May 4, 1951 Sportsman's Park St. Louis - With an 8-1 romp on this day over the St. Louis Browns the Yankees moved into first palce. But a ball off Mantle's bat was the headlines and one of the hardest hit St. Louis had seen.

The Yankees led 2-1 in the sixth inning when Mantle faces ex-Yankee Duane Pillette with one on. Pillette delivers a sinker that didn't sink. The result is "fiercesome homer" as described by Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News. "It traveled more than 450 feet on the fly," according to Trimble, but Browns right-fielder Roy Sievers would recall that the ball was three-quarters the height of the light towers when it left the ballpark and still rising-it had to go at least 500 feet, said Sievers. Sievers said "people in St. Louis still talk about the drive."

Sievers was told by fans, who from elevated stands could follow the ball, that it cleared Grand Avenue and banged into a car dealership. Probably the same dealership that Babe Ruth's ball struck in 1926.

Bob Burns, the veteran St. Louis sportscaster, over three decades later said that the only comparable St. Louis homer "was the one Babe hit in the 1926 World Series. The consensus is that the Ruth and Mantle drives are the longest right-field blasts ever hit in Sportsman's Park.

Actual distance 475 feet.

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Saturday 22 May 2021

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• You Must Be Mick / 1951 Spring Training & Regular Season Tape Measure Shots

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