This Week In Yankees Baseball: Mickey Mantle Sets Guinness Book Record

Well hello there everybody! Welcome to This Week In Yankees Baseball. It was April 17, 1953. And it was the day that Mickey Mantle hit the longest measured home run in baseball history.

“That was the hardest ball I ever saw hit,” Billy Martin remarked, according to Travel Watch.com. Martin, who was a base runner on third base at the time, was up to his usual antics. He admired Mickey’s shot so much, that he decided to wait right there at third base to congratulate him.

But Mickey didn’t even notice. That’s because he was rounding the bases with his head down, as usual. So as he approached third base, only the yelling of coach Frank Crosetti prevented him from running Billy over.

The monumental blast resulted in another first. Reports say that  Yankees  Public Relations Director Red Patterson measured the home run with a tape measure, all 565 feet of it. He then coined the phrase “tape measure” home run. But sources say he actually estimated the distance by marking it off with his size eleven shoes.

In any case, Guinness World Records listed the home run as the “longest home run to be measured at the time it was hit.” The baseball had sailed across a highway behind the stadium and landed in the backyard of a house halfway down the block. It came against Washington at Griffith Stadium off of Senators pitcher Chuck Stobbs.

Remarkably, Mantle accomplished another great feat that day. He legged out a bunt that he pushed toward second base.  What was so special about that? Well, The bunt landed just in front of second base. That gave him one of the longest bunts  and one of the longest home runs on record, all on the same day. Even when bunting, The Mick showed magnificent power.

But given the choice, there was no doubt as to which Mickey enjoyed the most. “Somebody once asked me if I ever went up to the plate trying to hit a home run,” he said according to AZQuotes. ” I said sure, every time.”