1961 Topps # 406 Mantle Blasts 565 FT. Home Run

[insidethewrapper]

1961 Topps # 406 Mantle Blasts 565 FT. Home Run. Was this "real" or "fake" News ? Is this where the ball hit the ground or where it stopped rolling ? Any news accounts of this event ?

[Eric72]

Not sure; however:

If a baseball took that trajectory and landed where the tip of the arrow is, and hit a hard surface like asphalt…it probably would have bounced and rolled for quite a distance after touchdown.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

1961 Topps # 406 Mantle Blasts 565 FT. Home Run. Was this "real" or "fake" News ? Is this where the ball hit the ground or where it stopped rolling ? Any news accounts of this event ?

It was real, and there were news accounts. Did it go that far, probably not, but it was the only ball to ever clear the stands in left field, where it was something like 410 to the fence and then the bleachers. No doubt a 500-footer, at any rate. Google will be your friend here.

[GasHouseGang]

According to Google:

On April 17, 1953, Mickey Mantle hit a towering home run at Washington D.C.'s Griffith Stadium that became known as the "tape-measure home run". The ball traveled over the left-center field wall, hit a beer sign 460 feet from home plate, and landed in the backyard of a house on Oakdale Street, where it was found by a 10-year-old boy. Yankees publicist Red Patterson estimated the home run's total distance at 565 feet, a figure that helped coin the legendary term.
Details of the Blast
The Hit:
Mantle, batting right-handed against Senators pitcher Chuck Stobbs, hit a fastball.
The Trajectory:
The ball soared over the left-center field wall, cleared a 60-foot bleacher section, and grazed a beer advertisement.
The Landing:
It landed in the backyard of a house on Oakdale Street.
The Estimator:
Yankees publicist Red Patterson estimated the distance by walking from the back of the stadium bleachers to where the ball landed and consulting blueprints.
The Discovery:
A 10-year-old boy named Donald Dunaway found the ball in a backyard and eventually sold it to Red Patterson for a dollar.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Wow, a whole dollar? Red Patterson comes off looking like a colossal douche here. While things didn't have the same value in those days, there was certainly still much publicity value to having the ball in hand for display purposes. Give the kid more than a dollar.

[timber63401]

Mark McGwire 260lbs of muscle full roids with better equipment and faster balls being pitched to him never hit one that far. 5'11" 195lbs Mantle never did either.

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Wow, a whole dollar? Red Patterson comes off looking like a colossal douche here. While things didn't have the same value in those days, there was certainly still much publicity value to having the ball in hand for display purposes. Give the kid more than a dollar.

According to the Baseball HOF :

"Patterson gave the boy a dollar and later sent him five more dollars and two autographed baseballs in return for the home run ball. The ball and Mantle’s bat eventually made its way to Cooperstown."

https://baseballhall.org/discover/in...-foot-home-run

[oldjudge]

Mantle hit some colossal home runs. He missed by inches of being the only person to hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium. Was it 565 feet—who knows, but if anyone could hit it that far it was him.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

According to the Baseball HOF :

"Patterson gave the boy a dollar and later sent him five more dollars and two autographed baseballs in return for the home run ball. The ball and Mantle’s bat eventually made its way to Cooperstown."

https://baseballhall.org/discover/in...-foot-home-run

Thanks for the extra info!

I suppose that was a bit better, but still comes off as being not enough, even for the era. How about some box seats at Griffith Stadium for the kid and his family the next time the two teams faced off? A meet and greet wouldn't have been out of the question, either. Good photo op material there for the club as well.

I wonder if those balls had any clubhouse signatures on them, or if they were Autoballs!

[Moonlight Graham]

Originally Posted by timber63401

Mark McGwire 260lbs of muscle full roids with better equipment and faster balls being pitched to him never hit one that far. 5'11" 195lbs Mantle never did either.

Don't be so sure about that-Mickey was unlike any other.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Moonlight Graham

Don't be so sure about that-Mickey was unlike any other.

Completely agree.

[butchie_t]

I'm a Senators fan......no, it never happened. It is all wrong. Just a baseball myth. Just like that 'called shot' thing.... if there were no pictures, it never happened.

I freakin wish. ; - )

Butch

[timber63401]

Originally Posted by Moonlight Graham

Don't be so sure about that-Mickey was unlike any other.

Physics is pretty sure. I love baseball lore as much as the next guy, that's one of the things that makes it so great. When all the roided out sluggers never hit one that far its just too hard to believe he did.

[Johnny630]

There is something called Country Strong, the Mick was Country Strong.

TRUTH!!

[minibbcards]

you have to love a university that dedicates a paper to the Physics of Baseball and the legendary "tape measure" homerun.

https://baseball.physics.illinois.ed...led%20565%20ft.

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by minibbcards

you have to love a university that dedicates a paper to the Physics of Baseball and the legendary "tape measure" homerun.

https://baseball.physics.illinois.ed...led%20565%20ft.

So that paper concludes the "minimum" distance he hit the ball was 538 feet. That's still amazing.

[DrSatanis]

Gentlemen...we have been tasked to do our own version of the Warren Commission Report for this...it is our duty as collectors.

[doug.goodman]

The link I posted from the HOF notes that 565 included travel after it landed

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

The link I posted from the HOF notes that 565 included travel after it landed

Who cares this far removed from the event. Topps made a really cool card of it.

[Beercan collector]

Hitting a beer sign 460 feet away is good enough for me .

[GasHouseGang]

Originally Posted by Beercan collector

Hitting a beer sign 460 feet away is good enough for me .

Shouldn't Mantle have won some free beer? Like that sign they used to have in the outfield at one of the ballparks. Hit this sign and win a free suit. Was that what it was?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Shouldn't Mantle have won some free beer?

They could have at least given him a dollar.

[jp1216]

Looked up more on the weather on April 17, 1953 in D.C.
Typical Spring day. Temps in the 60s with a strong wind out of the west. Found some hourly data which doesn't account for gusts. The ball certainly had a push along the way.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by minibbcards

you have to love a university that dedicates a paper to the Physics of Baseball and the legendary "tape measure" homerun.

https://baseball.physics.illinois.ed...led%20565%20ft.

We've got sand!

[oldjudge]

Mickey worked in the lead and zinc mines when he was young, primarily breaking ore with a sledge hammer. That undoubtedly contributed to his strength.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by minibbcards

you have to love a university that dedicates a paper to the Physics of Baseball and the legendary "tape measure" homerun.

https://baseball.physics.illinois.ed...led%20565%20ft.

The Illinois paper is interesting, but the book by Adair cited came out of the Physics Department at Yale, where Adair was a Sterling Professor. I doubt that Adair ever visited Champaign, Illinois. Boola Boola

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

The Illinois paper is interesting, but the book by Adair cited came out of the Physics Department at Yale, where Adair was a Sterling Professor. I doubt that Adair ever visited Champaign, Illinois. Boola Boola

Well if he's never been to Champaign, he's missing out.

https://sabr.org/awards/winner/alan-nathan/

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Writehooks]

There was a second hitter on the grassy knoll behind the bleachers, and his ball accounts for the final 80 feet of Mantle's blast.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

Shouldn't Mantle have won some free beer? Like that sign they used to have in the outfield at one of the ballparks. Hit this sign and win a free suit. Was that what it was?

Pretty sure having to pay for beer was not much of an issue for the Mick.

[oldjudge]

Interesting article. So the professor concludes that the minimum distance the ball could traveled was 538 feet. That includes losing velocity by glancing off a sign. It makes it appear that if the ball had not clipped the sign it might have traveled over 565 feet and even ignoring the loss of velocity from glancing off the sign it could have traveled 565 feet.

[robw1959]

I guess I need to weigh in on this. Or at least Bill Jenkinson will. He authored the book titled, "The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs." On page 197 of the book, Jenkinson writes:

In this case, Mickey didn't hit the ball nearly 565 feet, but more likely about 510 feet. The fact is that Yankee publicist Red Patterson went in search of the ball as soon as it left the premises and found a ten-year-old boy holding it in a backyard across the street. Patterson did his job too well when he announced that it was 563 feet (2 feet were soon added for the thickness of the outer stadium wall) to the point where the gall was located. The media went crazy, reporting that the ball had flown 565 feet. When I interviewed Patterson thirty years later, he stated in a rather bemused fashion that he had wondered all those years why nobody had ever challenged the reputed distance. He readily acknowledged that he had no idea where the ball actually landed.

The truth is that it was 462 feet to the point where the ball left the stadium. The horsehide was also about fifty feet above ground level and on a rapidly declining trajectory. Plus, the ball actually glanced off an advertising sign as it left the lot. My conclusion, which is backed by computer analysis, is the this drive flew about 510 feet.

He goes on to state that it was still an historic shot, as some of the game's strongest right-handed hitters had plenty of chances at Washington's Griffith Stadium, including Jimmy Foxx and Josh Gibson, who each played close to 150 games there. But only Mantle cleared that 32-row stand of bleachers.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by robw1959

I guess I need to weigh in on this. Or at least Bill Jenkinson will. He authored the book titled, "The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs." On page 197 of the book, Jenkinson writes:



In this case, Mickey didn't hit the ball nearly 565 feet, but more likely about 510 feet. The fact is that Yankee publicist Red Patterson went in search of the ball as soon as it left the premises and found a ten-year-old boy holding it in a backyard across the street. Patterson did his job too well when he announced that it was 563 feet (2 feet were soon added for the thickness of the outer stadium wall) to the point where the gall was located. The media went crazy, reporting that the ball had flown 565 feet. When I interviewed Patterson thirty years later, he stated in a rather bemused fashion that he had wondered all those years why nobody had ever challenged the reputed distance. He readily acknowledged that he had no idea where the ball actually landed.



The truth is that it was 462 feet to the point where the ball left the stadium. The horsehide was also about fifty feet above ground level and on a rapidly declining trajectory. Plus, the ball actually glanced off an advertising sign as it left the lot. My conclusion, which is backed by computer analysis, is the this drive flew about 510 feet.



He goes on to state that it was still an historic shot, as some of the game's strongest right-handed hitters had plenty of chances at Washington's Griffith Stadium, including Jimmy Foxx and Josh Gibson, who each played close to 150 games there. But only Mantle cleared that 32-row stand of bleachers.

I think additional research was done after that book was written, that suggests the ball traveled at least 538 feet.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[JollyElm]

I have a competing theory, and believe the ball was hit much, much farther (or is it "further"), perhaps closer to 700 feet,
but it hit a house flushly and bounced back to the 565 foot spot in that kid's yard.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

...much farther (or is it "further")...

Farther is used when discussing linear distance.

Hopefully, I've helped you further your understanding of the word.