In the thick of the Home Run Derby, the sheer volume of home runs players hit often gets all the attention. However, that approach sells a central part of the Derby’s appeal short: Some of these home runs are absolute tape-measure shots.
Mythology surrounding baseball home-run distances are as old as the game itself. In 1953, New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle is believed to have crushed a 565-foot home run against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. A future Yankees outfielder, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox, may have hit a 580-foot dinger in spring training in 1919. The list goes on and on.
Gradually, baseball-tracking technology has improved, and we are now able to piece together an accurate ranking of the longest home runs in Derby history. The following table is a combined ranking of the Derby’s longest home runs before and after the game-changing advent of Statcast.
It is believed that Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa smashed a 524-foot home run at Miller Park in Milwaukee in 2002—the longest in the history of the competition. Sosa went on to hit 49 home runs in ’02, the last of two years in which he led the National League in that category.
Since Statcast tracking began in 2016, Washington Nationals left fielder Juan Soto owns the record for longest officially tracked home run with a 520-foot shot in 2021 at Denver’s Coors Field (four of the five longest Statcast-era home runs were hit at that Derby). Sosa also hit a 520-foot home run in ’02, which would potentially give him two of the three longest round-trippers in the competition.
The rest of the top 10, combining estimates (noted with asterisks) and officially tracked dingers, can be seen here.
DISTANCE (FEET)
PLAYER
TEAM
YEAR
524*
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
2002
520*
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
2002
520
Juan Soto
Washington Nationals
2021
519*
Frank Thomas
Chicago White Sox
1994
518*
Josh Hamilton
Texas Rangers
2008
518*
Sammy Sosa
Chicago Cubs
2002
518
Trevor Story
Colorado Rockies
2021
517*
Bobby Abreu
Philadelphia Phillies
2005
514
Pete Alonso
New York Mets
2021
513
Aaron Judge
New York Yankees
2017
513
Shohei Ohtani
Los Angeles Angels
2021
Source link : https://www.si.com/mlb/longest-home-runs-ever-hit-the-home-run-derby
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-14 13:31:38
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.