Washington Nationals: Wily Mo Pena and the hardest-hit ball I’ve ever seen

Before exit velocity, we used our naked eye to gauge power. To this day former Washington Nationals OF Wily Mo Pena hit the hardest ball I’ve ever seen hit.

Former Washington Nationals OF Wily Mo Pena had the physique to punish baseballs, didn’t he? Coming in at 6-3, 260, he was a beast of a specimen who was very capable of obliterating baseballs with one swing of the bat.

The career trajectory for Wily Mo didn’t go as he would have liked it too. He was never a full-time player at any of the stops he made in the Major Leagues. After solidifying himself as a power hitter with the Cincinnati Reds, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox for Bronson Arroyo.

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His power numbers dipped some in Beantown though he made up for it by having his best batting average as a professional at .301. The following year in 2007 he struggled at the plate and was traded to the Nationals.

Pena would spend parts of two years with the Nationals then bounce around five other organizations before spending five years in the Japan Professional League. The time Pena spent in the Majors was plagued by several hitting inconsistencies. He walked too little, he struck out too much, and he hit for a low average.

One thing is for sure, if Wily Mo Pena squared a ball, it was going to be hit excruciatingly hard and potentially travel a long distance.

The blast I saw from Pena came in his first week with the Washington Nationals. They were in town playing a set with the Houston Astros and Wily Mo connected with a Jason Jennings offering and sent it skyward.

Pena’s ball was hit on a rope, a laser, above the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park, which ricocheted off the concrete facade just below the train tracks. With a vibrant whack, the ball shot back onto the field halfway between the fence and infield dirt.

This was one of those home runs where the left fielder didn’t have to move, frozen in his footstep. Didn’t even look over his shoulder. The outfielder may not have even had time to track the ball as fast as it got out.

There have been longer home runs at Minute Maid. Ones that bounce around on the train tracks. There have been louder home runs, which suck the air out of the building. None of them were witnessed by me like the one I saw Wily Mo jack.

Although he hit just 84 big league bombs, I guarantee none of them were of the cheap variety.