Posted on 02/07/2016 4:04:06 AM PST by Fai Mao
Kind of a fun watch
Pitchers and catchers report in 13 days
I saw Roberto Clemente hit one at Wrigley field that was a line drive that was still RISING as it went past the Scoreboard in Center field.
10 days to the start of Spring training. Not that I am counting.
http://springtrainingcountdown.com/
I am having a practice this morning for my Pony league team. Our season starts in a couple of weeks.
Awesome that means Spring is right around the corner.
Where is the Mick? Mantle hit the ball harder and farther then anyone.
I like my calendar better. You must be a Jays or Twins fan.
http://www.springtrainingconnection.com/reportingdates.html
Mantle hit one in Griffith Stadium in DC, I believe it was called then, they are still looking for!
Miggy Cabrera isn’t featured on the video either . . . but there is some obvious Adam Dunn love going on.
The 565 foot homer Mickey Mantle hit off Washington Senator’s pitcher Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington DC.
more on the Mick’s 565 homer at Griffith Stadium.
Hit Right-handed)
This ranks as one of, if not the, most famous home run in history. It’s the home run that coined the term “tape measure home run” and is listed in the Guinness Book of Sports Records as the longest home run to be hit in a regular-season major league game.
The Yankees were playing the Senators at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. Griffith Stadium was a little bandbox of a ballpark but, as Mickey said, “It wasn’t that easy to hit a home run there. There was a 90-foot wall in center-field, and there always seemed to be a breeze blowing in.”
Lefty Chuck Stobbs was on the mound. A light wind wasblowing out from home plate for a change. It was two years to the day since Mickey’s first major league game. Mickey stepped up to the plate. Stobbs fired a fastball just below the letters, right where the Mick liked them, and he connected full-on with it. The ball took off toward the 391-foot sign in left-center-field. It soared past the fence, over the bleachers and was headed out of the park when it ricocheted off a beer sign on the auxiliary football scoreboard. Although slightly impeded, it continued its flight over neighboring Fifth Street and landed in the backyard of 434 Oakdale Street, several houses up the block.
Billy Martin was on third when Mickey connected and, as a joke, he pretended to tag up like it was just a long fly ball. Mickey didn’t notice Billy’s shenanigans (”I used to keep my head down as I rounded the bases after a home run. I didn’t want to show up the pitcher. I figured he felt bad enough already.”) and almost ran into Billy! If not for third base coach Frank Crosetti he would have. Had Mickey touched Billy he would have automatically been declared out and would have been credited only with a double.
Meanwhile up in the press box Yankees PR director Red Patterson cried out, “That one’s got to be measured!” He raced out of the park and around to the far side of the park where he found 10-year-old Donald Dunaway with the ball. Dunaway showed Red the ball’s impact in the yard and Red paced off the distance to the outside wall of Griffith Stadium. Contrary to popular myth, he did not use a tape measure, although he and Mickey were photographed together with a giant tape measure shortly after the historic blast. Using the dimensions of the park, its walls and the distance he paced off, Patterson calculated the ball traveled 565 feet. However, sportswriter Joe Trimble, when adding together the distances, failed to account for the three foot width of the wall and came up with the 562-foot figure often cited. However, 565 feet is the correct number.
This was the first ball to ever go over Griffith Stadium’s left-field bleachers. Most believe the ball would have gone even further had it not hit the scoreboard. At any rate, it became one of the most famoushome runs ever. It was headline news in a number of newspapers and a major story across the country. From that date forward long home runs were referred to as “tape measure” home runs. That this home run is ranked as #7 on Mickey’s top ten says an awful lot about Mickey’s incredible power. For most players it would have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot if they were lucky enough to even come close to this distance.
more on Mickey Mantle’s ten longest home runs with diagramed photos and details.
http://www.themick.com/10homers.html
Can say I got to witness the first home run to be hit out of Dodger stadium. Willie Stargell 500 feet plus.
Was seated upper deck third base line. That beautiful sound of the crack of the bat, while a hush fell over the stadium, the ball clearing the pavillion in right center field. As Willie was rounding third, even the Dodger die hard fans came to their feet to applaud the feat and the man.
Thank you for bringing back a wonderful memory
Pujols off Lidge in Houston NLCS 2005. Bounced off the stadium wall just below the rafters. Grandpa Bush and Barbara were right behind the plate with their mouths hanging open.
But since the distance to the center field fence at the Polo Grounds in those days was 490 feet, Ruth was robbed of many homers which simply became long outs. Many pitchers refused to pitch to Ruth forcing him to swing at outside pitches to avoid looking at four balls on a routine basis.
Many of those outside pitches he hit went to left center or center field. And since Ruth swung with an upper cut, most of the balls hit in those areas were fly balls and easy outs even at over 450-490 feet.
Jenkinson analyzed every long ball Ruth hit that season and concluded that if he had played in a modern ball park, even Yankee Stadium, he would have hit 104 home runs.
Jenkinson also analyzed the famed blasts of other sluggers, including Mantle's blast at Griffith Park, and concluded they still didn't go has far as many of Ruth's blasts. For the record, Jenkinson doubted Mantle's blast went as far as people said it did.
Good timing on your post - had first of the year high school coaches meeting last night. I am FIRED UP to get pitchers going this week. This was a lot of fun to watch. Thx.
cripes...that was in 59.
There have still only been 6 or 8 hit completely out in 54 years, but I believe Wilver is the only one to have done so twice.
LOL. No it was about 1970...
I had softball batting practice with a few guys Wed. and this morning........
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