Is there video evidence...

[BrentD22]

They talk about Ted Williams home run all the time. The red seat shot at 502 feet. Is there any video evidence of this event?

 

I did read an artical about Manny's shot that went through the lights. This guy that is independant from the Red Sox used his computer program to measure Manny's home run at 501.4. WOW how deep does this go?

 

Instead of calling this deep-throut we will call it deep-hit

[RedRuffing15]

If you got MLB TV at MLB.com, I'm about 75% sure you can find it, they got highlights from ever WorldSeries, AllStar game, everything. I don't have it but I even saw one for like a sac bunt that happened in the 3rd inning of a game and is conciderd the first ever.

 

The one of the 1938 allstar game is the way I saw the only footage ever of my favorae player Red Ruffing

[RedRuffing15]

I know its not what you wanted, but here are some pretty good Ted Williams video clips-

http://www.jimmyfund.org/abo/red/tedwilliams/

^Go to the bottem and it has a list of videos to watch

http://www.concordamerican.org/williams.mov

^Commentation and video of Williams last at bat..homer

 

 

 

Might need a program you odn't have to work

[Sox fan in Tex]

I think they stopped measuring the extremely long homeruns at Fenway because they don't want 502 beatin, right? I don't know what Manny homerun you're talking about, but that one he hit earlier this year that neary landed on the Pike (did land on it after a couple bounces) has to be up there. That's the furtherst I've ever seen a ball crushed at Fenway (Remdawg's as well, if you need a better word).

[mosox]

They talk about Ted Williams home run all the time. The red seat shot at 502 feet. Is there any video evidence of this event?

 

 

Apparently a reporter from the Globe found the guy who got hit by the ball during the game and wrote a story about it the next day.

[sarasoxfan]

they were talking about it last night and mentioned that johnny pesky was there on that day.

[sarasoxfan]

heres a story form the globe about it.

 

In right field, a true seat of power

 

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist, 7/5/02

 

 

Any way you look at it, the red seat in right is a long way from home.

(Globe Staff File Photo/Jim Davis)

 

 

 

It sits in a sea of green, a single red chairback in the outer limits of Fenway Park’s right field bleachers. It is Seat 21 in Row 37 of Section 42. It is known simply as the red seat, and it marks the spot where Ted Williams hit the longest home run in Fenway history.

 

Like a fleck of red paint on a lush green canvas, the commemorative chair draws the eye. Someone is almost always sitting in it, even when just a few patrons are in the bleachers. New fans ask about the red seat, and citizens of Red Sox Nation are happy to relay the Fenway folklore.

 

Teddy Ballgame’s mighty clout was struck in the summer of 1946, on a windy, sun-splashed Sunday afternoon in the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Tigers.

 

‘‘Hell, I can tell you everything about that one,’’ Williams said from his Florida home in 1996. ‘‘I hit it off Fred Hutchinson, who was a tough [righty] who changed speeds good.

 

‘‘He threw me a changeup and I saw it coming. I picked it up fast and I just whaled into it.’’

 

Indeed. The ball sailed over the head of right fielder Pat Mullin, then carried beyond the visitors’ bullpen and kept on going. And then it crashed down on top of Joseph A. Boucher’s head. More accurately, it landed on Boucher’s straw hat, puncturing the middle of the fashionable skimmer.

 

Boucher was an Albany construction engineer who kept an apartment on Commonwealth Avenue when he worked in Park Square during the week. He loved baseball and the Red Sox. But sitting more than 30 rows behind the bullpen, he wasn’t expecting to catch any home run balls.

 

Boucher spoke with the Globe’s Harold Kaese after the game and asked:

 

‘‘How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn’t even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn’t see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I’m glad I didn’t stand up.’’

 

Boucher went to the first aid room briefly, where he was treated by a doctor. He returned to watch the Sox complete their sweep of the Tigers.

 

The next day’s Globe featured a Page One photo of Boucher holding his hat, his finger stuck through the hole. The caption read, ‘‘BULLSEYE! … ’’

 

Newspaper accounts claimed Williams’s homer traveled 450 feet, but the Red Sox measured the distance in the mid-1980s and arrived at an official distance of 502 feet — one foot farther than the estimate of Manny Ramirez’s lighttower blast in June 2001.

 

‘‘I got just the right trajectory,’’ said Williams. ‘‘Jeez, it just kept going. In distance, it was probably as long as I ever hit one.’’

 

Taking batting practice at Fenway in 1996, mighty Mo Vaughn gazed into the horizon, located the red seat, shook his head, and said, ‘‘Man, they keep moving it up higher every year.’’

 

No.

 

The left field wall may be moving closer (in 1995 the Green Monster sign was changed to 310 feet from 315) but the red seat is fixed. It just seems farther.

 

‘‘It’s hard to believe anybody could hit a ball that far,’’ said Vaughn.

 

The bleachers were replaced with chairback seats in 1977 and ’78. In 1984, Sox owner Haywood Sullivan decided to commemorate Williams’s clout by putting a red chairback in the spot where Boucher sat June 9, 1946.

 

If you find yourself sitting in Fenway’s Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21, don’t bother to bring a glove. There was only one man who could hit a ball that far, and he’s no longer with us.

 

This Dan Shaughnessy article originally appeared June 9, 1996;

[BrentD22]

I think they stopped measuring the extremely long homeruns at Fenway because they don't want 502 beatin, right? I don't know what Manny homerun you're talking about, but that one he hit earlier this year that neary landed on the Pike (did land on it after a couple bounces) has to be up there. That's the furtherst I've ever seen a ball crushed at Fenway (Remdawg's as well, if you need a better word).

 

That home run was estimated at 501.4 feet. Very very interesting that even an independant source from the Red Sox put that HR at 501.4 and not 502.4. Yes Ted Williams is a hero, but in my belief it will hurt his legend if they protect his 502 foot bomb with lies and cover-ups.

[BrentD22]

Well that artical is pretty convincing. The only problem is when the estimate the "would be" distance they use a formula that includes angle, speed off bat, wind, ect. The 502 number is that the distance from the plate to the chair? I would assume without the bleachers there and the ball was allowed to travel to the field level ground than it would have gone somewhat further. Unless they estimated the 502 distance guessing how far it would have gone.

[empirestrikesback26]

A rod hit one about that legnth this year.

[RedRuffing15]

A rod hit one about that legnth this year.

 

There were 3 differet distences taken for it, 495, 510, 525

 

So I'm not sure which is correct, it was a shot, I'll say 510

[Sox fan in Tex]

Yeah, but A-Rod's wasn't at Fenway. And the first thing that comes to mind talking about homeruns is Manny's HR in Toronto. I don't know what year it was, and I was only watching a highlight, but that was amazing.

[ORS]

A rod hit one about that legnth this year.

Thread compliance. Quit steering everything thread towards the pinstripers.

[Sizzlin22]

There were 3 differet distences taken for it, 495, 510, 525

 

So I'm not sure which is correct, it was a shot, I'll say 510

Actually you can use this thing called Google Earth and measure distance, from Home plate to where A-Rod hit that ball I got 517 feet, with around a 2-3 foot margin of error.

[empirestrikesback26]

Thread compliance. Quit steering everything thread towards the pinstripers.

I knew this would come up. I wasn't saying A rod's was any better or anything. I was just stating another player who's hit it about that distance and it happend recently.