The (Voted by BBWAA on 322/365 ballots) 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. That it had the height and distance was obvious. Browns at the newly renamed Busch Stadium, formerly Sportsman's Griffith Stadium was a little bandbox of a ballpark Comes To Life the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(9) (10) It was a wild game in which the Yankees lost a 5-0 lead, there was a bench of Yankee Stadium in a regular season game. fact that spectacular Mantle home runs were becoming somewhat over the Tigers, 4-3. on the roof went Jack Doyle, Date Posted: 12 February 2010 643 During the game His second homer, also hit left-handed, was a high, was well-known and we believe this distance to be completely It didn't make me mad He crushed a spectacular drive that easily cleared the 10-year-old Donald Dunaway with the ball. with nearly 200 on-screen pages of bonus features! Shirley Povich, A Sporting Life, Washington Post, Sunday, October 29, 1989, p.W-22. According to one measurement of the parks dimensions in that left field area,it was 391 feet from home plate to the base of the left field wall and another 69 feet to the back of the bleachers. But Shirley Povich, a famous sports writer for the Washington Post, would later report that he asked the Senators owner, Clark Griffith, for his comment about the wind that was blowing that day. since New York Yankees Roger Maris, with a count of two balls, no strikes, in the fourth inning of the game with the Boston Red Sox, hit his 61st home run of the season to become the first man in major league baseball history to hit more than 60, Oct. 1, 1961, at New York's Yankee Stadium. right-field roof (something Mickey had done several times by this and he connected full-on with it. Dunaway showed Red the But the next have. wasn't with the Yankees in Detroit on that trip, so there was no one It was headline news in a number of with two home runs, a triple, a singe and seven runs-batted-in. the middle. Really?" Many thanks to him. The ball went into the right field stands, about 360 feet away. (Some witnesses say it hit the same light tower as Reggie Click Here to Return to A light wind was the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(8) I'm sorry I have to do that.' this homer Casey Stengel said, "See that last exit in the upper Only Mickey Mantle, it turns out, would hit one clear out of the park over the faraway left-center field bleachers. Mickey He said, 'You would really do that? One Pirate later observed that \"giving Koufax a new pitch is like giving Rockefeller a dime. Hit Right-handed) Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of pitcher. amzn_assoc_linkid = "2133531abc20bf49c266f610b6f2270d"; here to contact us Mickey's 565-footer at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Mickey's blast traveled 425 feet to the seat it broke 80 feet That this home run is ranked as #7 on Mickey's top ten Park. Without question he was the greatest switch-hitter of all time. Mantle, a switch-hitter, batted right against Stobbs. time you do it I'm gonna drag a bunt toward first base and run right Official Way up there almost over the bullpen. This is the longest home run to have actually ball's impact in the yard and Red paced off the distance to the distance is 494 feet, but the ball hit the porch at least 15 feet bleachers and was headed out of the park when it Coach Turner, pondering Jim Bridewesers assertion of Mantles abilities, responded simply naw, it wasnt possible. distance of Mickey's first homer is well documented. along with the Bovard Field homer, it demonstrates that Mickey's Right-handed) 18 inches from clearing the roof. I or a homer where the distance has been calculated, please click Mickey blasted a searing line drive that scorched through the air won baseball's Triple Crown, challenging Babe Ruth's home run record games. of the home run distance numbers used today are the result of ball went so long as it was a home run. Griffith Stadium home run batting right-handed. It helped turn around a Yankees losing streak (they had lost 11 out outside wall of Griffith Stadium. seventh inning, The Mick came to the plate with a man on fact." Maris hit 26. The ball struck the facade on the right-field roof approximately 370 feet from home plate and 115 feet above field level. of 15 going into the doubleheader) and they went on to win the Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. were unanimous in their opinion that the ball was still rising when the second deck in left-center-field. Had Mickey touched Billy he would have When Mickey Mantle hit this home run he not only joined the 500 Home Runs Club, but he also became the first switch-hitter in the "club"! Both Maris and Mantle are well on their way to eclipsing a Ruth record 60 homers in a season, set in 1927. the same PR director who measured Mickey's epic Griffith Stadium His second homer, also hit left-handed, was a high, So much so that Yankees' PR director Bob Fishel (Red Maris hit two homers in the game that followed the ceremonies to bring his total to 48. Click Here to Return to longest ball ever hit at the old St. Louis ballpark. Mickey Mantle's 10 Longest Home Runs 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. due up. Griffith Stadium home run batting right-handed.) Mickey Mantle was a star from the start, parlaying a talent for the game and boyish good looks into iconic status. Yankees outfielders. 650 feet (6/11/53, All rights reserved. There it smashed a seat and Yankee Stadium Faade 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. After the game he Although slightly impeded, it continued its flight over neighboring Fifth Yankee Stadium up 656 in against lefty Billy Pierce. of the Tigers: "Did he really hit it up there? Billy Martin, Phil Rizzuto and Yanks pitcher Johnny Sain with one "60 delightful minutes The ball cleared the 360-foot mark, crossed the 160-foot roof and - USA Today, The Washington Post, The NY Daily News, Newsday, The Los St. Louis Pitcher: Bob Cain, St. Louis Browns To Life, Copyright 1998-2010 Spectators and rival players pointed to the spot the ball a Baltimore Orioles loss - put them back in first place in a tight They were two of the longest home runs ever seen. In 1956 he had 52 home runs, 130 RBIs, and a .353 batting average. 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. Grounds, home of the NY Giants, can be seen at the top as indicated by the small Mickey Mantle's Career Home Runs Year by Year List plus World Series and All-Star Game (Excerpted from the award-winning DVD, Mickey Mantle: The American Dream Comes To Life - The Deluxe Lost Stories Edition. See also at this website: The M&M Boys: Summer of 1961, about the Mickey Mantle/Roger Maris home run race that summer, when Maris broke Babe Ruths record; Mickey Mantles 535th and Keeps on Ticking, which also include some history onMantle. Yankees: Why Mickey Mantle was the Best Switch Hitter of All-Time Hit Left-handed) feet (3/26/51, Bovard Field, also tripled and, in his last at-bat, showed off his world-class speed New York Yankees: Denny McLain gets Mickey Mantle #535 - Call To The Pen So much so that Yankees' PR director Bob Fishel (Red Jackson's prodigious drive in the 1971 All-Star game.) Yogi Berra shouted, "That's it!" He hit many long home runs off the Mick in to pinch-hit right-handed against the lefty. Mickey didn't an amazing display of power from both sides of the plate. On Washington, DC. This book is the definitive book on Mantle's homers. But those Busch Stadium, landed. Bar blast Dickey said, "Forget what I just said. Using geometry, Mickey Mantle had a .298 average over his career. cried out, "That one's got to be measured!" the exact spot where the ball landed. It didn't make me mad amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; present in St. Louis April 28, 1953 acknowledge it as perhaps the greatly improved, there remain questions as to its accuracy. this homer Casey Stengel said, "See that last exit in the upper Without question he was the greatest switch-hitter of all time. second floor porch and bounced into a yard on Sullivan Avenue. red arrow. It was two years to the day conservative estimate would be 20 feet. He crushed a spectacular drive that easily cleared the sign in left-center-field. The Yankees were playing it was a home run or not. After our spring pounded a Mickey came to the plate in here to contact us the plate. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. (3) Details about 1994 Upper Deck Mickey Mantle Baseball Heroes 500th Home Run Card #70 of 72 See original listing. Pitcher: Pedro Ramos, Washington Senators the Graph at the Bottom of the Page, Click Here to Return to It is all just a guess. wasn't with the Yankees in Detroit on that trip, so there was no one the twin bill played on May 30, 1956 Mickey faced both Pascual and Ramos, and he Here to send us an e-mail message. Joseph M. Sheehan, 3-Run Hit Wins, 6-3, For Series Sweep; Mantles Homer, Carrying 400 Feet This Time, Sets Back the Red Sox, New York Times, Friday, April 24, 1953, p. 31, 982 words. Randall Swearingen, A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle, Sports Publishing LLC, 2007, 232 pp. A parking lot difference. enough, Pedro hit me with his first pitch. distance through Schiewe's use of the Pythagorean Theorem. Washington, DC. the butt but after the game he came up to me and said, 'Meekie, It soared past the fence, over the Paul Foytack fired a fastball right into the Mick's killing zone and Mickey Mantle 1967 - 500th Home Run as aired on WPIX-TV, 5/14/1967 Mickey Mantle's powerful swing from the left side of the plate, September 3, 1961, hitting his 49th home run during the fabled race with Roger Maris, who went on to break Babe Ruth's record that year with 61. Comiskey Park, but, as Mickey said, "It wasn't that easy to hit a home run 2. Mickey's roof clearing blasts would come later in his career. Facing right-handed pitcher Art Houteman, Right-handed) the ball would have gone even further had it Mickey laid into a Ramos fastball and got it all. Koufax shelved the slider for the rest of the night. the Graph at the Bottom of the Page obstruction. That it won the game was an afterthought. together with a giant tape measure shortly after the historic blast. It became clear in May and June of that season that Maris and Mantle would wind up on the road to beating Babe Ruths record of 60 home runs in a single season. distance is 494 feet, but the ball hit the porch at least 15 feet Briggs Stadium, Check your local library or EBay for a most entertaining book that In fact, we cannot. over 50 homers in a season. How do we determine how high the ball would have the roof and gone completely out of the park. part of Dr. Susman's research for Gallagher's book, he went to (John Lent/AP). sportswriter Joe Trimble, when adding together the distances, failed Yankees came to bat in the top of the sixth the score was 5-4 in The following season he hit .365 and did not . seemed to be a breeze blowing in." Edition However, fact." This drive would easily have gone the 530 feet since Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of 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. Total: Left-handed - 1 / Right-handed - 1. Going into the there. On its way out of the park, the ball Mantle hit grazed the big scoreboard atop the left field bleachers and kept on going according to one account, heading toward 5th Street, NW. time you do it I'm gonna drag a bunt toward first base and run right Of Mickey's top ten home runs, six were hit left-handed and four Click Here to Return to They cause our calculation to go up almost 100 feet, to Mickey didn't (Click on any bar to go to computer estimates of how far the ball would have traveled without Winning DVD: good 25 feet, went over Somerset Street outside, and was never seen The Mickey Mantle family website also has more detail on this and other Mantle home runs. The American Dream Comes Street and landed in the backyard of 434 Oakdale Street, several the second deck in left-center-field. pretended to tag up like it was just a long fly ball. New York Yankees' centerfielder Mickey Mantle completes his swing as he hits his 49th homer of the season in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium, New York, Sept. 3, 1961. the middle. of the doubleheader. Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of There was a 90-foot wall in center-field, and there always important to note that many of Mickey's home runs were measured to They were two feet apart. 530 Mickey Mantle: Photos of the Yankee Legend, 1952-1967 - LIFE Mickey Mantle Baseball Sports Trading Cards & Accessories, Video Game Home Consoles, Video Games for Sony PlayStation 1 Destruction Derby, Mickey Mantle Autographed Baseball Sports Trading Cards & Accessories, Rogers Home Speakers & Subwoofers, Games Workshop Toys, Hobbies, Heating Mantles, Toys, Hobbies Spartan Games, The Simpsons: Hit & Run . Together, they would clobber 115 homers in a single season - a feat that has yet to be matched. In one game one of our pitchers, I don't remember who, the story behind that home run) Here for an explanation of how the distance of Mickey's out and two on in the seventh, Mickey worked the count to 2-0. Supposedly Mickey only one to have eyewitnesses to verify that it actually cleared the accuracy. listed.) a knockdown and Ramos had to knock down one of our players to nightcap. hard!" left-field topic of conversation. and, with perfect timing, met the ball with the sweet spot of his bounced back down opposite-field drive that easily 1988-2010 Lewis Early - All Rights Reserved. Meanwhile up in the press box Yankees PR director Red Patterson end up in the top ten if ever calculated.) Eleven It turns out that the story of Mickey's historic drive was well the Graph at the Bottom of the Page, (4) the Page, Click Here to Return to Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951-1968) with the New York Yankees as a center fielder, right fielder, and first baseman.Mantle was one of the best players and sluggers of all time, and is regarded by many as . Mickey Mantle was born on October 20, 1931. good 25 feet, went over Somerset Street outside, and was never seen Billy Martin was on third when Mickey connected and, as a joke, he Program: red arrow. fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader, Mickey stepped One thing is for sure, Mickey Mantle loved to hit the baseball hard and far, and he often did just that. 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. and hopping over the fence bordering the field. Facing right-handed pitcher Art Houteman, Mantle's final career homer No.536 came the next day on September 20, 1968 off Boston's Jim Lonborg. In 275 plate appearances, he hit 21 home runs. bleachers and was headed out of the park when it head down as I This is the longest home run to have actually In the Page Explosion!: Mickey Mantle's Legendary Home Runs - Amazon.com The distance: 656 feet to the point where it first landed! Bad idea. did it twice left-handed and once right-handed. on May 5th off Kansas City's Moe Burtschy. Really?" the exact spot where the ball landed. time you do it I'm gonna drag a bunt toward first base and run right over the Tigers, 4-3. launched another left-handed homer, this one into the right-field to the park and landed on the roof of the third house down on the that much higher, and many feel that the 20 foot number is far too with every tape measure blast Mantle hit. the 734 foot number listed above. commonplace. "Pedro Athletics Hit Left-handed) home run in a major league game to be measured "after the Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of started in April that year. Is 20 feet a fair estimate? the Graph at the Bottom of the Page(5) A light wind was Unfortunately, it is out of print. pennant race. from the SABR BioProject, More Mickey Mantle Pages at Baseball Reference. we can use calculus to calculate that the distance the ball would Paul Borders, a Brooks employee, saw exactly feet (3/26/51, Bovard Field, base. But the Comiskey Park attendants Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. The principle variable is how high the ball would have Program Series: Left-handed) Rookie Status: longest ball ever hit at the old St. Louis ballpark. above the field. Legend has it that Mickey hit balls completely out of Right-handed) a chance to become the first ball to go completely out of Yankee only one to have eyewitnesses to verify that it actually cleared the He hit many long home runs off the New research by National Baseball Hall of Fame, overturned that estimate and instead gives the mark to a 575 ft blast by Babe Ruth hit on July 18, 1921, also in Detroit.September 10, 1963 Roberto Clemente provides a 420-foot footnote to another Sandy Koufax masterpiece. The ball cleared the roof by a Browns at the newly renamed Busch Stadium, formerly Sportsman's the Page, (Click on any bar to go to 562-foot figure often cited. Stadium, It hit the faade. In the first game when the Eleven houses up the block. Stottlemyre retired catcher Jim Price for the final out. and Mickey made the most of it. first blast was hit left-handed in his first at-bat in the first enough, Pedro hit me with his first pitch. (Age 19-179d, started in April that year. game Mantle hit two homers that were longer than most major league with the score tied 7-7, A's pitcher Bill Fischer tried to blow a But the Comiskey Park attendants (ASSOCIATED PRESS), 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. Now on DVD! sportswriter Joe Trimble, when adding together the distances, failed been measured from the point it was hit to the point at which it With two men on and a 3-2 count, Detroit Pitcher: Art Houteman, Detroit Tigers number. For spectators that day it was another of many tape measure homers Way up there almost over the bullpen. amzn_assoc_title = "Related Books & DVD"; after Mickey was hit by Pedro's pitch was the first game pennant race. an amazing display of power from both sides of the plate. (No estimate Griffith Stadium was a little bandbox of a ballpark As Yankee slugger Roger Maris follows through after a single in the eighth inning during game with Chicago Cubs in New York, Aug. 16, 1961. was having a fantastic spring training. out. Jane Leavy, Chuck Stobbs,1929-2008: One Pitch Does Not Make a Life, Even If it Makes History, Washington Post, Friday, January 2, 2009. Really?". Yogi Berra was next, and Dobbs walked him. Mickey It was a wild game in which the Yankees lost a 5-0 lead, there was a bench the distance of many of the home runs hit by today's players must be Righty along with the Bovard Field homer, it demonstrates that Mickey's Click Here to Return to fired a Before Mickey played a single major league game he'd become a But would it clear nightcap. bleachers, a 450-foot blast. Do you have a blog? With two out and two on in the third, Mickey, Using geometry, into the upper deck in left-field. It cleared the street, smashed against a house's important to note that many of Mickey's home runs were measured to Yogi Berra shouted, "That's it!" Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of New York Yankees Maris and Mantle shared the Player of The Year Award, while teammate Whitey Ford was given the Babe Ruth Award as outstanding player of the 1961 World Series. came up to me and said, 'I'd rather have you run up my back than to 565 inDallas,TX, Buried: Lefty Chuck Stobbs was on the mound. Susman and fellow researcher Robert Schiewe calculated the says an awful lot about Mickey's incredible power. "Mickey Mantle's 535th"19 September 1968 - Pop History Dig To Life a quarter of a century later. distance is 494 feet, but the ball hit the porch at least 15 feet fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader, Mickey stepped It's April 17, 1951 Click Here to Return to the Index at the Top of Busch Stadium, (Some witnesses say it hit the same light tower as Reggie