"Jim Thome managed to watch with a straight face after he muscled a ball far into the right-center field seats. Standing in the batter's box behind him, Delmon Young was not so successful at masking his amazement.

As the ball left Thome's bat, beginning a journey estimated at 490 feet, the longest home run in Target Field history, Young's jaw dropped. He watched, mouth slack, along with the other 38,786 who spent this steamy summer day at the ballpark, as Thome's 596th home run skied high over the wall in right-center and dropped above a stairwell, about eight rows into the upper-deck seats.

The reaction in the dugout, starter Brian Duensing said after the Twins' 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals, was "ridiculous." The left-handed pitcher jumped up immediately to get a good look at the ball's trajectory, and up in the clubhouse, where a still-under-the-weather Ron Gardenhire was watching the game, the manager immediately regretted that he had to see the home run on television rather than from his usual perch on the dugout steps.

"I knew it was gone when he hit it. I didn't know it was going to go that far," Duensing said. "That's why it's so fun watching him hit, because you just never know when it's going to happen, and when he gets them they usually are in big situations or very large home runs. Today was both." "