In the thick of the Home Run Derby, the sheer volume of home runs players hit often gets all the attention. However, that approach sells a central part of the Derby's appeal short: Some of these home runs are absolute tape-measure shots.
Mythology surrounding baseball home-run distances are as old as the game itself. In 1953, New York Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle is believed to have crushed a 565-foot home run against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. A future Yankees outfielder, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox, may have hit a 580-foot dinger in spring training in 1919. The list goes on and on.
Gradually, baseball-tracking technology has improved, and we are now able to piece together an accurate ranking of the longest home runs in Derby history. The following table is a combined ranking of the Derby's longest home runs before and after the game-changing advent of Statcast.
Who hit the longest home run in the history of the Home Run Derby?
It is believed that Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa smashed a 524-foot home run at Miller Park in Milwaukee in 2002—the longest in the history of the competition. Sosa went on to hit 49 home runs in '02, the last of two years in which he led the National League in that category.
Since Statcast tracking began in 2016, Washington Nationals left fielder Juan Soto owns the record for longest officially tracked home run with a 520-foot shot in 2021 at Denver's Coors Field (four of the five longest Statcast-era home runs were hit at that Derby). Sosa also hit a 520-foot home run in '02, which would potentially give him two of the three longest round-trippers in the competition.
The rest of the top 10, combining estimates (noted with asterisks) and officially tracked dingers, can be seen here.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Longest Home Runs Ever Hit in the Home Run Derby.
