Big Dick Stanton Won The Home Run Derby By Hitting 20 More Home Runs Than Anybody Ever In A Derby
Just when you thought the Home Run Derby was unwatchable now that it’s not the Steroid Era anymore, along comes the savior, Big Dick Stanton.
Stanton was heavily favored coming into the event, but had never won a Home Run Derby before. He won his first derby by hitting 20 more home runs than any other participant in history (61), breaking Bobby Abreu’s record from 2005 (41), while a handful of his homers were a few feet within being listed as 500-foot bombs. As pointed out here, 18 of the 19 furthest balls hit in the entire derby were hit by BDS.
So, as baseball fans, how do we feel about the Home Run Derby now that we’re two years into the new format? Personally, I love the timer. I think it makes it substantially better. I love the buzzer-beater aspect to it. I love the mounting suspense. I love that we don’t have to sit through players taking pitches. You barely saw any pitches taken. Everyone was up there hacking. It’s great. The camerawork kinda sucked, but that’s an ESPN problem, not a format problem. I could do without Jessica Mendoza talking about players’ strategy and keeping their hands through the zone during a fucking Home Run Derby, but again, that’s an ESPN problem, not a format problem.
Not to be nitpicky, but I think the rounds are too long. Four minutes is a LONG time to be up there, swinging out of your ass. And if you make it to the finals, while earning the 30-second bonus time in each round, you end up swinging out of your ass for 13 and a half minutes. That might not seem like a long time to someone who has never swung a bat for longer than the batting cage allows at your local driving range, but that’s a long time, even for the most conditioned professional athletes on the planet.
It’s fun to say Stanton broke the home run record by 20 home runs and all, and it was impressive as hell, don’t get me wrong, but it was because these hitters are up there for seemingly hours at a time. Before, you were operating with 10 outs. Anything that wasn’t a home run was an out. Now, you have an allotted time, but I think they’ve gotta come down to three minutes max, maybe even two minutes. I’m sure they won’t come down to two minutes, because ESPN loses a significant amount of broadcast time. But four minutes is too much.
Regardless, I still think they’re on the right track here. Everyone talks about how baseball has a major marketing issue and that their stars are marketed poorly. Well, it’s not the end all, be all solution, but the Home Run Derby and the All Star Game are both great ways to market their stars. There aren’t any other sports in-season right now, and the MLB All Star Game is annually the highest rated All Star Game of any of the four major sports, so take this time to market your stars. Stanton is a star. The guy who the league wanted to win actually won. And not only did he win, but he put on an all-time great performance. Good for baseball. Good for BDS.