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The definition of a frozen rope Jim Thome’s dinger on July 3, 1999, is one to remember. In the second game of a doubleheader, Thomas took a 3-1 pitch and sent it towering to left-center and it didn’t stay in the stadium long. After bouncing once on the concourse, it fell onto the street as a souvenir that holds a place in MLB history. Nomar Mazara, once one of the top prospects in MLB, hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. Released by the Detroit Tigers in July, Mazara’s chances of becoming an impact MLB player might be over.
His first three years with the Texas Rangers included 20 home runs each, and then he followed that up with 19 in 2019. Between the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, Mazara hit just four dingers. The following home runs are in no particular order since the measurements are estimated and a little bit all over the place, and it’s by no means an exhaustive list.
Babe Ruth ( : 575 feet
A perfect swing, the high altitude and maybe, just maybe, the bat he used all played a role. When Meyer came up for the at-bat in question that night, he had already homered. But players on the field thought it had only gone out because of the thin Rocky Mountain air. Meyer's high school coach in Honolulu still raves about his power, saying he could come out right now and still hit homers. The first baseman was even given the Barry Bonds treatment in his school days, getting intentionally walked with the bases loaded.
Adam Dunn played just 44 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but one of his eight home runs stands as the longest witnessed at Chase Field. William J. Jenkinson reported the home run's distance at 502 feet—the longest estimate from IBM's measuring system from 1982 to 1996—in a study published by Baseball Almanac. The ball soared out of Wrigley Field and landed on the rooftop of a building across the street. 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.
Aaron Judge on June 11, 2017: 495 feet
Interestingly enough, Gallo failed to post an OPS greater than .800 in five of the six months during 2018. Aaron Judge didn’t just hit a then-MLB-rookie-record 52 homers during 2017. He also led the league in runs scored , walks , and strikeouts on his way to winning AL Rookie of the Year honors. Through 547 trips to the plate in 2021, Cron collected 28 homers, 92 RBI, and 70 runs scored. At the point of this dinger, the first baseman has slugged 27 dingers with 92 RBI, and 72 runs scored.
I do love seeing him take a peek out to left field before rounding third base, too. This was part of Hill’s fourth and final season of 20-plus homers, and the 27 he hit were actually a career-high mark. Looming over baseball history as an almost mythical figure, Babe Ruth to this day remains one of the sport’s greatest power hitters. Tracking home runs was a much more difficult task in Ruth’s playing days, but his longest was purported to be 575 feet. Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY SportsWillie Stargell is among the Hall of Famers who are also recognized as one of the best power hitters in MLB history.
Josh Gibson, Homestead Grays catcher – 580 feet, Yankee Stadium
It is due to his immense popularity and constant involvement in the tape measure process that he is often thrust into the muddle of misrepresentation. By his own account he hit the longest home run of his career on May 22, 1963 at Yankee Stadium. The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. Almost everyone in attendance believed that the ball was still rising when it was interrupted in midflight by the roof structure. Based upon that belief, this drive has commonly been estimated at about 620 feet if left unimpeded. However, the reality is that the ball was already on its way down, and those reporting the trajectory were victimized by a common optical illusion.
It may not have been the only home run ever to leave Jacobs Field, but it was memorable. Moving into the eighties, Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice, and Darryl Strawberry set the pace at a time when modern technology permitted us to better understand the limitations of the flight of a batted ball. The same home runs that had once been described as 500 footers were now being scientifically calculated in the 450-foot range.
The blast has been measured as a 525 foot home run from Strawberry, which ended being first the longest one of his 39 on the season. It was such a literal moonshot into the roof that it came down onto the field of play after smacking the top of the stadium like a bullet. This was one of the last years we got to see a healthy Strawberry on top of his game, but at least he went out with a bang. Ruth has the luxury of his own legend to back up any claims of how far he hit his homers. And there aren’t many records kept that can detail any sort of measurements whatsoever. There are old tales that claim Ruth hit a ball approximately 600 feet in 1926, but who really knows?
During those years, only one drive of 500 feet was confirmed by this system. 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. Such renowned sluggers and extraordinary physical specimens as Jose Canseco and Juan Gonzalez have never come genuinely close to the 500-foot threshold. The best effort on the part of either player was Canseco's famous blast into the fifth level at Toronto's Sky Dome during the 1989 American League playoffs, which was estimated at 484 feet. Drafted by the Brewers in the 5th round of the 1983 Major League Baseball draft, Meyer showed prodigious power in the minor leagues.
While it’s possible Oklahoma State gave a favorable measurement, the 513-foot homer would easily be the farthest home run in 2022 at any level of baseball. This blast, the second on the list from Dunn, makes his first look like a chip shot and this time he may have used the driver. On August 10th of the 2004 season, Dunn connected on one of his 46 on the season and put himself in the top 3 for farthest dingers. He also became the only man, and still stands as so, to hit a ball clear out of The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. He hit the ball to the deepest part of the park in center-field, proving why he show up on our list twice. Dunn was one of the premier home run hitters during his 15-year career that lasted from 2001 to 2014.
Memorial Field opened in 1921 as a tribute to Belmar residents who fought in World War I (there’s a war memorial just beyond the outfield fence). In the 1920s and 1930s, the field was home to the semipro Belmar Braves. In 1935 the New York Cubans, a Negro National League team led by player-coach Dihigo, used the field for its Saturday home games. At a time when Blacks were barred from Major League Baseball, barnstorming tours featuring Negro League stars made stops there as well. Youth baseball players practice Tuesday afternoon, March 30, 2021, at Memorial Field in Belmar.
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