| On a warm summer evening July, 8, 1953, Sacramento | | | | first, Sheridan thought he wanted an autograph. |
| Solon Neill Sheridan did something no professional | | | | Instead, Kelly told him that he found the baseball on the |
| ballplayer before or since has ever done. He hit a | | | | back seat of his automobile, which had been parked |
| home run in the first game of a two-night | | | | on Burnett Way during the game. Damage to his rear |
| double-header against San Francisco, then proceeded | | | | window told the lad that a spheroid had smashed |
| to race an Arabian horse in between contests-and | | | | through, and when Kelly spied the baseball and bits of |
| won. | | | | shattered glass, he knew this had to have been the |
| And then came his fantastic feat. | | | | titanic Sheridan blast from earlier in the evening. |
| Sheridan whacked a fast ball, thrown right down | | | | Sheridan and his teammates were stunned. If the car |
| Broadway by the San Francisco Seals' Ted Shandor, | | | | had been parked there (Burnett Way paralleled |
| over the left-center field fence at Edmonds Field. Solon | | | | Broadway and came to a dead end at the eastern |
| ball boy Gary McDowell, sitting in the dugout, | | | | edge of the Solons parking lot) that meant the ball |
| remembers it started as a frozen rope that might | | | | must have traveled... a very long distance. In |
| have been caught if the shortstop had been a foot | | | | appreciation for returning the Homeric prize, Sheridan |
| taller, and as it flew over the barricade continued up on | | | | signed another Pacific Coast League ball and gave it |
| an incline, heading toward the Sierra Mountains. Added | | | | to Kelly (Sheridan retains the home run ball in his |
| Solon third baseman, Eddie Bockman, who also sat in | | | | collection). |
| the dugout that night, "I never saw one still going up as | | | | The next day, Solons President Eddie Mulligan, Dave |
| it left the ballpark, until that point." | | | | Kelley (no relation) the team's publicist and Horace |
| Everyone in the ballpark who witnessed the clout | | | | Smith, groundskeeper, took a tape measure and |
| knew it was one for the ages. But not until after the | | | | tracked the distance. They started on the other side of |
| game did they appreciate the distance. Entering his | | | | the left field wall where the ball left the park |
| eleventh season of pro baseball, Sheridan-a | | | | (approximately the 326 foot mark) and marched off in |
| Sacramento High graduate-had played for six other | | | | across the parking lot on a diagonal line for Burnett |
| teams, mostly in the Pacific Coast League, while | | | | Way until they came to where Pat Kelly had parked |
| amassing decent power numbers (114 home runs and | | | | his car the previous evening. The trio came up with an |
| 341 RBI). Up to that point, the most home runs he had | | | | additional 294 feet. Which meant the ball traveled a |
| ever hit in one season was 17, so the name "Sheridan" | | | | total distance of 620 feet. On Friday, July 10, The |
| did not inspire thoughts of Ruthian clouts. | | | | Sacramento Union reported this was the longest home |
| After the game, while Sheridan collected | | | | run ever measured, surpassing Babe Ruth's 600-foot |
| congratulations inside the clubhouse, a young man-Pat | | | | clout struck in a spring training game in Tampa, Florida, |
| Kelly of Sacramento-approached with a baseball. At | | | | April 4, 1919. |