How come home runs in the 60's traveled further than the home runs of today?

Question

In this day and age a 500 foot home run is jaw-dropping...in the 50's and 60's, guys were hitting the ball 600+ feet. What's the difference in today's game? Didn't they change the baseballs to make them travel further recently? If so, how come guys that play today can't hit it like Mantle, Ruth and others did?

GoinYard, according to responses found on YahooAnswers, somebody had once hit a ball over 700 feet, and a book I had read showed that Mantle hit home runs measured over 600 feet.

Answer 1

One such reason is that baseball player in the 50's and 60's were tremendous physical specimens. I have a link for a picture below that shows just how big the Mick's forearms were. Players like Mantle, Maris, Gehrig, Hornsby were trim and fit and pure muscle. The bats used today are far less lighter. Alfonso Soriano just bumped up to a 34 ounce bat. Players like the Babe used bats well over forty ounces. There is a link below explaining how bat weight effects how fast the ball leaves the bat. Also the bats density has a lot to do with it. A lot of weight compacted into a small area (ratio wise like a 32 inch bat with 32 ounces of wood is far less pacted together than a 32 inch bat that weighs 42 ounces). As far as distances go, yes the accuracy of reports does vary, but I have a link for Mickey Mantle's 10 farthest, and it factors math into the equation based on where the ball hit (like the upper deck faccade at the "old" stadium"). But in cunclsion, bat weight, body type/muscle compostion and condtions of wind, weather etc. factor into the distance.

Answer 2

I'm not sure that is entirely accurate. If you do see that guys hit 600ft homers, it probably rolled a long way in the parking lot. Stadiums now have a lot bigger bleacher area so balls don't leave the stadium as much. It seems like Wrigley and San Fran are the two stadiums where the ball leaves the stadium the most. Wrigley has buildings right across from the field so a ball will never travel more than 30 ft past the stadium. San Fran built their stadium on the cove so they can watch Bonds splash...his would travel another 200 feet if that was a field of grass behind the stadium. Thats my guess.

Answer 3

I went to Chavez Ravine in the 1963 season to see the Yankess play the Angels in a 4 game home stand...I those days the Angels did not yet have their own ballpark, so when the Dodgers were on the road the Angels played their home games there...I was 13 years old at the time and my memory and idea of distance is good...people used to come to the ballpark early just to watch Mickey Mantle take batting practice...He hit at least 6 towering drives over dead centerfield at Chavez Ravine completely out of the park, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 feet, add to that another 200 or more feet to the distance, because he was actually hitting cars in the parking lot as people were still arriving for the game...well over 600 feet on each shot, and that was when he barely had one good leg to stand on at that point of his career...I saw it, believe me when I tell you it was for real... :)

Answer 4

For the most part, the distances were inflated because the ballparks were smaller and the really big homeruns went out of the park leaving much guesswork on estimation. There is also replays on every homerun, so a very good estimation can be made based on its landing spot and trajectory. Back in the day, with hardly any replays, you are relying on eyewitness accounts on where the ball landed which is certainly going to be biased upward.

Answer 5

There were not 600 feet homeruns hit in the 1950's and 60's. There was some speculation that a few traveled near that far but certainly not more than one or two. I believe players can hit them just as far today as they could then,

Answer 6

You're reading answers from idiots on Yahoo. No ball has ever been hit 700 feet, or even 600 for that matter. Never will.
.

Answer 7

Its because their instruments for measuring homeruns were not as accurate as todays. So they did alot of estimating. Today, with all the media coverage of baseball, they can't "inflate" the distances like they did in the past!

Answer 8

I have never heard of a 600' foot home run. Where did you find this number at?

Answer 9

their where never a 600 hundred or 700 hundred home run.

Answer 10

cus the used heavy *** bats. today power hitters use lik 34 ounce bats back then they used 45 ounces. even babe ruth used a 47 ounce bat