Dave Roberts Expects Shohei Ohtani to Hit Home Run Out of Dodger Stadium At Some Point
Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Piazza, Fernando Tatis Jr., Mark McGwire, Willie Stargell.
Aside from being elite baseball players, what do these five gentlemen all have in common?
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They’re the only ones to have hit home runs out of Dodger Stadium. Stargell did it twice — a 506-foot moonshot in 1969 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and again in 1973 when he clubbed a 473-foot shot off pitcher Andy Messersmith. The 506-foot home run is considered to be the longest hit out of the stadium.
Tatis Jr. hit the most recent one in 2021 off Tony Gonsolin. That ball was crushed, going 467 feet to left field.
Naturally, Shohei Ohtani would be the odds-on favorite to accomplish the feat when compared to virtually any other player in baseball. For one, he’s Shohei Ohtani. Secondly, unlike Aaron Judge or any other slugger, he gets to play half his games in the ballpark — meaning more opportunities to accomplish the feat.
Ohtani came excruciatingly close to hitting the ball beyond the right field fence in a game last year versus the Boston Red Sox. Facing Kutter Crawford, he mashed the ball 473 feet just under the right field pavilion roof. He took the 86 mph cutter and hit it approximately 116.7 mph. In other words, Ohtani obliterated the baseball in a way few — if any — could do.
When recently asked whether he thought Ohtani could hit one out of Dodger Stadium, manager Dave Roberts didn’t exactly mince words with his opinion. He specifically spoke about the homer he smoked off the Colorado Rockies earlier this week:
“If it was a day game, or as we get into the summer, that ball’s out of the stadium. It’s going to happen at some point.”
Without the notorious nighttime marine layer at Chavez Ravine, the ball does have a tendency to fly far better during the day. The next opportunity for Ohtani to perhaps knock one out of the park during a day game will come on April 27th versus the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
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