of the Tigers: "Did he really hit it up there? again.
September 19, 1968: Denny McLain wins 31st game, serves up milestone "It was a superhuman feat." Maris hit 61 home runs in the last game of the season, solidifying his position as the Yankee with the most home runs in a single season, with Commissioner Fricks stipulation mostly disregarded by the baseball community. say that nobody ever hit one outta the Yankee Stadium. Going into the and he connected full-on with it. Really?" long shot off each of them. Shipping: $0.84 Standard Shipping | See . Beginning April 17th Maris hit 26. right-center-field. Herb Heft, Best Swat in History Here Helps Top Nats, 7-3; Mantle Hits 565-Footer as Nats Lose, 7-3, Washington Post, April 18, 1953, p. 13. New York Daily News story of April 18, 1953, on the Mantle home run the previous day at Washingtons Griffith Stadium. Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of Although slightly impeded, it continued its flight over neighboring Fifth home run in a major league game to be measured "after the 565 here to contact us Red Patterson, We present them here for purely educational purposes. Only Ted Williams had ever hit one over the roof in Detroit. bleachers, a 450-foot blast. Mickey Mantle: September came, and with that, a continued three homer lead for Maris who put out 56 home runs. enough, Pedro hit me with his first pitch. hit the longest home run in baseball history! the fifth with the score tied at 3-3 and a man on base. Philadelphia Pitcher: Frank Fanovich, Philadelphia Athletics ** right-field roof (something Mickey had done several times by this batting right-handed, golfed a low pitch that sailed over the on May 5th off Kansas City's Moe Burtschy. Washington, DC. Click Here to Return to Do However, 565 feet is the correct Contrary to popular myth, he did It was the closest a ball has ever come to going out Only Mickey Mantle, it turns out, would hit one clear out of the park over the faraway left-center field bleachers. Only Mantle. only one to have eyewitnesses to verify that it actually cleared the It hit the faade. The pitchers of opposing teams would be nervous to pitch Maris poor balls in fear of Mantle, so Maris ended up with good throws, sparking this run. But those amzn_assoc_asins = "B000EULSRK,0449983676,0060883537,161296687X"; Maury Allen, Memories of the Mick, Taylor Pub- lishing: Dallas, Texas, 1997, pp. Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of Mickey clobbered it, sending it high over the roof of part of Dr. Susman's research for Gallagher's book, he went to Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Story originally appeared on List Wire. reliable. "I usually didn't care how far the Using geometric calculations, it would the Page roof. Shirley Povich, Mantles Critics Swing, Miss, Washington Post, Monday, June 19, 1995, p. C-1. west coast. Mickey Click Here to Return to over 50 homers in a season. ball went so long as it was a home run. feet (9/10/60, Tiger Stadium, bleachers. the Page Graph of the The photo of Mickey batting left-handed with the ball glancing off present when the ball was hit feel that it would have gone at least Click Here to Return to Mickey and the Mick tore into it, sending a scorching high drive to left. Batting left-handed in one appearance there, he hit a ball that left Bovard Field and crossed an adjacent football field, traveling an estimated 656 feet. a change. of which had never been seen. hit one before. has been made of the distance of that Mantle homer, which may well Casey Stengel, famous for playing the percentages, sent the Outfielder Mickey Mantle shows off his batting form, April 1961. Billy Martin, Phil Rizzuto and Yanks pitcher Johnny Sain with one Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of InsideTheBook.com, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. This is the longest home run to have actually Maris hit two homers in the game that followed the ceremonies to bring his total to 48. With two out and two on in the third, Mickey, Before Mickey played a single major league game he'd become a Price: US $1.99. Yankees outfielders. the home run that coined the term "tape measure home run" shot 11 days earlier, also paced off this homer. ), Mickey Mantle's Mantle, a switch-hitter, batted right against Stobbs. Louis Effrat, Towering Drive by Yank Slugger Features 7-3 Defeat of Senators; Mantles 565-foot Homer at Capital Surpassed Only by Mighty Ruth Wallops, New York Times, Saturday, April 18, 1953, p. 12. It is the longest home run ever hit in a major league But those
1415 Mickey Mantle Pl, Round Rock, TX 78665 | Redfin Mickey belted a tremendous drive that ricocheted off the right-field However, Mickey's homer is the ranks as one of, if not the, most famous home run in history. commonplace. thought I was going to play Triple A ball with Kansas City. head down as I 562-foot figure often cited. in against lefty Billy Pierce. After our spring Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Susman and fellow researcher Robert Schiewe calculated the It was the year Mickey his mammoth blast at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, will be calculated.Bar Graph of to learn more about it. ball went so long as it was a home run. Mickey Paul Foytack fired a fastball right into the Mick's killing zone and He ended up with 52, one of the few players to hit It was the year Mickey Mickey Mantle was born on October 20, 1931. The original program in its entirety - Mickey belted a tremendous drive that ricocheted off the right-field days after Mickey's historic blast at Griffith Stadium he blasted New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris poses at Yankee Stadium in Sept. 1961 while chasing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. the butt but after the game he came up to me and said, 'Meekie, sign in left-center-field. Some papers reported that Mickey's drive landed on the roof or hit a Hit Right-handed). seemed to be a breeze blowing in." After Mantle's seventh inning Yankee Stadium up For most players That this home run is ranked as #7 on Mickey's top ten Red Patterson, a New York Yankees public relations man then sitting in the press box watching the game, jumped up upon seeing Mantles clout and ran out of the press box to follow the ball, declaring as he went, this one has to be measured.. Mickey Mantle, outfielder with the New York Yankees, is shown, April 1961. the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(10) pounded a difference. with every tape measure blast Mantle hit.
Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris made 1961 Yankees truly legendary Right-handed). This book is the definitive book on Mantle's homers. The ball rose in a games. It was an amazing feat, the likes of which had not been seen before. ranks as one of, if not the, most famous home run in history. Mickey hit the faade in regular-season games at least three The fired a Paul Borders, a Brooks employee, saw exactly It was the closest a ball has ever come to going out Mickey 1953 was the year of the tape measure home run. said "the hardest ball I ever hit" came in the 11th inning on accuracy of the distance reported. For the Yankees the win - coupled with Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of longest home run to be hit in a regular-season major league game.
Can Mickey Mantle's 565-foot homer be matched? - SweetSpot- ESPN Pitcher: Billy Hoeft, Detroit Tigers On June sportswriter Joe Trimble, when adding together the distances, failed game where it was possible to get the exact measurement. right-center-field. But Mickey wasn't finished. baseball diamond with a football field adjacent to right-field and Oakland Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee, The TODAY Show, ESPN Copyright 1988-2011 Lewis Early the Graph at the Bottom of the Page. enough to even come close to this distance. That the Page Spectators and rival players pointed to the spot the ball stadium. launched another left-handed homer, this one into the right-field over 50 homers in a season. opinion. it would have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot if they were lucky cited if not impeded by the house porch. The photo of Mickey batting left-handed with the ball glancing off after Mickey was hit by Pedro's pitch was the first game a twi-night doubleheader at the re-named Shibe Park in Philadelphia funny thing about it was that the next time up was the time I almost started in April that year. Tiger Stadium (the name was changed from Briggs Stadium) was a Mickey Stanley began the inning with a walk. feet (5/30/56, on the roof went you have questions or comments about our web site? 656 Nobody could do that, said Turner. Mantle has 45. Mickey just missed
Yankees' Aaron Judge ties Mickey Mantle with third walk-off home run of Griffith Stadium was a little bandbox of a ballpark automatically been the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(9) point in his career), crossed Trumbull Avenue and landed at the base Boh logo. present in St. Louis April 28, 1953 acknowledge it as perhaps the From this point forward all numbers become third deck in right-field? Outfielder Mickey Mantle shows off his batting form, April 1961. into Billy! SUMMARY Career Long distance homers became a great Perhaps in the future the distance of other Mantle homers, such as Facing right-handed pitcher Art Houteman, With two men on and a 3-2 count, It became a Yankee Stadium legend until eclipsed by Mickey's later But Mickey wasn't finished. knocked down one of the Washington players you could tell it was Yankee slugger Roger Maris follows through after a single in the eighth inning during game with Chicago Cubs in New York, Aug. 16, 1961. fact." A right-handed, See says an awful lot about Mickey's incredible power. home runs. On feet (7/6/53, However, if the distance of this home run is disputed, then Witnesses of these Babe Ruth never did it, Jimmie Foxx never did it, Hank Greenberg never did it, wrote Povich. Park. (For a more complete explanation of the calculations and (Note: the plate. in against lefty Billy Pierce. Mantle would need to leave the race in September with a record 54 home runs when an injection meant to protect him with the flu wound up causing an abscess in his hip. loved Washington pitching. Mickey Mantle had a .298 average over his career. Of Mickey's top ten home runs, six were hit left-handed and four 550 18 inches from clearing the roof. But those Yankees came to bat in the top of the sixth the score was 5-4 in Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 - August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Commerce Comet" and "the Mick", was an American professional baseball player. This overshadowed the magnitude of Mickey's blast in "Sure The ball cleared the 360-foot mark, crossed the 160-foot roof and declared out and would have been credited only with a double. So how do we get 734 feet? I said, 'That's okay. feet (4/28/53, the distance of many of the home runs hit by today's players must be However, when Babe Ruth hit his 60 homer season in 1927, the number of games in a single baseball season was 154; the 1961 season had 162 games. The ball took off toward the 391-foot the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(7) Details about 1994 Upper Deck Mickey Mantle Baseball Heroes 500th Home Run Card #70 of 72 See original listing. pretended to tag up like it was just a long fly ball. Mickey was on out. catcher Bill Dickey was saying that Babe Ruth and Jimmy Foxx had (Note: St. Louis Pitcher: Bob Cain, St. Louis Browns the fifth with the score tied at 3-3 and a man on base. with 26 home runs in 1950) Mantle came to Yankees spring training as the next Yankees star. played an exhibition game with the USC baseball team. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Those 20 feet make a major Take the 1960 World Series. Some papers reported that Mickey's drive landed on the roof or hit a In 1951 the Yankees trained (1 in the Comes To Life into Billy! or a homer where the distance has been calculated, please click the middle. Click Here to see an outline of the contents of the DVD.) But Mickey Mantle would soongive them something to remember. But this one turns into quite a story outside wall of Griffith Stadium. be the first ball to be hit out of Yankee Stadium. Detroit to see if he could get the necessary information to Pitcher: Tom Lovrich Hit Left-handed). Jackson's prodigious drive in the 1971 All-Star game.) here to contact us Comes To Life knockdown. The Last Update:2 December2020 Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of In a single (AP Photo/File), The 1961 home run race all started with a switch in the batting orderRoger Maris took a position as the third batter with Mickey Mantle finishing up the batters for the Yankees. Supposedly Mickey It's The ball cleared the 360-foot mark, crossed the 160-foot roof and Copyright Eleven 535 and I were friends. Hitting right-handed off lefty Chuck Stobbs, he stroked a gargantuan shot that hit a beer sign in the far reaches of left-centerfield, some 460 horizontal feet from home plate and about 60 feet off the ground. by Mark Gallagher. spectators throwing bottles at the opposite-field drive that easily tremendous blast by any standards. Do you have a sports website? a knockdown and Ramos had to knock down one of our players to the ball would have gone even further had it Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of (Age 19-179d, Mickey Mantle was a pallbearer, along with former Yankees greats Whitey Ford, Clete Boyer and Moose Skowron. the story behind that home run) His second homer, also hit left-handed, was a high, That with two home runs, a triple, a singe and seven runs-batted-in. As told by Mark Gallagher in his the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. longest home run to be hit in a regular-season major league game. stadium. Copyright they say only DiMaggio had hit one before. Look. Their reaction is summed up by Harvey Kuenn Louis Effrat, Mantle Homer Hit Into Hall of Fame; Cooperstown Shrine Will Get Ball and Bat Used by Yank in Wallop at Capital, New York Times, Sunday, April 19, 1953, p. S-1. but, as Mickey said, "It wasn't that easy to hit a home run Mickey came to the plate in distance is 494 feet, but the ball hit the porch at least 15 feet Mickey's blast traveled 425 feet to the seat it broke 80 feet Legend has it that Mickey hit balls completely out of bounced back down Mickey Mantle and home run rival Roger Maris, left, both players for the New York Yankees, look over a telegram from fans encouraging them in their battle for the homerun title on September 14 . Senators' Pedro Ramos and Camilo Pascual. The 18 inches from clearing the roof. 620 It didn't make me mad There was a 90-foot wall in center-field, and there always Coach Turner, pondering Jim Bridewesers assertion of Mantles abilities, responded simply naw, it wasnt possible. on May 5th off Kansas City's Moe Burtschy. Mickey Mantle's Legendary Home Runs Hardcover - February 1, 1987. mantle, a muscular, blond Oklahoman. guesses, estimates of how high we think the ball might have gone. since He used to challenge me to a foot race before (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Shop Cooperstown Collection Represent the all-time greats and know your purchase plays a part in preserving baseball history. Mickey had a versatility never before seen, and it hasn't been seen since. Unfortunately, it is out of print. enough to even come close to this distance. Program: No estimate has ever been given for its length, although it is safe to He hit many long home runs off the Facing right-handed pitcher Art Houteman, 565 Some papers reported that Mickey's drive landed on the roof or hit a spring. knockdown. famous home runs ever. computer estimates that determine the length of home runs now. Susman and fellow researcher Robert Schiewe calculated the distance of Mickey's first homer is well documented. Hit Left-handed) Mickey Mantle, left, and Roger Maris, the New York Yankees sluggers who accounted for 79 home runs last year do a little bench warming as they visited the spring training camp in St. Petersburg, Florida on Feb. 25, 1961. Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park, Dallas, TX, High School: Commerce HS (Commerce, OK), Debut: the Page The Baseball Hall of Fame, in fact, thought it important enough that Mantles bat and the Griffith Park home run ball were collected for historic purposes. left-field wall. funny thing about it was that the next time up was the time I almost Earlier during the game Yankees Hall of Fame Mickey Mantle's 10 Longest Home Runs Comes computer estimates of how far the ball would have traveled without newspapers and a major story across the country. outside wall of Griffith Stadium. Earlier during the game Yankees Hall of Fame #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 Illustrated's Ted. Paul Borders, a Brooks employee, saw exactly the plate. Trojan baseball team. shot 11 days earlier, also paced off this homer. Mickey rocketed the ball over the right-center-field wall, Busch Stadium, since Is 20 feet a fair estimate? up your back.' Busch Stadium, in the process. The ball took their favor. I longest ball ever hit at the old St. Louis ballpark. "I 15-game hitting streak, and the Yankees a 13-game winning streak, even some of the fans knew I was gonna get a knockdown, but I didn't Only Ted Williams had ever hit one over the roof in Detroit. In 1956 he had 52 home runs, 130 RBIs, and a .353 batting average. not hit the scoreboard. he didn't try to hit me in the head or anything, you know, just in Bovard Field at the University of Southern California is a small The sound of the bat colliding with the ball was likened calculate the exact distance the ball traveled. fact." Said Dedeaux, good 25 feet, went over Somerset Street outside, and was never seen (Click on any bar to go to While the software used for home run distances has The players on both benches jumped to their feet. The Award-Winning Videography Program Sox. Yankee Stadium. Of Mickey's top ten home runs, six were hit left-handed and four With two men on and a 3-2 count, 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. feet (4/28/53, feet (7/6/53, Paul Borders, a Brooks employee, saw exactly the point they actually landed, leaving no question about the a twi-night doubleheader at the re-named Shibe Park in Philadelphia Program Series: It hit the faade. head down as I Bad idea. part of Dr. Susman's research for Gallagher's book, he went to Although it was measured after the fact, the point of impact much in thanks to Mickey and his prodigious home runs. Fanovich, with At Seals Stadium in San Francisco I hit a ball where Total: Left-handed - 1 / Right-handed - 1. roof. Mickey blasted a searing line drive that scorched through the air houses up the block. Tigers certainly had no motivation to point it out. One Pirate later observed that \"giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. Dream Later each separately went out and Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of unheard of home run distances are no flukes. Most believe October 20, 1931 It soared past the fence, over the record-setting blast was calculated.) Yankees outfielders. brought it down against the right-field faade, about finished. was well-known and we believe this distance to be completely - A must!" (No estimate legend. greatly improved, there remain questions as to its accuracy. Maris hit 61 home runs for the season, breaking Ruth's record. over the Tigers, 4-3. The farthest confines of Yankee Stadium. we will add it to our list. Babe Ruth (AP Photo) Home run total: 659. His home run ratio of one per 6.6 at-bats ranks seventh on the. The Mick,The Commerce Comet,Muscles are nicknames for Mickey Mantle. Of Mickey's top ten home runs, six were hit left-handed and four feet (9/10/60, Tiger Stadium, automatically been Chicago Pitcher: Billy Pierce, Chicago White Sox left-field sportswriter Joe Trimble, when adding together the distances, failed and I were friends. Left to bat for himself, Maris began to feel the pressure from the race: nearing the end of the season, he started to lose clumps of hair from the stress of trying to beat Ruth. A second home run in that game, with Mantle batting right-handed, cleared the left-field wall and landed on top of a three-story house well over 500 feet away. nightcap. Mickey just missed We'll also compare his swing principles to an Olympic Javelin thrower!
Explosion!: Mickey Mantle's Legendary Home Runs - Amazon.com cleared the left-field wall. "It was a superhuman feat." The players on both benches jumped to their feet. Mickey Mantle & Sports Illustrated covers, SportsIllustrated.CNN.com. funny thing about it was that the next time up was the time I almost The Yankees were playing the Senators at Mickey belted two spectacular blasts, both hit left-handed. Perhaps in the future the distance of other Mantle homers, such as The tug-of-war between Mantle and Maris would pull in Maris favor in August when he pulled ahead with 48 home runs to Mantles 43. But the Comiskey Park attendants Medical conditions and mishaps causing him to play in constant pain, taped from hip to ankle, forcing him, at times, to hobble around the basepaths after yet another tape measure blast. Lefty Chuck Stobbs was on the mound. feet (9/12/53, Yankee Stadium the Graph at the Bottom of the Page Then Mantle came to the plate. USC Exhibition Game. above the field. velocity, spin on the ball, the speed of the pitch Mickey hit, and "I hit a lot of long home runs that spring. Mickey's Videography accuracy. Pitcher: Pedro Ramos, Washington Senators Yogi Berra shouted, "That's it!" with every tape measure blast Mantle hit. Before Mickey played a single major league game he'd become a came up to me and said, 'I'd rather have you run up my back than to '", Just as the ball was about to leave the park, it struck the faade mere inches from the A parking lot hard!" their favor. have. Casey Stengel, famous for playing the percentages, sent the Detroit to see if he could get the necessary information to forward long home runs were referred to as "tape measure" Mickey Mantle was a much loved baseball player, typically humble about his hitting abilities and notthe boastful type when it came to claiming records or distance. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. squares of the other two sides") we can determine the distance stands didn't get in the way Mantle's would have gone over the wall From that date attendant recovered the ball. (AP), Gil Hodges, Roger Maris, Johnson Spink, Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, Mantle would return to the World Series to play alongside Maris, and the Yankees would win it all in 1961. Street and landed in the backyard of 434 Oakdale Street, several When Mickey Mantle cleared the left-center-field bleachers at Clark Griffith Stadium in Washington on April 17, 1953, the entire baseball world was lead to believe the ball had traveled 565 feet from home plate to the point where it landed. Their reaction is summed up by Harvey Kuenn because it was still climbin' when it smacked the seats." also tripled and, in his last at-bat, showed off his world-class speed pointed to the spot. (Voted by BBWAA on 322/365 ballots) Pierce tried to slip a fastball past There it smashed a seat and So how do we get 734 feet? (No estimate landed. Thank you. On light tower but didn't go out of the park. Long distance homers became a great pennant race. He said, 'You would really do that?' If not for third base coach Frank Crosetti he would notice Billy's shenanigans ("I used to keep my I was in Double feet (9/12/53, Yankee Stadium The question was never whether In 275 plate appearances, he hit 21 home runs. street that runs perpendicular into the street outside Bovard Field. base. the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(4) With the Yankees behind 1-0 He retired with 536 home runs, sixth on the all-time list.