Ted Williams Red Seat Real Or Myth? Will Middlebrooks Weighs In On Debate
Thirty-seven rows up in the right-field bleachers at Fenway Park is a target calling out to all Boston Red Sox hitters.
It’s a red seat commemorating the farthest ball ever hit at the venerable ballpark. Ted Williams lays claim to that feat, blasting a home run 502 feet in June of 1946 that has been forever immortalized.
It would be a dream for a Red Sox player, or any opponent for that matter, to hit a ball that far at Fenway. But perhaps doing so can only be accomplished in their dreams.
Triston Casas became the latest Red Sox player to believe reaching the famed red seat was impossible. He called it a “myth” after a launching a 429-foot homer in that direction last week. Red Sox manager Alex Cora has his doubts about it, too.
NESN analyst Will Middlebrooks, who spent three seasons with the Red Sox from 2012-14, weighed in on the red seat debate and finds himself in the same camp as Casas and Cora.
“It’s really hard for me to believe it but I also don’t want to say no just because it’s Ted Williams,” Middlebrooks told NESN.com. “And I do know the stadium was different (back then) and there’s plenty of days in Boston where the wind is howling out that way, and if there’s really nothing to knock the wind down. If Casas hits the ball he hit a couple of days ago and there’s heavier winds to right, he’s pretty close because he wasn’t that far off.”
Middlebrooks added: “I don’t want to say no, I do want to say it had to be very windy that day. I’ll leave it as that. The stars had to align perfectly for him to hit the ball that far.”
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The closest Middlebrooks remembers anyone getting close to Williams’ seat was Josh Hamilton in 2012. The left-handed slugger was with the Texas Rangers at the time and crushed a ball deep to right field.
“He nuked a ball where it went off the bat and I went, ‘This might be the one,'” Middlebrooks said.
Hamilton’s blast still came up several rows short, even though it traveled an astounding 469 feet.
When Middlebrooks was with the Texas Rangers for spring training in 2017, his locker was just a couple down from Hamilton, who was in the middle of a comeback attempt.
Hamilton’s mammoth homer at Fenway stood out in the mind of Middlebrooks, who had to ask the 2010 American League MVP what he thought of the possibility of hitting a ball to the red seat.
“I was like, ‘Do you remember this homer you hit in whatever year in Boston?'” Middlebrooks recalled. “And before I can get it out of my mouth, he goes, ‘There’s no way.’ He goes, ‘That was one of the hardest ball I’ve ever hit in my life.'”
Middlebrooks saw David Ortiz fall short of reaching the lofty mark even when Ortiz used an aluminum bat during batting practice.
So, Middlebrooks has his reservations about Williams belting a ball that far, but respects the place the seat has in Red Sox history.
“It just didn’t seem humanly possible,” Middlebrooks said. “I don’t want to say it’s a complete myth because I don’t want to take away from that. It’s important. People like to go take pictures there. I like to go sit there and watch BP just to do it.”