{"id":20862,"date":"2013-04-17T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yurasko.net\/wfy\/?p=20862"},"modified":"2013-04-17T09:00:01","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T13:00:01","slug":"60-years-ago-today-mickey-mantle-hit-first-tape-measure-home-run-at-griffith-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yurasko.net\/wfy\/2013\/04\/60-years-ago-today-mickey-mantle-hit-first-tape-measure-home-run-at-griffith-stadium\/","title":{"rendered":"OTD in 1953: Mickey Mantle hit first “tape measure home run” at Griffith Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Thom Loverro<\/strong> of The Wash. Examiner<\/em> reminded us that today is the 60th anniversary of Mickey Mantle<\/strong>‘s famed 565-feet home run – Thom Loverro: Sixty years later, still feeling Mickey Mantle’s clout in D.C.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mantle hit the powerful homer off of Chuck Stobbs<\/strong> of the Washington Senators. The ball blasted past an advertising sign out of Griffith Stadium. New York Yankees P.R. executive Red Patterson<\/strong> decided that it needed to be measured and it became known as a “tape measure home run.” It only became known a generation later that Patterson had merely “walked-off the distance.” <\/p>\n

In her definitive biography of Mantle, The Last Boy<\/em>, author Jane Leavy<\/strong> devoted an entire chapter to this homer. She commissioned a report to see how far it probably went on the fly (not 565 feet) and found the man, Donald Dunaway<\/strong>, who had recovered the ball when he was a sixth grader playing hooky. On her Web site, Leavy has a gallery of the area circa 2008<\/strong><\/a> as well as photos of Dunaway, Griffith Stadium and newspaper clippings from the time. Howard University hospital now occupies the stadium footprint.<\/p>\n

Stobbs lived until 2008. For a “the lives they lived” issue of the Post Sunday Magazine<\/em>, Leavy wrote an obituary for him: Chuck Stobbs | 1929-2008<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, my mother worked for the Yankees and would occasionally be asked to sign Mantle’s autograph for fan mail.
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\nUPDATE
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\n@ESPNStatsInfo has posted the modern day equivalent of where it would go, presumably from both sides of the plate:<\/p>\n

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60 yrs ago, Mickey Mantle hit reported 565-ft HR in Washington. Here’s where that HR would go in current Nats Park. twitter.com\/ESPNStatsInfo\/\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 17, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n