Surveying & Baseball history

Very cool find Ryan.

If Logan Muir said it was 613.8'; I guarantee it was 613.8'. Well, at least to where they told him the ball landed in that guy's backseat; the tenth precision might be a little more than was ascertainable. Was the car still there or did they just mark the spot somehow?

I've retraced a little bit of his work and I was surprised how consistently close he was. Timothy Train's work is good too.

> If Logan Muir said it was 613.8'; I guarantee it was 613.8'. Well, at least to where they told him the ball landed in that guy's backseat; the tenth precision might be a little more than was ascertainable. Was the car still there or did they just mark the spot somehow?
>
> I've retraced a little bit of his work and I was surprised how consistently close he was. Timothy Train's work is good too.

I couldn't tell from the story. My guess is the guy whose window was broken came out there when they did the survey and pointed to where the car was parked. There may have still been some glass evidence in the gutter too. Since it was hot there probably wasn't much rain to wash anything away.

I can't take complete credit. A former colleague from Psomas, John Hovland (works in San Jose) sent me that from another surveyor friend of his.

I would love a copy of that plat.

The eye witness account said it was a rising liner just over the shortstop's head but the survey plat delineates the homer would be sailing over the 3rd baseman's head.
hmmm. more controversy.

😉

A ball "pulled" to the left side by a right handed batter will gradually curve closer and closer to the foul pole. at that distance a ball hit over the shortstops head could have ended up in its final location due to this curvature. any resident beerleg physicists care to elaborate? lol

"To hit a ball 600 feet…" and looks at the interviewer with disbelief. "Can't be done." King says he saw players with recognized, legitimate power like "McCovey, Stargell, Frank Howard, Ernie Lombardi…all hit for big power and yet none of them came close to hitting a ball 600 feet."

When I was playing baseball and a junior in high school in Ft.Worth, Texas, we had an 18 year old player on our team hit a homer with a wooden bat at Rockwood park that traveled 540 feet. It was a clear shot that everyone in the park could watch from home plate to the point of impact. It cleared the outfield fence, a road, a parking area and almost hit the pitcher on the mound of an adjacent field.

So I believe that a 613.8 foot homer is possible.

This would be a good and easy one for the Mythbuster guys.
I know that the ball would hook on a liner to some degree but not as much as stated .
I also am dubious of the story as told. It could have hit another object or car and took a very wild bounce further.
At lunch time today, I read several articles about tape measure home runs and this Sheridan homer does not fit to me.
I do believe that a simple application of physics dealing with mass and velocity and trajectory would provide a scientific answer.
The hardest and best homer that I ever saw in person was by Stan Musial in an All Star game at Yankee Stadium. I was sitting in the 3rd base side mezzanine with my Dad when he hit it. As a young boy. my jaw dropped and I was speechless. From the very loud crack of the bat and the way it took off on a liner and rose and curved was truly amazing. It didn't make the upper deck because it was also curving down from the ball spin as well as wildly lateral. It did end up way back in the seats in right.

According to a guy who has a lot more time to explore this mystery than me, under normal conditions a baseball cannot be hit further than 545'. I guess with a strong wind blowing out i could see the ball going about 590' or so, bouncing once and then breaking the window at 613'.

heres the link: http://www.stevetheump.com/HR_physics.htm