Had it not been for a home run he hit in the Polo Grounds back on October 3, 1951, how many fans today would remember Bobby Thomson any better than they probably do today another old New York Giant teammate named Hank Thompson?
We don’t expect agreement on the answer to this question, but please tell us what you think, anyway. – What was the biggest home run in baseball history? Was it a miracle shot, the singular kind requiring a rare moment in which arrogance and special powers work together with either destiny or dumb luck to actually happen? Or was it one of those blasts that elevates the doer of that distant past deed into the memory of fans, and maybe even into the Hall of Fame, in a way that may not otherwise have happened? Was it that asterisk-plastered mark that became part of our baseball language because the Commissioner at that time didn’t like the fact that the doer had an 8-games longer season to accomplish what the biggest legend in baseball history did in fewer than 154 games? Or was it just one of those season or career HR marks that came along in more recent times by a couple of men still suspected of having some steroid assistance?
What was it? – What do you think it was? – Or, let’s be exhaustive here – was there ever even a single HR that stands out above all others in baseball history?
(1) Was it the one we’ve been talking about for two days, Babe Ruth’s Called Shot in Game 3 of the World Series at Wrigley Field in Chicago on October 1, 1932?
(2) How about Bill Mazeroski’s 10th inning homer in the 10th inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, the one that gave the Pirates their dramatic win over the favored Yankees?
(3) Does Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” in Games 3 of the New York Giants’ 1951 remarkable comeback story in the NL pennant race with the Brooklyn Dodgers ring the bell?
Or maybe it was one of these season or career record-breaking homers:
(4) Babe Ruth hits No. 60 in 1927 for the new single season record?
(5) Roger Maris breaks Ruth’s single season HR record with No. 61* in 1961?
(6) Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s career HR mark when he hits No. 715 in 1974?
(7) Hank Aaron extends the career HR mark to 755 in 1976?
(8) Mark McGwire breaks Maris’s single season HR mark with No. 62 in 1998?
(9) Mark McGwire extends the single season HR mark to 70 in 1998?
(10) Barry Bonds breaks McGwire’s single season HR mark when he hits No. 71 in 2001?
(11) Barry Bonds extends the single season HR mark to 73 in 2001?
(12) Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s career HR mark when he hits No. 756 in 2007?
(13) Barry Bonds extends the career HR mark to 762 in 2007?
(14) Or is it some other famous or monumental HR not listed here? Please answer by comment.
* The footnote notation in choice No. 5 above is only present because all we ever got personally from Commissioner Ford Frick was the inability to type 61* without adding an asterisk.
__________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 