Tape-Measure Home Runs More Common In Today’s MLB Game – Forbes

With baseballs exiting ballparks at a record pace in 2019, many sluggers are splintering the furniture in the outfield stands at the 30 major league stadiums, so it seems appropriate at the moment to delve into the subject of mammoth home runs.

There have been countless blasts in MLB history that have been propelled by longball hitters like Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Jim Rice, Frank Howard, Willie Stargell, Reggie Jackson, Dave Kingman, Mike Schmidt, and, of course Babe Ruth.

Today, the big names that come to mind who have hit moonshots are Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees, Mike Trout of the Angels, Nelson Cruz of the Twins, and rookie sensation Pete Alonso of the Mets.

And also, by such lesser-known hitters as Nomar Mazara of the Rangers and Ian Desmond of the Rockies. You know who Mazara and Desmond are, don’t you?

Neither were All-Stars this season and neither are among the 93 players with 20 or more home runs, through Aug. 29. But, Mazara and Desmond are ranked at the top of the leaderboard for sluggers who have hit the longest home runs, as measured through Statcast—a high-speed, high-accuracy, automated tool developed to measure home run distance in MLB.

Mazara, 24, is in his fourth major league season with the Rangers and has totaled exactly 20 homers in each of his first three campaigns. Among his first 17 HRs this year, his average homer distance is 422 feet and on June 21, he connected for the longest homer of the season with a 505-foot shot off White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez. 

On Opening Day, March 28, Mazara clubbed a 482-footer off Mike Montgomery of the Cubs, which ranks third on the chart of longest homers of the season, tied with Diamondbacks infielder/outfielder Ketel Marte. The Arizona utility player has connected for 28 homers that have traveled for an average distance of 405 feet. His 482-foot homer came off Steven Matz of the Mets on June 21, the same day Mazara joined the exclusive 500-foot homer club.

Since Statcast began tracking homers in 2015, there have been more than 27,800 homers (through Aug. 28) hit in the majors and only three have gone for a distance of 500 or more feet—Giancarlo Stanton (504 feet on Aug. 6, 2016 with the Marlins), Trevor Story (505 feet on Sept. 5, 2018 with the Rockies), and Mazara’s this year.

In the old days, home runs were measured as the crow flies or computed by rubber imaginations. One time, long after his playing days had ended, Ruth pointed to a hotel beyond the right-field fence at Al Lang field in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I hit that hotel once,” said Ruth.

“That doesn’t look like much of a drive,” said his listener.

“Hell, man, the ballpark was over there then,” retorted Ruth, pointing to a spot about 200 feet in the opposite direction.

The distances of some of Ruth’s homers were estimated at anywhere from 520 to 1,000 feet Today, tape-measure historians figure in precise footage.

In 1939, Ted Williams sent a shot winging some 527 feet over the triple-decked right-field stands at old Tigers Stadium in Detroit off pitcher Bob Harris. In the 1971 All-Star game, Reggie Jackson clubbed his famed home run off the light tower on the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium—the shot was estimated at 532 feet.

Mantle hit long ones in every American League park, including Yankee Stadium, where on at least three separate occasions, he almost cleared the roof high over the right-field stands. Once, in Washington’s old Griffith Stadium, he drilled a 565-foot homer off Senators pitcher Chuck Stobbs that cleared the left field bleachers and sailed out of the ballpark.

Hitters today are bigger, stronger, the ball is more juiced, and pitchers throw harder, giving current era batters a better chance to crush home runs that travel at a great distance.

This year the average footage for home runs is 400 feet. There have been 50 homers that have traveled 463 or more feet by 40 MLB players. Those with multiple homers at that distance include Nelson Cruz, Twins (3), Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves (2), Bryce Harper, Phillies (2), Jonathan Schoop, Twins (2), Kyle Schwarber, Cubs (2), Gary Sanchez, Yankees (2), Ian Desmond, Rockies (2), Josh Bell, Pirates (2), and Mazara, Rangers (2).

These mighty cannon shots not only dent stadium equipment and scoreboards, they can also shatter a pitcher’s ego. 

Hall of Famer Willie Stargell hit 475 career home runs and many were moonshot blasts, including two that were hit out of Dodger Stadium. “I never saw anything like it,” Dodgers pitcher and fellow Hall of Famer said about Stargell’s power. “He doesn’t just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity.”

In Stargell and Sutton’s era, only a handful of players had the ability to send a ball to the moon. Now every team has a slugger who can put a massive charge into the ball.

“It doesn’t matter the distance they (home runs) travel,” said Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks, “they do damage with runners on base or as solo home runs. Pitchers never want to give them up, especially with runners on base or in a close game. I don’t get caught up in how far homers hit against me go. I try to just shake it off and move on to the next pitch.”

Robert Adair, author of The Physics of Baseballand a physicist at Yale University, tried to put a figure on hitting a home run over the outfield walls. He put together the numbers and determined that, under standard conditions using an 85-mph fastball as the benchmark, he determined 450 feet is about the maximum that a batter can hit the ball.

But, of course, conditions vary with weather, the ballpark, doctored bats and balls, steroid usage, and the fact that the average fastball in MLB is over 93 mph. These changing conditions change the dynamics of the maximum distance a player can hit a baseball.

Aaron Judge of the Yankees is 6’7”, 282 pounds and has been credited with blasting gargantuan home runs that have measured 463, 467, 469, 471, 484, and 495 feet in regular season games and some 500-footers in Home Run Derby competition.

By contrast, Reds outfielder Josh VanMeter stands 5’11”, weighs 165 pounds and hit a home run on July 24, 2019 that traveled 463 feet.

Age didn’t play a factor in home run distances. The oldest player to smack a homer 463 or more feet was Nelson Cruz, 39, of the Twins who has an average home run distance of 410 feet for his first 33 homers in 2019 and who mashed three balls that rank on the leaderboard for furthest distance—473, 469, and 466 feet. Ronald Acuna Jr., 21, is the youngest MLB player in 2019 to be listed among the leaders in HR distances. His first 36 homers this year have an average distance of 419 feet and his two longest were measured at 466 and 463 feet.  

Among the top 50 home run distances this season, five were hit by members of the Cubs—Ian Happ (474 feet), Kyle Schwarber (473 and 467), Anthony Rizzo (472), and David Bote (469). The lone White Sox batter to be included in this group is Eloy Jimenez (471).

Whatever the conditions that surround the tape-measure home run, it is more common in the game today and continues to be marveled by fans. 

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