Where was baseball’s longest home run? A five-city mystery – Sporting News

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.”

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Denver – The 1,400 fans attending the Triple-A game at Denver’s Mile High Stadium on June 2, 1987 witnessed Joey Meyer hit a 582-foot home run against Buffalo. The Denver Zephyrs and Broncos later agreed to plant an orange seat in a section full of dark blue chairs where Meyer’s shot landed. The Denver Post described it as “the longest home run ever hit in minor league baseball.”

Oakland, Calif. – Roy Carlyle’s Fourth of July festivities in 1929 included hitting a 618-foot home run. He crushed a ball out of Oaks Bay Park and it flew over two house rooftops before sticking in a rain gutter. Carlyle’s Oakland Oaks teammates searched for the ball the next day and found it in the gutter 618 feet from home plate. The book “1957 San Francisco Seals” characterized it as “called by many the longest home run in baseball history.”

Reno, Nev. – Modesto Reds slugger Ed Kurpiel pulled a deep fly ball inside the right field pole on May 31, 1972 at Reno’s Moana Stadium, a ballpark set 4,500 feet above sea level with consistent outbound winds. Kurpiel’s clout kept on going, leaving sportswriters squinting to see the ball bounce next to a startled kid on a bike. One of those squinting sportswriters, Steve Sneddon, used a fiberglass tape measure to determine the homer grounded 738 feet from home. This dinger even has its own Facebook page, boasting it “the longest home run on record.”

Sacramento, Calif. – Sacramento Solons’ outfielder Neill Sheridan launched a ball out of Edmonds Field and through a car windshield in 1953. Solons management calculated the ball touched down 620 feet away. When fans couldn’t believe that calculation, the team hired a land surveying company to measure. The result? 613 feet, which inspired the San Francisco Chronicle to later eulogize Sheridan as the man who “supposedly hit the farthest home run in history.”

Do you trust these measurements? Is it possible to hit a baseball 700 feet? We research, you decide.

Tim Hagerty is the broadcaster for the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas, and is on Twitter at @MinorsTeamNames . He is also the author of “Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Off-the-Wall Team Names.”