We recently had the 40th anniversary of Hank Aaron's record breaking homer, and today marks the 40th anniversary of a lesser known would-be homer that never was.

On this date in 1974 in the Houston Astrodome Dave Cash walked and Larry Bowa singled to lead off the first. Mike Schmidt launched a shot heading far beyond the centerfield wall. However, it struck a speaker dangling 120 feet from the ground above deep centerfield. It hit high off the speaker and bounced to the shallow part of the outfield. After discussion, as this contingency was not specifically contained in the ground rules because it was deemed impossible) it was ruled a single.

Cedeno claimed in his long career he never saw a ball hit like that one, and it was estimated that it would have gone 525-600 feet.

The speaker was never again hit by a batted ball though it was removed shortly before the Astrodome was closed.