The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 12: One Hit Wonder

Episode Date: April 12, 2016

No one has ever matched his record, and no one knows his name.

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This is the way I heard it. Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. Ever heard of them? No? Well, I'm pretty sure you've heard them. Back in 1987, they sang the theme song to a little movie called Dirty Dancing. I've had the time of my life went all the way to number one. To this day, it's Bill and Jennifer's biggest hit.

In fact, it's their only hit. Well, the same year that Patrick Swayze was gyrating to the dulcet vocals of Bill and Jennifer won and only hit, another one-hit wonder on a very different stage was about to have his. Joey played first base for the Denver Zephyrs. And like everyone else in the minor leagues, he dreamed of being called up to the show. But at 270 pounds, Joey was not the picture of major league athleticism. But size does have its advantages. And when Joey Meyer decided to hit a baseball, he hit it real hard. On the night of Joey's one wondrous hit, 1,404 people had gathered to watch the Denver

Zephyrs take on the Buffalo Bisons. It was the bottom of the seventh, and the Zephyrs were up eight seven. Joey Meyer stepped into the box, and Buffalo pitcher Mike Murphy threw a slider that didn't do much sliding, and Joey teed off. The crack of the bat echoed throughout the mostly empty stadium. The left fielder could do nothing but drop his jaw and watch the ball vanish from sight as it sailed over his head to parts unknown. Two hundred feet behind him, high in a sea of empty plastic seats, a solitary fan made no attempt to snag the souvenir for himself because the ball was still rising, still arcing higher and higher, defying the laws of gravity and rendering 1400 slack. jawed fans temporarily mute. In the broadcast booth, the announcers gawked and stammered as Joey's

home run ball eventually landed in the upper deck of Mile High Stadium, something no one had ever seen before or imagined possible. Even the television cameras lost sight of the longest home run ever hit. Now, it should be noted that the precise distance traveled by many a legendary home run ball is inspired endless debate among baseball geeks. A dozen different websites will give you a dozen different versions of just how far Mickey Mantle's epic blast might have gone had it not bounced off the facade at Yankee Stadium. Or whether Babe Ruth's famous Homer at Wrigley Field traveled more or less than 500 feet. What we can say without any fear of controversy is that the average major league home run travels 395 feet, which is why people were blown away last year

when Miami's Giancarlo Stanton smashed one 475 feet, clean out of Dodger Stadium. Well, Joey's home run was longer than Stanton's, longer also than Ruth's, longer than Mantles, longer than Reggie Jackson's, and Hank Arons, and Roberto Clementes, and Jose Canseco's, and Willie Stardels and all the rest of those other major leaguers who were born to give it a ride. Joey hit a baseball, 582 feet, nearly two football fields. Obviously, a hit like that can't be ignored. Joey got the call he had dreamed of and was off to the majors. He played two seasons for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Then it was off to Japan, where he donned the uniform of the Yokohama Wales. One season later, it was back to the States where the Minnesota twins scooped him up. They traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who sent him back down to the Buffalo Bisons. The same minor league team he had confronted on that fateful day in Denver, a day that might have changed everything, but didn't. Because the real wonder is never the one hit. It's the ability to do it over and over and over again. And that's why Giancarlo Stanton is headed for the Hall of Fame, while Joey Meyer now patrols the halls of the Maui Medical Center wearing his latest uniform, that of a security guard. Of course, there's no shame in that none whatsoever, because even though you don't recognize Joey Meyer's name, what he did can never be taken away from him.

and today he can look back at that one glorious day in the spring of 1987 and say with absolute certainty, I had the time of my life. Anyway, that's the way I heard it.