The Longest Single

by jscape2000 on Apr 15, 2008 11:17 AM EDT in Yankee Stadium

For you history buffs, a Mickey Mantle walk-off.

It doesn't really surprise me that one of Mantle's drives is the longest single in baseball (and therefore, Yankee Stadium) history. But for 52 years the written record of the August 10, 1956 game has been incorrect. From the NYTimes:

"With Billy Martin on third and two out, Mantle hit a towering 450-foot drive to center. The ball landed on the running track and bounced some 15 feet up into the centerfield bleachers for a ground-rule double."

Ernie Harwell was the radio broadcaster (no Gameday?) for the Orioles, and 52 years later he's straightening things out.

It was a double, at least for a while. But it was changed to a single, in accordance with the scoring rules [since Martin was on third].
...
In my effort to verify my memory of the hit as a single, I encountered a few surprises. Ken Hirdt at Elias Sports Bureau, the official statistician of Major League Baseball, located the game and the precise date. His check of the official scorer's report showed a double and a single for Mantle, not two doubles.

Ken's info was confirmed by Dave Smith of Retrosheet. Dave sent me the game's play-by-play and photo copies of the Yankees and Orioles scorebooks. These proved that Mantle's first double came in the third inning, in which the Yankees failed to score. That meant his one RBI came on the ninth-inning hit and had to be a single. Also, the official play-by-play of that final inning said: "Mantle singled to centerfield and Martin scored."

The Yankees scorekeeper also noted in his ninth-inning entry that Mantle's hit "bounced once into cf bleachers."

There is no doubt the hit was a single. Yet, my fellow researchers and I have never been able to find a correction of the original story. In printed material, it is always a double.

It's a beautiful thing that we get so worked up about this game that there are people spending their days tracking down 50 year old box scores to figure out if a particular hit was worth one base or two.

h/t Baseball Think Factory

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I love it

I also wonder how many more HR’s Mick would have hit if he’d played in another stadium, even in todays stadium where 465 feet to center is way back in the black.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

by Cbeck3 on Apr 15, 2008 11:34 AM EDT reply actions

Mantle

"Whitey and I figured it out once that each year I hit about fifteen long outs in Yankee stadium that would have been homeruns at Ebbets Field. In my eighteen years I’d have had about 270 more homeruns if I’d been a Dodger." -Mickey Mantle

That wouldn’t be just 806 home runs.
That’d move his batting average from .298 to .331.
OBP from .421 to .447.
SLG from .557 to .690.
If all those homers were solo shots it would move Mantle from 47th on the RBI list to 18th. If he averaged 2 runs per homer, he’d move to 4th (2049) and he’d still have been 164 behind (then all time leader) Ruth.
In addition to smashing the career home run record he would have set the single season home run record at 67 in ‘56 and broken it again by hitting 69 in ‘61.

And, for the record, with 15 extra homers, Mantle bats .380/.483/.818. in ‘56, shattering the single season SLG mark set by Ted Williams in 1942. And he would have followed that up by hitting .397 in ‘57.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Apr 15, 2008 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Yipe

Maybe a little optimistic, don’t you think?

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright (1876 - 1944)

by Cbeck3 on Apr 15, 2008 6:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Maybe

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/Dimensions.html

But 351 to left center, 393 to center. That’s smaller than Camden Yard, which came in at 104 last season on baseball reference’s park factors (100 is neutral).

It doesn’t sound too far fetched.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Apr 15, 2008 10:59 PM EDT up reply actions

great stuff jscape

kind of reminds me of robin ventura’s walk-off grand slam in the 2000 NLCS for the mets—which actually went down the books as single because ventura never even made it second base before being mobbed by teammates.

You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth. -Mickey Mantle

by NumberSeven on Apr 15, 2008 3:35 PM EDT reply actions