On June 3, 1987 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, Meyer hit the longest verifiable home run in the history of professional baseball. MORE:Where was baseball's first night game? Mo Vaughn at Shea Stadium (June 26, 2002)When the Shea Stadium workers put up that giant beer ad, did any of them think someone would hit a baseball off the blue part, three-quarters of the way up? 12/9 Tennessee. Thats one of the reasons fans in Detroit were dumbfounded on July 18, when The Big Fella, a muscular slugger for the Yankees named Babe Ruth, did something no one had ever done before. Since 2015, Nomar Mazara owns the longest homer distance at 505 feet. Ted Williams' most famous home run was his last, No. Acunas homer had an exit velocity of 112.9 mph and was his 14th homer of the season. That homer was officially estimated at 481 feet, one foot farther than the longest hit by a Twin at the Dome, Kent Hrbeks homer hit to straight-away right field Sept. 9, 1984. Here is a highlight and a memory . On July 7, 2021, Texas Rangers Joey Gallo hit a 462-foot home run off of Detroit Tigers pitcher Casey Mize. Only six batters hit as many as 20 homers that year. If Mantle had provided the same power or velocity, but had launched the ball at a higher and more efficient angle, it would have passed out of Yankee Stadium at a height of over 200 feet! As of 1995, the Mantle of baseball's longest hitter can probably best be worn by Cecil Fielder. Is there a logical explanation for that behavior? On September 10, 1960, with two out and two on in the seventh, Mickey worked the count to 2-0. . The longest home run in Men's College World Series history at Charles Schwab Field Omaha unofficially belongs to Arkansas' Brady Slavens, who went deep 436 feet in 2022. The ball kept carrying as JaCoby Jones ran towards the wall, eventually clearing both rows of shrubs in straightaway center before bouncing back onto the field. It is even easier to consider modern history to help us understand that nothing has changed in the intervening years in our fascination with long home runs. When researching longest home runs, you'll likely run across claims that legends like Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth hit home runs well over 600 feet. Foxx never quite measured up to Ruth, but it is remarkable that no once since Foxx has measured up to him. On September 15, 2016, Oakland As Ryon Healy hit a 480-foot home run to left-center field off of Kansas City Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez. Hyperbole has always been part of the phenomenon of long-distance home runs, and this factor must also be considered. As I recall, it was a sunny Sunday afternoon that day. In his first season wearing the Old English D, Big Daddy hit 51 homers. The ball cleared the wide breadth of Grand Boulevard and landed on the sidewalk approximately 470 feet from home plate. The home run is memorialized with a red seat in the right-field bleachers. Miguel Cabrera hit one of the longest home runs in Comerica Park history in the first inning of Monday night's game against the Seattle Mariners. Killebrew was a big man, as were Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson and Dave Kingman, all known for their power. In 1962, he became the first of only four batters to hit a ball over the left-field roof at Tiger Stadium. On a 499-foot blast, Barry Bonds hit the longest home run at Oracle Park. So Kight, who was working as the Twins chief usher on June 3, 1967, instantly knew Harmon Killebrew had hit the sweet spot when Kight looked up from counting the turnstile numbers. 4. I read that the ball nearly hit a police car on Trumbull ave.That is the longest HR i ever witnessed in person. Stantons homer had an exit velocity of 119.2 mph. Shipping Service Its estimated that the Babes blast traveled at least 575 feet in the air. Though its difficult to get an official handle on home run distances, the clout would rank, by any measure, among the longest of all time. A short while later I left with a new cap and a custom Fidrych T-shirt. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. While unconfirmed by the Tigers, it might've been . During the 1971 All-Star Game from Detroit's Tiger Stadium "Mr. October" delivered a massive game changing three-run homer to right field that cleared the entirety of the stadium's impressively high standing bleachers. The greatest confirmed home run distance in Major League Baseball is about 575 feet (175 m), by Babe Ruth, to straightaway center field at Tiger Stadium (then called Navin Field and prior to the double-deck), which landed nearly across the junction of Trumbull and Cherry. By the time Detroit's Tiger Stadium bade farewell 87 years, it had witnessed 11,111 home runs, six World Series, three memorable All-Star games, NFL Championship games and championship boxing. The blast was the first of his career. What a great game! Franmil Reyes, Aug. 14, 2020 (462 feet)Reyes hit four of his nine home runs in 2020 off Tigers pitchers, but this was the memorable one. Oliva was in the dugout with the rest of the Twins when Killebrew hit what is still known as the longest home run in Twins history. On September 26, 1997, future Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza of the Los Angeles Dodgers hit a 496-foot home run to left-center off of Colorado Rockies reliever Darren Holmes. The homer was Gallos 23rd of the season. As late as 1960, Teddy Ballgame was still going strong, when he opened the season in Washington with a 475-foot bolt to right-center field. Lilly challenged him and Bonds, in the words of broadcaster Jon Miller, hit one to New Jersey. Accounts from the time say the ball came to rest on the banks of the Ohio River, meaning Dunn was potentially feet away from hitting a ball to Kentucky. I'm here to drive home runs. Check the home run lengths of all seventy Mark McGwire blasts and all sixty-six Sammy Sosa's shots in the fabulous feats section. Storys 487-footer from 2018 reached the concourse down the left-field line; Piazza hit the concourse in the left-center power alley. Bob Cerv's Hrs were from both KC Blues and A's. His longest measured at 528' was when' he was with the A's. Mantle's to extreme right field in the cluster was on the porch roof of a house and 43 feet above the playing field in BP. The sign's headlinereads The Longest Home Run in Competitive Baseball History.. Dr. Paul E. Susman, a . So who really did hit the longest home run ever? One of the largest men ever to play major league baseball, at six feet seven inches, 275 pounds, Howard was the absolute epitome of size and strength. I could hit for average, but thats not my job. On Sept. 27, 2008, Adam Dunn hit the longest home run of the last 6-plus major-league seasons, a 504-foot home run off the scoreboard in center field at Chase Field in Phoenix. Those are amazing stats, and yet they dont measure to Killebrews 522-foot blast. On July 18, 1921, Babe Ruth hit what is believed to be the longest verified home run in Major League Baseball history. Honorable mentionsWe could go on all day, of course; dinger lore is wide and vast, and for the ones above we focused on more recent homers with ample video footage. How long will it take the next Olympic champion to run the 100-meter sprint? He actually did it twice that season, the first of two straight seasons he was an All-Star for the Tigers. BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - SEPTEMBER 26: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees at bat during the top of the first inning of the game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on September 26, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. J.D. The blast still stands over 40 years later as the longest homerun in MLB All-Star game history. It was the 26th homer of the 2015 season. There were no American League stadiums where Mantle played where he did not hit a home run of at least 450 feet to both the left and right sides of the field. One might say the Reds fans sitting up there werent expecting a home run souvenir that day, but then again, they were already plenty familiar with Wily Mos work. Later in the same game, Cecil Fielder hit a home run over the left field roof to show Canseco who was stronger. According to former Tiger Stadium groundskeeper Frank Feneckit, it took almost a howitzer to send a ball over the left-field grandstand at The Corner. Determining the longest homer ever in MLB history is an exercise in myth-busting. The vast popularity of major league baseball's home run hitting contest before the annual All-Star Game is ample evidence that we remain enamored of the players blessed with unique levels of power. Customer Service Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Russell Branyan hit a 480-foot blast on July 27, 2004. Quick shipping as well. It is only fair to also mention the great distance sluggers of the old Negro Leagues. Must have been 1977 or 1978. On September 30, 2017, New York Yankee Aaron Judge hit a 496-foot home run to left-center field off of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman. Along with Roger Connor, the longest hitters in the early days of the major leagues during the 19th century included such men as Harry Stovey, Buck Ewing, Jocko Milligan, and Ed Delahanty. His trail of National League home runs was already legendary when he moved to the American League in 1965. You are correct about Howard. I thought I saw Tony Clark hit a monster on the roof, but Im so old my memory is shot. I found it refreshing to be served by people who truly knew everything and who came across as glad i stopped in and only care about me getting the service beyond what i deserved. 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. If you wanted to see a home run, you had to waddle your butt down to a baseball diamond somewhere and hope a skinny batter wearing a wool uniform would swat the ball over the fence. On June 29, 2018,, Seattle Mariners Mike Zunino hit a 470-foot home run to left field off Kansas City Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy. Copyright 1999- Sammy Sosa famously broke one of the windows on that yellow building, but even Slammin Sammy never hit one out there as far as Hill. But there are others. The drive to left had an exit velocity of 109 mph, according to Statcast, and reached the base of the brick wall behind the left-field seats. Simply clearing the first row of shrubs beyond the center-field fence is a big deal. Im here to drive home runs. When gargantuan Frank Howard hit a mighty home run off Robin Roberts in Philadelphia on September 1, 1958, the next great tape measure home run career was initiated. I think they left Dick Allen in 1973 for the White Sox. Not for long. Yes, Killebrew did it again, the next day. Fielder nearly swung out of his shoes while fouling off an earlier pitch in the at-bat, prompting the television broadcaster to ponder if Fielder would have hit it out of the stadium had he connected. Back in 21, Navin Field did not yet have the upper deck in center field that would later be a haven for diehard fans. (Shoutout as well to Bonds skyscraper in Game 2 of the 2002 World Series -- aka the one the camera basically lost track of.). Allen walloped 18 home runs over the 75-foot-high left-field grandstand at Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium, but his opposite-field drives to right and right-center fields may have been even more impressive. Simply hitting the shrubs in straightaway center field used to be a big enough deal that those home runs were tracked in the Tigers media guide. The enigmatic Dick Allen was also one of baseball's greatest long-distance hitters. It may be appropriate to cite another example of this same optical illusion. On April 14, 1976, New York Mets right fielder Dave Kingman hit an estimated 530-foot home run to left-center field off Chicago Cubs pitcher Tom Dettore. His 1971 All-Star blast off the light tower atop the right-center-field roof at Tiger Stadium ranks as one of the 10 longest drives in major league history. TAMPA, Fla. - The No. Most of those blasts, too, were prodigious, so the Tigers took a chance and signed Fielder. In virtually every other field of endeavor in which physical performance can be measured, there are no Ruthian equivalents. Hitters have been going well beyond that for over a decade. Their displays of pure power were greeted with passionate enthusiasm, though they did not occur in an actual game. The ball was hit on August 16, 1935. By 1995, the sponsorship had changed, but the program had been expanded to include every big league ballpark. San Diego Padres Franmil Reyes hit a 479-foot home run on June 5, 2018, against Atlanta Braves pitcher Luke Jackson. They represent a fraction of those who have applied their ability to the act of hitting a baseball. Until the Statcast radar era, we really never had. The best distance guess at the time: 538 feet. So, you didnt have much of a chance to see a four-bagger back in those days. 3. You just dont get this type of service anywhere else folks and turns out it all to be a great value as well as they search the system for every possible discount they could give me. I placed an order and received a follow up call within 24 hrs due to item was not available. On April 14, 1961, Post hit a home run that struck an Anheuser-Busch sign high atop the scoreboard in left. If Bo Jackson had not been forced into early retirement, he might have challenged Fielder for modern supremacy. Why then would anyone care how far they go? Landed in the last few rows one per deck bleachers. Killebrew hit 44 home runs in 1967 and entered the Hall of Fame with 573. Mizzou opened its home slate with a 17-2 run-rule victory over . Did you know that the SABR book (Home Run Encyclopedia) lists details about every Major League home run hit by every player since 1876? New York Met Michael Conforto hit a 469-foot home run on September 29, 2021, off of Miami Marlins pitcher Elieser Hernandez. Not many balls are hit farther than 500 feet, and Killebrews was measured at 522. If he had the power to clear the roof by over 100 feet, he surely would have cleared it marginally on many occasions. Tell us in the comments. Only four players have been confirmed to hit a ball over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium in Detroit: Cecil Fielder, Mark McGwire, Harmon Killebrew, and Frank Howard. The Babe cranked an exhibition game dinger there that traveled over the left-center field fence and into a moving train. We naturally like to quantify any phenomenon that interest us. Privacy Policy Almost every year, it is the man who strikes the ball the farthest during the competition who receives the highest plaudits. But so did Killebrews, Mee said. That ball is measured at. On August 10, 2004, Cincinnati Reds left fielder Adam Dunn hit a 535-foot home run to center field off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jose Lima. Babe Ruth was said to have hit a home run over 600 feet. Its immortalized with a Florida Historical Markertitled Babes Longest Homer.. 3. On June 2, 2017, Manny Machado hit a 465-foot home run off Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello. And if Harmon Killebrew ever hit one farther, the 49th anniversary of that home run is today. Probably well over 600 feet in total. That homeric deed was performed by the powerful Jimmie Foxx on June 16, 1936. Babe Ruth, yellowing newspaper accounts have it, hit a ball out of the old Tiger Stadium in 1926. Such a batted ball would require literally superhuman velocity, which would render the batsman capable of authoring 700 foot home runs. This is dramatized by the fact that Connor's blow was the only home run he would hit that season. The list includes Larry Doby, Joe Adcock, Eddie Mathews, Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson. It is for that reason that we find their actions so thrilling, and will always want to identify them for special reward and distinction. Although other sluggers occasionally reached the rooftops during Comiskey's long lifetime, the only other left-handed batter known to have flown the right-field roof was Detroit's Kirk Gibson in 1985. Jason Thompson. Allen could not hit with the same power in those directions as when he pulled the ball, but he seems to have lost less distance than almost anyone else when hitting to the opposite field. The term tape measure is especially relevant in this instance, since it was popularized on this occasion for the first time. 15 15. The decade of the fifties was particularly blessed with the presence of many great sluggers, who should be mentioned in any discussion of long hitters. Yet again, we have an example of a genuinely epic home run that has been grievously overstated. Advertisement That puts it up there with legendary home runs from the likes of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Zack Short hit his second home run in as many days in the fifth. On June 27, 2007, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard launched a 505-foot home run off of Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Aaron Harang. Also ranking among the elite during that decade were Greg Luzinski, Dave Kingman, and George Foster. Glenallen Hill - 500 Feet. Lets take a look at the longest home runs in the history of each MLB stadium. The same process was at work for Mantle on September 10, 1960, in Detroit, where his right-center-field rooftopper was reported to have traveled more than 600 feet. The 2021 Home Run Derby begins at 7:00 p.m. Bay Area, Chicago, Milwaukee, Iowa City, Des Moines, St. Paul/Minneapolis. During Mantle's rookie season in 1951, he had struck several impressive drives, but it was not until he cleared the left-center-field bleachers at Griffith Stadium two years later that he was crowned as the new King of the Tape Measure. His most impressive, though, may have been . Longest home run in the history of every single MLB stadium BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - SEPTEMBER 26: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees at bat during the top of the first inning of the. The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. I was at a game when Frank Catalonatto hit a ball onto the RF roof down the line, but the ball rolled back off the roof and fell on the field. Bonus points for clubbing this off As ace Dave Stewart, when Smoke was near the peak of his powers. In 1921 alone, which was Ruth's best tape measure season, he hit at least one 500 foot home run in all eight American League cities. Cecil Fielder of the Detroit Tigers is credited with powering a ball 502 feet in the air over the left-field bleachers at Milwaukee's County Stadium on September 14, 1991. In truth, that figure derived from the distance from home plate to the place where a neighborhood child retrieved the ball. As a result, he's the only player in history to establish true tape measure standards in all directions. And then, wouldnt you know it, big Cecil did just that. Juan Gonzalez and Ken Griffey, Jr. were the most widely discussed participants at Baltimore's 1993 All-Star celebration, though neither player did anything heroic in the game itself. Whether it skips across the top of the railing into the first row of bleachers, or completely passes out of the stadium, the batter is award four bases - no more, no less. But baseball has been around way longer than that, obviously.