Shohei Ohtani’s 476-foot blast on Tuesday was the longest home run of the season (so far). Dead to center field and 113 miles per hour off the bat, it was gone the moment he made contact. It beat the previous longest homers of the season, which both Aaron Judge and Mike Trout recorded at 473 feet.
While it was very clearly gone and would have been a no-doubter at any ballpark in the league, there is one baseball field in which it would not have cleared the fence: Valley Forge High School in Parma, Ohio.
Data visualizer David Hrusovsky, who has previously posted to social media platform X the dimensions of Ohio high schools and pointed out the oddities, shared the layout of Valley Forge, which has one of the most impossible center fields to hit a home run over and to defend.
It wouldn’t even be a home run at Valley Forge HS in Parma, Ohio… smh… https://t.co/BeCsnQEy0e pic.twitter.com/NwhIPRTeLO
— David Hrusovsky Sports (@davehrus) June 20, 2024
It’s like a Backyard Baseball style of strange. It’s the opposite of Steele Stadium. It’s one in which Shohei Ohtani can’t hit it out and Pablo Sanchez probably couldn’t, either.
Is it the oddest baseball field? It’s probably not even the craziest center field. And at least it has the semblance of a diamond.
