There have been 3,443 home runs hit in the history of Rogers Centre, but only 25 have been hit into the 500 level.

That means only 0.73% of all moonshots hit at Rogers Centre and SkyDome have gone into the upper deck. When it comes to individual feats in a single at-bat at Rogers Centre, it doesn’t get much more exclusive than that. There have been 4 home run games (Carlos Delgado on September 25, 2003), there have been 3 home run games (17 total), but only 25 home runs at Rogers Centre have reached the fifth deck.

Toronto Blue Jays’ third baseman Kazuma Okamoto was the latest player to join this exclusive club on Friday evening, becoming only the 19th player in MLB history to go upper deck at Rogers Centre/SkyDome. When Okamoto hit his bomb off Ryan Weathers, it wasn’t a question of if it had the distance; it was whether it would be declared a fair ball.

Luckily, Okamoto snuck it in a few seats short of being of the longest foul balls anyone would ever witness.

To go upper deck during batting practice is one thing. But to launch a baseball into the level where Roy Halladay used to run the stairs with regularity (whether it was as a Blue Jay, or even during his stint with the Philadelphia Phillies) as his pre-game workout is another.

In the 37 year history of the stadium, there have only been a handful of these players to do this twice: José Canseco as both an opponent and a Blue Jay, Josh Phelps (of all people) went upper deck twice, Edwin Encarnación, and Brandon Lowe, who was the last player to be a two-time upper-decker hitter.

Canseco is the only player to go upper tank three times: once as an Oakland A, once as a Blue Jay, and once as a Tampa Bay Devil Ray. The very first was during Game 4 of the 1989 ALCS series in Toronto between the Blue Jays and A’s.

Prior to Okamoto, Josh Donaldson was the last Blue Jay to go upper tank on May 30, 2017. It’s been almost a decade since a Blue Jay can say they hit a baseball into the highest level of the stadium.

Nobody wants to be a footnote in Blue Jays history, but Trent Thornton has the distinction of being the only pitcher to allow two 500 Level home runs (both came in the same game on April 12, 2019). Thornton actually gave up both moonshots in the very same inning, four batters apart.

Unlike Eutaw Street at Camden Yards, the Blue Jays don’t officially commemorate 500 Level home runs, but Okamoto will be given his flowers for becoming the 24th member all-time into the 500 Level Club. With the lifespan of the Rogers Centre in its last phase, Okamoto may be one of the last hitters to lay claim to an upper tank home run.

There have certainly been some monstrous home runs in the history of Rogers Centre, but technically, none as big as a 400+ shot into the fifth deck. Manny Ramírez still holds the record for the longest home run at Rogers Centre SkyDome at 491 feet.

You can tell it was an absolute laser because the section was previously tarped off, and the ball nearly hit the back wall and trickled down the section before landing softly in its resting place.

The next time anyone asks you whether you can name a few players who are in the Rogers Centre 500 Club, hopefully Canseco, Phelps, Lowe, and Encarnación will come to mind. Because alone, they occupy 16% of the entire list of 500 level homers hit at Rogers Centre.