Prodigous home runs

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Posted By: jay behrens

I've seen a few huge blasts in my day. The only game I attended at the Kingdome, I saw Gary Matthews hit only the second ball ever into the upperdeck of right centerfield. I also saw the only homerun, at the time, to be hit beyond bleachers and hit the concession stand behind it in Oakland. Probably the most impressive homer I ever saw in 1986 at Wrigley. It was a game against the Astros and the wind was blowing in at about 20mph, so me and my buddy figured we weren't gonna see any HRs that day. The first pitch of the game, Steve Finely hit ball into the teeth off the wind and out of the park. No one else came close to getting the ball half out of the outfield that day.

On a side note about HR distance, this posted on the SABR-l list:

Jay's suspicions are well founded.
HRs are not measured consistently or accurately, so that statements like Stats' should be taken with a ton of salt. Stats typically takes the various suspect in-park guesstimates and then rounds them off to the nearest 10', introducing a bit more error into the process.

Even if the Stats contention were accurate, we would have to ask how changes in ball resiliency affected the situation.
Finally, given the sloppy way the statement is worded, every one of Bonds pre-2000 HRs could have been 450' on the nose, and if none of his later HRs could have exceeded that figure, and the statement would be true.

Is Stats turning into another Elias in terms of its reliability and
relevance to understanding the game of baseball?

-- John Pastier

end quote

Jay

The difference between genius and insanity is acceptance.