How Tribe remembers Thome's 511-foot HR

CLEVELAND – Progressive Field has seen some long home runs. A 467-foot shot by Jeimer Candelario, a 458-foot blast by Adalberto Mondesi and a 457-foot bomb by Bobby Bradley rank among the highest in the Statcast Era (since 2015). But none of those come close to touching Jim Thome’s record.

It was July 3, 1999, and the Indians were hosting a doubleheader against the Royals. The Tribe won, 9-8, in the first game before taking the field in the nightcap in front of 40,707 fans at Jacobs Field. The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Thome shifted the momentum back in Cleveland’s favor in the second.

Thome crushed a 3-1 pitch into deep left-center field to the right of the last section of bleachers. It took one hop on the concourse before bouncing out to Eagle Avenue (or Larry Doby Avenue) and left everyone in astonishment. But at that point, the team didn’t realize that this home run was the longest to ever be hit at this ballpark.

Two years before Thome’s homer, A’s slugger Mark McGwire hit his famous long ball that nearly dotted the letter “i” in the “Budweiser” sign on the scoreboard in left field. It was always assumed that the scoreboard blast would’ve tracked as the longest home run in ballpark history, but the more the team analyzed the Thome blast, it realized that his was the longest.

“Back then, we didn’t have the kind of equipment that is available today,” Indians senior vice president of public affairs Bob DiBiasio said. “Part of what we did when we built the building is we had a surveyor, kind of like the kind of guy you would drive by on the highway or on the street. We had a diagram like every other row in the bleachers and in right field and into our bullpen and we realized Jimmy’s ended up being the longest.”

That’s when the Indians decided that moment needed to forever be etched into their ballpark’s history. Literally.

They immediately had ushers mark the area on the concourse that the diagrams indicated was the ball’s landing spot. Later, the Tribe had a bronze metal plate – an idea inspired by Camden Yards’ Eutaw Street – placed in the concrete that reads, “Jim Thome, longest home run, 511 ft.”

“Just the idea that we have a guy that’s approaching milestones in the history of baseball in terms of home runs and was our leader in home runs,” DiBiasio said. “How do we go about making sure we honor him and salute some of the things he did inside this ballpark? From those kinds of discussions comes a bronze little plate in the ground.”

DiBiasio said that when this process started, he was hoping that the marker would’ve been able to be included in Heritage Park in center field. The only problem was that Thome hit the ball too far for it to be included in Heritage Park, considering it couldn't extend into the concourse without interfering with the walk ways underneath the bleachers. Instead, the marker stands alone, visible to anyone walking by inside or outside Progressive Field.

“People walk by every day and look down and say, ‘Hey that’s pretty cool,’” DiBiasio said. “They stop and they look [back to home plate] and they go, ‘Holy cow.’ … That takes a strong man to do that.”

After the plate had been installed, DiBiasio took Thome out to center field, so that he could see the permanent mark that will forever remember his monumental blast. Thome stood on the marker and even surprised himself when he looked back to home plate.

“He thought it was awesome,” DiBiasio said. “He was like, ‘Whoa, I got that one didn’t I?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah you did! Look at home plate! Look how far away you are!'”

The Indians want to make sure their history is celebrated, and in a ballpark that’s only been open since 1994, Thome was one of the prominent figures involved in special moments in Jacobs/Progressive Field. That resulted not only in a bronze plate in the ground, but also a statue of Thome in Heritage Park.

“Jimmy meant so much to this organization,” DiBiasio said. “And we want to continue to celebrate all the incredible things that have happened in the last 28 years inside that building.”