Movies, television shows and commercials often take dramatic license with real-life details for the sake of the story.

As a viewer, we can suspend what we know and just go along for the ride, or we can spend far too much time dissecting just how far from reality they have strayed.  After seeing a relatively new Geico commercial featuring Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, I am choosing to do the latter.

In the ad, Harper is taking batting practice at Nats Park in southwest DC.  We see a baseball land in the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, then another bounce of the memorial steps, and finally a ball roll up to a pair of Secret Service-looking guys standing in front of a gate on the north side of the White House.

Let’s focus on that last one with some help from our friend Google Maps.  I drew a line from home plate to the spot where the guys are standing.  The left-handed-hitting Harper was really late on this pitch, but showed impressive power driving it out of the stadium down the third base line:

According to the ruler feature, Google calculates the distance of this hit to be about 12,545 feet, or roughly 12,000 feet farther than what would be a “HOLY CRAP HARPER SMASHED THE CRAP OUT OF THAT” homer:

Another thing we have to take into account is the landing.  Here’s a close-up view of where the ball came down:

Notice in the commercial that the agent guys have their backs to the fence with the fountain in the background, which means the ball had to have gone past them and changed direction in order to roll up to their feet:

So there are two possibilities, either there was an incredible northwest wind in Washington that day, or the ball bounced off of something with enough force to rebound in the direction of the White House.

If it were the wind, think about how hard Harper actually hit that ball — 12,545 feet into the wind!  But I like the second option as a more plausible explanation (amid an entirely implausible scenario, of course).  Let’s look just a touch to the north of the final landing spot:

There, in the center of Lafayette Park just across the street, there is a statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse, raising his hat above his head.  A ball hit hard enough to fly all the way there surely could bounce off the bronze with enough force to make it back to Pennsylvania Avenue and roll up to the White House gates.

Heck of a swing, Bryce.  Next time get around a little earlier and keep it inside the foul poles.  Where would the same hit end up if he hit it in fair territory, let’s say straight over where a right fielder would be playing?

With the right trajectory, that could land smack in the right field stands at RFK Stadium, the Nationals’ former home.  Now that would be a holy crap homer.