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"The first one I hit barely went over the fence, so everybody on the other team was yelling cheapie and all that," Meyer said. And on one magical night, in the thin air of Mile High Stadium, he hit one to the moon. There are stories of his 600-foot home runs or treating old Yankee Stadium like it was his own personal Little League field.
The right-handed hitter had over 300 home runs in his career, none more powerful than the 503-foot moon shot at Chase Field on April 26, 2004 against the Chicago Cubs. The home run clanged off the Jumbotron in the outfield—breaking multiple lights on the scoreboard—and was the 200th jack of Sexson’s career and the longest in the history of the ballpark. A few years before joining the Yankees for the 2012 season, Ibanez did some damage against the Pinstripes with the longest home run in Yankee Stadium history. The New York City native had already been off to a hot start for the Phillies in ’09, hitting 15 home runs over the first two months of the season.
Gary Sanchez, Minnesota Twins: 473 feet
After crushing a a 482-foot shot on Opening Day in '19, Mazara topped himself for the Statcast record with a colossal smash against the White Sox. The left-handed slugger unloaded on a 94.7-mph fastball from Reynaldo López and sent it soaring into the upper deck in right field at Globe Life Park in Arlington. He did appear in 92 this season, though, which was his most between now and that last occurrence. In just 382 plate appearances, he slugged 28 home runs with 51 RBI, 61 runs scored, a 136 wRC+, and a 4.0 fWAR.
The 6’6″, 285-pound burro grande launched a 535-foot shot that disappeared into the centerfield seats of the Cincinnati Reds’ Great American Ball Park. Cruz is built like a man who should spend his days in the woods chopping down trees with a single axe swing. Famous hits like Mickey Mantle’s home run are almost always hotly debated, and his was no exception! Some people insist that the wind helped him achieve this amazing record, while others point out that others played in the same conditions with inferior results.
Ryan McMahon, Colorado Rockies: 495 feet
Both the baseball and bat used to set this record were put on display in the Yankee Stadium. While Dave Kingman’s home run hit was impressive by any standard, the exact distance that he reached is heavily debated. The hit was estimated to be around 573 feet and the New York Times originally reported it as a 630-foot hit. However, when it was measured based on the available landmarks, the distance was more accurately stated to be approximately 530 feet.
Before Strawberry broke the record, the previous longest Olympic Stadium Home Run was made by Willie Stargell at 475 feet. "I think we like seeing it fly like that, especially if it's our guys hitting it," Marlins manager Don Mattingly told MLB.com. "Balls with that trajectory, for a lot of guys it doesn't go out. He hits balls that just keep carrying. He hits them a long way." Thankfully, he recovered to admire the absolute moonshot he launched.
What’s the longest home run in Tiger Stadium?
The ball came off of Stanton’s bat at a ridiculous launch angle of 18.3 degrees. With this launch angle the ball only got about 73 feet off the ground. That’s as close as a ball can come to being a line drive while still leaving the field of play. Of the three stadiums that are featured in this list, Wrigley has the most even park factor of 101. With 100 being perfectly balanced, it is fair to say that Bryant’s homerun is the most impressive of the five we are discussing because of its time in the year and ballpark it was hit in.
He smoked his longest career home run in Arizona off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Francis Beltran. The majestic shot actually hit the scoreboard above the centerfield fence. A lot of these homers reached the upper decks and some even left the ballpark completely.
“Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run. As with Darryl Strawberry’s record-breaking hit, Reggie Jackson’s ball was obstructed by the venue and the full reach of the hit had to be calculated. His short stint with the Padres wasn’t as productive compared to what he did in Cincy, but Drury was still a net positive for San Diego’s lineup (105 wRC+, .724 OPS, 0.4 fWAR).
As we can see from the above video, this was Cron’s second homer of the game, and it went to a similar place as his 504-foot blast. Interestingly enough, the two dingers he hit in this contest accounted for half of the homers he clubbed throughout the entire month of June. This list would not have come to fruition if it had not been for this man and his rampant abuse and disdain for baseballs all across the league. He has hit the seven hardest balls this season, as recorded by StatCast with his hardest hit clocking in at 126 MPH. It is interesting to note that of the five homeruns on this list, three of them have been hit at Coors Field in the thin air of Colorado.
Plenty of other visiting batters have the same opportunities Cron has, but he has the second-longest home run in the season thus far. Cedeno, a 23-year-old with the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, isn’t one of the club’s top 40 prospects . However, the 6-foot-2 slugger made history with the longest home run ever officially recorded through StatCast. For comparison, the longest MLB home run in traveled 499 feet and the official record for the farthest home run ever hit in MLB history went 505 feet . If you go off non-StatCast data, though, it’s not even the longest home run in minor league history . As you might expect, baseball legends are credited with the records.
The last original member of the Boston Red Sox died in January 2004 at the age of 92.
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