Roman Anthony’s call-up to Boston came with impeccable timing — 79 years to the day after Ted Williams launched Fenway Park’s most legendary home run.
Anthony, 21, arrives as one of baseball’s most electrifying prospects. He had already made waves in Triple-A Worcester, but his 497-foot grand slam on Friday — the longest known homer in pro baseball this year — seemed to signal he was ready. The ball cleared the right-field seats in Rochester, a blast longer than anything Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge has ever recorded and just shy of the Statcast-era record.
His promotion not only energizes a Boston lineup seeking impact bats, it also adds a poetic layer to the club’s history. On June 9, 1946, Ted Williams crushed a home run an estimated 502 feet into Fenway’s right-field bleachers, striking a fan named Joseph Boucher on the head and leaving a hole in his straw hat. That red-painted seat (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21) has become a Fenway monument.
Williams’ swing was aided by near-perfect conditions: strong northwest winds gusting to 26 mph that turned Fenway into a left-handed slugger’s dream. But even with modern physics, Williams’ feat remains rare.
“He was a great hitter on every level,” said Tim Kurkjian of ESPN, calling Williams the best left fielder of all time and second only to Babe Ruth at the plate.
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Anthony is a long way from Williams’ place in the game, but the symmetry is hard to ignore. Both left-handed. Both towering figures in their era. Both capable of delivering towering home runs with effortless power. And now, both eternally linked by what happened on a June 9 at Fenway Park.
