I’ve been planning to summarize each day’s homers here, but on a day when among 33 homers, only one went further than 430 feet, it just doesn’t seem like the best use of my time and this space – after all, you can go to the main Hit Tracker page and get all that info.  So today, I’m going to share my thoughts on what makes a good home run.

  Obviously the first kind of home run that makes the highlight reel are the ones that go really far.  Here I’m going to call out Ryan Howard’s April 23 homer at Citizens Bank Park.  Going deep is great, and going really deep is really great, but when you hit a ball 491 feet and clear the batter’s eye to dead center, you’ve got a great visual.  Not to mention the fact that the opposing center fielder, Reggie Abercrombie, over whose head this magnificent homer soared, was the guy who to that point in the season owned the longest home run, a massive 481 foot upper deck shot at Great American Ball Park just four days earlier on April 19.

  The next kind of homer is one that doesn’t necessarily go as far, but which gets there really, really fast.  Here I’ve got a couple, coincidentally both from Fenway Park within a four day span around the trading deadline.

  First, Wily Mo Pena’s 404 foot rocket to left field at Fenway on August 2: Pena’s homer left the bat at 115.8 mph, and slammed into the back of the front row of the Monster seats an amazing 2.81 seconds later.  This is the shortest time of flight of any home run this season.  What made this homer look even better was the way it richocheted off the seats and rebounded a good portion of the way back to the infield, and the way the fans near the impact point scattered: rather than trying to grab a souvenir, these folks were scrambling to get out of the way and live another day.  Beautiful!

  The other rapid departure I want to share was Vladimir Guerrero’s 476 foot bomb at Fenway Park on July 30.  Curt Schilling threw Vlad a splitter on the inner half of the plate and down, and Vlad wound up and hammered it.  The ball screamed high over the Monster seats, and passed through the left hand bank of lights above the wall after a brief but exhilirating 2.96 second flight; 2 or 3 seconds later the ball presumably did come down somewhere beyond the wall (the analysis for this one was run to the point where it passed through the lights.)  You have to watch this one to appreciate it – if it doesn’t get you out of your seat then your couch cushions are too soft…

  Finally, I want to talk about the true majesty of the cheap shot.  These are the homers that come off the bat with an understated, lower-case "crack" (or maybe even more of a "splat"), and float their way to a resting spot a foot or two above an all-too-near outfield fence, to the delight of the hitter’s team and the disgust of the pitcher, who just surrendered a four-bagger on a ball he himself would have been ashamed of in BP…  A good example of this is John Buck’s 334 foot opposite field homer at Minute Maid Park on June 18 (suprisingly not a Crawford Box job).  95 mph off the bat, opposite field, lands on top of the wall… Andy Pettitte was not pleased…

  Your inputs on the "best" homers of 2006 are welcomed…

On August 24, 2006 there were 26 home runs in 11 games, bringing the total for 2006 to 4,262.

Top 5 Homers by True Distance for Aug. 24, 2006: (complete list here)

1. Phil Nevin, Cubs, 438 feet
2. Aramis Ramirez, Cubs, 433 feet
3. David Ortiz, Red Sox, 431 feet
4. Angel Pagan, Cubs, 427 feet
5. Prince Fielder, Brewers, 424 feet

Notable Homers:

• Boston’s David Ortiz hammered home run #46, a 431 foot blast to right field off the Angels standout rookie hurler Jered Weaver that came off the bat at 116.1 mph.  Weaver had only surrendered 4 home runs before Ortiz’s long ball, none of which had left the bat faster than 110.7 mph.
• The Chicago Cubs belted four home runs off Philadelphia pitchers Cole Hamels and Brian Sanches in the first 4 innings of an 11-2 beat-down of the Phillies at Wrigley Field.  Each of the four (the 3 listed in the top 5 table above, plus a 380 footer by Michael Barrett) picked up at least 44 feet of distance from a strong wind blowing out to CF, as well as the usual 4-5 feet from the 595 foot altitude of Wrigley…

Some interesting facts around the longest home runs in each of the 30 MLB stadiums (complete list here):

• Ryan Howard hit the year’s longest homer (491 feet at Citizens Bank Park on April 23, see diagram at right). He also "owns" AT&T Park with his 469 foot shot on July 15.
• The only other multiple ballpark "owners" are Prince Fielder (473 feet at Miller Park on May 12 and 462 feet at Minute Maid Park on April 18) and Vladimir Guerrero (476 feet at Fenway Park on July 30 and 469 feet at Angels Stadium on June 15)
• Travis Hafner owns the longest homer of 2006 at Jacobs Field (437 feet on June 19), but he has hit three longer homers elsewhere, including round-trippers of 449 and 450 feet on consecutive nights at Tropicana Field Aug. 19-20
• Besides Jacobs Field, the only other ballparks not to have seen a 450 foot homer so far this year are two of the three coldest stadiums in the league, McAfee Coliseum (429 feet by Juan Rivera on July 6) and Safeco Field (437 feet by Corey Patterson on May 23).
• Only 8 of the 30 ballparks are "owned" by a member of the home team.  Four of these parks are listed above; the others are Yankee Stadium (488 feet by Alex Rodriguez on June 15), Shea Stadium (452 feet by David Wright on April 7), Busch Stadium (455 feet by Albert Pujols) and Turner Field (463 feet by Jeff Francoeur).
• Florida rookie Reggie Abercrombie hammered the longest homer of 2006 at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park (481 feet on April 19, see diagram at right).  Abercrombie’s monstrous 127.3 mph blast was his 1st career ML homer.
• Tampa Bay outfielder Jonny Gomes hit the 1st home run of 2006 at Camden Yards in the 2nd inning of opening day on April 3.  Gomes’ 451 foot shot has stood up since as the longest of the year at that park.
• Three of the 30 "ownership" homers were hit on June 15: A-Rod’s and Vlad’s listed above, plus Jim Thome’s 459 foot homer at Ameriquest Field.

On August 23, 2006 there were 38 home runs hit in 15 games, bringingthe total for 2006 to 4,236.

Top 5 Homers by True Distance for Aug. 23, 2006: (complete list here)

1. Dmitri Young, Tigers, 451 feet
2. Chris Young, Diamondbacks, 431 feet
3. Mike Sweeney, Royals, 431 feet
4. Daryle Ward, Nationals, 429 feet
5. Travis Hafner, Indians, 420 feet

Notable Homers:

• Detroit’s Dmitri Young ripped a 451 foot homer into the right field seats at Comerica Park, his longest of 7 so far in 2006, but Joe Crede hit two homers (418 and 379 feet) and Jermaine Dye added a 373 foot round-tripper of his own to lead the White Sox to a 7-5 victory.
• Arizona’s Chris Young blasted a  431 foot home run to left-center field at AT&T Park, but the Giants were able to pull out a 7-6 win behind Ray Durham‘s 20th homer, a 398 footer to right field…

On August 21, 2006 there were 18 home runs hit in 10 games, bringing the total for 2006 to 4,166.

Top 5 Homers by True Distance for Aug. 21, 2006: (complete list here)

1. Barry Bonds, Giants, 453 feet
2. Jacque Jones, Cubs, 426 feet
3. Chase Utley, Phillies, 425 feet
4. Bobby Kielty, Athletics, 419 feet
5. Milton Bradley, Athletics, 418 feet

Notable Homers:

• Barry Bonds hit his first splash hit of 2006, and career home run # 725, 453 feet into McCovey Cove at AT&T Park.  Bonds’ blast left the bat at 116.9 mph.  The Giants slugger currently sits 3rd in the race for the coveted Golden Sledgehammer, which is awarded to the hitter with the highest average standard distance for his homers (for those who have hit at least 3 homers per month); Bonds’ average homer has a standard distance of 409.8 feet, and he trails only Alex Rodriguez and Jim Thome…
• Aubrey Huff went deep twice (415 and 404 feet) to stake the Astros to a 3-0 lead over the Reds at Great American Ball Park, but the Reds came back to win 4-3 thanks to a 395 foot homer by Rich Aurilia.  Lance Berkman (397 feet) also homered for the Astros.  (Note to the home plate cameraman at GABP: please pull back far enough to allow the viewers to see the ball land, especially on the long homers that reach the top of the batter’s eye…)

On August 19, 2006 there were 28 homers in 15 games, bringing the MLB total to 4,114.

Top 5 Homers by True Distance for Aug. 19, 2006: (complete list here)

1. Ryan Howard, Phillies, 465 feet
2. Travis Hafner, Indians, 449 feet
3. Mark Teixeira, Rangers, 432 feet
4. Chris Duncan, Cardinals, 432 feet
5. Lastings Milledge, Mets, 428 feet

Notable Homers:

• Philly’s Ryan Howard crushed his 43rd homer of the season, a 465 foot homer to center field

  at Citizens Bank Park, during an 11-2 whipping of the visiting Nationals.  Howard’s blast came off the bat at 117.9 mph and carried to the back wall of the visitor’s bullpen, where it scored a direct hit on a Power Ball lottery sign, advertising a jackpot of $40 Million.  Currently Howard earns the league minimum $355,000 per year, but a few years down the road when he signs his first big contract, he can expect to reel in considerably more than the jackpot on the sign…

• Cleveland’s Travis Hafner hammered home run # 37, a 449 foot home run to right field at Tropicana Field that left his bat at a blistering 120.8 mph, his hardest hit home run so far in 2006.