Mac’s Shot Off Johnson Still Second To Blast Hit By Mantle

Mark McGwire’s 538-foot home run off Randy Johnson Tuesday night is likely to remain a topic of conversation at least until the Kingdome is turned to rubble.

Launching baseballs into the stratosphere is nothing new for the Oakland Athletics slugger, who has more home runs per at-bat than any player in major league history.

The 538-foot measurement, estimated by a computer grid that maps each stadium and takes into consideration trajectory of the ball, amounted to the second-longest home run in major league history.

“That’s the longest in a lot of parks’ history,” said Mariners manager Lou Piniella.

In fact, the blast is the longest hit in any current park.

The unofficial but generally recognized king of the long ball is Mickey Mantle, who crushed a pitch an estimated 565 feet out of Washington’s Griffith Stadium in 1953.

Mantle wasn’t facing a “Big Unit” like Johnson, but was known for his ability to generate tremendous power from both sides of the plate.

Mantle was facing Washington Senators left-hander Chuck Stobbs April 17, 1953, when he hit “a tremendous drive” as legendary Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen called it.

The ball cleared a 50-foot wall in left-center at the 391-foot marker and sailed out of the stadium and into the backyard of a house. Yankees publicist Red Patterson left the press box to mark the spot and later measured it, though some say Patterson only walked the distance off.

It was the origin of the “tape-measure home run.”

At 6-foot-5, 245 pounds with a thunderous bat, most of McGwire’s home runs reach territory where the “tape-measure” term is legitimate. “Don’t doubt Mark McGwire’s strength or his ability to hit home runs like that,” Johnson said. “The guy is chiseled like a Greek God.”

Tuesday’s homer was just the 10th ball ever to reach the second deck beyond left field in the Kingdome.

The ball sailed 11 rows up in section 242, where fans would never go to the game expecting to catch a homer. It would have left the M’s new stadium.

“He’s not human,” Jose Canseco told the San Francisco Examiner. “He doesn’t count. Mac’s an alien from the future who has come back to show us how to play this game.”