Who doesn’t love the Home Run Derby? Well, I do; I may not watch it from start to finish every single year, but I definitely tune into some of it; this year was no different. When we sat down to watch, it was Julio vs Alonso; perfect.
Julio put on a show last year, and Alonso had already won a couple times. In front of the home crowd in Seattle, Julio put on a show in the first round, crushing Polar Bear. After this performance, he became the heavy favorite. Of course I was betting on this; what did you think? Haha. Actually, I put my money on the Chicago guy, Luis Robert; unfortunately, he fizzled out in the 2nd round kind of like the Sox season is fizzling out; jerk… haha. But my other bet, was that he’d hit one over 477 ft, and thankfully, one of his pokes in the 2nd round went 480, so I was basically even on the night. I wanted to throw some cash on Vlad in the finals, but my son told me Randy, so no play… I thought it was going to be a Julio-Robert final, so that just shows how much I know, even in something like the HR derby…
OK, let’s talk about the derby in general. I like it because you have some of baseball’s best participating, unlike the Slam Dunk contest for example. Nobody wants to see some bum dunking a basketball; there’s YouTube for that. Just like I’m sure nobody wants to see a bench warmer try to hit bombs; we want to see the best, and we did see many great players take their shot on Monday night in Seattle. One thing I don’t like now, is that they pitch so quick; we don’t even get time to admire the home run they just hit. I think they should change the format a bit, to allow for the oohs and ahhs after every ball clears the fence. It just feels rushed; does every guy need to hit like 30 home runs in each round? Maybe give each guy X number of swings, no time limit. Say like 50 swings, or better yet, 50 pitches to get their home runs on. If there are let’s say 6 seconds between pitches, that’s 5 minutes per guy, which is about what they each took anyways. Even if it goes a little longer… and no timeouts, at least not in the first round. And don’t match up the guys in round one; take the 4 highest HR totals and THEN pair them. Then, change the rules a bit in the semis and finals; maybe only 30 pitches in the semis, and 20 in the finals, with timeouts? The guys are getting tired anyways; at that point, it’s about quality of dingers not quantity, right? Anyways, there’s my two cents MLB.
I still enjoyed it, at least more than that kid who took one of the head in the outfield; did you see that? ESPN panned away for a few pitches after that, while the kid was taken off in a body bag… just kidding, but man, that had to hurt. I always wondered about that too, with all those kids running around out there, while the balls fly around like laser beams; maybe minimum age/experience required out there? Not trying to make it less fun, but come on… Maybe have some other All Stars out there, trying to rob HRs… now that would be cool… haha. Next question: Will the National League finally beat the American League? If I get a boost, that’s where my money will be…. haha.
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