Hagerty: Where was baseball’s longest home run? A five-city mystery
From SABR member Tim Hagerty at The Sporting News on January 12, 2016:
Last year we showed you multiple cities claiming to have hosted baseball’s first night game. It’s time for a new investigation.
At least five different home runs have been defined as the longest in professional baseball history. Which story is correct? A conclusive answer seems far away.
Carlsbad, N.M. – On a hot August night in 1959, former heavyweight boxer Gil Carter smashed a pitch through Carlsbad’s high-elevated air and out of Montgomery Field. The ball carried over the left field wall, soared past two city streets and landed in a peach tree. A newspaper reporter later took an aerial photo from a plane and used the picture to estimate the ball traveled 733 feet. Carter’s hometown paper, The Topeka Capital-Journal, said “the blast is considered the longest home run in baseball history.”
Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb-news/4690891-baseball-longest-home-run-carlsbad-denver-oakland-sacramento-reno-mantle-mickey-mlb-minor-league
Originally published: January 12, 2016. Last Updated: January 12, 2016.