Longest home run hit
Who
George Herman "Babe" Ruth
What
175 metre(s)
Where
Vereinigte Staaten (New York)
When
The longest home run hit in a Major League Baseball game travelled 175 m (575 ft) by George Herman "Babe" Ruth (USA) for the New York Yankees against the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on 18 July 1921.
The record-breaking blast by American baseball legend Babe Ruth supplants previous record holder Mickey Mantle's poke of 634 feet on 10 September 1960 against the Detroit Tigers, despite apparently travelling 18 m (59 ft) less. Baseball historian Bill Jenkinson, an officially recognised consultant on long distance home runs to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (USA) and Major League Baseball (USA), concluded after extensive research that a combination of erroneous newspaper reports and distance miscalculations led to Mantle's particular strike being credited for more distance than was possible. Jenkinson concludes in his book "Baseball's Ultimate Power" that the particular Mantle shot in question had not even been one of "The Mick's" top 10 farthest blasts in his illustrious career. Instead, Jenkinson states in his book "it should be understood that the conditions were virtually perfect for Ruth" for his record-setter, including playing at his physical peak age 26, playing against hated rival Ty Cobb and hitting the ball at home-run friendly Navin Field (later renamed Tigers Stadium, the same park where Mantle hit his previous record-holding homer). Winds that day also measured 20+ mph blowing straight out to center field. After not taking a single swing in his first four plate appearances (player/manager Cobb had ordered his pitchers not to throw anything near where Ruth could hit it, resulting in four bases on balls), Ruth connected on his very first swing of the day for the 575-foot shot in the 8th inning. The measurement of Ruth's shot was conducted by the Tigers owners providing blueprints of the stadium on the day of the hit, indicating a center field distance of 560 feet. The combination of newspaper eyewitness accounts stating the ball sailed directly over the 560-foot wall, plus the mean taken of the accounts on how high over the wall the ball travelled before landing, resulted in the final measurement.