As Sports Illustrated's Cliff Corcorannoted, Jenkinson also acknowledged The Bambino as owner of the three longest home runs ever hit in his book The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs. In 80-degree weather on Aug. 25, 1990, Tiger Stadium hosted 45,474 fans eagerto watch the Oakland Athletics' Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, face off against the Tigers' Cecil Fielder, the league leaderin home runs. Don said, Just go up there and let it go, hit the damn ball and get it done, Fielder said. Saw Herndons line shot to center. I've been a Detroit Tigers fan since the 70s and recently found VDC, I ordered a home and road personalized player t and a Freehan 11 1968 player t and they are awesome shirts, I will definitely be ordering more from them. Statcast data, however, is still a relatively new tool. In the 17 years afterwards (before moving to Pontiac), they had few memorable days at Tiger Stadium. FAQ, Choose "Free store pickup" at checkout and save $10 off any purchase of $50 or more! It was out of the park in a split second. I was on Trumbull listening to the game on the radio Ina car parked outside a bar when it came off and over the roof. The trajectory had it coming near me but it just never came down inside the ballpark! In the fifth inning, with Alan Trammel on first, Fielder was sitting on a 2-0 count when he took a vicious swing and fouled off a Dave Stewart fastball. Some managers felt a line should be drawn on the pole and that any ball hit above the line would be a home run. Washington's Griffith Stadium. Privacy Policy On May 31, 1997, Andres Galarraga cleared the full bases by sending a souvenir into Pro Player Stadium's empty upper deck. I saw Frank Howard hit his homer over the left field wall in Tiger stadium. Dan: Great column. With the OPEN sign light I though well came all this way just aswell give it a try and am I glad I did. Willie Stargell scorched plenty of moonshots over his career. Joe Louis moved to Detroit as a youngster. Mike Piazza, 496 Feet (1997) 2 of 16. We will definitely be dealing with Vintage Detroit again. As MLB.com's Ben Weinribnoted, the blast marked the longest homer since MLB installed Statcast in all stadiums in 2015. Thirty years after arriving in the Motor City, Fielder remembershis time in Detroit fondly. Guinness also clarifies that Mickey Mantle's home run measured at 643 feet (approximately 196 meters) is the longest home run measured "mathematically after the fact." This home run was hit at Tiger Stadium in Detroit on September 10, 1960. He hit his first home run of the 1961 season there. Contact Us MLB.com also provides an array of mobile apps for fans to choose from, including At Bat, the highest-grossing iOS sports app of all-time. Richard Keiber, a collector who obtained Kingman's moonshot outside of Wrigley Field, insisted to theChicago Tribune's Rick Talley in 2003 that 600 feet was a more accurate tally. His home run ratio of one per 6.6 at-bats ranks seventh on the all-time list. In 1921 there was no SportsCenter, no 24-hour highlight machine called the Internet. Quick shipping as well. By the 1970s, the ballpark was beginning to show its age. But there was nothing anybody could do. Field of Dreams ballpark (Dyersville, IA) The Lions abandoned it for the Pontiac Silverdome. As a kid in May 1967? Hughes was quickly wheeled off the field, which eerily ended minutes later. Baldwin showed Sam the precise spot where Mantles drive landed. Playing in Japan really boosted my confidence and it allowed me to learn who I was as a hitter, said Fielder, who signed a two-year, $3 million deal with the Tigers. On July 6, 1996 Carlos Delgado hit the ball OVER the right center light tower completely into orbit. Jim Thome has to be in there for homeruns to it seemed like every time I was at a game he hit one to right field. He never played another game. Ilitch began to make plans for a new ballpark downtown, breaking ground during the 1997 season. A Mickey Mantle buff claims a 1960 home run hit out of Tiger Stadium by the former New York Yankees star is the longest ever measured 643 feet, .0069 inches. Although there aremultiple talesof Babe Ruth's hitting his mythical home run beyond 600 feet, no accurate measuring tools existed during his playing days. The left-handed raker quickly set a gaudy benchmark duringGreat American Ball Park's second season on Aug. 10, 2004, when he crushed a Jose Lima offering well beyond the fence in center field, which stands 404 feet out. (In those days, home games were blacked out 75 miles from the site of competition. Unlike some teams that played in baseball parks, the Lions made no attempt to cover the infield. Our motto is simple: We enjoy doing cool things and are overjoyed we can make a living doing so. Who were the batters? Skeptics will certainly be forgiven for doubting that distance, but others will prefer to simply believe. Home runs that are hit out of the ball park are measured from where the batter stands to where the ball . In 1955, right field returned to its 325-foot status. There was a huge outcry from traditionalists that the ballpark needed be saved as a historical monument (it had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989). Al Kaline.). Detroit Tigers all-time home run leaders as of October 2022 Number of home runs Al Kaline Norm Cash Miguel Cabrera Hank Greenberg Willie Horton Cecil Fielder Lou Whitaker Rudy York Lance. In 1968, his last at-bat came there when he struck out in Game 5 of the World Series. Despite the scarcity of film onRuth, we can still make definitive evaluations of the approximate landing points of all of his 714 career home runs. Over 40 scorching-hot games, Hill hit .333/.378/.735 with 16 homers for the eventual World Series champions. Everyone has their own opinion. I was a little concerned it would let look as good as I hoped, but when I put it on, I loved it. As a lifelong Tigers fan, I have been fortunate enough to see two players clear the fence. Robert Fick hit a grand-slam homer to help Detroit to an 8-2 win over Kansas City. During his 17 seasons of Major League Baseball, Kirk Gibson hit 255 home runs with 195 of those dingers coming with the Detroit Tigers. It was a rarity. A 125-foot flagpole stood just to the left of the 440-foot sign in dead center field. When Ford Field hosted the 2006 Super Bowl, a tent on Tiger Stadiums field played host to the Bud Bowl, an event that featured (among other things), a performance by Snoop Dogg. (At age 89, Eldon Auker, a member of the 1934-35 AL champions, was the oldest returnee. Service and shipping were exceptional. The final act came on September 27, 1999. The old ballpark at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in Detroits Corktown district was one of the games most unusual ballparks. These were not temp help that knew nothing these were professionals who knew not just everything but were truly looking out for me. This memorable blow . Wow! As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Three who did were Roberto Clemente in the 71 All-Star Game, Larry Herndon in 1983, and Mark McGwire in 1987. Answerbag wants to provide a service to people looking for answers and a good conversation. Landed in the last few rows one per deck bleachers. Historians generally agree the longest home run hit in the ballpark was probably achieved by Detroit 1B Norm Cash, who ripped a shot over the center field scoreboard in a 1962 game that landed on the roof of a parked taxicab. I didnt know what I was going to end up with that season but I knew it was going to be great.". He is planning a book on the topic. Although it came nowhere close to 734 feet, ESPN determined an impressive true distance of 503 feet. OnJuly 3, 1999, the Cleveland Indians star sent a ball screaming an estimated 511 feet. The Tigers' Kirk Gibson hit a home run onto the street in 1983 but it was less than 600 feet. I said, 'I think we have something here.' Have Your Own Jersey? Yet the story of his 565-foot moonshot still lives strong. The date:April 17, 1953. To Ilitchs credit, he paid for several renovations that kept the park looking reasonable in its final years. As I mentioned above, a list that includes significant home runs at Tiger Stadium has to include Charlie Maxwell hitting 4 HRS in 4 consecutive at bats on May 3, 1959 in a double header against the Yankees. I ended up buy a very nice winter Tiger jacket and as I tried it on and decided on it they noticed a very minor blemish on the back and quickly informed me I had a hard time even seeing it & probably would have never noticed it. The first time, though, was in 1977, when Jason Thompson clubbed one out, literally seconds after my dad told me I think Thompson is gonna crush one out of the stadium. Willie Horton hit a home run at Tiger Stadium when he was 16 years old during an all-city high school game. A post-game ceremony brought back just about famous ex-Tiger who was still alive for one last salute. On November 28, 1974, the Lions played their last game at Tiger Stadium. It was the type of park that inspired such feats. On June 14, 1983, Gibson belted a blast over the right field roof against the Red Sox. The place:Washington's Griffith Stadium. In 1945, Hank Greenberg belted a grand slam late in the season that not only won the game for Detroit, but clinched the pennant. Cannot be combined with any other offer. If you have been the the field since they tore down the stadium just stand at home plate and imagine hitting it over the 90 foot high roof to where brooks lumber still stands. Ruths mammoth homer is the only ball to be confirmed to have left Navin Field/Briggs Stadium/Tiger Stadium in center field. (The movie Detroit Rock City was based on this concert.). Mantle hit the memorable homer off Paul Foytack on Sept. 10, 1960. It is believed to be the only time in the sports history this has occurred. Because owner Walter Briggs believed baseball should be played in the daytime, the Tigers were the last team in the American League to install lights, putting in the arcs in 1948. But he is prouder of the fact that he won three consecutive RBI titles (1990-92) than joining the 50-home run club, pointing out the only other players to do it in the American League are Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. There were strange home runs: one hit on a line drive that stuck under the wall and allowed Dixie Walker to circle the bases in 1939; a homer that rattled around the flag pole in deep center field while Lou Gehrig ran around the bases in 1933; and the inside-the-park homer that Kirk Gibson hit in which he was a stride behind teammate Lou Whitaker who slid safely in front of him scoring from first base.