OT: Who would you put on your sports Mt. Rushmore. This is harder than it sounds...

[robw1959]

Very cool! Do you have a link to that source?

The source is a book called "The Home Run Encyclopedia," MacMillan publishing. The information is found on pages 25-26 in a chapter titled, "Longest Home Runs." It should be noted that my memory was a bit faulty in two aspects, one of which is the 25-year time frame. The computerized measuring equipment first instituted in MLB parks in 1982 was broadened to include every ball park by 1991. It was within that 10-year time frame that only one major leaguer, Cecil Fielder, hit a 500-foot homer. His was measured at 502 feet. And the second correction is the year Ruth hit 500+ home runs in all eight A.L. ball parks he visited. It was 1921, not 1920.

Although home run measuring technology wasn't developed until the '80s, we do have enough footage of Ruth's 1921 homers to ascertain with computer analysis the fact that they traveled such historic distances. He was truly a freak!