Ortiz's Shot

Last night, watching the game from the first baseline (and freezing my butt off from the 45-degree temperatures and the wind), I estimated (with my little brother as my witness) that Ortiz's home run would have gone about 450 feet on a normal night.  It turns out it would have gone 460.

The Boston Globe reports that Greg Rybarczyk, who created the Hit Tracker device that, among other things, tabulates home run distances, reported that the "standard distance" for the 395-foot (actual distance) shot projects to 460 feet.  Standard distance corrects for atmospheric conditions and assumes no wind (head or tail) and 70-degree temperature.  Ortiz's shot left the bat at a blazing 120.7 miles per hour on a 37.7 degree angle but into a 16 mph headwind from center, which knocked it back 54 feet.  The low temperature cost the ball another 12. Only ten balls have had a greater standard distance this season (and I don't know, but would bet, most or all of them were not hit off a soft tosser like Myers).  Here's something to chew on: Rybarczyk reported that had there been a 16 mph tailwind, the ball would have travelled 509 feet and landed about 25 rows up Section 37. 

To put this in perspective, the longest ball ever hit within the confines of Fenway Park traveled 502 feet off the bat of Ted Williams in 1946 (an MVP year for the Splinter).  Manny Ramirez had a blast off one of the left field light towers in 2001 that supposedly traveled 501 feet, but this "estimated distance" seems to be a thinly veiled public relations figure in deference to Williams.  Last year, Ramirez hit one that cleared the light tower, but the Red Sox offered no distance projection on that ball. 

There is, of course, some inherent imprecision to the measurement of these home runs, as they tell how far the ball actually traveled before making touching down in the stands, bullpen, etc. rather than where the ball would land based on its trajectory when it came down to ground zero.  For example, Manny hit a ball last year over everything that ended up on the Commuter Rail train tracks next to the Mass Pike (off a hop off the roof of the building across Lansdowne Street), but no one knows for sure how far it traveled.  The estimate is 468 feet, but that was still only the distance to estimated landing spot on the building top.  It's actually somewhat unfortunate for Manny that he's right-handed.  Hitting from the left side, some these balls would likely have surpassed the Splinter's mark without any question.  It may, then, be up to Ortiz to take a shot at it.

Suffice to say that Big Papi's ball of Myers last night was absolutely smoked.  Just imagine what Ortiz might do off someone throwing in the mid-90s on a warm day with no headwind...