 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. 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. When Mickey Mantle cleared the left-center-field bleachers at Clark Griffith Stadium in Washington on April . But one of the longest-rumored dingers he ever dinger'd was as a 19-year-old during an exhibition match against USC. Turns out, they were only right about half of that. Mantle, a switch-hitter, batted right against Stobbs. As MLB.com's Ben Weinribnoted, the blast marked the longest homer since MLB installed Statcast in all stadiums in 2015. The ball was hit on August 16, 1935. Affectionately known to Red Sox fans as Big Papi, Ortiz unloaded on many a hapless pitcher, sending home runs rocketing past Peskys pole at Fenway. A Mickey Mantle homer was originally estimated to have . Patterson said a young boy found the ball and had taken him to the spot where it landed, in a back yard at 434 Oakdale Place. The poor sap who fed the Hall of Fame outfielder a gopher ball: Chuck Stobbs. May 22, 2014. Hitting the ball both high and hard is something that needs to be practiced. 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. 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 . He loves his job because every day is different, and you never know what kind of athlete you're going to be dealing with that day. Mantle is holding the home run ball he hit out of Washington, D.C.s Griffith Stadium, estimated to have gone a distance of some 562 feet. Mickey Mantle's home run in 1953 landed in a housing development beyond the left-field wall. Thats a long way away. The previous record of five balls being thrown into the stands at one time was set by the Chicago White Stockings vs. Louisville Colonels game on June 14, 1877. Ive spoken to a few fans who say that the Royals John Mayberry hit a gargantuan home run that bounced off the top of the concession stand in the right field plaza. Dunn finished the season with a career-high 46 long balls. Maybe Mantle didn't quite hit it 565 feetWilliam Jenkinson suggested 510 feet as a better approximation. Ruth, Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Willie Stargell and Adam Dunn have all hit blasts well past 500 feet in their careers. The noted historian also backed ancient anecdotes of the Sultan of Swat's hitting one. As a 19-year-old, in March of 1951, he hit one in an exhibition game at USC's Bovard Field that carried an estimated 650 feet. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). Story appeared on page 25. While ESPN didn't dare to debunk this legend, it studied another home run against the Kansas City Royals onMay 22, 1963. ESPN's Home Run Tracker docked his true distance down to 487. Hurdle, drafted in 1975, made quick work of the Royals minor league system. Either way, everyone can agree he hit the ball very far. src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=674090812743125&ev=PageView&noscript=1"/>. A significant factor is that Mantle had 1,733 walks and 1,710 strikeouts. The distance: 656 feet to the point where it first landed! A few years back, during a visit to Cleveland, I stood admiring a statue of Jim Thome. Heady days for Royal fans, having the best team in baseball plus the best rookie. I had to squint to see home plate. 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. The casual fan might not fully appreciate the modest masher, who becomes eligible for Hall of Fame consideration next year. PopHistoryDig.com, February 12, 2010. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; Ive witnessed hundreds of long balls. After playing a major role in the Red Sox 2004 championship drive, Ortiz joined an all-star team for a tour of Japan. Historian Mark Gallagher estimated that the home run Mantle hit in September of 1960 at Tiger Stadium traveled a whopping 643 feet. 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. 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. Wayne Coffey, The Original Tale of the Tape, The Stadium Series, Part 3, Daily News.com, 2007, p. 1. To maximize our exit velocity, the path of the bat needs to match the path of the oncoming pitch perfectly. It's foolish to take hearsay as concrete evidence, but it's also difficult to believe the man who hit 714 home runs during the dead-ball era wasn't capable of abnormal results. 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. Ready for a breakdown of the longest home runs ever? He had yielded just four homers during the first half, but Jackson took him deep for an unofficial fifth. Many times the player who swings down to avoid pop ups often ends up creating the very problem he is trying to avoid. 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