Distance of Longest Batted Baseball
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| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
|---|---|---|
| Cutnell, John D., and Kenneth W. Johnson. Cutnell & Johnson Physics. 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1998. | "During a baseball game a fly ball is hit to center field and is caught 115 m from home plate." | 115 m |
| Jenkinson, William J. "Long Distance Home Runs." The Home Run Encyclopedia. Hungry Minds, 1996. | "When Kingman launched his wind-aided blow in Chicago, The New York Times somehow concluded that it had flown 630 ft. It has been confirmed that the ball struck against the third house beyond Waveland Avenue, which is situated about 530 ft from home plate." | 162 m |
| Tucker, Eric. "Baseball Historian: A 1936 Ruth Homer is longest ever." Daily News. 8 August 2003. | "Bill Jenkinson, a prominent baseball historian, has measured a homer that the Great Bambino clobbered after a 1962 exhibition game in Wilkes-Barre as having traveled at least 600 ft and says he believes it to be the longest home run ever hit." | 183 m |
| Folkard, Claire. Guinness World Records 2003. Bantam, 2003: 312. | "The longest measured home run in a Major League Game is 193 meters (634 ft) by Mickey Mantle (USA), when playing for the New York Yankees against the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, USA, on September 10, 1960." | 193 m |
| Question and Answer. Historic Baseball. | "On April 17, 1953, Mickey Mantle is credited with what many consider to be the longest HR in baseball history. He is estimated to have hit a 656 foot home run at Washington's Griffith Stadium off Senator's pitcher Chuck Stobbs." | 172 m |
Baseball, the national pastime of the United States, started in the early 1800s. It began as small clubs playing recreationally and grew quickly into a professional sport.
Throughout the years of baseball there have been many times when great players ranging from Mickey Mantle to Cecil Fielder have slammed balls up into the great blue yonder. Newspapers printed magnificent stories about the distances these balls traveled, presenting a large problem of fact or fiction.
There were many accounts where distances were said to be much farther than they were ever confirmed to be. It is possible that many popularly believe records could be a misrepresentation. In one source it was stated that in a 1963 game at Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle bashed a ball to right field that was said by onlookers to have been interrupted by the overhang above the bleachers after traveling about 110 m (370 feet). Many thought that if it weren't for this interruption, his ball would have traveled 190 m (620 feet) or more and therefore people started to believe that was a record. The truth is that the ball was already on its decent before it hit into the overhang and technically never physically hit the ground at 190 m (620 feet), so this cannot be considered a record. There are many more instances like this one involving such players as Babe Ruth and Dave Kingman.
Regardless of possible exaggerations there have been many great hitters in the world of baseball. Although we may never be able to know for sure what the farthest hit baseball was, we can assume a range from different sources and that's from about 150–200 m (500–650 feet).
Erica Rosenthal -- 2004
| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
|---|---|---|
| Davids, Mark; Neff, Robert F.; Zitzewitz, Paul W. Physics Principles and Problems. United States. 1995: 152. | "A pitched ball is hit by a batter at a 45 °angle. It just clears the outfield fence, 98 m away. Find the velocity of the ball when it left the bat. Assume the fence is the same height as the pitch." | 98 m |
| Jenkinson, William J. The Home Run Encyclopedia. United States. 1996. | "Not surprisingly, all of the great true distance hitters have also been the source of the greatest exaggerations. Despite his extraordinary accomplishments, Babe Ruth is not immune. His tremendous blow to right-center field in Detroit on June 8, 1926, has often been reported as traveling over 600 feet. Certainly, this drive was propelled somewhere around 500 feet in the air, which makes it legitimately historic, but proof that it traveled 600 feet cannot be found." | 183 m |
| "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. In truth, the figure derived from the distance from home plate to the place where a neighborhood child retrieved the ball." | 172 m | |
| Kuenster, Bob. Baseball's Digest. United States. 2002. | "April 17: Mickey Mantle hits the longest measured home run when he hits a 565-foot blast off Chuck Stobbs of the Senators at Griffith Stadium in Washington." | 172 m |
| Early, Lewis. Mickey Mantle — Mini-Biography. United States. 1998-2002. | "No one in the history of the game has hit the ball farther than Mickey Mantle. His 565-foot home run hit at Griffith Stadium in Washington on April 17, 1953 is the home run that coined the term "tape measure home run." It's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest home run ever measured." | 172 m |
| "Guinness also notes that Mickey's 643-foot homer hit at Detroit's Tiger Stadium on September 10, 1960 is the longest home run measured "mathematically after the fact." | 196 m | |
| "But neither of those home runs is Mickey's longest. In an exhibition game at the University of Southern California during his rookie spring training in 1951 Mickey walloped a 656-foot shot left-handed that left Bovard Field and crossed an adjacent football field." | 200 m |
Going, going, gone! These famous words are heard all around the United States in the famous game of baseball. Fans are fascinated by the plays, hits, and scoring. The most exciting aspect of the game is a home run. The distance of the longest batted baseball is said to be Mickey Mantle's home run in 1951. It was at spring training in an exhibition game at the University of Southern Carolina measuring at 656 feet (approximately 200 meters). However, there are disputes about this distance.
Some statisticians and baseball experts believe that Mickey Mantle's 565-foot (approximately 172 meters) blast off Chuck Stobbs of the Senators in Washington in 1953 was the longest batted baseball ever. This measurement is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest home run ever measured. Guinness also clarifies that Mickey Mantle's home run measured at 643 feet (approximately 196 meters) is the longest home run measured "mathematically after the fact." This home run was hit at Tiger Stadium in Detroit on September 10, 1960.
Home runs that are hit out of the ball park are measured from where the batter stands to where the ball lands. Therefore, the distances are not accurately measured and are approximations. Mickey Mantle hit some of the longest home runs in the major leagues. His shots that reached over 600 feet set new records in the world of baseball.
Olga Margolina -- 2004