Carlos Peguero hits home run almost 500 feet in Japanese League

Former big leaguer Carlos Peguero hit one of the longest in-game home runs in baseball history.

Carlos Peguero barely made an impact at the MLB level, playing in only 103 games in five years and batting just .194/.263/.384 with 13 home runs and 126 strikeouts and 24 walks. Hitting the ball a very long way and striking out is what Peguero became known for in the United States. He struck out nearly 1,200 times in the minor leagues before taking his talents across the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

Standing 6-foot-5 and tipping the scales at a generous 260 pounds, Peguero stands out immediately on a diamond in the Japanese Pacific League. His presence in the Rakuten Eagles lineup has delivered plenty of fireworks. The potential for bombs is high with the assortment of slow breaking balls that are featured heavily in Japan.

On Friday night in Japan, Peguero hit one of the most impressive home runs in recent memory against the Tokyo Giants. He absolutely unloaded on a floating breaking ball, sending it flying high into the night sky. As Peguero rounded the bases, the crowd went wild and the Giants dugout looked on in utter shock at what he had done to that poor baseball.

Peguero’s agent, Jay Alou, tweeted that the ball traveled 584 feet, which would easily make it the farthest home run since it became possible to track every dinger. However, the Japanese broadcast had the ball flying 151 meters, which converts to about 495 feet. Either way, impressive.

This is why watching older MLB washouts in Japanese baseball is always entertaining. Peguero goes to the plate every time looking to launch. He looks out of shape, and looked like he was puffing for breath by the time he got to third base. None of that matters when the big outfielder gets a slow curve in his happy zone.

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Japanese baseball should be a bucket-list item for every baseball fan. The stadiums have a college football atmosphere, with fans chanting and banging drums and thundersticks for all nine innings. Players have personal theme songs, and the mascots are out of control. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see a very large man like Carlos Peguero or Eric Thames (who parlayed his prodigious Korean home runs into a return to the big leagues) hit a jaw-dropping bomb off the inferior pitching of the Japanese league.