The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Going deep
Revisiting tales of Connecticut’s most enduring HRs
Our quest to determine who hit the longest home run in state history was akin to hearing barber shop pals spin yarns about pulling the biggest largemouth bass from their favorite fishing hole.
Everyone’s witnessed a few prodigious bombs in their day, but there’s simply no way to know which went the farthest.
Still, tales of powerful sluggers launching baseballs into the nether reaches of familiar local ballfields makes for a compelling afternoon. So we spent days scouring old newspapers and talking to prominent area coaches and former players to compile some of the state’s most enduring home runs.
** Accounts of tape-measure home runs in these parts predate the invention of the tape measure. Honus Wagner, according to a turn-of-the-century New Haven Register report, hit the longest ball at old Hamilton Park.
Located in the Westville section of New Haven, Hamilton Park was the site of every major Yale athletic event until 1884, including the first Yale-Harvard football game. It also played host
to minor league baseball for decades.
Wagner would become one of baseball’s greatest shortstops. In 1896 he was 22 and a year away from being recalled to the majors. Playing for Paterson (N.J.) against the New Haven Texas Steers, he launched a shot that landed an estimated 450 feet from the plate and rolled until everyone in attendance lost sight of it, allowing Wagner to trot around the bases for an easy inside-the-park home run.
** The Register claimed Babe Ruth, during batting practice prior to a 1933 exhibition at West Haven’s Donovan Field, crushed a ball that cleared Marsh Street, a parking lot and bike path before splashing into Long Island Sound. We can only assume it was high tide at Savin Rock.
** One enduring myth claimed Ted Williams hit the longest home run at Yale Field during an exhibition against the Bulldogs prior to the start of his rookie year with the Red Sox in 1939. But the Splendid Splinter struck out three times that chilly afternoon, booed loudly by the local crowd, before being robbed of a homer in his final at-bat by Yale’s right fielder.
** Mo Vaughn’s propensity for majestic home runs started in Norwalk’s Cranbury Little League, where it’s said he belted 30 in 13 games as a 12-year old. A New York Times article in 1995 recalls one blast hit an elementary school beyond the left-center field fence, “that traveled about 350 feet and would have gone further.”
As Vaughn continued to grow into the frame that helped him win the American League’s MVP while with the Red Sox in 1995, he added distance to his swing. In 1987 he hit what’s widely accepted as the longest home run at Bristol’s Muzzy Field, a blast in the Big East tournament off UConn freshman Charles Nagy. The ball, witnesses claim, was still on the way up as it disappeared into the pine trees behind right field and was never found.
** Jose Canseco doesn’t deny steroids sculpted the frame that helped him to 462 major league home runs. In 2001 he was 36 and playing with the independent Newark Bears, hoping for one more chance at the majors. During a visit to Bridgeport’s Ballpark at Harbor Yard, he crushed a pitch so high and deep over the left field wall it cascaded off a stillunder-construction Webster
Bank Arena.
“The fence was about 340 feet from home, but it hit the arena four or five stories up,” said Charlie Dowd, general manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish at the time. “The stadium was silent, just this void of noise, until he hit second base. Then they realized what they’d seen and applauded.”
** The Holy Grail for power hitters in New Haven is the center field wall at Yale Field. An exclusive club has cleared the park’s 35-foot metallic green monster, which sits 405 feet from home plate.
Bob Turcio is believed to be the first. Playing for the University of New Haven at the annual City Series against Southern Connecticut State in 1978, he stunned those in attendance with a monster blast that disappeared over the wall. Ken MacKenzie, then Yale’s coach, was watching from the bleachers. He sprinted to retrieve the ball and brought it back to the dugout, handing it to UNH coach Frank “Porky” Vieira.
“I looked at Turcio and he looked at me, then I threw it in the ball bag,” Vieira says with a chuckle. “But seeing that thing go over the scoreboard was unbelievable.”
John Stuper, Yale’s baseball coach since 1993, says three of his players have cleared the scoreboard in his tenure: Dan Thompson, Trygg Larson-Danforth and
future major-leaguer Ryan Lavarnway.
** Center field remained elusive despite the arrival of Double-A baseball at Yale Field in 1994.
Jose Malave, a Venezuelan outfielder playing for the Red Sox affiliate in New Britain, cleared the wall early in the New Haven Ravens inaugural season. But over the next 10 seasons, only Jayson Bass, Dee Haynes and Anthony Sanders, all with the Ravens, duplicated the feat.
Perhaps the most impressive shot was Sanders’. Eric Milton of the Twins, making a rehab start for New Britain in a 2003 Eastern League playoff game, was a former AL all-star. Sanders crushed one the easily cleared the center field wall. An intern working the manual scoreboard marked the spot where the ball landed — in the end zone of Yale’s practice football field. Team personnel later measured the blast at 505 feet.
** Cameron Drew’s reputation for jaw-dropping homers began shortly after arriving at the University of New Haven in 1982. A college basketball and baseball star — he scored over 1,000 points and led the Chargers to a pair of Division II World Series appearances — Drew would become a first-round pick of the Astros in 1985, reaching the majors three years later.
At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, the left-handed
Drew had the unique ability to crush the opposition’s spirit during pregame batting practice. Dan Gooley, then coaching Quinnipiac, recalls getting off the team bus prior to a game against the Chargers at Vieira Field.
“The kid hit six consecutive pitches over the fence in right center field, two of them off houses,” Gooley said. “I said ‘Who the hell is this?’ It was Cameron Drew.”
The center field fence at Vieira Field is 400 feet from the plate. There’s another fence atop a steep embankment, separating a row of private houses from the field. Drew’s most prolific shot cleared everything before smacking down on Rockdale Road.
“We have a long park; that ball easily went 500 feet,” Vieira said. “The neighbors used to watch our games from their porches. They’d always ask about ‘the big guy.’ Whenever Cameron Drew came up to bat they’d put the kids back in the house.”
** Gooley, a college coach with three decades of experience at Quinnipiac and Hartford, says his top sluggers did their best work on the road. Bobby Blozik, a member of Quinnipiac’s College World Series qualifier of 1983, belted one out of MacArthur Stadium, a Triple-A park in Syracuse, breaking a window on the team bus.
Brian Cowley, an outfielder at Hartford in the
late 1980s, hit four home runs on seven pitches during a game at Maine, each one out of the stadium. And future Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell, as a sophomore at Hartford, hit a majestic home run to leftcenter at Holy Cross’ Fitton Field that touched down on Interstate 290.
** High school power hitters have made memorable impressions, too. Bob DeMayo, North Haven’s coach the past 62 seasons, remembers Steve Kesses, later a Mets farmhand, and Paul Householder, who reached the majors in Cincinnati, hitting balls into the endless gaps at fenceless Bailey Road Field.
Sal Coppola, Amity’s coach the past 25 years, says Pat Winkel, a Yankees draft pick now at UConn, and Notre Dame-West Haven’s Mike O’Keefe, who reached Triple-A with the Angels, are the only hitters to clear the right-field tree tops at Janenda Field.
Scott Burrell pitched a one-hitter over Amity during a 1988 Class LL tournament game at Hamden High. But his lasting impression was a towering home run over the left field light tower and a pair of exit/entrance ramps to the Wilbur Cross Parkway.
Hank Luzzi, as a senior at East Haven in the late 1950s, hit a ball at Hamden’s Rochford Field that landed across the street in the driveway of Whalen Junior High School, estimated to be 460 feet.
Seymour’s Jay Perez cleared the scoreboard in left and the football bleachers in right during a game at Middletown’s Palmer Field, an impressive feat on its own. But the switchhitting Perez, a secondround pick of the Astros in 1999, hit them from opposite sides of the plate.
** West Haven’s Mel Wearing set the home run record at Norfolk State and reached Triple-A with the Orioles. As an 18-year old in 1985, he hit what’s believed to be the longest home run at East Haven’s Memorial Field.
The only fence was around the perimeter of the park. The town was in the process of installing new fencing so it was down along Thompson Avenue in left-center field, according to longtime East Haven American Legion coach Lou Zullo.
“Wearing hit it one bounce to some guy sitting on his motorcycle,” Zullo said. “Our center fielder came in complaining it should have been a ground-rule double for fan interference! Easily 450feet, plus. No one was catching that home run. I grew up watching a lot of baseball there and never saw a fair ball one bounce to the street.”
** Bobby Valentine, a two-sport superstar at Stamford’s Rippowam High, had the rare combination of speed and power that made him a major college football recruit and the fifth overall pick of the 1968 MLB draft. He says his longest home run came at Cubeta Stadium, clearing the left field fence and landing on the second roof of Wright Tech.
** John Ellis, at 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, earned the nickname “The New London Strong Boy” for his otherworldly power as a teenage hitter. It led to a contract with the Yankees, where Ellis competed with Thurman Munson to succeed Elston Howard as the next great catcher in the Bronx.
Valentine recalled an American Legion game in 1965 at Palmer Field. Ellis hit three home runs that afternoon, one of which cleared the left field fence and landed on an opposite bank of the Coginchaug River, a distance of roughly 480 feet.
Ellis was in the majors five years later at age 20. Hardly known for speed, Ellis hammered a shot into the center field monuments at the old Yankee Stadium, far enough to allow him to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run. It was his first major league hit and only in-the-park homer of his 12-year career.