The Longest Home Run Ever Hit

The longest home run ever hit is usually credited to Mickey Mantle, whose 565-foot drive at Griffith Stadium in 1953 was the shot that gave baseball the phrase “tape-measure home run.” In the modern Statcast era, when every batted ball is tracked precisely, the verified record is far shorter: Nomar Mazara’s 505-foot blast in 2019.

Few baseball feats spark more argument than the longest home run, because the answer depends entirely on when it was hit and how it was measured. The game’s legendary distances come from an age of eyeballing and estimation, while today’s numbers are exact. Here is the full story of the longest home runs ever, both the tape-measure myths and the Statcast facts. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record: Mickey Mantle’s 565 feet in 1953

On April 17, 1953, Mantle hit a pitch from the Senators’ Chuck Stobbs completely out of Griffith Stadium. Yankees traveling secretary Red Patterson tracked down where it landed in a backyard and reportedly measured the distance at 565 feet, a number that became instant legend and coined the “tape-measure” term. It is the most widely cited longest home run in baseball history.

Whether it truly traveled 565 feet is impossible to verify, since no tracking existed. That uncertainty is the whole point: Mantle’s homer is the record precisely because it belongs to an era when distance was a matter of estimate and storytelling.

The full leaderboard of the longest home runs

The table below lists the most famous long home runs. Pre-2015 figures are estimates; Statcast-era distances are verified measurements.

Est. distance	Player	Year	Measurement
~575 ft	Babe Ruth	1921	Legend, no tools
565 ft	Mickey Mantle	1953	Tape-measure estimate
~539 ft	Mickey Mantle	1963	Estimate (hit Yankee Stadium facade)
~520 ft	Reggie Jackson	1971	Estimate (All-Star Game transformer)
505 ft	Nomar Mazara	2019	Statcast (verified record)
504 ft	Giancarlo Stanton	2016	Statcast (Coors Field)
496 ft	Aaron Judge	2017	Statcast

The split down the middle of the table tells the story: the biggest numbers are all estimates from before modern tracking, while every verified Statcast distance sits at 505 feet or below. The two groups are almost impossible to compare directly.

The Statcast era: Nomar Mazara’s 505 feet

Since 2015, MLB’s Statcast system has measured the true distance of every home run, ending the guesswork. The longest it has ever recorded is Nomar Mazara’s 505-foot home run for the Texas Rangers in 2019. Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, two of the hardest hitters the game has seen, sit just behind him. That the verified record falls 60 feet short of Mantle’s estimate has led many to suspect the old tape-measure numbers were generous.

These mammoth shots come from the same sluggers who dominate our leaderboards on the most home runs of all time and the most home runs in a season.

Why the record is disputed

The longest home run is really two records: a historical one built on legend and a modern one built on radar. Mantle’s 565 feet endures as the classic answer, but purists point to Mazara’s Statcast-verified 505 feet as the only figure that can be trusted. Both are correct in their own way, which is exactly why the debate never ends.

For more on the raw power at the heart of the game, see our companion leaderboards on the fastest pitch in MLB history and the marathon longest games in MLB history.

Why the record matters

Home run distance captures pure, awe-inducing power, the kind that makes a whole stadium gasp. Mantle’s tape-measure shot defined that thrill for generations, and Statcast now measures it to the foot. The longest home run ever, then, is either 565 feet or 505 feet, depending on whether you trust the tape or the technology.

The short version: Mickey Mantle’s estimated 565-foot home run in 1953 is the most famous longest homer ever, while Nomar Mazara’s 505-foot shot in 2019 is the verified Statcast record. As of the 2025 season, the two figures reflect two different eras of measurement.