Chicks Dig The Long Ball
Who’s got the biggest balls of them all? Find out.
If chicks dig the long ball, then Prince Fielder is feeling a lot of love after his 2007 season.
Fielder won the Golden Sledgehammer Award from Hittrackeronline.com, a site that monitors every home run hit in the major leagues, for having the highest average standard distance per home run this season, 408 feet.
The site defines standard distance as factoring “out the influence of wind, temperature and altitude, and is thus the best way of comparing home runs hit under a variety of different conditions.”
A surprise entry on this list is Vernon Wells, who played through a shoulder ailment the entire season. He managed to knock one 464 feet.
Player, team Pitcher Site Date
476 feet
Chris Young, Ariz. D. Wells, Phoenix Sept. 22
470 feet
Mark Teixeira, Atl. C. Villanueva, Milw. Sept. 21
468 feet
Prince Fielder, Milw. J. Jennings, Hou. Aug. 10
464 feet
Rickie Weeks, Milw. J. Bergmann, Wash. Sept. 20
Ryan Howard, Phil. O. Hernandez, NYM Aug. 30
Vernon Wells, Tor. C. Lee, Cleve. July 6
463 feet
Alex Rodriguez, NYY J. Salas, New York April 2
462 feet
Prince Fielder, Milw. A. Harang, Milwaukee Aug. 19
461 feet
Prince Fielder, Milw. B. Arroyo, Cincinnati Sept. 7
Hideki Matsui, NYY D. McGowan, Toronto May 28
Tony Clark, Ariz. A. Eaton, Phoenix May 8
Hideki Matsui, NYY S. Kazmir, Tampa May 24
The Hafner HR in Tampa would have won this race if it didn’t hit the back wall in the Trop. It hit above the scoreboard. To put it in perspective, check out this photo of the ballpark.
http://www.gameops.com/image/646/tampa/magic/fullsize/IMG_1084_fs.jpg
Side Note: Chris Young has had to have one of the best unrecognized rookie years of all-time. Bringing the solid CF D, along with 32 HR & 27 SB, Young may not receive even one second place vote with Tulo & Braun in the voting.
One other interesting note after checking out this list. About the top six HR were all against light throwing, control pitchers. The bottom half is hard throwers, so it probably evens out.