Did Babe Ruth's legendary 1919 Tampa home run really go 587 feet?

KTVU (April 4) -- On the 100th anniversary of Babe Ruth’s historic home run in Tampa, several scholars are asking if it ever went the 587 feet quoted on a billboard in the spot where it supposedly landed. Alan Nathan, an emeritus professor of physics, says under optimal conditions, but without wind, the farthest a big-league homer can go is just under 500 feet. That requires the ball to be hit at an exit velocity of 120 miles per hour. That figure is well beyond most recorded today. “Given a dispute between science and mythology, I am going to take the science,” Nathan says.