David Ortiz Doesn’t Buy Story Of Ted Williams’ Record Home Run

Every Boston Red Sox fan knows what the red seat signifies.

It’s one of the tenets of Fenway Park lore, right up there with Carlton Fisk’s walk-off home run in the 1975 World Series.

The one red seat amid a sea of green ones in Fenway’s outfield bleachers is said to mark the longest homer ever hit at the ballpark: a 502-foot shot off the bat of the greatest Red Sox player there ever was, Ted Williams.

That’s how the story goes, at least. The pre-eminent power hitter on Boston’s current roster, however, isn’t buying it.

“The red seat?” designated hitter David Ortiz told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. “Cough — bull — cough.”

Ortiz said hitting a ball with enough power for it to land 37 rows up in right field, as Williams allegedly did on June 9, 1946, simply is not possible, even for a hitter of Teddy Ballgame’s caliber.

“I don’t think anyone has ever hit one there,” Ortiz told the Globe. “I went up there and sat there one time. That’s far, brother. Listen, do you see the No. 1 (Bobby Doerr’s retired uniform number on the facade above the right field grandstand)? I hit that one time. You know how far it is to that No. 1 from the plate? Very far. And you know how far that red seat is from the No. 1? It’s 25 rows up still. That’s the farthest I’ve ever hit the ball right there, and no one else has gotten to the No. 1. … The closest one that I have ever seen — I remember a day game, I hit a ball in that tunnel. But still — I crushed one and it wasn’t even close to that.”