Baseball thread No. 8 - play nice

I fell asleep right after it happened which is why I didn't post it then, but tonight Willy Mo Pena ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED a ball over the Green Monster.

 

Yeah. It hasn't landed yet. He totally topped the monster shot Vladi hit there Sunday.

 

Yes, it has. Fucker smashed my kitchen window.

 

Speaking of smashes, what is the single best crushed homer you've seen?

Mine is from 1992 or '93 (brain won't allow me to remember the exact year). Watching the telly, Dodgers at Riverfront to play the Reds, and a rookie catcher named Mike Piazza fucking humps a ball to dead center field. Killed. That. Sucker. He swung so hard and made such perfect contact on the sweet part of the bat. The ball screamed on the straightest line I've ever seen, up, up, up, up, up into the nether regions of Riverfront. Awesome. I'd love to find me a highlight of that.

 

I would have to say seeing Mark McGwire at the Kingdome. I can't remember what year, but it was a long time ago and he hit off the Jumbotron in left field. For those of you that remember the Kingdome, that is an absolute bomb. If I recall they said on the radio later it was the longest homer to left field in the history of the Kingdome.

 

Since I can't really recall a monster home run I've seen on television, I'll go with the longest home run I've ever seen hit in person.

1997 at the Vet, Butch Huskey, it was either top 9 or top 8 in the first game of a doubleheader. He hit one to the 600 level in the left center upper deck. The upper deck was always tough to reach at the Vet, and especially getting something past the 500 level. Huskey's shot wasn't quite as high up in as the Stargell home run, but I always figured (probably through Mets colored glasses) that it was comparable since it was hit more towards centerfield.

 

You talking about that 538-footer Big Mac hit off Big Unit back in '97? Yeah, that was a bomb. (Can't find video or a pic, sorry.)

IIRC, Johnson had 19 K's in that game, too.

 

Sunday when he doubled off the wall despite breaking the bat at the handle was even more impressive. But yea, I hear Toronto airspace just started tracking Monday's HR.

 

I remember watching on TV in 1989 when Jose Canseco took Mike Flanagan to the 500 level at the SkyDome. The stadium had just opened that year and nobody had ever done that before. I think it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 feet from home plate.

On a bit of a different subject, apparently David Ortiz's second homer tonight was the eighth walk-off homer of his career. Does anyone know what the major league record is?

 

Canseco to fifth deck of the SkyDome in the 1989 playoffs.

Galarraga's 529-footer off Kevin Brown at Pro Player Stadium in 1997.

 

Larry Herndon hit a line drive that was still rising when it hit the facing of the upper deck center field bleachers of Tiger Stadium in 1987 (I think that was the year).

It's not prolifiic like some of these other ones, but still a helluva shot, considering that center field was 440 feet from home plate and it was still rising.

 

Speaking of Tiger Stadium, they say Reggie Jackson's moonshot off the light tower during the 1971 All-Star Game travelled 520 feet. Okay, I didn't watch it live, but I have seen footage. It might have ended up close to 600 feet in the air if not for the obstacle in its path, but then again hitting the tower is what made that homer so memorable.

And I found the distance of Canseco's first trip to the 500 level at the SkyDome -- 480 feet. He made it to the fifth deck there three times, more than any other player, but the longest ball ever hit there was courtesy of Manny Ramirez, who hit one off Chris Carpenter that travelled 491 feet in 2001.