You may not be too familiar with Oakland A’s infielder Chad Pinder, and that would certainly be understandable. The 25-year-old has appeared in just 42 career major league games, and has never appeared on any top-100 prospects lists.
But the man can apparently blast gigantic dongs, and that demands our attention.
Pinder hit a homer vs the Red Sox on Saturday in Oakland that ESPN’s tracker had at 483 feet, while Statcast had it at 460 feet. Whatever the case, it’s quite far. See it for yourself:
460 feet.
Chad Pinder’s moonshot puts him atop the @Athletics leaderboard for longest HR of 2017. https://t.co/2Xu6Q7ijuz #Statcast pic.twitter.com/24Bu3ObO5i
— #Statcast (@statcast) May 20, 2017
The @Athletics 3 longest HR this season all came in 5th inning today.
Chad Pinder's 483-foot HR is longest by an A's player in last 9 yrs pic.twitter.com/bohTN8Taqu
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 20, 2017
Few players at the Coliseum have hit homers where that one landed. According to The Mercury News, it’s believed to be just the fourth homer to land in that section since it was built in 1995:
While the A’s don’t keep official records on such things, the team announced that it is believed to be just the fourth home run to reach the plaza reserve seating in the outfield section that was built in 1995 to accommodate the return of the Raiders (who, incidentally, are now in the midst of another relocation).
According to the A’s, Pinder joins Larry Walker, who reached the seats for the Colorado Rockies on July 19, 1999, Mark McGwire, who went deep on May 7, 1996, and the Giants’ Jarrett Parker, who did it Sept. 25, 2015 — a day before he unloaded three home runs against the cross-bay rivals.
Pinder has four homers and a .267/.340/.600 slash line in 50 plate appearances this season, and his two-run bomb on Saturday helped lead the A’s to an 8-3 victory over the Red Sox.
We’re just gonna pretend like it doesn’t say that he blasts gigantic dongs?