Table of Content
"The first one I hit barely went over the fence, so everybody on the other team was yelling cheapie and all that," Meyer said. Ronald Acuna Jr., Pete Alonso, Albert Pujols, Jose Ramirez, Julio Rodriguez, Kyle Schwarber, Corey Seager and Juan Soto combined to hit 291 long balls in the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball.
It’s interesting because I don’t remember seeing a left-handed hitter slug a baseball to this part of Coors Field before 2022. As we’ll see with the two people immediately below Yelich, this was one of three homers to visit that general area in the Mile High City. Cron has quietly had consecutive seasons of solid offensive production with the Rockies. He’s compiled just 3.6 fWAR since the start of 2021, but it’s also included two straight years of at least 25 homers and 90 RBI. The 2022 season is notable because it’s the first time the right-handed hitter surpassed the 100-RBI plateau.
Get Dingers Straight to Your Inbox
The next truly great slugger in the chronology of long-distance hitting was Ted Williams, who arrived on the major league scene in 1939. His slender physique belied his subtle strength and natural ability to generate bat speed. On May 4 of that year, Williams cleared the towering right-field grandstand in Detroit and served notice that he was as powerful as he was refined with a bat in his hands.
"We've meshed well ever since Spring Training. It's been a fun year all around. You see it in our play on the field, off the field, we're just having fun and playing our game." The media descended on Mile High the next day -- wanting to talk to the man who reached heights never reached before. You get the feeling Meyer, modest and soft-spoken over the phone, was almost frightened by the attention.
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies: 468 feet
With the game on the line, Buxton not only won the game for Minnesota, but he did it with an exclamation point. All those potential feelings he may have had didn’t lead to much production, though. This dinger was the first hit he registered against his former club in 12 plate appearances. Sanchez ended up collecting four more hits against Yankee pitching, which led to a .636 OPS in 22 plate appearances. When discussing the four homers of 490-plus feet at Coors Field this year, the one slugged by Jesus Sanchez was the first. Sanchez nearly flew out of his shoes while getting the barrel through the hitting zone.
He wasn't trying to "memorialize it." He did say a University of Colorado professor called him shortly after the measurements came out and agreed with how he came up with the distance. 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.
Mickey Mantle, 1960, 643 Feet
Perhaps the ball had already flown over 400 feet, whereupon it was interrupted in midflight at a height of 70 feet above field level. Awed by such a demonstration of power, the writers would then describe the event for posterity as a 500-and-some-foot home run. With the guidance of our scientific brethren, we know that once a batted ball has reached its highest point and lost most of its velocity, it falls in a rapidly declining trajectory. Hyperbole has always been part of the phenomenon of long-distance home runs, and this factor must also be considered.
Though it must be said again that with no one else at that time hitting as he did, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Ruth could belt one that far. With a mighty swing, Jackson took Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis’s throw high out to right field. So high that it hit a transformer above the seats that kept it from going further than the estimated distance of 539 feet. Sadly, this one doesn’t count toward the 563 career homers that place him 14th all-time.
Jorge Soler, Miami Marlins: 468 feet
Sure, he has the advantage of playing with increased elevation at Coors Field, but what C.J. Cron managed to do on June 17th, crushing a baseball 486 feet to left field is still impressive. Plenty of other visiting batters have the same opportunities Cron has, but he has the second-longest home run in the season thus far. Major League Baseball’s introduction of StatCast tracking makes it easier than ever to determine the farthest home runs hit travel today. But even at a time when New York Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are launching bombs, they do fall short of the longest HR in MLB history. Baseball is known worldwide as “the All-American sport,” and people from all around the United States flock to sports stadiums to watch their favorite teams.
His prime years were spent as a fan favourite in Boston, where his big frame and patented swooping, uppercut type of swing produced a lot of dingers. The tater in this video caused a ripple in the giant right field Jumbotron at Shea Stadium. Meyer reared back and connected with a breaking ball from reliever Mike Murphy -- sending it deep into the Denver darkness. The ball kept going up and up until it hit halfway up the second deck of Mile High Stadium -- a place very few baseballs go. Alonso was the only other slugger to go at least 480 yards deep, hitting a homer that exact distance. The New York Mets first baseman also had the event's third-longest homer of 479 feet.
Jackson went on to make a name for himself as a postseason darling and one of the most clutch players of all-time. This blast did nothing but help him earn worldwide recognition all the more sooner. Aaron Doster-USA TODAY SportsWhile the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby offered fans a chance to watch the best power hitters in baseball, history was made in the minor leagues. Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Leandro Cedeno pulverized a baseball on July 15, blasting it over the fence for a 527-foot moonshot. And since baseball experts haven’t challenged this scientist’s claim, the projected mark still stands in the record books to this day.
But everything came together on June 21, 2018 when Mazara sent a Reynaldo Lopez fastball towering into the bleachers. While this one ranks among the biggest blasts in the history books, this homer was one of the few bright spots in Vaughn’s career after leaving the Angels, to join the Mets in 2002. This clout to the left-center concourse at Yankee Stadium, Judge's 52nd homer of the season, inspired "M-V-P" chants from the Bronx faithful. It was also Judge's 33rd homer that year at the House That Ruth Built, eclipsing the franchise record set by the Bambino himself back in 1921.
Dick Allen, too, played in both leagues, thereby providing himself the advantage of leaving his signature on more ballparks than those who only played in one league. Allen could not hit with the same power in those directions as when he pulled the ball, but he seems to have lost less distance than almost anyone else when hitting to the opposite field. Directly behind Allen in the historic ranking of tape measure hitters were contemporaries Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey.
The distances of the following home runs, however, are for one reason or another unable to be confirmed. However, in the absence of verifiable proof for those other stories, many baseball historians would rate Ruth’s 1921 homer as the closest to a sure thing. If a slugger like Jorge Soler signs with the Colorado Rockies, we’ve seen him crush baseballs out of the yard.
While his career was on the decline with the Mets in 2002, Mo still provided the faithful with a blast from the past at Shea in their June 26th matchup with Atlanta. His moonshot was an estimated 505 feet, one of his 26 on the season upon his return from missing the previous year due to injury. It would be the last big blast we would see from Mo, but boy was she a rocket. Baseball has always been a sport that has been played with elements of speed and power.
He added another dinger of 460-plus feet on September 16th against Adrian Martinez of the Oakland Athletics. The one thing we can be sure of, though, is it went as high as it did far. This moonshot doesn’t just earn the honors of being the longest home run of the 2022 season.
No comments:
Post a Comment