The Hardest Hit Blast Ever?--Barry Bonds?
By James Rodrigues
When we talk about tape measure home run distance, we're actually discussing the power of the bat on the baseball. We are really attempting to measure the size of the actual "blast." During the 2002 World Series in the ninth inning of game two, Barry Bonds hit what may have been the most powerful "blast" in baseball history.
It was an ultimate case of the immovable object meeting the irresistable force. Troy Percival's 100-mile per hour fastball meeting Barry Bond's classic swing--head on! It was hit so hard, through the Orange County October mist, that on "Fox camera," it appeared to disappear and then reappear.
The ball took off like a high-powered rocket and almost "cleared" the entire huge stadium. The length of the home run was estimated at 495 feet. What would the distance have been, had the ball been allowed to come down?The baseball “day” of my bat swinging life came during a "sandlot game" on Castlemont High School's practice football field. It was "lob pitching" and I was swinging my 35-inch bat. I hit 4 or 5 home runs that day. One of the five was a monster shot that cleared the 280-foot fence easily but hit “way up” on the trunk of a eucalyptus tree. It bounced straight down to the left fielder. He almost threw me out at second base. I tried to argue that any ground rules would make that a homer. At that point I ran into an early (1964) precursor to the immortal line, "There's no crying in baseball." As I tried to claim what would have eventually given me my fifth home run of the game, I heard these words from a local rival, "Ground Rules? There are no Ground Rules, here!"
Another of my 4-baggers that day went over the fence, over a small parking lot and crashed high into the second story of an apartment building, barely missing two large windows.
I mention this personal event not only because “it's a pretty darn good story" and in order to put one of my home runs in the same tale with a Barry Bonds' shot, but to make a final point. I've always wondered how far my 350-foot homer would have gone if that apartment building hadn't gotten in the way. Some day I'll go back and figure that one out.
I think Barry Bonds' World Series history maker is entitled to at least the same respect. The myriad Fox Network cameras were "real-time" so the speed and the trajectory of the homer can be accurately calculated. The precise location of the ball's collision with the stadium can also be easily "known."
Isn't it about time a Stanford egghead (or some such) stepped out of the academic shadows with the answer. I'm guessing that, undeflected, that particular Barry Bonds World Series blast would have gone over 600 feet and may have even challenged Mickey Mantle's "flying saucer shot." (Go to "Mickey Mantle" on jimmyrod's home page).