The longest home runs in MLB history
Cleveland Indians infielder Jim Thome takes the ball for a ride in a game against the California Angels. (Photo By John Cordes/Icon Sportswire)
July 8th, 2020
Baseball writers and fans alike have been obsessed with tracking home run distance for years, but since 2015, MLB’s Statcast has made it easy to pin down exactly how far a home run traveled. Using current data and reliable estimates from years past, let’s count down the five furthest-hit homers in MLB history (NOTE: We have excluded Home Run Derby homers).
T-4. Trevor Story one-ups Giancarlo Stanton with 505-foot homer at Coors Field (Sept. 5, 2018)
On Aug. 6, 2016, Giancarlo Stanton, then visiting Colorado as a member of the Marlins, set the Statcast Era record by smacking a home run 504 feet at Coors Field. It would take just over two years for Rockies shortstop Trevor Story to surpass him, but he did it by the razor-thin margin of one foot with this blast, the second of three homers he would hit that night.
T-4. Nomar Mazara joins Story atop Statcast Era leaderboard (June 21, 2019)
Less than a year later, Rangers slugger Nomar Mazara nearly cleared the upper deck seats at his team’s old park in Arlington with a 505-foot bomb of his own. This is perhaps the more impressive of the co-record holding blasts, as Mazara did not have the benefit of the thin Denver air.
3. Jim Thome hits one 511 feet out of Jacobs Field (July 3, 1999)
Jim Thome’s titanic blast, the longest in Indians history, cleared dead center field and landed on what is now a concourse at Progressive Field. The team has stood by the estimate of 511 feet, even commemorating the moonshot with a statue of Thome where the ball fell to earth.
2. Dave Kingman’s 530-foot bomb at Wrigley Field (May 17, 1979)
On a windy day at Wrigley Field, Cubs slugger Dave Kingman got into a pitch and drove it straight toward a stoop on Waveland Avenue. Contemporary estimates greatly exaggerated the distance, but a reliable estimate places the mammoth shot at 530 feet.
1. Babe Ruth’s 552-foot, 8-inch blast (Apr. 4, 1919)
No video of this mythic blast exists of course, but it is commemorated by a plaque exactly 587 feet from where home plate was at Tampa Bay’s now-defunct Plant Field. However, thanks to some painstaking research, Ruth’s stupefying Spring Training homer was measured to have traveled exactly 552 feet and eight inches. This blast is even more amazing when one considers that it took place in the twilight of the Dead Ball Era.
ADVERTISEMENT
