A's Ask About Boston's Red Seat

May 14, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; A general view outside of Fenway Park before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports | Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball is filled with tall tales and terrific quotes. It's part of the lore and a selling point for the sport. Whether or not those stories are to be believed is up to each and every fan. They're discussion topics that capture the imagination.

With the Oakland A's in Boston visiting the Red Sox, manager Mark Kotsay told reporters pregame that he'd had three separate players, including Brett Harris and Brent Rooker, ask him if the "red seat" marking where Ted Williams' moonshot in 1946 landed was the real deal. 78 years later, players are still talking about the lore of that home run, and it's still being written about.

The ball in question is said to have landed in right field in section 42, row 37, and seat 21, a good 502 feet from home plate.

Just how far did that ball go? Well on Tuesday night, A's second baseman Zack Gelof hit a ball over the wall in center field. He absolutely smoked that ball to make it get up, and get out. The Statcast data says it had an exit velocity of 107.3 miles per hour and traveled an estimated 419 feet. While it takes a lot to get one out of Fenway in center, Gelof's ball wouldn't have been a home run in five different parks.

When it comes to whether or not the Ted Williams home run actually traveled 502 feet, who cares what the actual measurement ended up being? He was one of the best players of his era, if not all time. If someone is going to have some lore surrounding them, it's going to be someone of his stature in the game.

Even though nobody has come close to hitting a ball the same distance at Fenway Park in the time since Williams' epic blast, the 502 foot marker isn't exactly something that has gone untocuhed overall.

USA Today wrote about the ten longest home runs in MLB history just a few weeks ago, and 502 didn't make the cut. Granted, the top of the list is a 575 foot blast from Babe Ruth in 1921, and there isn't ball tracking data to support that claim either. It's just accepted because he's the Great Bambino.

If you're looking for a reason to believe in the red seat, look no further than the ball Nomar Mazara, then playing for the Texas Rangers, hit at home in 2019. This one went a projected 505 feet, and it had all of the bells and whistles of the modern game to support that number.

So is a 502-foot blast from one of the best pure hitters of all time possible? Absolutely. Did it happen? That's up for you to decide.