Since 1946, nobody has hit a ball past the lonely red seat in the right-field bleachers of Fenway Park. Or so the legend goes.
That red seat connotes the distance of the 502-foot home run that Ted Williams hit on June 9, 1946, the longest homer in Fenway's 107-year history.
The story has been put to the test, and former Red Sox superstar David Ortiz questioned its legitimacy. One time, Globe beat reporter Pete Abraham notes, Ortiz tried to hit a ball past the red seat with a metal bat to no avail.
On Friday night, a new chapter in the red seat's story was (almost) written. Before the Red Sox's played the Los Angeles Angels, Angeles phenom Shohei Ohtani launched a batting practice pitch deeeeeep to right field. It may have been the closest anyone's ever gotten to parking one past Seat 21 in Row 37 of Section 42 of the bleachers. (The seat's color was changed to red in 1984 to mark the distance of Williams' blast).
Check out a video of Ohtani's blast here and see Ohtani, the AL rookie of the year last season as both a right-handed pitcher and left-handed hitter, in action as the Red Sox lefty Brian Johnson faces in the Angels in the second game of their series tonight at 7:10. Tommy John surgery in the off-season has limited the 25-year-old from Japan to DH duty this season, but as his BP shot shows, it hasn't hurt his hitting (.287, 15 homers, 43 RBI in 77 games).
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