On June 10, 1974, Mike Schmidt hits what may be the longest single in major league history. The Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman slams a ball off Astros hurler Claude Osteentoward center field, with enough distance to clear the fence at the Houston Astrodome. The ball suddenly hits a caroms of the public address speaker that hangs from the Astrodome’s ceiling hanging 117 feet in the air and 329 feet from home plate. Center fielder Cesar Cedeno fields the ball quickly and holds Schmidt to one base. The Rice University mathematics department calculates the Astrodome blast would have traveled 550 feet if left unimpeded.
“IF I AM ONE short of winning the National League home run title I’ll think back to this one that I didn’t get” said Schmidt “There’s no doubt in my mind that it would have been a home run except for that speaker,” Houston centerfielder Cesar Cedeno thought so too: “That ball might have hit the flag above the electronic scoreboard in centerfield if it hadn’t hit the speaker”
Mike Schmidt also just won the Player Of Week — he was named National League Player of the Week for the period June 3-9 league president Charles S Feeney announced today The Phillies’ third baseman averaged 522 for the week with 12 hits in 23 at-bats He scored eight runs drove in 10 and hit four home runs
