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Thome would also play for the Phillies, White Sox, Dodgers, Twins, and Orioles during his 22-year career but is still Cleveland’s all-time home run leader with 337. Why hit just one ball 490-plus feet when you can do it more than once? What strikes me the most about this blast is it looks like he barely even swung. Judge’s stroke appears to be nice and easy, almost as if he was taking batting practice. Since we’ve now shifted into the Statcast era, the following homers will be in order, starting with the longest. Specifically looking at his minor-league career leading up to his MLB debut, Meyer was a legit power threat at each level.
This dinger off the bat of ‘The Mick’ went an estimated 140 feet further than the 15th longest home run on this list, which makes it that much more impressive. Mr. October was the architect of many classic post-season memories while wearing New York Yankees pinstripes. One of his greatest moments, however, came in a game that didn’t mean anything. In 1971, Reggie was representing the Oakland Athletics in the All-Star Game at Tigers Stadium. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Jackson crushed an outside fastball that eventually rang off of a transformer at the top of the stadium. Tiger Stadium was famous for its low roof and a few players have hit balls completely out of the ballpark, but Jackson’s 532-foot home run stands as one of the longest on record.
Longest home run ever was hit in Belmar? Josh Gibson's remarkable swat celebrated
As late as 1960, Teddy Ballgame was still going strong, when he opened the season in Washington with a 475-foot bolt to right-center field. Coincidentally, that was the same ballpark where Mickey Mantle had supplanted Williams as the game's longest hitter seven years earlier. Dick Allen, too, played in both leagues, thereby providing himself the advantage of leaving his signature on more ballparks than those who only played in one league. Allen could not hit with the same power in those directions as when he pulled the ball, but he seems to have lost less distance than almost anyone else when hitting to the opposite field. Directly behind Allen in the historic ranking of tape measure hitters were contemporaries Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey.
Notice that even the exact date isn’t quite confirmed either. Adam Dunn, the man they used to call “Big Donkey,” makes another appearance on this list. This one was said to have gone a little further than the first homer on this list at 535 feet. And as it went well over the 404-mark at the Great American Ballpark’s right-center field wall and couldn’t be caught by the broadcast television camera to definitely see where it landed. This blast from Miguel Sanó was the longest home run of the 2021 season and as we’ve seen with many players on this list, he waited until August/September to make it happen. His 30 homers marked the second time he reached that number in his big-league career, but unlike in 2019, his OPS was down at .778.
Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins outfielder – 504 feet, Coors Field
This field once hosted Negro League games and the Cuban All-Star team. With a mighty swing, Jackson took Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis’s throw high out to right field. So high that it hit a transformer above the seats that kept it from going further than the estimated distance of 539 feet. Sadly, this one doesn’t count toward the 563 career homers that place him 14th all-time.
If not for hitting a transformer on Tiger Stadium's roof, the baseball would have experienced a further journey. On a ball that sped 124 mph off the bat, ESPN's Home Run Tracker estimated a distance of 539 feet if unhindered. Strawberry hit another dinger during New York's Opening Day victory and matched his previous season's career high with 39 homers that year.
Baseball Record: What's the longest home run ever hit?
The A’s McGwire hit the ball so hard off of Cleveland’s Orel Hershiser that it caused the veteran pitcher to mouth the word “wow” as the ball sailed into the left field bleachers. Though this home run is impressive, it pales in comparison to the one later in this list, an absolute blast against future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. It should be noted that those regular references over the years to 500- and 600-foot home runs were born out of scientific ignorance, misinformation, or even deliberate exaggeration.
This has been true throughout almost every era of baseball history, whether the home runs are being hit by the legends of the past or the stars of today. Entering the 1970s, Reggie Jackson was already established as one of the best ever. His 1971 All-Star blast off the light tower atop the right-center-field roof at Tiger Stadium ranks as one of the 10 longest drives in major league history. Also ranking among the elite during that decade were Greg Luzinski, Dave Kingman, and George Foster.
Longest Home Run Ever Hit
That was the first of his season and career-best 39 homers in a single year. While this one ranks among the biggest blasts in the history books, this homer was one of the few bright spots in Vaughn’s career after leaving the Angels, to join the Mets in 2002. This moonshot from Joey Gallo came right in the middle of his second straight season with 40-plus homers for the Rangers.
The ‘steroid era’ has made us question a lot of the purity of the game, as well as the credit that we should be giving the athletes who were proven to have cheated. It has brought many questions to light about cheating in sports and the idea of how far is too far and how much is just simply being competitive. The event did happen more than 34 years ago, so it's hard to fault Tennyson for not remembering exactly how he got the number 582. Not being a fan of baseball, he also said he was just focused on getting an exact measurement and not taking home run history into consideration at all. He wasn't trying to "memorialize it." He did say a University of Colorado professor called him shortly after the measurements came out and agreed with how he came up with the distance.
There's the unbelievable power of Wily Mo Peña or Glenallen Hill. There are stories of his 600-foot home runs or treating old Yankee Stadium like it was his own personal Little League field. In addition to the plaque, signs have gone up on each dugout. The first-base dugout is now named after Gibson and the third-base dugout after Dihigo.
He hit a career-high 46 home runs in 2004, and it was his first of five consecutive 40-plus homer efforts. "In 1921 alone, which was Ruth's best tape measure season, he hit at least one 500 foot home run in all eight American League cities," Jenkinson said. There really is nothing like getting the head of the bat out on a high fastball. The Straw Man was one of the best at it, as evidenced by his dinger that hit the lights on Opening Day at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in 1988. Big Mo struggled with injuries late in his career, but you’d never know it witnessing this moon shot he hit as a member of the New York Mets.
Without a closer look from ESPN at this Adam Dunn dinger, the lofty 535-foot approximation receives the benefit of the doubt. For what it's worth, it passes the "Wow, he sure hit that ball a long way" eye test. "It has been confirmed that the ball struck against the third house beyond Waveland Avenue, which is situated about 530 feet from home plate," Jenkinson wrote. "Yet again, we have an example of a genuinely epic home run that has been grievously overstated." "I think we like seeing it fly like that, especially if it's our guys hitting it," Marlins manager Don Mattingly told Weinrib. "Balls with that trajectory, for a lot of guys it doesn't go out. He hits balls that just keep carrying. He hits them a long way."
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