I'm sure like many baseball fans, I'm kind of ambivalent about the Home Run Derby. The concept of the derby is awesome, get the best sluggers out there on the same field, give them some gopher balls to hit and watch the fireworks, but something doesn't quite always work in execution all the time. It can drag, on and on and on for hours, some guys can't cut it on the stage and end up hitting a bunch of pop flies to little kids, and well the annoucing is just fucking awful. I mean think about it, you've got the worst booth in the history of sports, only they've removed Jon Miller who's awful, for Chris Berman, who's even MORE awful with his tired old calls and combine that with the dynamic duo of dunderheads Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips who have firmly established themselves as some of the games greatest windbags you're in for trouble. But then its even worse because there's very little action going on, there's a ton of downtime so you're forced to listen this terrible triumvirate speak anecdotally for hours and hours. Not exactly a non-stop thrill ride.
But as poorly as ESPN has executed the event, it seems that the event itself is prone to become tired and worn out. Don't get me wrong, I love dingers as much as the next guy, but its not like there's a lot of expression you can put into it. Certainly, its not like the slam dunk contest where guys think of all new wild ways to slam the ball, the home run derby is kind of bland, they only real aspect of it you can change is how many you hit and and how far you hit, and there aren't many guys in the world who can do that. For this reason the excitement of the derby seems decidely limited.
However there is one way to inject the derby with excitement and that's drama. For sure, its not easy to just manufacture some drama or some compelling reason to root for a guy aside from team allegiances, but when it does it like it did last year with Josh Hamilton its just great drama and a compelling watch. Indeed, many had heard of Josh Hamilton and his story, his rise and fall thanks to serious drug abuse, but it was here that his triumph and indeed the triumph of the human spirit came to fruition. Possessing seemingly Herculian strength Hamilton was clearly for that moment on another plane from the rest of the competitors there, launching an inconceivable 28 home runs in the first roun, 28! I called everybody I knew to tell them about the genius that was being put on display that night, with his sweet left handed stoke hitting balls to places in the Old Yankee Stadium I have never seen before, and I've watched a lot of baseball games there. In short, it was everything a Home Run Derby can be, epic and grand, a drama with the highest of highs and lowest of lows with some compelling players. Of course, Hamilton did ultimately lose to the dullard Morneau, but by then the story had been already written with this derby being forever known as the day Hamilton did his best Roy Hobbs impression and wowed the baseball world.
I kind of got wrapped up in describing the event more than I should have, but my point is that when you have the best derby ever last year anything less than that just sucks and that was the case this year. There was several bums out there like Brandon Inge who shockingly hit no home runs (its like its a garbage number eight hitter or something who just happens to hit home runs but that's all he does, or something) or guys like Joe Mauer, who's obviously not a bum but is no home run hitter by any stretch, and it adds up to a pretty forgettable home run derby. In truth, its really not fair to compare the two, but unfortuantely all other derbys subsequent to that one will be judged against that and it didn't fare so well. I'm not here saying I know how to fix it or what can be done to improve it, because I'm not sure if you can, it is what it is, but what it is isn't that all thrilling.
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