UPDATE: The Cubs have verified that it’s the ball and that they’re going to keep it up on the scoreboard, likely covering it with plastic casing or something.
9:36 AM: Kyle Schwarber’s seventh inning home run last night was something to behold. He just beat the livin’ hell out of that ball.
There are balls that have gone farther, of course -- it was estimated at a mere 419 feet, which is something of a minimum for the Giancarlo Stantons of the world -- but the impressiveness of a home run is a relative thing. Trajectory, the violence of the swing and the backdrop all matter. A ball that is hit on the screws and then rattles around an empty concourse in a domed stadium in May simply isn’t going to impress like a brutally hacked baseball against an open-air, urban October sky. Schwarber’s just looked boss.
If you missed it, here it is, in all of its glory:
[mlbvideo id="522810983" width="600" height="336" /]
The announcer said it landed on Sheffield Avenue, and it was certainly heading in that direction. But at least some folks think the little white dot on top of the scoreboard -- under the “i-s” in “Budweiser” in this picture is the ball:
Back from the Cubs Game. We let the @cubs & @kschwarb12 know that we found Schwarber's home run ball. #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/uqbhucWW1k
— Tom Comings (@Comings) October 14, 2015
While it can’t be definitively confirmed, Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune did some reporting on the matter, and it certainly seems like that’s the ball. That scoreboard has only been there a few months, after all, and no one can recall any other homers hit that high in that direction since.
Either way, Schwarber committed an unspeakable act of violence on that ball.