‘It just feels like butter’: Red Sox, White Sox prospects trade 468-ft homers
While the Yankees and Dodgers were busy tagging home runs that carried significant weight during Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night, Brooks Brannon and DJ Gladney were sending their own prodigious wallops toward the Dodgers complex located just beyond the left-field wall at Camelback Ranch.
Both long balls in Mesa’s eventual 5-4 win over Glendale caromed off a fence that separates L.A.’s building from the field, far beyond the retired numbers of Hall of Fame sluggers from yesteryear — Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella.
113 mph off the bat, 468 feet for Brannon.
117.2 mph off the bat, 468 feet for Gladney.
Hitting a ball that hard and that far almost never happens. Just eight home runs at the Major League level in 2024 hit both plateaus in terms of exit velocity and distance. In Gladney’s case, only Aaron Judge’s homer on Aug. 2 traveled further (477 feet) at a comparable speed (117.5 mph).
“That’s the farthest home run I’ve ever hit in my life,” Gladney said. “Honestly, it just feels like butter. You just see the pitch and you swing and then there it goes.”
When Gladney connected, the Glendale bullpen — positioned beyond the left-field fence, giving them the best look in the house — went wild. The Chicago prospect worked the count in his favor against lefty Houston Harding (Angels), and when he got a center-cut 3-1 changeup, he didn’t miss it.
“I had to watch that one,” Gladney said. “I definitely knew off the bat. It was fun to watch.”
Whereas Gladney went into admiration mode upon impact, Brannon took off down the first-base line after connecting off righty Eric Adler (White Sox). And considering where the pitch was, he couldn’t be blamed for it.
Hitting a ball 468 feet is hard, hitting it that far with the ball up near your eyes makes it almost impossible.
“There’s high tee drills and whatnot to work on staying through the ball,” Brannon said. “When you hit the ball, there’s always doubt of whether it’s going to go out or not. So I’m always just hauling out of the box as soon as I hit it just to make sure.”
