Mickey Mantle hit 18% of his home runs to the opposite field. 33% in World Series. Sunday, March 6, 2022
Click this link to see the supporting data, some of which is in this post. It was derived from the Home Run Log originally downloaded from baseball-reference.com a couple of years ago and extensively massaged in database management software. Since then Baseball Reference has used stathead.com for ad hoc queries and opposite field data can be viewed there using event finder but it takes some effort.
Direction is known for 514 of Mantle's 536 home runs: 95.9%.
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Home Run location for the 30 players with at least 493 homers. Monday, March 7, 2022
I cannot vouch for whether the location (direction) of the home runs is correct but I think that the numbers below accurately represent the available data in baseball-reference.com...
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Willie Mays was drafted into the Army after playing only 34 games in 1952. His next major league games were in 1954.
The table below is based on data in the Home Run Log in baseball-reference.com. as described in the previous posts. We have the location of 626 of the 660 (94.85% )home runs hat Mays hit. OpF means opposite field: CF-RF plus RF (right center and right).
Mays hit his most home runs to left, both home and road, in 1963, although his total was a modest 38. Here are his highest home run seasons:
1955 is the only one of these four seasons in New York at the Polo Grounds. The later three were in San Francisco at Candlestick Park where the winds could be a factor. Center field in New York's Polo Grounds was a mile away. Not surprisingly, Mays hit zero home runs in the Polo Grounds to center field, not just in 1955 but ever. In the Candlestick years above Mays hit considerably more home runs to right, not just at home but also on the road.
Here are the only Giants 50 home run seasons:
| 1. | Barry Bonds • 2001 | 73 |
| 2. | Willie Mays • 1965 | 52 |
| 3. | Willie Mays • 1955 | 51 |
| Johnny Mize • 1947 | 51 |
Mays hit only these 14 home runs to right center:
| Date | theInn | Pitcher | At | OppTeam | Field |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954-09-18 | 6 | Steve Ridzik | PHI | CF-RF | |
| 1955-05-29 | 7 | Johnny Podres | BRO | CF-RF | |
| 1957-05-18 | 4 | Joe Nuxhall | @ | CIN | CF-RF |
| 1957-08-03 | 8 | Art Fowler | @ | CIN | CF-RF |
| 1957-08-03 | 1 | Art Fowler | @ | CIN | CF-RF |
| 1957-08-04 (1) | 12 | Johnny Klippstein | @ | CIN | CF-RF |
| 1962-10-01 | 1 | Sandy Koufax | LAD | CF-RF | |
| 1964-04-24 | 4 | Sammy Ellis | @ | CIN | CF-RF |
| 1964-05-03 | 8 | Ron Perranoski | @ | LAD | CF-RF |
| 1964-08-05 | 8 | Bill Wakefield | @ | NYM | CF-RF |
| 1966-06-23 | 1 | Dick Ellsworth | @ | CHC | CF-RF |
| 1966-07-07 | 5 | Sammy Ellis | CIN | CF-RF | |
| 1967-06-28 | 6 | Al Jackson | @ | STL | CF-RF |
| 1973-08-17 | 4 | Don Gullett | CIN | CF-RF |
The first two were inside the park. The first five on the road were in Cincinnati. In 1973 Mays was playing for the Mets.
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