This Tale of the Tape Didn’t Do Him Justice

The term “tape measure home run” is said to have been inspired by a 565-foot homer hit by Mickey Mantle at old Griffith Stadium in Washington on April 17, 1953.

But according to Mantle’s Web site, www.themick.com, that wasn’t the slugger’s longest blast.

In March 1951, during a preseason barnstorming tour of the West Coast, Mantle and the Yankees played an exhibition game at USC in which Mantle belted two home runs that were even longer -- one from each side of the plate.

Mantle’s homer from the right side landed across the street from USC’s old Bovard Field, on the roof of a three-story home more than 600 feet from the plate.

The left-handed shot went even farther, clearing the wall in right-center field and an adjacent football field, landing an estimated 656 feet away.

After the game, two eyewitnesses, USC Coach Rod Dedeaux and Trojan center fielder Tom Riach, separately pointed out where they said that ball had landed. There was a difference of only a few feet.

Said Yankee Manager Casey Stengel: “That kid can hit balls over buildings.”

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Trivia time: What baseball slugger said, “If you want to do something really great, be an organ donor.”

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Fire fight: Seattle Mariner outfielder Ichiro Suzuki was “On the Record” with host Bob Costas when a burning question was posed.

Costas: “Who wins a fair fight, King Kong or Godzilla?”

Suzuki: “Hmmm. Godzilla breathes fire, you know. King Kong may be powerful, but he does not breathe fire. That is a big disadvantage.

“If Godzilla doused King Kong in gasoline and then spit fire on him, he’d be cooked. He’d win the battle.”

That right there should also tell you whom Suzuki would pick in a fair fight between his current manager, Bob Melvin, and his former manager, Lou Piniella.

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Getting hooked: Fish just don’t stand a chance anymore. Not when companies are inventing devices that emit sonar and provide anglers a digital picture of where fish are swimming on what has been described as a “Dick Tracy-style” wrist monitor.

To their tackle box, rod, reel and bait, shore anglers and those who fish from such small craft as kayaks or canoes can now add a Smartcast RF30 for less than $100.

The sensor attaches to a fishing line like a bobber.

Humminbird, manufacturer of the Smartcast, is hopeful youngsters used to playing computer games will be lured to fishing by the new technology.

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Trivia answer: Mantle.

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And finally: London is in the running for the 2012 Summer Olympics and a British newspaper recently suggested the city use soccer star David Beckham to lobby for the bid.

Speaking at a news conference in Prague on Monday, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said, basically, don’t bother.

“We are not impressed by a soccer player,” Rogge said.

Then, perhaps reconsidering, Rogge said Beckham would be “welcome if he wants to come,” adding quickly, “and his wife too.”

Beckham’s wife, Victoria, is former Spice Girl Posh.