It also saw some great players and games...............

Notable sluggers[edit]

The 1937 All-Star game, played at Griffith Stadium, featured these seven American League players, from left to right: Lou Gehrig,Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio,Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg. All seven would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame.

The distant fences were no problem for sluggers like Josh Gibson, Mickey Mantle, and the Senators’ own youngster Harmon Killebrew. There have been only three reported instances of a player hitting a home run over the left field bleachers: once by Mantle and twice by Gibson.^[12] Babe Ruth hit near-500-foot drives over the center and right-center walls on consecutive days in May 1921.

In May 1949, Cleveland Indians outfielder Larry Doby smacked the then-longest home run ever hit at the stadium over the right-center field wall, and onto a rooftop well outside the ballpark. The shot was reported to have traveled over 500 feet, and Doby called it “the longest homer I’ve ever hit.”^[13]

On April 17, 1953, Mantle hit one off Chuck Stobbs that was so impressive that someone tried to determine its flight with some precision, thus popularizing the term “Tape Measure Home Run.” It was alleged to be 565 feet, although it bounced off the top of the back wall of the bleachers, adding some distance to its flight path.^[14]