Josh Hamilton clubs a Herculean blast into the upper home run porch on Friday, May 15th.Powered by beautiful Saturday mornings, $200 million championships and the ever-present hope of tomorrow, we move on to the three longest Texas Rangers home runs from the season that was -- all from the two usual suspects:

True Distance, a.k.a. Actual Distance - If the home run flew uninterrupted all the way back to field level, the actual distance the ball traveled from home plate, in feet. If the ball's flight was interrupted before returning all the way down to field level (as is usually the case), the estimated distance the ball would have traveled if its flight had continued uninterrupted all the way down to field level.

Standard Distance - The estimated distance in feet the home run would have traveled if it flew uninterrupted all the way down to field level, and if the home run had been hit with no wind, in 70 degree air at sea level. Standard distance factors out the influence of wind, temperature and altitude, and is thus the best way of comparing home runs hit under a variety of different conditions.

[All home runs are sorted by true distance first, with standard distance acting as the tiebreaker if necessary.]

No. 3 - Bad Game, Good Fireworks (Nelson Cruz)
August 1st, 2009 vs. Seattle (Felix Hernandez)
True Distance: 459 Feet | Standard Distance: 457 Feet | Trajectory | Video

Notes: After thinking about it for a minute, I realize that I cannot recall any home run being clubbed at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington that actually managed to hit the concourse sidewalk on the fly. Sure, there was Josh Hamilton's epic May 12th, 2008 blast that bounced off the top of an umbrella awning beyond the right-center field bleachers, and perhaps that should count, but what I would really love to see is a home run make it as far as the center field office building. This is probably just about as close as we're going to get anytime soon.

No. 2 - Okay, This Is Just Getting Ridiculous (Nelson Cruz)
July 27th, 2009 vs. Detroit (Armando Galarraga)
True Distance: 467 Feet | Standard Distance: 465 Feet | Trajectory | Video

Notes: After being frequently leveraged in scathing assaults against general manager Jon Daniels' sensibilities during his successful post-Texas 2008 campaign, Galarraga's good fortunes predictably ran dry in 2009; his strikeouts went down, his walks went up and his home runs ... well, this valiant attempt by Cruz at tallying one of those elusive concourse shots tells you just about everything you need to know about how Galarraga's sinker fared this past season, which is to say "not very well." And seriously, I don't know what else to say about Cruz at this point. He's absolutely ridiculous.

Galarraga would get dinged for three more earned runs in the following inning and ultimately incur his ninth loss, allowing Texas to exact some measure of vengeance against Detroit after a humiliating 0-6 showing in Comerica Park. Unfortunately, the old adage "too little, too late" remains all too applicable.

No. 1 - The Natural, Part II (Josh Hamilton)
May 15th, 2009 vs. Los Angeles (Shane Loux)
True Distance: 471 Feet | Standard Distance: 468 Feet | Trajectory | Video

Notes: The seventh-longest home run launched by any major league hitter in 2009 (as measured by 'true distance'), as well as one of the single most impressive feats of hitting ever accomplished by Josh Hamilton. HitTracker Online's trajectory page indicates that the absence of a home run porch might have allowed this shot to smash clean into the side of the now-defunct Legends of the Game Baseball Museum, or at the very least made those concession lines in proximity to that area much more lively. For Hamilton's sake, I hope that the results once again catch up with the talent.