Joey Meyer and the 582 foot blast!

[TURBO]

Saw this on facebook and had to share.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2600639996872919/permalink/3488120648124845

Forgottencardboardheroes- Ever thought about the longest homerun ever hit in baseball history? Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle are obvious names that would quickly come to mind. But neither player has that claim.

The next choices would most likely be Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, or some other player from the height of the PED era. But you would be wrong again. The player that did accomplish this feat did not even do it in a major league game.

At first glance, one would never think of Joey Meyer as baseball first baseman. A defensive lineman would be a more realistic assumption. For he stood 6’3” and weighed 265 pounds. Not surprisingly, he was originally recruited to play football at the University of Hawaii.

 

“I lasted about a week in football,” he said. “I was an offensive tackle, and they wanted to redshirt me for my freshman year. I decided all I really wanted to do was be a baseball player anyway.”

With that, he moved on to baseball. Being selected in the 5th round by the Milwaukee Brewers of the 1983 MLB Draft. Then wasted no time establishing himself as a premier hitter.

He went from Class A to AAA in his first three years. Belting 91 homeruns while driving in 323 runs, along with a near .300 batting average. There was no September call-up in 1986. The Brewers still had Cecil Cooper at first base, along with another up-and-coming power hitting first baseman by the name of Billy Jo Robidoux. So Joey was assigned to AAA Denver the following season.

 

What’s interesting, is that when Joey arrived at AAA Denver there was no uniform for him. The team’s current stock contained no shirt large enough to fit him. The shirt that he eventually wore was found in a Denver sports bar hanging on the wall as a souvenir.

Joey’s season went along as expected with the Zephyrs. An average well over .300, with baseballs regularly flying over the outfield fence.

At the beginning of June, a new player joined the team after he was released from the Baltimore Orioles. As Joey related.

“Donnie Scott [signed as a free agent with] Milwaukee, and he came into our Triple-A team in Denver,” he said. “He liked my bats. He had a Cal Ripken bat, so we traded bats. He gave me some Cal Ripken bats, and that was the bat I used that day.”

 

The day that Joey referred to is June 2, 1987 in a game against the Buffalo Bisons at Mile High Stadium. It was a game that launched him into the annals of baseball history.

The crowd in attendance that game barely exceeded 1,400. John Farrell was the starting pitcher for the Bisons. With Joey connecting for a three-run homer early in the game.

“The first one I hit barely went over the fence,” he remembered. “So everybody on the other team was yelling cheapie and all that. The next one, though, was that one.”

When Joey came to the plate three innings later reliever Mike Murphy was on the mound. The Zephyrs were trying to add to a fragile 8-7 lead. With the count 2-2, Murphy decided to throw a slider for the final strike. It glided out over the plate and joey immediately connected and the ball began to soar through the air.

Joey knew the ball was a home run and began his home run trot. Paying no mind to where exactly the ball had landed.

“I’d never show up a pitcher by just standing there,” he said. “My natural reaction after I swing is to start running.”

“My jaw just dropped,” Zephyrs pitcher Dave Stapleton said after the game. “It got real quiet. We just sort of looked at each other.”

The ball landed in the right field upper deck. Hitting seat No. 7 in the first few rows of section 338.

“When I hit it, I knew it was a home run,” Joey said. “And when I hit third, [former Zephyrs manager Terry] Bevington asked me, ‘Did you see where that landed?’ I just kind of shook his hand and ran by, and everybody met me at home plate, and they were all pointing it out to me. I didn’t really watch it. But that would’ve been one I wished I had watched.”

Unbelievably, Joey connected for another home run before the game was finished. To give him a grand total of 3 HRs and 7 RBIs for the game.

The following day reporters descended on the stadium. Everyone wanted to interview the Hawaiian player that hit the monstrous home run. Microphones were constantly in front of Joey’s face. Which he had no prior experience with, nor any desire to.

The team also decided to get an official measurement on Joey’s home run as well. Why not? The more publicity generated equates to more ticket sales. So the City of Denver engineer Jerry Tennyson was called into service.

 

“I don’t know why they decided to call me,” Tennyson relayed to the press. “I’m not much of a baseball fan, don’t know much about it, didn’t know much about it. But they just asked me to come in and told me this is where it hit and it seems like it could be a hell of a long ways. I calculated it without ever knowing any records of any kind.”

“There were people who worked at the stadium full-time,” Tennyson added. “What we did was took what their line of site was of the baseball at its highest arc and where it hit in the east stands. And I just calculated it from there. I don’t remember how I actually came up with the calculations – it involved the speed of the baseball, what kind of arc it was on, where it landed in the east stands and where it may have been projected beyond that point.”

 

The final assessment came to 582 feet! Upon which the team had the dark blue seat removed and replaced with an orange one. To forever indicate where the ball had landed.

Joey’s season continued on as such. By early August he was batting .311 with 29 HRs and 92 RBIs. A September call-up seemed all but assured.

Unfortunately, it never happened. He strained his hamstring resulting in a recovery that lasted beyond the end of the season. Requiring him to wait until the following spring to return to action.

When spring training concluded, Joey actually made the team and was in the lineup on opening day. Becoming the Brewers regular first baseman and DH.

The success Joey achieved at the minor league level didn’t really materialize at the big league level. He hit just 11 HRs in 103 games. Along with 88 strike outs! Not a problem today, but something that was frowned upon at that time in baseball. Despite the disappointment, there was one brief moment of glory that season.

The Brewers faced off in a double-header against the Boston Red Sox on August 9th at County Stadium. With the scored tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Joey came to the plate with none other than Roger Clemens on the mound. Joey connected on the first pitch and sent it well over the right field fence to win the game. Making him the first player ever to hit a walk-off home run against “The Rocket”.

After starting 1989 back in Denver, he eventually returned to Milwaukee where he finished the year. Batting just a mere .224 in 54 games. Resulting in his release by the Brewers at the conclusion of the season.

After hitting 26 home runs in the Japanese League in 1990. Joey returned to the United States to complete a mediocre season at AAA Buffalo. Then retired from baseball permanently after being released.

 

He returned home, and began working security at a hospital in Maui. Where he can still be found today.

Fifteen years after his historic home run, Mile High Stadium was scheduled for demolition. The Colorado Rockies historian, Paul Parker, quickly sprung into action to save the historic seat.

Unfortunately, it was gifted to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Then due to some type of fortunate quarrel within that organization, it was eventually sent to Coors Field.

“The seat was shipped over here to Coors Field,” Parker said. “And I was called down to the dock to pick up the seat, which I assumed was going to be an orange seat. When I got down there, it wasn’t. It was a blue seat, so I contacted the person who sent it, and she told me that that seat was actually the one struck by the home run and removed.”

“It’s actually two seats,” Parker added. “It was seat No. 7, and seat No. 8 is with it because they share a common stanchion. No. 8 had to come along for the ride.”

Before the stadium was demolished Joey was promised the chair and the home run ball. Which would be inscribed from the event. It never came to fruition and Joey eventually forgot about the items.

 

In 2012 Joey’s son, Tanner Joseph Meyer III, was stationed in South Dakota while serving in the Air Force. Deciding one day to journey to Coors Field in Denver to see a Rockies game. Before the game he decided to visit the National Ballpark Museum next to the stadium.

“As he was walking through, checking out the museum, he noticed the items,” Joey recalled. “The guy asked him if he was familiar with those items, and he said, ‘Yeah. They’re my father’s. They brought all the items that they had out for him to take pictures with, and it was pretty cool.”

Joey Meyer’s career never transpired the way any of us originally imaged more than three decades ago. No house down payments were ever made by cashing in his rookie cards. But he at least can look back and know he had his fifteen minutes of fame in the big leagues. Far more than most of us ever see.

Although his time in baseball was short, he did leave one lasting legacy. There have been a number of monstrous home runs hit over the years since that game in Denver in 1987. With some estimated well over 600 feet. But to this day, Joey’s home run still stands as the longest ever officially measured from a professional baseball game. And the items are still on display next to Coors Field.

 

“It’s pretty special to know that people [walked] through there and they’ll see it,” he said. “And maybe they’ll ask their aunt or uncle, ‘Do you remember when he did that?’ What made it more important was the major league teams played there in Mile High before they built Coors Field. That made it more legit because everybody was saying, ‘You’ve got the high altitude, the ball is traveling, it’s not a legit 582 [feet].’ It made it more legit that all these teams played there. All these teams had a chance to do it, all these players, and I don’t think anybody hit it up there. That gave me a better feeling. The other guys had a chance.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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All reactions:

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[Axman59]

While digging around on the topic I found this enjoyable article from the Denver Post looking for the seat the ball hit.

 

https://extras.denverpost.com/nine-innings/inning6.html

[Baldkin]

I'd love to have someone take a modern look at the math... 

 

This is my favorite legendary.... Single

 

https://shibevintagesports.com/blogs/news/17995628-40-years-ago-today-schmidt-hit-the-roof-of-the-astrodome

[AKCheesehead]

I seem to remember Meyer having some singles that would have been doubles for pretty much any other ambulatory person. 
 

Also I’m curious if anyone else remembers this story. I think I read it in the Wisconsin state journal but it was 33 years ago so who knows. Maybe I dreamed it 😂 Something about him playing in Japan and charging the mound, and the whole opposing infield running away.