Daily Dirt: Going, going, gone! Statcast helps us know which home runs are longest

Daily Dirt for Wednesday, May 24, 2023

We should all be grateful for the “Statcast Era” … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 617 of The Daily Dirt

1. There is nothing more entertaining while watching an MLB game than seeing a majestic home run.

MLB and Statcast teamed up in 2015 to provide all sorts of data for home runs hit by each of the 30 Major League clubs. It is referred to as the beginning of the “Statcast Era.” Here are the longest home runs hit in the Statcast Era:

The 500-footers

Nomar Mazara, Texas Rangers: 505 feet, June 21, 2019 vs. Chicago White Sox. The colossal smash came against the White Sox. The left-handed hitting Mazara 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.

“That was a bomb, a complete bomb,” Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, who was on first base at the time of the home run, told mlb.com. “I think it was more than 505 feet. It was more like 600 feet.” 

C.J. Cron, Colorado Rockies: 504 feet, Sept. 9, 2022, vs. Arizona Diamondbacks: It’s only fair for the longest measured home run in Coors Field history to belong to a member of the Rockies — even if Cron’s towering 504-foot blast has to share the honor with the one Giancarlo Stanton hit a few years earlier.

Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins: 504 feet, Aug. 6, 2016, vs. Colorado Rockies: Stanton belted the first 500-foot homer in Statcast history by extending way up the Coors Field bleachers in the left-center power gap. It took a Stanton-ian combination of a 115.8-mph exit velocity and a very low 18-degree launch angle for Stanton to reach that part of the park.

Just missed 500 feet

Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers: 499 feet, Sept. 6, 2022 vs. Colorado Rockies: This moonshot, which eventually landed in Coors Field’s third deck, topped Yelich’s previous career best by 37 feet.

2. This week’s birthday wishes go to:

• Singer Pat Boone, who will be 89 on Thursday.
• Actor Morgan Freeman will turn 86, also on Thursday.
• Guitar player Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones makes it three birthdays on Thursday. Wood will be 76.
• Actor Jerry Mathers of “Leave It To Beaver” fame will be 75 on Friday.
• Newsman/author Anderson Cooper will turn 56 on Saturday.

3. For the first time in several weeks, no changes in our medal winners in the Great (License) Plate Debate of 2023 moves forward:

• Gold medal: 1 ELVIS.
• Silver medal: BATLADY. 
• Bronze medal: ITS FINE. 
• Aluminum medal: OXCART. 
• Cardboard medal: P NUTT. 

The best from the past week across West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri:

• NERSE 89
• PIPS 24
• FAZFAM 5
• ROMANS 4
• WRITE 8
• 4 X PLAY

Steve Thought O’ The Day
It boggles my mind that Beaver and Ronnie Wood are basically the same age.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Wonder what Statcast would have measured Mickey Mantle’s alleged 565-foot home run in Washington’s Griffith Stadium on on April 17, 1953?