MLB Home Run Derby’s gone stale

July 12, 2010

As I watched Chris Young dig in to the batter’s box to begin the 2010 Home Run Derby, one thing was clear – this event has now officially become the dunk contest of baseball, for all the wrong reasons.

It is just as disappointing as the NBA’s marquee contest; all of the premiere home-run hitters now routinely rebuff the request to join it or fake develop a new injury just before it happens.

Chris Young's in the home run derby? (Jonathan Willey/Arizona Diamondbacks)

The derby has suffered through low television ratings in recent years, and complaints of a drawn out, star-free event mirror those of its cousin, the dunk contest. I still watch it, but I am a sucker for home runs. The general American viewing public, however, is not as much. (As well as the All-Star Game, despite the Midsummer Classic’s attempt to matter. Despite one All-Star Game viewer’s undivided attention.)

So much for chicks digging the long ball.

There must be some way, somehow to revive this age-old spectacle made familiar to us in our youth, some way to make the event attract stars and fans alike with a brand-new intrigue. A change must be made. The solution, I believe, could be quite simple:

Bring the event back to its roots.

Almost every single person who was turned on by the concept of the home run derby for the first time in their life was done so with a plastic yellow bat and ball. Even Major Leaguers, who today can hit a batting practice fastball over an outfield fence with ease, were likely too small and inexperienced to try the game on a baseball diamond their first time. So, since this game, and particularly this event, hearkens to a more innocent time in life for both players and fans, let’s bring that innocence back into the picture to turn up the heat on the event.

Make the big leaguers knock out taters with plastic.

The excuse that the derby fouls up a player’s swing holds little water for me. If the idea that swinging a bat in a different manner than is done in the heat of competition causes someone to unlearn their game habits, then it should follow that a player should NEVER practice anything in a manner that is unlike game situations. No soft toss or hitting off a tee. It will mess up your swing!

If you are like me, you don’t buy the “trying-to-hit-home-runs-will-mess-up-my-swing” excuse. So, why not let these guys hit dingers on national TV with Wiffle balls and bats? Safe to say, it would generate fan interest in the event, and it would be pretty embarrassing if a Major Leaguer backed out of a 10-year-old schoolboy’s game.

Can you imagine Prince Fielder smashing a towering drive to right field, swinging out of his shoes with bat speed so quick you might not even see the thin, yellow object whip through the strike zone? Or David Wright mashing a home run so hard that the ball itself split open on its way over the fence? I can.

So Bud Selig, if you are trying to generate more fan interest for 2011’s event, get your biggest home run hitters together on a small field, and have some hitting coaches toss some soft, wobbly lobs and let’s see what these professional hitters have got.

Maybe next year.

I know I will be watching, anyway.

Share and Enjoy: