This isn’t even a record. I don’t think Jose Canseco ever hit a 540-foot home run, nor would I think that would be a record if he had.
Canseco is sometimes claimed to have hit a 540-foot home run in Toronto, off Mike Flanagan, during the 1989 ALCS. He did not. I suspect this is some sort of confusion related to the fact he hit a home run into Section 540 (the very upper deck in left field next to the foul pole.) While it was quite an amazing home run it went 480 feet, not anywhere near 540. It is probably not possible for a human being to hit a 540-foot home run in that stadium simply because there is no direction to hit a baseball in where it will not hit the stadium itself before going that far. Since then a number of other players have also hit home runs into SkyDome/Rogers Centre’s fifth deck, including Canseco a few more times, and none of them went 500 feet.
It is in fact not really possible to ascertain what the longest home run in major league history is, because until very recently there was no formal measurement of them and it was as much the stuff of legend and myth as it was fact. Mickey Mantle was long credited with a 565-foot blast in Griffith Stadium in 1953, but some reports state it struck a wall 460 feet from home plate and the 565 foot measurement was made from where it bounced to.
Dave Kingman in 1979 hit a blast in Wrigley Field that was claimed to have landed 550 feet from home plate, over Waveland Avenue. But then in 2000, Glenallen Hill hit a home run over Waveland that actually landed on top of the roof of the apartment building back there and it’s supposed to be 480-490 feet or so. I’ve seen a tape of the Kingman home run and it doesn’t look like it went much further.
The longest for-sure measured home run is Adam Dunn’s 535-foot blast in Cincinnati.
Did anyone mention winning a Super Bowl with more than one team? NBA. NHL and MLB coaches/managers have been able to do it, just not in professional American Football since 1967 . . .
Yes, very possible. One of those was a pitcher (Tony Cloninger) and one of them hit both in the same inning, off the same pitcher (Fernando Tatis). I’m not sure if any batter has ever even come to bat three times in a game with the bases loaded, so the opportunity would be rare if not unprecedented.
Like Vander Meer’s two consecutive no-hitters, the only way to break the record is to pitch three in a row, which almost certainly will never be done. In modern baseball stadiums, I doubt if anybody will come close to Owen Wilson’s record of 36 triples in a season.
There have been five verified accomplishments of a high school player returning three kickoffs for touchdowns in one game. I mention this because Roger Maris ( of 61*) fame is reputed to have done it four times. But later research indicated that only two of Maris’ TDs were kickoff returns, the others were a punt return and an interception return.
Three kickoff returns for TDs would be remarkable, because a very dominant team is assured of receiving only one kickoff per game, with more according to how much the opponents score. A team with a superstar that can run back kickoffs with impunity is not likely to have a porous defense that would allow several touchdowns, so even three kickoff returns for touchdowns would be remarkable. But it would seem more feasible in little towns in western Kansas where they play 8-man football (less than 11 boys in the whole school) and often run up scores like 78-66)
As a non-serious baseball fan, I’ve also wondered about the reverence the ‘56’ is held in.
MartinHyde describes the situation perfectly. I’ve also read, that during the Streak, Di Maggio’s average was still less than Williams’ entire season, and that during the time of the Streak, Williams had basically the same number of hits, average etc - he just didn’t space them correctly.
It’s possible to have a hit in every game of a season - and average .250. (technically less, but that seems reasonable). It’s a function of statistical chance - not necessarily exceptional performance.
Every player who has had a really long hitting streak was in fact a player of at least well above average skill. While there is a degree of luck involved, players like Ray Ordonez don’t have 36-game hitting streaks.
Hold on, what? Unless I’m misreading it, you’re claiming not a single NFL player has won Super Bowls with two or more different teams during the Super Bowl era?
Largely true. But there is a certain pressure put on batters as that number climbs because it’s so unusual. To some degree it does speak to the batters consistency and focus. Di Maggio and those who have come close were exceptional hitters but it’s still difficult to say Di Maggio’s streak was that much more significant than any of the top ten on the list. A player could have four 30 game streaks in one season which would be much more significant, but it’s not a category.
One that we are unlikely to see broken, at least in our lifetimes is the Phillies team record for losses. They have 10,552 regular season losses. Atlanta is in second place with 10,221 regular season losses. Unless the Phillies set an incredible record for wins in a season Atlanta could lose every game in the next two seasons and still not catch up.
A legit 600 foot homerun. People like to fantasize about babe Ruth and mickey mantle hitting a ball that far. Maybe they did but no one knows for sure. With today’s technology we can be sure with new hitters. Jose conseco was a big hitter but 600 feet was probably out of his league. Mark McGuire, Barry bonds, Sammy sosa. Even with steroids 600 feet was not possible. Someday there will be a kid that will legitimately hit a baseball 600 feet with a wooden bat.
Here’s a paper that lays out a pretty compelling case for why this is unlikely. Summary: analysis of pitch velocity, bat velocity, launch angles and backspin make it pretty clear that the longest a person can hit a baseball in still air is a little over 500 feet. Only with a significant tailwind can a ball travel as far as 600 feet: modern stadium design tends to pretty severely limit the amount of tailwind at field level.
Thank you sir. I tend to agree with you but the biggest thing that holds me back is that I used to race motocross in the late 90’s. Doing a backflip on a motocross bike was basically thought impossible. There is a kid from Australia that did a triple backflip on a 220 pound motocross bike a year ago.