In 1953, sportswriter
Jocko Maxwell published an article in
Baseball Digest and item in
Catholic Digest describing the shortest home run in baseball history. Another version of the story, as told by
Halsey Hall, had Oyler chopping at a low pitch and sticking the ball into the mud 2 feet from home plate.
Controversy Baseball historian
Stew Thornley is skeptical of the story of Oyler's home run, pointing out there was no contemporary news report which described the incident. Other modern reference sources recount the story without caveat.
In popular culture The story was the subject of a book of baseball lore by
Michael G. Bryson called
The Twenty-Four-Inch Home Run. It was also the inspiration for the children's book,
Mudball by
Matt Tavares, which won the 2005
Parents' Choice Awards Gold Award. In the "Author's Note" Tavares describes the story of Oyler's home run as being
folklore*. The ball's value was assessed at $3,000 to $5,000. ==See also==