The Northern League All-Star Team is featured in this photograph from 1960. Among those pictured is Kansan Gil Carter (standing, far left). Also pictured is future Hall-of-Famer Joe Torre (standing, third from the left). Carter was named to represent the St. Cloud Rox, a Chicago Cubs farm club where he played as an outfielder. The all-star game was held in Duluth, Minnesota on July 21, 1960. It was Carter's third and final season in the minor leagues. In 1958 and 1959, he played for the Carlsbad Potashers, also a Cubs affiliate. He is best known for the home run he hit on August 11, 1959 in a game against the Odessa Dodgers. The official scorekeeper put the home run distance at 650 feet. However, estimates based on aerial photograph measurements were reported at 700-733 feet, which would make it the longest home run in baseball history. In his three minor league seasons, Carter batted for a .264 average, hit 72 home runs, and had 266 RBIs. He led the Sophomore League in home runs in 1959, with 34. In the early 1960s, Carter was the starting left fielder for the Wichita Rapid Transit Dreamliners, a team that won national semi-pro baseball championships in 1962 and 1963. His national tournament performance in 1962 (.484 batting average and six home runs) earned him a spot on the National Baseball Congress All-American Team. Carter was born and raised in Topeka. He lived in Wichita for nearly four decades before returning to Topeka in 2000. Digital reproduction of the photograph was accomplished through a joint project sponsored by the Kansas Historical Society and the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame.
![]()
