Jane Leavy's Failed Analysis of 1 of Mickey Mantle's Longest Home Runs

In a recent article for the media bastion that decides which news is fit to print, Jane Leavy attempted to analyze a home run that helped to confirm Mickey Mantle as the game's greatest power hitter, second only to Babe Ruth.

Leavy recently spent a day on the University of Southern California's campus attempting to discover the location of home plate at Bovard Field, where, on March 26, 1951, Mantle hit two of the longest home runs in history.

Leavy concluded, with little evidence, that neither of the home runs traveled as far as accounts of the game stated. She wrote that the home runs "...would not survive scrutiny under the microscope of history." 

The author of a book about Mantle, who spent less than one day in Mickey's presence, continued to "debunk" the home runs by stating that until she had "walked the land" where the ballpark had once stood, she couldn't appreciate the possibility that the home runs weren't as long as believed.

That's it. Merely Jane Leavy reaching a conclusion lacking solid proof.

It must be nice to think so highly of one's powers of analysis.

Baxter Holmes, a sports reporter for the Los Angeles Times, did some research on Mantle's first home run.

Tom Lovrich was the USC pitcher. There was a runner on base with Mantle at the plate. The count was two balls and two strikes.

The 6'5" right-hander delivered and Mantle swung at the pitch which Lovrich said was eight inches off the ground.

"My God," said USC second baseman Stan Charnofsky, watching the ball fly over the wire fence in right-center field. "Look at that."

A few months ago, 81-year-old Bob Hertel, who was playing left field that day, claimed that Mantle had actually flattened the ball when he made contact. "It had to be, to hit a ball that hard and that far," said Hertel.

In 1951, USC's football practice field ran adjacent to Bovard Field. The ball bounced at midfield according to Frank Gifford, who was never especially fond of Mantle.

No one will ever know how far Mantle's first home run traveled. Even the use of satellite imagery, in an attempt to pinpoint the ball's trajectory, failed to produce a valid conclusion.

But Jane Leavy did.

Interviews with witnesses produced estimates ranging from 550 ft to 660 ft. Of course, the latter is impossible, but there is little doubt that the ball did travel at least 550 ft.

The distance to center field at Bovard Field was 439 feet, 344 feet to right-center and 318 feet down the right field line, said Justin Dedeaux, Rod's 67-year-old son.

Baxter wrote "Witnesses say Mantle hit the ball to right-center, toward the corner of what is now Watt Way and West 34th Street. If it landed near there, an estimate of 600 or more feet would be reasonable."

Suffice it to say that 19-year-old Mickey Mantle hit one of the longest of all home runs.

Jane Leavy's speculation is trumped by those who witnessed the home run, which tends to bring her credibility into even greater disrepute.