Hanley Ramirez Hit A Ball At The Sky Gods Yesterday

Here’s something you probably don’t need to know about the solo home run that Hanley Ramirez hit yesterday, but I’m going to tell it to you you anyway: Ramirez’s shot got higher off the ground than any homer since at least 2006.

We know this because according to ESPN’s home run tracker, Ramirez’s dinger reached an apex of 180 ft. as it sailed over the left field fence. ESPN has been tracking home runs since 2006, and nobody in their data set has ever hit a home run with that high of an apex.

Ramirez’s closest competition is Carlos Lee, who in 2006 socked a dinger that got 177 ft. off the ground. (Lee’s homer was a little more impressive overall, as it left the bat at 118 mph and traveled a true distance of 415 ft. Ramirez’s ball left the bat at 111 mph, and had a true distance of 414 ft.)

This is a pretty minor accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, especially since the available data only goes back to 2006, but this is one of my favorite things about baseball being a sport which contains endless data points to pore over: We can figure out who hits the ball the hardest or the highest, and we don’t need to do so for any reason other than that it is kind of fun to know those things.

Thanks to reader Miles for the tip