Baseball: Baseball Trivia!! exp.- Who is the only pitcher to pitch two consectutive no-hitters?

1. Who has the most stolen bases in a season at 130?

2. What pitcher did Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run off of in the 1998 season?

3. Who is the only pitcher to pitch two consecutive no-hitters and in what year?

4. Who hit the longest home run ever hit and how far was it?

5. Who has the highest batting average in a career of all-time and what is it?

1. Rickey Henderson.

2. Don't remember.

3. Johnny Vandermeer. [sp.?]

4. This is a disputed matter. Babe Ruth's LAST home run, when he was totally washed up, is estimated by his very reputable biographer, Robert Creamer, to have traveled 600 feet, and was for many years the only fair ball hit over the right field roof at Forbes Field. MANY people said for decades it was the longest ball they ever saw, including the pitcher who threw it. However, the ball commonly said to be the longest HR ever hit was hit by Mickey Mantle off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium (Washington) in 1953. Its estimated distance was 550 feet. It was one of only three balls ever hit over the left field bleachers at Griffith Stadium. The other two were BOTH hit by "the black Babe Ruth," Josh Gibson, who was surely the greatest catcher ever.

5. Assuming this is not a trick question about Terry Forster, the relief pitcher, the highest batting average of all time belongs to Ty Cobb. Depending on your source, it is either .366 or .367. When I grew up and for decades thereafter, it was .367 and he had 12 batting titles. Today, the more prevalent view is that his lifetime average was .366 and that he "only" won 11 titles. Second most, b.t.w., is 8 titles and is a 2-way tie between Honus Wagner and Tony Gwynn--two guys born 86 years apart.

2. Carl Pavano
4. Mantles hr, by the accounts i have seen have it at 565 feet.

Yes.

I have seen/heard it at both 550 and 565. However, the person who drew up this post sent me an email stating it was 634 feet!!! I have never heard or read anything of the sort, and would love to know what authority gives that figure.

I have a lithograph of a painting of Griffith Stadium. It was built in a housing tract, with a potentially deadly corner in deep center field. Of course, nobody thought it was potentially deadly at the time, because it was around 1911 and the ball was dead.

Now, this park was ENORMOUS, and the great Goose Goslin would go entire seasons with the live ball, with something like 17 HR's on the road and 0 at home. It was right around 400 feet DOWN THE LF LINE (until Sievers and Killebrew came along in the 50's), and even deeper in dead center, but the corner I'm talking about came in considerably from deepest center, and when the live ball was put in, a CF could have gotten killed or maimed out there, pretty easily, if he ran directly into that corner. Thankfully, it never happened.

Anyway, from every account I have ever heard, THIS was the longest HR of Mantle's career. Some publicity flack for the Yankees ran out behind the stadium and asked kids who were playing there where the ball landed. They told him and he did whatever he did to come up with his measurement. The only two figures I've heard are 550 and 565, and in the last 20 years, it's usually been 565--just as Cobb's lifetime BA was usually .367 until I was about 35, and since then has usually been .366.

Now, Mantle DID hit a ball off the facade of Yankee Stadium to an unthinkable distance, and the ball was still rising as it hit that facade, so perhaps this "634 feet" is a projection on that HR, though god knows where that guess comes from. But all I've ever heard of as Mantle's longest HR is the shot off Stobbs at Griffith Stadium, and that's clearly the one that you, Hootie, are referring to. It was the ONLY major league HR ever hit over those LF bleachers, since MLB wouldn't let Josh Gibson hit his two in an MLB uniform and nobody else could do it. (Ruth and Gehrig both hit enormous HR's over the 35- or 40-foot high fences in deepest center, but nobody "measured" those, to my knowledge.)

Anyway, I would like to know what authority says Mantle hit a 634-foot HR, and when and where he allegedly did it. It almost certainly has to be the one off Stobbs, and if someone is now saying it was 634 feet, that represents an increase of 69 to 84 feet... quite a bit, to say the least, especially when it's such a famous HR among historians.

B.H.N.

Well, I Googled it and came up with "authorities," of a sort.

It's not the Stobbs home run at Griffith Stadium. It's a home run at Tiger Stadium in 1960. One site says, "The longest measured home run in a Major League Game [why capitalize "game"?] is 193 meters (634 feet) by Mickey Mantle (USA), when playing for the New York Yankees against the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, USA, on September 10, 1960." Another entry on this same page says the ball Mantle hit off Stobbs was SIX hundred and fifty six feet long, which might be 'nuff said for the credibility of this site.

Another site, however, provides a lot more detail about this home run we've mysteriously never heard about. (And, by the way, it estimates Kingman's famous MONSTER blast on that monster-windy day at Wrigley at 630 feet.) Anyway, here's what it says:

"Not surprisingly, Mickey Mantle holds the record for longest ball ever hit. [I don't know why this is not surprising. Babe Ruth annihilated all records for HR length everywhere he went.] The Mick was widely renowned for his tape-measure blasts, but this one took the cake. The date was September 10, 1960, and the powerhouse Yankees were at Briggs Stadium [the former name of Tiger Stadium] in Detroit to play the Tigers.

"Righthander Paul Foytack was pitching to Mantle in the seventh inning. He fell behind 2-0, never a good idea against the best switch-hitter in history. Sure enough, Foytack's next pitch turned around in a hurry. The ball sailed high into the air and just kept going. It rocketed high over the right field fence, passed untouched through a network of light fixtures, and flew out of the park at a height of at least 440 feet [measured HOW?].

"The moonshot eventually landed in a lumberyard across adjacent Trumbull Avenue. Incredulous observers estimated it at 634 feet, the longest blast ever recorded. Even with the andro-enhanced bombs being hit today, no one has duplicated the Mick's incredible feat. Of course, home run distances are not measured scientifically, so the 634 foot number may not be entirely accurate."

No s---.

This quote came from one Jake Thomases, whoever he is/was. I suggest the tone of the writing betrays an obvious and strong bias. Further, the page provides exactly zero details as to how this figure was arrived at. Serious baseball fans, and all baseball history fans, have heard of the Stobbs blast, and the 550 or 565 feet figures, for an eternity. Well, OK, for over 50 years now, that ball having been hit the same year I was born.

This new and exciting projection comes from out of nowhere, 55 years after the fact.

As I said on my response, Robert Creamer credibly put together evidence that Babe Ruth's final HR, #714, hit when he was totally washed up and a sad shell of himself, was about 600 feet long. That of course begs the question just how long some of his earlier blasts were. But to take that historic Forbes Field blast and project that Ruth hit 782-foot HR's at League Park, Comiskey Park and Yankee Stadium, for example, would be completely out of line.

And until I see some meaningful evidence about this "634 foot HR," how it was measure, VIDEO evidence of it (it was 1960 and these were the Yankees, after all), that's how I view this new-and-exciting stat.

DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THIS??

BHN

here is the best that i can find doing a quick search, i was suprised that in the article it says that in 1982 a computerized system was introduced that accuratly measured the distance of home runs, i thought that even today they were all estimated, this is an article that is well worth the read, btw it states that Mantles 565 foot home run was measured to where a neighborhood kid picked the ball up, not where it landed.......

the longest home run i have ever personaly seen was hit by minor league slugger Luke Easter who hit a ball over the right field light tower at the old Red Wing stadium in Rochester NY

www.baseball-almanac.com...

If you do a Google for Mickey Mantle 634 feet home run, you will come up with this fantasy, which has just appeared out of the blue, adding some 69 to 84 feet to the "longest home run ever hit," without changing its hitter.

Part of this, I think, is that the famous wind-aided moonshot Kingman hit in Wrigley has been reliably measured at 630 feet, and of all the people in the world for Mantle to lose that distinction to....
You'll recall, of course, that Kingman hit enormously high, as well as long, HR's, so on a very windy day at Wrigley, his HR's would have gone forever. I know that 2 of the 3 he hit in that absurd 23-22 game were hit half way to eternity.

So now they "have one" 4 feet longer. I'm not buying it. We've heard about the Stobbs home run forever, and the fact it was the only MLB HR over those bleachers at Griffith. Now, all of a sudden, here comes an unchallengeable tale of a 634 ft. HR 56 years ago?

BHN

Originally posted by toejam
here is the best that i can find doing a quick search, i was suprised that in the article it says that in 1982 a computerized system was introduced that accuratly measured the distance of home runs, i thought that even today they were all estimated, this is an article that is well worth the read, btw it states that Mantles 565 foot home run was measured to where a neighborhood kid picked the ball up, not where it landed.......


the longest home run i have ever personaly seen was hit by minor league slugger Luke Easter who hit a ball over the right field light tower at the old Red Wing stadium in Rochester NY

www.baseball-almanac.com...

How old was Easter at that time? His ability to annihilate a baseball is legendary. He did not get to the majors until late '49 (when he was already 34), and played his last MLB game in 1954, shortly before his 39th birthday. I trust this was after that? How long after that? And he STILL had massive monster-blasts in him?

BHN

after his major league career i Cleveland Luke played in Buffalo, he came to Rochester in 1959 and played there till he retired in 1964, he was a massive man and could hit the ball a mile, he was a much loved player and chosen as the "personality of the Baltimore era" for Red Wing Baseball, btw, in 1961 he shared first base with another pretty fair power hitter, a young man named Boog Powell

good lord. i hope they had a huge supply of baseballs.

a lot of baseballs and a good supply of food in the clubhouse, those were two huge men, other notable first basemen who came through Rochester during that era were Kurt Blefry, and Mike Epstein....one of these days i will sit down and do a short history of the wings, lots of great players came through there, both in the Cardinal era and the glory days of the orioles

After I made this post there has been some argument on one of the questions so here is what i got. I looked on guiness book of world records website and they say and i quote:

The longest measured home run in a major league game is 193 m (634 ft) by Mickey Mantle (USA) for the New York Yankees against the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium, Detroit, Michigan, USA, on September 10, 1960.

Other websites may say different but I didn't do very much research and this was the first thing I came accross, and it is the GUINESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS. I mean the name kind of explains it.

here is a link to my source:

www.guinnessworldrecords.com... d_subcategory.asp?subcategoryid=80

Myles,

First off, welcome to the website.

The Mantle home run off of Chuck Stobbs is one of the most famous HR's in baseball history, and I am not overstating matters. That's because it has for many decades been accepted as the longest home run of all time--other than artifically bloated home runs like the 630 ft shot Kingman hit with great help from the wind at Wrigley, or some b.s. HR at Coors Field--which is almost redundant.

I haven't been at this site a long time, but from what I've seen, the three most baseball-knowledgeable people here all answered your question with discussions, and in two cases extended discussions, about the Mantle/Stobbs home run. It's THAT famous for being the longest in baseball history, and it has been for the 50+ years since Mantle hit it. All three of us knew the answer instantly.

So the fact Guiness now comes up with an alleged 634-foot HR, which can be neither proven nor disproven at this point in time, is not real impressive, you know? The few comments my Google search turned up on it were written in such perfervid terms as to betray obvious Mantle biases, like the over-the-top one I quoted already on this thread.

I suggest you talk to baseball fans who have watched baseball on TV for many decades. They will ALL have heard about the Mantle HR off of Stobbs many times, and will have heard either the 550 or the 565 feet figure as "the longest home run of all time," probably ad nauseam.

Now, Robert Creamer's legendary bio of Babe Ruth--easily the greatest sports book I own--is dispassionate and impartial in its tones, and it credibly asserts that Ruth's final home run, hit when he was BADLY washed up, went about 600 feet. In his prime, Ruth naturally held the MLB record for HR distance in all the parks he played in. If he hit a 600 foot HR when he was so far over the hill, one can only wonder how long he hit them in his prime. But, since they didn't measure HR's then, it's literally true that all we'll ever do is wonder. (Forbes Field was still standing when Creamer researched his book, so he had something to work with.)

And Josh Gibson? Well, in the 51 years [? 1911-1961?] Griffith Stadium was used, there were only three balls hit over those bleachers, and he hit TWO of them. God knows how long "the black Babe Ruth's" longest home run was, but a lot of people, including a lot of white ones, said he hit the ball as far as Ruth did. I've seen pictures of him in his swing, and he looks like a black Hack Wilson (only much taller)--superhumanly muscular, ferociously determined, etc.

But with regard to reliable evidence of HR's not aided by blustery winds....

That 565 foot figure has been accepted as fact for a very, very long time. That home run is known by almost all serious baseball history buffs. I mean, it was too easy a question. All three of us knew which HR it was immediately, though I had the older figure in my head.

This Guiness "answer" comes from out of nowhere and runs contrary to many decades of baseball history. Since it's both unprovable and, from what I've read so far, unsupported by any meaningful evidence, please excuse me if I don't take the overly credulous folks at Guiness too seriously. The fact they swallowed it hardly means Moses brought it off the mountain. My 8th grade teacher told us for a fact that only women carry baldness genes, and that if we boys became bald we should blame our moms. That was b.s., too.

Baseball History Nut