This Day In White Sox History May 6...

[Lip Man 1]

May 6, 1964 - Dave Nicholson hit what may have been the longest home run in MLB history. On this night in the fifth inning, in the first game of a twin bill versus the A’s, Nicholson blasted a shot off future Sox pitcher Moe Drabowsky that went over the roof and was found across the street in Armour Square.

Some Sox fans claimed they heard the ball hit the top of the roof but White Sox officials said when they found the ball it had no signs of tar on it nor was it scuffed. Long time Chicago baseball reporter Jerome Holtzman was at the game and claimed he saw the ball bounce back up after hitting the roof and then go back out of sight. Nicholson’s shot went over the roof around the 375-foot sign in left center field. It was found 135 feet from the base of the wall. Plus, you have to add in the elevation needed to get the ball over the roof, approximately 70 feet. Hitting a ball on to the roof or over it required a ground-to-ground distance of at least 474 feet. Unofficial estimates place the drive as traveling 573 feet eclipsing Mickey Mantle’s shot at Griffith Stadium in Washington in 1956. That shot went an unofficial 565 feet.

For the night Dave would hammer three home runs and drive in five RBI’s in the twin bill as the Sox swept both games, 6-4 and 11-4.

The post script to the story is that a few months later on July 12 in Kansas City the next time Drabowski faced Nicholson he hit him in the forehead with a fastball that opened a gash which required stiches.

 

[The Mighty Mite]

15 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

May 6, 1964 - Dave Nicholson hit what may have been the longest home run in MLB history. On this night in the fifth inning, in the first game of a twin bill versus the A’s, Nicholson blasted a shot off future Sox pitcher Moe Drabowsky that went over the roof and was found across the street in Armour Square.

Some Sox fans claimed they heard the ball hit the top of the roof but White Sox officials said when they found the ball it had no signs of tar on it nor was it scuffed. Long time Chicago baseball reporter Jerome Holtzman was at the game and claimed he saw the ball bounce back up after hitting the roof and then go back out of sight. Nicholson’s shot went over the roof around the 375-foot sign in left center field. It was found 135 feet from the base of the wall. Plus, you have to add in the elevation needed to get the ball over the roof, approximately 70 feet. Hitting a ball on to the roof or over it required a ground-to-ground distance of at least 474 feet. Unofficial estimates place the drive as traveling 573 feet eclipsing Mickey Mantle’s shot at Griffith Stadium in Washington in 1956. That shot went an unofficial 565 feet.

For the night Dave would hammer three home runs and drive in five RBI’s in the twin bill as the Sox swept both games, 6-4 and 11-4.

The post script to the story is that a few months later on July 12 in Kansas City the next time Drabowski faced Nicholson he hit him in the forehead with a fastball that opened a gash which required stiches.

 

Remember it well, I was bagging oranges at the Kroger store in Rogers Park where I had an after school job and was listening to the game on a pocket transistor radio, I always thought that Big Nick was going to be another Mickey Mantle, obviously that didn’t happen.