Rangers' Nomar Mazara ties record with epic 505-foot home run
Nomar Mazara almost broke Statcast.
The Texas Rangers slugger pushed Major League Baseball’s state-of-the-art tracking technology to its apparent limit Friday night when he crushed a 505-foot home run against the Chicago White Sox.
5️⃣0️⃣5️⃣ FEET! 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/C40SrLUXIl
— MLB (@MLB) June 22, 2019
The first-inning two-run blast opened the scoring in Friday’s game, but it wouldn’t hold up. The White Sox won 5-4 in 10 innings thanks in part to rookie Zack Collins’ first career home run. His three-run shot traveled 447 feet.
Since Statcast’s inception in 2015, only three home runs have been projected to travel beyond 500 feet. Mazara’s blast tied Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies, who launched his own 505-foot home run against the San Francisco Giants on Sept. 5, 2018.
Giancarlo Stanton, then of the Miami Marlins, hit a 504-foot home run against the Rockies on Aug. 6, 2016. The latter two were hit at the hitter-friendly and homer-happy Coors Field.
Aaron Judge and Kris Bryant round out Statcast’s top five with matching 495-foot homers.
Is Statcast trustworthy?
It's a question many fans ask, especially when Statcast attempts to project the distance of home runs.
There was a near three-inning delay between Mazara's home run Friday and the announced projection.
After a long delay, Statcast is reporting that Nomar Mazara's home run traveled. .... 505 feet.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) June 22, 2019
That was a little unusual. Statcast typically has the distance, exit velocity and launch angle calculated within minutes. That's not to say the delay is cause for doubt. More likely it was to double and even triple check the data.
How accurate Statcast is on its projected distances is almost impossible to know. But if nothing else it makes for interesting debate fodder.
Interesting timing
It's also interesting that Mazara's record-tying home run came just hours after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred admitted weird things are happening with the baseball.
MLB’s official stance on this year’s historic HR pace, as Manfred relayed, is this batch of baseballs having less drag, due to the “pill” at the ball’s center.
— David Lennon (@DPLennon) June 20, 2019
As a result, MLB is on pace to shatter the all-time home run record established in 2018 by over 500 home runs. The baseballs are also traveling further.
It's a mere coincidence sure, but Mazara's blast certainly highlighted Manfred's revelation.
Now the question is: Will someone finally break Statcast and hit a home run beyond 505 feet?
More from Yahoo Sports:
