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Batting left handed, 2.9 seconds home to first. No one has equaled this time, not even Bo Jackson.

Note (5/13/2012): I can find no independent confirmation that Mickey Mantle's home-to-first time was 2.9 seconds and it's hard to fathom it being humanly possible to get home to first so quickly. After all, the world record (hand-timed) for a 100-yard dash is 9.0 seconds, set in the 1970s and essentially repeated more recently by a runner who (electronically timed) covered the first 100 yards of a 100-meter dash in 9.07.

A time of 9.0 equates to 33.33 feet per second, which would indeed suggest that a hitter could cover 90 feet in as little as 2.7 seconds. Still, much as I'm a Mantle fan, it's difficult to believe he was markedly faster on a basepath in 1952 than an Olympic-caliber sprinter can manage today on a track.

According to another Wiki.Answers.com question response, The Sporting News in 1952 said Mantle had been measured (hand-timed) covering home to first from the left-hand batter's box in 3.1 seconds. (He was timed on several occasions, at least according to the article, in under 3.4 seconds.) It is suggested his times would have been slightly slower if electronically timed.

Mind you, while I'm not buying 2.9 seconds, 3.1 seconds in itself is incredibly fast. And while the two-tenths of a second (from 2.9 to 3.1) might not seem like much of a difference, obviously it is from a purely factual standpoint (since we hope that the information here would be accurate), from a mathematical standpoint (the difference between traveling 31 feet per second vs. 29 feet per second) and from a Baseball standpoint (i.e., being safe or out on a close play, a full stride's difference).

Mantle was also reputedly the all-time standard-setter from the right side of the dish, as well, at 3.5 seconds. This time (and the 3.1) are conceivable, as just this year Angels rookie Mike Trout was timed from the right-hand batter's box to first on a bunt in 3.53 seconds, potentially the fastest among all current Major Leaguers.

Of note: The original answer added that Mantle was faster "even than Bo Jackson," but of course Jackson was a right-handed hitter. Granted, Mantle was still faster (3.5 hand-timed vs. reportedly 3.65 seconds for Jackson electronically timed), but to muse that Mantle's left-handed time was faster than Jackson's time wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison.

- GEC

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12y ago

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El tiempo de home a

first base

mantle

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Anonymous

4y ago
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Anonymous

4y ago
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3.1

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Anonymous

4y ago
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Q: What was Mickey mantle's home to first base time?
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